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“Smart” products are a constant presence at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but this year, intelligence takes on a different meaning. Instead of simply connecting to the Internet, we’ll see devices that can analyze the data we give them and offer recommendations on how to save time and live smarter.

At least that’s what the Consumer Electronics Association said in a pre-show press conference Sunday. The International CES show floor officially lights up Tuesday morning.

The vessel for those personalized recommendations is (you guessed it) the app that runs on your device, says Consumer Electronics Association research director Shawn DuBravac. That’s why DuBravac says 2013 is the year of the app.

For example, the show floor this year will feature apps that digitize your posture and tell you to sit up straight, and apps that sync health metrics such as blood-pressure measurements with your calendar to determine which meetings stress you out most. You’ll even find moisture sensors for your plants that text you when it’s time to water them.

In other words, our devices will digitize the data from our physical worlds, analyze it, and offer us advice on what to do. “Whether we listen to that advice is another question, but it’s meant to prompt us into action,” DuBravac said.

Big year for services

Hardware usually garners the lion’s share of CES press, but DuBravac expects more companies to show off services that take advantage of the devices we already own.

“We’re starting to enter a second digital decade,” DuBravac says. “It’s not about acquisition of digital products, it’s about taking advantage of those products.”

As we feed those Toshiba PA3356U-1BRS Battery information about our eating habits, sleeping patterns, work schedules, and social activities, companies are itching to use that information to market still more products and services to us.

“Data is the new currency,” DuBravac said.

And consumer surveys indicate that Americans own a lot of gadgets, DuBravac said. Eighty-five percent of U.S. households have computers, most of which have access to broadband Internet. Smartphones are now in 52 percent of U.S. households. In January 2012, 20 percent of U.S. households had tablets. By the end of the year, tablet penetration had grown to 40 percent, DuBravac said.

Smaller innovations this year

Few tech experts are expecting this year’s show to feature the next game-changing smartphone or newest TV technology, but DuBravac says we can expect to see smaller innovations such as 30 to 40 new laptop designs, higher-pixel density screens (including 50 new Ultra HD TV sets), better voice and gesture-recognition devices, and increased adoption of flexible screens.

Microsoft will have a large presence at CES despite withdrawing from its usual opening keynote slot and gigantic show floor booth. The company’s new Windows 8 operating system is encouraging hardware innovation, according to a report from market research firm GfKand the CEA. Numerous hardware manufacturers will have Windows 8-based tablets, laptops, and desktops on display.

For the mobile world, CES is an appetizer rather than the main course, but don't worry: There will still be many tasty hors d'oeuvres in Las Vegas next week. We're going to see advances in networks and components that might not be as exciting as the phones themselves, but will make a big difference in the type of phones we see in 2013. And sure, we'll see some cool gadgets, too. Here's what we expect to see at the show.

Phones

Phablets (phones with huge screens) are in right now, so we're going to see some monster phones at CES. The 6.1-inch Huawei Ascend Mate may be the biggest phone of the show, in more ways than one. It's already been shown off in China, and it has a quad-core processor and a very, very large screen.

As for phones you can actually fit in your hand, Huawei will be showing off two at CES: the Windows Phone 8-powered Ascend W1 and the Android-powered Ascend D2, which will have a 5-inch, 1080p screen (perhaps the same Sharp display we've seen before on the HTC Droid DNA, which we gave a nod for technical excellence in 2012.)

That 5-inch, 1080p screen will also appear on the ZTE Grand S, another high-end Android phone that's going to get a big intro at a CES press conference.

Joining the Ascend Mate in the "already shown off, but not here" department we have the Samsung Galaxy Grand, which has a much lower-density screen; it's 5 inches, but only 800-by-480 resolution, designed to be the pre-paid world's entry-level phablet.

I'm pretty convinced Sony, LG, and HTC are all holding their big announcements for Mobile World Congress in February, so we won't see a lot in terms of new phones from those companies. Don't worry, they'll have great stuff, you'll just have to wait until February to see it. And how about the Samsung Galaxy S IV? My guess is April.

