One of the biggest news to come out of CES (The Consumer Electronics Show) this year is Mindstorms EV3. The popular robotics kit from Lego is getting an update.

The third incarnation of Mindstorms, the EV3 breaks away from the old model of needing a PC to program your robot. You can now program directly on the intelligent brick (P-Brick) itself. Featuring two different types of motors, the P-Brick has 16MB of memory as well as SD card input. You also get to play with 1 Touch Sensor, 1 Color Sensor and 1 Infrared Sensor.

Since it’s 2013, EV3 includes the obligatory smartphone support — for both iOS and Android devices. Yes, it will be cool to control our robots from our smartphones.

We still have to wait a while to get our hands on Mindstorms EV, though – it’s due to be released in Fall of 2013. Expect to spend about US$350.

More info: keep an eye out for updates from the Lego Mindstorms page.