The show officially starts on Wednesday, but we'll have plenty of content live from Las Vegas right here on The Verge in the days leading up to it. Until then, check out what we expect to be the major stories at this year's show.

This year, we expect to see a lot of news from the usual CES suspects: TV makers, automotive companies, wearable device hawkers, and even VR companies. But the best part of CES is always what we don't expect to see, whether that's an on-stage meltdown during a press conference or a radically different form of entertainment powered by technology.

Though its star has faded in recent years, CES can still be useful to predict the trends in consumer technology for the year ahead (and sometimes, for two years ahead). Many products announced at CES never make it farther than the show floor, but ideas such as virtual reality, high-resolution television, and autonomous vehicles all received major pushes at CES.

We are on the eve of the year's biggest technology conference, the Consumer Electronics Show. As you read this, The Verge is setting up shop in a tiny, somewhat-ventilated trailer just outside the Las Vegas Convention Center, the hazy memories of New Year's Eve now fully exorcized from our consciousness. Truth be told, we've actually been preparing for CES 2016 for weeks now, and we've got a pretty good idea of what to expect in Las Vegas next week.

TVs will be familiar TVs always seem to dominate the show floor at CES, but don't expect many radically new ideas this year. There'll be lots of 4K TVs (and maybe a handful of 8K models). And many more models than last time will offer HDR, Dolby Vision, and other fancy visual things that enhance the experience beyond just resolution. Samsung's making their TVs the center of the smart home / IoT, and presumably other companies have had the same idea. What sort of presence will Android TV have? Same goes for Roku's TV OS. Will anyone besides LG put their weight behind OLED? TVs! There'll be lots of them. The TV industry is constantly trying to find ways to entice people to upgrade their old sets, and CES is its biggest sales pitch of the year.

Smart home stuff will be everywhere CES is the one time of year it’s easy to believe in the dream of the smart home. And fortunately, recent years have made it look closer and closer to reality. Apple and Google are starting to cut through the mess and let everything in our homes talk together. This year, with their help, expect to see connectivity creep into new areas of the home and for existing smart home products to get even more integrated. That dream is still a long ways out, but one of the big things to look for this year is how Samsung, Intel, and major backers are making progress: Can they help these products get connected? Can they ensure that everything will speak the same language in 10 years? Don't expect the long-awaited Internet of Things to appear overnight, but do expect to see the first tangible pieces of its infrastructure.

All kinds of wearables will be on display Outside of CES, 2015 was a pretty big year for wearables — the Apple Watch came to market, Fitbit went public (and revealed it actually makes money), apparel makers started putting more tech directly into clothing, and VR headsets became an actual thing. But many of these products still suffer from technological and practical constraints, and it's unlikely that CES 2016 will be the event that sets the definitive tone for the wearables market in the upcoming year. This year at the big show we're expecting a lot of "me-too" wearables — commodity wristbands, smartwatches from legacy brands, and next-generation trackers with iterative design improvements. Sensors will pop up in everything from sports equipment to sneakers to bras to dresses. "Hearables" will be a theme this year, which basically means that headphone makers have realized they can add sensors to the things we wear all the time anyway and charge a mark-up. The best part of all this might just be the commoditization: wearable tech is becoming more accessible. But just like last year, we might be waiting until the spring — or well beyond — before we see whether real innovation in wearables is going to take shape this year.

Headphones may see their first big update in years For all the competitive hype surrounding music streaming in recent times, the hardware with which we listen to music has remained largely unchanged. Apple's takeover of Beats has so far focused on developing an all-encompassing music service, not the next great set of headphones. Companies like Audio-Technica, Sennheiser, and V-Moda continue to refine their products and expand the choice of wireless options, but the world of personal audio seems in need of disruption. Apple's Lightning connector — standard across modern iPods, iPhones, and iPads — could be the catalyst for a dramatic change. There are already Lightning headphones from Philips and Audeze, whose advantage over conventional wired cans is in sending a digital signal to an integrated amp and converter inside the headphones. This allows companies to fine-tune the sound processing specifically for each pair of headphones. It won't be something that everyone needs, but a new wave of Lightning-connected headphones opens up the possibility for a more portable audiophile sound experience — one that doesn't depend on custom phone designs or extra peripherals.

Rideables will be more than just hoverboards This past year was a big one for all electric rideables — not just hoverboards. Small electric skateboard, scooter, and bike companies all popped up, and the few incumbents made solid progress on things like battery life and range. That same trend is going to continue at this year’s CES, with a heavy emphasis on electrification. Just about everything with wheels will likely have some electric motor attached to it. There will be dozens of small names: Arcimoto will show off its speedy three-wheeled electric vehicle, Inboard will be demoing a skateboard with electric motors in the wheels, just to name a few. But there will be some big names, too — Segway, which is now owned by Ninebot (which is backed by Xiaomi), has a big launch event planned for January 6th. The twist this year is that CES has banned the use of hoverboards. They’ll be restricted to exhibitor booths, so you won’t see people whirring around the Las Vegas Convention Center on them (and if you do, there might be a security guard chasing them). Will electric rideables look any different in 2016 than they did in 2015? Or will it be full of the same types of devices, only slightly improved? All of that hinges on what we’ll see at CES.

VR will still be waiting to exhale The first half of 2016 is set to be a huge leap forward for virtual reality, but CES falls during an awkward stasis period. We already know roughly what hardware we’re expecting from the big players: Sony, Oculus, and HTC, all of which are supposedly shipping headsets in the coming months. Focus is increasingly shifting toward VR games and movies, which are more likely to appear at the upcoming Sundance Film Festival or Game Developers Conference. That said, there’s still room for surprises. Augmented reality is a constant presence at CES, but it could be more high-profile after a year of HoloLens and Magic Leap hype. Oculus still hasn’t announced a launch date for its Rift headset or shown off a non-prototype version of its Touch controllers, either of which could materialize during the show. Given how much momentum VR has right now, it’s also plausible that new companies could jump on board, especially PC hardware and accessory manufacturers. Even if they’re not revealing anything new, "VR-ready" will be a good label to throw around during demos — and one of the year’s big selling points for anyone making a gaming device.