David McManus gazes into his crystal ball to see what 2016 has in store...

As another year ticks over it is almost impossible for a newspaper column that is primarily about the world of technology to avoid looking forward to the gadgetry and innovations we might be welcoming into our lives in the next 12 months.

So I ask that you permit me a little crystal ball gazing if, in return, I promise not to state that 2016 will be the year of wearable tech, principally because that was the headline prediction for last year and at least the last two years before that.

Calling this year out as the year of the smartwatch would be both unoriginal and most likely inaccurate given our apparent lack of enthusiasm for the things.

As I gathered with friends and family at various functions over the Christmas period, I lost count of the number of times my Apple Watch drew someone’s attention.

Apart from routinely misnaming it an “iWatch”, most people identified it and wanted to see a demonstration of what it could do. Nearly everyone was impressed but when questioned whether they would be venturing into the world of wearable tech themselves, most shot back with an expression that can best be described as a mixture of amusement and utter contempt.

It would appear that we will not be living through a year defined by the smartwatch any time soon, if ever. More likely is that their popularity will gradually increase as they become more capable and considerably more elegant than today’s ugly wrist lumps.

At the start of every year we are treated to an official parade of things to come from the CES exhibition in Las Vegas. The event, once known as the Consumer Electronics Show, now only goes by its abbreviation, presumably because the full name sounds like something from the 1980s where we might expect to see the latest innovations in carphones and pocket-sized calculators.

This bleeding edge Show and Tell is a vast parade of top tech featuring everything from tiny drones to driverless cars – far too much for any one person to adequately digest .

Many of the things you see from CES look like they deserve a shot, but you know they have as much chance of success as a rechargeable digital snowball in Hell.

One of my personal favourites that screamed innovation is the Nexpaq smartphone case. Designed to do more than simply protect your phone, the Nexpaq allows you to plug new modules into the case and extend the functionality of your phone. These can be anything from simple extensions to your battery, to thermometers, or health units that might take your blood pressure, for example. The idea is that you choose and configure modules that are important to you.

The Nexpaq’s future will rely entirely on the modules that are created for it which, unfortunately, are likely to be very few once manufacturers realise people don’t want to carry around a huge phone with things plugged into it. Still, neat idea.

What is the one invention I would like to see break through in 2016?

That one is simple to answer; a new type of battery that can keep all our gadgets charged for more than a day or two.