The Consumer Electronics Show is wrapping up its week in Las Vegas, and while the majority of the focus is (obviously) consumer electronics, these three big can't-miss announcements dominated the headlines for CES 2015.

3. Samsung: Commitment to Open Internet of Things

For all the talk of the coming "Internet of Things" -- where common household appliances, cars, houses, and anything else you can stick a chip in all communicate with each other and the wider world through ubiquitous connectivity -- we've seen little visible movement towards that future, besides the occasional smart thermostat or impractically expensive toilet.

Part of that is because the engineers are just starting to expand their definitions of what can be connected, and why. But another big part is the "how" -- specifically, what systems will be used to connect all of these coming "smart" things? And more importantly, whose systems?

That's why Samsung's IoT announcement at CES 2015 was so important. Along with announcing that every Samsung product would be IoT-connectable in five years, and along with announcing a $100 million investment in that project, Samsung made a promise that its IoT devices would be open.

While that's just a promise for now, it adds the weight of one of the largest device makers to the idea that the Internet of Things will only work if they all truly connect to each other, regardless of what brand of "things" you're talking about. A smart home isn't really that smart if you can only use Apple computing devices, Sony TVs and game consoles, and, say, a VW car because they've all committed to the same platform.

Or as Samsung's CEO B.K. Yoon put it, "I know in my heart that neither one single company nor one industry alone can deliver the benefits of the Internet of Things." Mr. Yoon said, "To create this IoT universe, we have to see the potential of the Internet of Things across all kinds of industries. Only if we work together can we improve people's lives."

2. Intel's Commitment to Silicon Valley Diversity

In a similar vein to Samsung, Intel's most important moment at CES wasn't unveiling a new chip or gadget, but rather another announcement about inclusion: Intel's CEO Brian Krzanich announced in his company's keynote speech a commitment of $300 million to begin to tackle the problem of the tech industry's lack of diversity.

Intel will begin the transformation within its own walls, where the company has promised its workforce's demographics will reflect the available talent of tech workers from minorities within the next five years.

Over the past year, a series of transparency reports on workplace demographics in Silicon Valley has laid bare the fact that the vast majority of technical and leadership roles in the tech industry are filled by white and Asian men. Intel's commitment to reach "full representation at all levels" means it will increase the population of employees at Intel who are black, women, Latino and form of other underrepresented groups by at least 14 percent.

Intel also pledged to help foster science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for minorities, and to work to make the video gaming segment of the technology industry more hospitable towards women.

While the pledge is only just that at the moment, Intel's leadership was seen by civil rights leaders as an unprecedented commitment to opening Silicon Valley beyond the narrow constraints of the Ivy League and stereotypical "brogrammers," and the first major step towards the technology industry becoming more representative of the wider heterogeneous culture around it. The people that, after all, are increasingly the most powerful consumers and Silicon Valley's bread and butter.

1. Dish's Sling TV Service and the End of the Big Bundle

The biggest news from CES 2015 was both an announcement and a product, and it's likely to be the crack in a brittle, old media system that eventually bursts the dam.

Dish announced on Monday of CES 2015 a new Internet TV service called Sling TV. For $20 per month, according to GigaOm's first report, TV watchers can stream mainstream channels like the Disney Channel, ABC Family, Food Network, the Travel Channel, TNT, CNN, TBS, Cartoon Network and Adult Swim.

Oh yeah, and they can watch ESPN and ESPN2 live as well.

It's that last part that may be the most revolutionary news for media in the 21st century United States, so far. Sound like hyperbole? It's not.

Coming up as a young journalist in media news circles, the fact of ESPN being the last holdout of the pay-TV bundle was treated as so immutable that questions like "What if someone offered live ESPN online outside of cable?" were considered too outrageous, or just too stupid to ask my superiors.

I'm not alone: The Atlantic's Derek Thompson, who wrote two columns for the magazine in the last three years explaining how untouchable pay-TV's lock on ESPN was, commented this week, "I'm not ashamed to say that I'm beginning to look like an idiot."

It's not blind orthodoxy that made ESPN seem forever bound to the pay-TV model. It was pure numbers: to put it simply, ESPN (that is, live sports) was the only thing pay-TV had going for it, compared to upcoming, cheap, on demand streaming services like Netflix. And it was the most expensive, most in-demand part of cable and satellite TV.

Cable isn't likely to crumble over the next few months as Sling TV picks up viewers. ESPN was definitely the keystone in pay-TV's overly-massive structure, but "architects don't carelessly part with keystones."

But the days of the big bundle are numbered, and starting this year, and especially with this announcement, the TV landscape will never look the same.

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