This past week was another holiday week, and as a result, another slow week in terms of news. That isn’t to say we didn’t see anything exciting, however given the past week was a holiday week and next week is CES — it seems many were simply holding and waiting. We expect plenty of goodness to come out of CES, but for now, let us take a look back at the highlights from the previous week.

There have been plenty of Samsung rumors lately. These touched on numerous tablets as well as the Galaxy Gear 2 and Galaxy Band. We aren’t necessarily expecting any of these during CES, however Samsung did have a camera related announcement last week — for the Galaxy Camera 2, which will be arriving with Jelly Bean and a 16 megapixel setup.

This was also another week where the Motorola name continued to be seen. We heard from the CEO in terms of their relationship with Google and about their long term goals. In terms of Motorola phones, there wasn’t much about the Moto X, though we did see news of a permanent price drop — to $399. There was also some news for the Moto G. Here we saw Verizon confirm the release date and pricing, which will be January 9th and $99.99. The Moto G was also announced for Boost Mobile, with initial availability coming through HSN (Home Shopping Network).

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Google opened up Glass Explorers invites for Play Music All Access subscribers. In other Glass related news, it seems one of the biggest fans up until this point, Robert Scoble, may think it doomed for 2014. Another, smaller bit from Google included an update for Picasa on the desktop. This update added another utility app, which provides Auto Backup for images on the the desktop

Looking towards more of the CES related news and we heard from Archos and Acer. Archos announced some smartphones, the 45 Helium and 50 Helium and also did a bit of teasing for their Connected Home and Connected Self setups. The Acer announcements included a new Moonstone White color for the C720P Chromebook, some refreshed Iconia tablets and an all-in-one display running Android that will sell for just a few pennies shy of $1,100.

There was also an interesting post about how while Nexus users are the smartest amongst Android users, they still aren’t as bright as iPhone users. And while we head out to make some final preparations for CES, we leave you with a few 2013 year end pieces — one for hardware and another taking a look at Kit Kat.

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