CES 2019 shows a brighter future for USB-C

It's CES 2019, that time of year when the tech giants and lesser-known innovators gather together in Las Vegas to showcase their latest tech developments.

This year the challenging adoption of USB-C is addressed with the showcasing of devices for USB-C monitors, headphones and accessories.

Monitors

LG display showed promising USB-C innovation with a single laptop sending both video data and power to two external 27-inch USB-C monitors and with neither of these two displays plugged into the wall. Advancements do still need to be made in terms of battery usage for this promising proof of concept.

Headphones

The mobile industry pretty conclusively decided to go wireless and ditch the headphone jack with the release of the most recent flagship devices. Many manufacturers have chosen to switch to USB-C leaving users with little option than to buy into wireless options, use dongles or invest in USB-C headphones.

For those who do not want to let go off wired headphones, the Moshi brand was showcasing the most advanced developments with USB-C models supporting high-resolution audio up to 24-bit/96kHz. The expected release of these date of these headphones is February.

Accessories

A lack of smaller accessories and a need for multiple dongles for various tasks has been the long-running pain point for users with USB-C devices.

Thankfully some of the niggles could soon be resolved with developments from manufacturers such as Western Digital with a prototype 4TB capacity flash drive and Anker with their USB-C hub offering access to the various ports removed my many laptop manufactures while simultaneously doubling up as a battery pack.

More tech of the near future

In addition to USB-C some other interesting innovations across the technology spectrum included:

• LG's see-through TV display pushes light omitting boundaries.
• Wristbands acting like a personal air conditioner that can alter your temperature by up to 5 degrees.
• A skin printing device designed to remove years from your face with precise tiny makeup application.
• An indestructible underwater notepad together with a pencil that never goes blunt.
• Drivers may soon see their Sat Nav as a hologram across their dashboard.