The final day of the 2008 International CES has been and gone. So what have we learned?

One thing's for sure - if an alien visitor landed at CES it would have a pretty good idea who's going to win the HD format war. Despite protestations from HD DVD's key advocates and some determined fence-sitting analysts, the show had the answer written all over it.

We were told until we were Blu in the face.

Mind you, if an alien visitation had happened in Las Vegas, it wouldn't seem out of the ordinary. Maybe nobody would have noticed. As if Vegas' mega-resorts aren't mind-blowing enough, 1.8 million square feet of show floor would have surely sent our ET friend packing.

It's impossible to see absolutely everything at the show. But if you've kept your eye on this website you'll have seen more of the techno-wheat and less of the gadgety chaff.

The iPhone's legacy

Themes of the show? For us, for me, the number one has to be 'touch'. It may seem lazy to refer to it, but the iPhone has become such a point of reference that it has reignited the debate about natural user interfaces.

Bill Gates talked about the power of natural user interfaces in his CES keynote on Sunday. "Just in the last two years we've started to see the emergence of other modes of interaction. Touch on the Windows PC, touch on the iPhone, the Surface device that we're talking about. We started to see speech. The reaction to those natural interface implementations has been very dramatic."

Intel's Paul Otellini also talked extensively on a similar tack. But it wasn't just about the keynoters, touch was right out there on the floor. You could touch it. The Nokia N810 internet tablet was on show, as was HP's new tx2000 tablet PC, a dual-mode device that knows when you're attempting to use your finger as opposed to the traditional stylus.

Going green (but not really)

Going green was also supposed to be a big theme this week. CES itself announced it was going to go Carbon Neutral this year, though as we commented, it seemed like a slightly empty premise.

Panasonic (in cahoots with Sharp and Toshiba) was one of several companies to announce small-scale recycling initiatives - less important for the UK where we already have the WEEE directive but extremely important for the wasteful US.

We didn't, however, see much green technology. There was some technology with the idea of promoting power efficiency and extending battery life, but it wasn't as widespread as we'd expected - especially for TVs where there were little claims on improved power efficiency. Tosh did have a Direct Methanol Fuel Cell prototype of its Gigabeat MP3 player on its stand though.

So where's the buzz?

As you'll know, Panasonic stole the limelight for 'most ridiculously overblown stuff on show'. Not only was the 150-inch plasma the most written-about kit of the show, but the same company also had its Life Wall tech on show (see, that's more touchy stuff). How long have CE big-shots been talking about wall-sized displays in the home? Mind you, maybe we'll have them by 2015, in which case Back to the Future Part II will be surprisingly accurate (no hover boards were spotted).

The 150-inch plasma's impact upon show attendees did show one thing though - that CES 2008 was distinctly devoid of buzz-worthy products. The awe-factor was AWOL.

Mind you, Wireless HD raised our interest levels somewhat. We reported on Amimon's tech when it debuted at IFA last year. As we discovered at the show, Belkin's Flywire device uses that chipset, too and expect more to come. Others also have their own ideas on how to do things. HP is offering wireless adapters for its TVs (not available in the UK) while other manufacturers are doing similar products.

Nintendo's shadow

One of the things that we noticed most was that one of the most referenced products wasn't even represented at the show. And no, we're not talking about something from Apple.

We're talking about Nintendo's best - the Wii. Otellini praised the Wii, for enhancing the debate about the way people interact with devices. The consensus was clear: not only does the Wii add to Gates' ideas about natural interfaces, it also means you don't need the highest, fastest, most expensive technology on board to make an extremely successful product that everybody loves - just a great idea. A great many of the CE set would do well to remember that.

As for the show itself, there has been more speculation that CES might not remain in Las Vegas next year after key companies complained about the exponentially rising costs of hotel rooms during the show. Many firms not only pay for rooms for their delegates and stand staff, but also rent suites for demos and meetings.

Organiser CEA has clearly indicated that the show will continue in Las Vegas. And, if you ask us, it has to. Where else on earth has over 130,000 hotel rooms and 24-hour bars?