Networks

AT&T and T-Mobile are throwing big events at CES. I expect T-Mobile to announce its first rollout of LTE cities, probably its first LTE phones, and give more details on its merger with MetroPCS and its new iPhone deal. There's going to be quite a lot to chew on there.

AT&T will host a press conference mostly aimed at developers, but the company will give a network update and likely announce several new phones and tablets as well. I'm looking mostly for exciting network news here, such as voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), faster LTE-Advanced, and what it plans to do with a large amount of 2.3GHz spectrum that the FCC just cleared for use.

Sprint isn't planning any events, but remember that the carrier said it would sell a Windows Phone 8 device and Toshiba pa3534u-1brs battery in early 2013. Could a low-key launch at CES be in order?

Verizon seems to be laying low.

Tablets 

The first round of Windows 8 slates just hit shelves, and some tablet makers (such as Asus) are holding back their next-gen Android devices for MWC in February. That said, we've heard a little bit about new tablets so far.

Velocity Micro is mostly known for PCs, but it's already sent out an invite showing a new line of Cruz Android tablets. The Cruz line is a low-cost, relatively generic Android tablet breed sold at Radio Shack and Walmart, among other places.

There's also been some buzz about a $99 Acer Android tablet which would provide similar performance to Amazon's Kindle Fire, but with a more generic build of Android. Some of those reports said the tablet was probably only for the Chinese market, but we could find out more at CES.

We've been hearing rumors about a Nokia tablet, but I don't think that's for this show. Ditto for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7; MWC was the big Galaxy Note show last year, and I think it will be this year too.

Components

Nvidia plans a major press conference at CES. It's probably the Tegra 4 chipset, formerly known as Wayne. According to a spurious "leaked" PowerPoint slide on the Internet, Tegra 4 will drop from a 40nm to a 28nm process, upgrade its CPUs from ARM9 to ARM15 and offer six times the graphics performance of Tegra 3, along with support for 1440p displays.

That said, Nvidia typically releases new Tegras at MWC, so if the CES announcement is different - say, a low-cost chipset with an integrated modem like the already-announced "Grey" - I wouldn't be too surprised.

Samsung is putting a considerable amount of money behind a CES keynote from its chip division. While the speaker, Stephen Woo, is the head of the group that builds processors, the highest-profile discussion right now has Samsung announcing a flexible display for portable devices.

Bring On The Big Show

CES will start the ball rolling, and early 2013 will only get more exciting from there. RIM is releasing BlackBerry 10 on Jan. 30 at its own event. Then comes the world's largest mobile-phone trade show, Mobile World Congress in February, which is sure to have many major announcements.

A new year brings with it new iPhone 5S rumors. And this time around the latest from Apple could even come in pink.

Analyst Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets is all bullish on Apple this morning claiming his sources tell him that the next iPhone will arrive in May or June with more choices for customers including "more color patterns and screen sizes." Apparently White's bulls aren't seeing just red Apples, though. Rather, he believes the iPhone 5S could have as many color choices as the most recent generation of the iPod Touch:

These colors included pink, yellow, blue, white & silver, black & slate... We believe the addition of color to the iPod Touch lineup was a testing ground for adding color to the next generation iPhone that we believe could be available in eight colors in total.

White also says his "checks" indicate that Apple could be planning to offer a single iPhone model in different screen sizes for the first time, perhaps opening the door to a lower-priced iPhone, or going after consumers interested in the trend of bigger phones and phablets like Samsung's higher-end Galaxy line of phones.

The rumor fits with the way Apple A1175 Battery has traditionally worked and their movements of late. Testing the waters with the iPod Touch for an improvement to the iPhone and offering consumers greater choices to compete with the broadening market sounds a lot like Tim Cook's way of thinking to me.

Besides, what else is there for the iPhone fan who lines up for each iteration to buy? How about a second iPhone for his girlfriend or mother in pink? Brilliant.