Virtual assistants are everywhere at CES this year - but one speaks louder than the rest. Amazon's Alexa has popped up in a bewildering list of devices including fridges, cars and robots. Manufacturers are clearly interested in making their appliances voice-operable, and many see Alexa as a great way to do this. But having Alexa also allows the appliances to gain capabilities, such as streaming music and turning smart lights on and off. How did Alexa come out on top and how will it benefit Amazon?

IN JUNE 1967, 200 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees packed into the Hilton and Americana hotels in New York for the very first Consumer Electronics Show. From that moment, the expo has been responsible for unveiling some of the most impressive products for the time including the VCR (1970), Camcorders (1981) the Nintendo Entertainment System (1985), HDTV (1998) and 3D TVs (2010). Now, in its 50th year, the world's largest consumer technology show boasts more than 3800 companies and attracts over 200,000 visitors. After a week of gazing into the future of our home, work and play, news.com.au has picked some of the latest and greatest innovations and trends. As expected, TVs were big business with LG's Signature 4K OLED W series the talk of the showroom floor.

It's as surreal as you'd expect. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. It's as surreal as you'd expect.

OZY and Giant Spoon are excited to partner on special live coverage from CES 2017-- where the most forward-looking technology and media come together. Rather than cover just the latest gadgets, though, we're taking you deeper with key takeaways, little-known rising stars, unconventional trends and, yes, the coolest sh*t from the convention. Erin Hauswirth and Nathalie Con are associate directors at Giant Spoon, an innovation-driven marketing agency. Our obsession with robots hasn't faltered since the first Consumer Electronics Show opened its doors half a century ago. But we dreamed that the future of robots would look more like Rosie Jetson or C-3PO -- humanoid bots that roamed and lived among us.

ANY sufficiently advanced technology, noted Arthur C. Clarke, a British science-fiction writer, is indistinguishable from magic. The fast-emerging technology of voice computing proves his point. Using it is just like casting a spell: say a few words into the air, and a nearby device can grant your wish. The Amazon Echo, a voice-driven cylindrical computer that sits on a table top and answers to the name Alexa, can call up music tracks and radio stations, tell jokes, answer trivia questions and control smart appliances; even before Christmas it was already resident in about 4% of American households. Voice assistants are proliferating in smartphones, too: Apple's Siri handles over 2bn commands a week, and 20% of Google searches on Android-powered handsets in America are input by voice.

Thousands of tech companies descended on Las Vegas for CES 2017 this week to show off what they think you'll buy in the coming year. Although we saw more of what dominated the tech scene last year -- smart home products, wearables and enough Amazon Echo partnerships to make your head spin -- some new products shined brightly above the rest. From an underwater drone to the car of the future, here's a look at what impressed us most. Toyota unveiled a concept car to highlight its vision for what cars may look like in 2030. With see-through glass doors, wheels built directly into the body and a bright white interior and exterior, the future is looking pretty sleek.

Alongside a load of new TVs, you can count on all the big tech companies to roll out new smart appliances every year at CES. LG is no exception, adding Amazon's Alexa to its line of Smart InstaView refrigerators. We've seen previous versions of the fridge with huge touchscreens in the door, but this time around the company has tacked on a virtual assistant and webOS software in the US. For the global model, expect Windows 10 integration and access to Cortana for spoken assistance. The kitchen is one of many places Alexa is popping up in new devices at CES, but it's a place where the virtual assistant has the potential to be especially helpful. In addition to the usual tasks like news and weather updates, it can lend a hand with grocery orders.

Internet-connected intelligent gizmos had a big showing at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and there is one common thread between many ofthem: Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant. Lenovo has a new speaker featuring the assistant. Volkswagen and Ford are building Alexa into their cars. Plus, there's a whole flotilla of other connected devices featuring Alexa, including a high-tech refrigerator from LG. That's not to say other virtual assistants aren't doing the same thing, but Amazon is the clear winner by volume at CES. So, what does that mean for the virtual assistant market, which includes competitors such as Microsoft's Cortana, the Google Assistant and Apple's Siri?

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly making headlines recently, although few may be aware of it. The most recent of these was with the announcement of Amazon Go, a concept store in Seattle that is powered by machine learning and AI. Many of us now carry an AI device in our pockets, work with AI on our PCs and even have AI sitting in our living rooms. But randomly ask someone on the street what AI means to them and they're likely to mention robots, and not the technology we use in our daily lives. Less than 20% of consumers feel that they know a lot about AI, with this stat rising to almost 50% when asked if they know a little. What's clear is that mainstream awareness of AI is still limited, so you need to keep this in mind when talking about it.

Most of our editors eschewed the typical New Year's Eve celebrations and arrived in Las Vegas on New Year's Day. One of us even arrived on December 31st and spent the last few hours of 2016 in bed. All of that just to give our all to the annual tradition that is CES. We spent the past few days walking the show floor, attending evening events and covering press conferences just to bring you the very best from CES 2017. And now, we're ready to unveil the finalists for our annual Best of CES awards. Below you'll find our selections for 15 categories, which range from accessibility tech to wearables. We'll announce our category winners tomorrow, which is also when we'll reveal the recipient of our Best of the Best award, the most coveted prize of them all. That special award is selected from our pool of category winners. If you want your voice heard too -- and who doesn't? -- there's an additional category for People's Choice, where you can vote for your favorite entry in our compilation of finalists. Just head on over to our poll right here to cast your ballot. All award winners will be announced at a special ceremony tomorrow at our CES stage, so be sure to come back right here on Engadget around 5PM PT / 8PM ET Saturday to watch it all unfold.