Today marks the official start to the 2010 Consumer Electronics Showcase in Las Vegas where all of the biggest electronics manufacturers show off their coolest and newest products. While CES is mainly a gadget show, entrepreneurs looking for the next big thing should pay close attention to the innovative ideas being pushed into the consumer market. The big show is just getting underway, but we are already seeing some trends emerge that could point to new opportunities for startups in 2010. Sponsor Televisions On everyone's CES prediction list this year are new TV technologies, including 3D viewing and the apparent rebirth of Web TV . Recently, various set-top boxes have brought web apps into our living rooms, including the Roku player , and BluRay players with Netflix , YouTube and Pandora integration. As we reported earlier this week, Skype has partnered with LG and Panasonic to integrate their service with new Internet-connected HDTVs. In addition, Internet media aggregator Boxee is marketing their brand new Boxee Box set-top device, and Yahoo! announced plans today to expand its presence in the living room. As more media and applications migrate onto televisions, startups will have the opportunity to find new niches and provided services on these new products. Automobiles Another trend is the implementation of new technologies into automobiles, and as we mentioned yesterday , Ford's new MyFord Touch is leading the way. By placing LCD touch screens in the dashboard and turning the car into a mobile Wi-Fi hotspot, Ford is opening doors for new platforms in the automobile. Current companies are already taking advantage of the the growing auto-tech industry. Streaming music service Pandora recently announced a partnership with Pioneer to bring Internet radio to your dashboard - albeit for a hefty $1,200 price tag. When the day comes that everyone has a connected car that can sync and share data, startups will be needed for services that organize and make use of these new forms of information. Augmented Reality And finally, while we may not see a plethora of new gadgets in this space at CES, augmented reality looks to make a huge splash in the consumer electronics market in 2010. Right now, most AR experiences are on cell phones or desktop computers, but fans of augmented reality expect to see some Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) or new transparent LCD screens in the near future. The potential for augmented reality has been flying under the radar for years, and only in recent days have improvements in technology allowed for it to begin to flourish. AR is a quickly expanding field with many opportunities for innovation, and is a field in which startups could quickly find a foothold. Discuss

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TVs, Cars, AR - Oh My! Hot Tech Trends For Entrepreneurs At CES

When Heroes actor Greg Grunberg tells you to download an iPhone application, you can't help but listen. Best known as television's mind controlling savant Matt Parkman, Grunberg demoed location-based coupon startup Yowza at today's Under the Radar Mobility Conference. Grunberg's iPhone app offers users deals from nearby stores, restaurants and gyms. Now that Foursquare has begun advertising location-based deals it'll be interesting to see if there will be overlap between the two companies. ReadWriteWeb caught up with Grunberg to find out what's keeping him out of the actor's studio. Sponsor Photo Credit: Albert L. Ortega Discuss

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Yowza: A Video Interview with Heroes Actor Greg Grunberg

A subject of interest to us ReadWriteWeb folks this year has been smart grids - a method of delivering electricity to users' homes in a way that has been the cause of many green technologists for some time. Smart grid tech uses digital means to control appliances at users' homes to save energy, cut costs, and increase reliability. However, some experts are beginning to wonder how safe and anonymous this data is and how much end-user privacy could be compromised. Sponsor And as the concept of "anonymized" user data is continuously being poked full of holes by everyone from hackers to academics, we must wonder just how much smart grids "know" about individuals. For example, the energy fluctuations of home appliances are so unique that a smart grid can tell the make and model of a user's refrigerator. A recently released report from the Future of Privacy Foundation states that although more modernized approaches to energy consumption are absolutely necessary, uninformed enthusiasm about smart grid technology might lead to privacy breaches for end users. "The infrastructure that will support the future Smart Grid," the report reads, "will be capable of informing consumers of their day-to-day energy use, even at the appliance level. While this is beneficial and supports valuable efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and reduce consumers' energy bills, it introduces the possibility of collecting detailed information on individual energy consumption use and patterns within the most private of places - our homes. "We must take great care not to sacrifice consumer privacy amidst an atmosphere of unbridled enthusiasm for electricity reform. Information proliferation, lax controls and insufficient oversight of this information could lead to unprecedented invasions of consumer privacy." Another report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology states that, because of the lack of standards and procedures on data collection and storage, "Distributed energy resources and smart meters will reveal information about residential consumers and activities within the house." The Foundation's co-chair, Jules Polonetsky, stated in a Washington Post interview today, "We're a little worried that without some serious planning now, there's going to be quite a challenge in a couple of years when people start realizing that maybe should think about developing some solid data retention policies that address what's going to be done with all of this data." Valid concerns, all, especially for users who would rather keep themselves, their families, and their homes "off the grid," under the radar, and largely unmonitored by corporate and governmental entities. Will user privacy be the factor that undermines cleaner, smarter energy for all? Or will smart grid companies find better ways to protect user data, just as social networks and marketing firms have had to struggle to do? Let us know your thoughts in the comments. Discuss

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Are Smart Grids Undermining User Privacy?