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CES Report: Mobile Digital Television to Go
LAS VEGAS—Streaming video on your mobile phone is often a less-than-satisfying experience, with fuzzy pictures and interruptions for buffering. But 2010 International CES offered a glimpse of how we may soon be watching local television stations on our cell phones and laptop computers.
I’m departing a bit from Practical Travel Gear’s usual format of hands-on testing of gear that’s available today so we can take a look into the future. Broadcasters, programmers and technology companies are working together in hopes of making Mobile Digital Television a reality. Some of the products are expected to hit the market later this year.
USB adapters could turn laptops and netbooks into digital TV receivers. Small, standalone receivers are also planned. The quality of the video demonstrated at CES is impressive.
Compelling content is something often lacking in streaming video that’s available now. But if local broadcasters jump on the standard, mobile DTV receivers will be able to pick up local and network programming, local news and emergency broadcasts.
The Tivit mobile TV viewer from Valups won several innovation awards at CES. Tivit is a small, portable receiver—about the size of a credit card—that picks up digital TV signals and sends them via Wi-Fi to an iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry phone or laptop.
About 30 stations are already on the air with the mobile digital signals. Local broadcasters see it as one opportunity to stay relevant—they can either lose audience to mobile devices, or offer their own signals in hopes of holding on to or expanding their audiences.
There’s still some work underway to gauge consumer demand for Mobile Digital Television. A showcase is planned later this year in the Washington, DC area, with local residents getting a chance to sample up to 20 channels of programming.
Brandon Burgess, chairman of the Open Mobile Video Coalition, believes the new gadgets will lead to a “new era in over-the-air TV broacasting.”
How would you like to see local television channels on your mobile phone or other portable devices? The technology works. But it will only be successful if there’s an audience.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on January 12th, 2010
CES Report: Year of the e-Reader?
Interead's newest e-readers are introduced at CES
LAS VEGAS—E-readers generated a lot of buzz at the 2010 International CES. And for many travelers, being able to carry around thousands of titles in an electronic reader less than the size of one book has a lot of appeal.
Amazon’s original e-reader is the best-selling item on the company’s website and now Sony and Barnes & Noble have introduced models of their own. But keep an eye on an upstart company, Interead, which is promising to ratchet up the competition with lower prices and a broad selection of titles.
“2010 is going to be the year of e-readers because of the content in our product,” says Phil Wood, marketing director for UK-based Interead.
Interead plans to bring three new models to the market by mid-year—the COOL-ER Compact, smaller than its competitors; COOL-ER Connect, adding Wi-Fi capabilities and a touch screen; and the COOL-ER 3G, adding high-speed connectivity via AT&T mobile phone channels. In addition, new case colors will be offered for the company’s current model, the COOL-ER Classic.
The new models fit well in in the inside pocket of my jacket. In fact, they were specifically designed that way. The COOL-ER Compact measures 6.7″ tall and 4.6″ wide and is less than half an inch thick. The 2 GB of onboard memory can be expanded to 6 GB with an SD memory card, easily holding thousands of titles.
The COOLER-ER Connect is expected to be competitively priced at $249 or less.
“We’re passing along the economy of scale and savings these new models have created,” says Wood.
The e-readers will work around the world and support e-books in every language, with menus in eight languages.
One of Interead’s strengths is its selection of titles—more than two million strong. About half of those titles are free Google e-books.
Also, a new application available from the company’s e-book site gives access to more than 1,400 global newspapers and magazines, along with millions of Twitter feeds. The prices of e-books are usually substantially less than printed volumes.
Sales figures are difficult to come by, since Amazon avoids releasing numbers for its popular Kindle e-readers that were first on the market. But industry estimates are that nine million e-readers were sold last year. Wood estimates industry-wide sales of 15 million units this year. He says Interead’s current model is positioned at number three in U.S. sales and number one in Europe.
Keep in mind that e-reader screens are still black and white. Wood says models with color screens should be available by December. While black and white screens are fine for most books, the color screens will make magazines and other periodicals look much better.
I know there are some purists who still like the smell and feel of physical books, just as some music lovers enjoyed the look and feel of vinyl albums. But e-readers, in the very near future, may well do for the printed word what the iPod did for music.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear, Travel Light on January 11th, 2010
The Future of Driving: High-Tech Cars
Ford made a splash with its announcement of MyFord Touch, described as a “driver connect technology” and the next generation of its current Sync system.The system is scheduled to roll out first this year on the 2011 Lincoln MKK and be added to future new and redesigned Ford and Mercury models.
MyFord Touch will cause “people to fall in love with their vehicles again,” says Derrick Kuzak, Ford group vice president, global product development.
“It’s not just a technology, it’s an experience—one we hope will have people across the globe looking forward to spending time behind the wheel of their vehicle.”
It’s encouraging to see Ford’s commitment to this technology, which was developed with Microsoft on the software side. And remember, Ford was the only U.S. automaker that didn’t need a federal bail-out.
But right in the shadows, literally, of Ford’s booth at CES was a little-known player—Telemetria, with a very interesting product. And I always like David and Goliath stories.
Telemetria, a small company based in San Jose, CA, has already released its DashTop safety and “infotainment” system with a price point around $1,000.
Installed in the center console, the DashTop combines a 7″ color screen and touch interface for broadband Internet access for web browsing and e-mail, GPS navigation, playing music and video, engine monitoring and diagnostics and more. It can even turn the entire car into a Wi-Fi hotspot.
“We can continually add new apps for safety, efficiency, for social networking and for security,” says Allen Nejah, Telemetria’s founder
The system is built on Windows 7, which makes it easy to update and add features, according to Nejah.
The company is still working to refine the system’s voice-recognition capabilities. But after taking a test drive with the unit and meeting some of the company’s employees, I have little doubt they will get that part working as well as it should.
These kind of high-tech gadgets can surely make driving more interesting and more connected. I’m not certain a high-tech car can make it fun to commute through bumper-to-bumper traffic. But it might help find your way around the traffic jams.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on January 9th, 2010
Live from Las Vegas: International CES is Underway
When it takes more than 30 minutes to get through the taxi line at the Las Vegas airport at 9 o’clock at night, the economy must be picking up.
Indeed, there are few signs of the recession here at the 2010 International CES, the huge Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. There’s much buzz about the latest television-screen technologies—the flattest and biggest screends and 3D—and who’s got the best mobile phones and computer tablets.
I’m here searching for the latest gadgets that will help make life easier on the road. There are promises that our future cars will become smarter and more connected, with more than just GPS. Ford and some established—and a few upstart—companies are making devices with broadband Internet access, media players and collision avoidance, among other things.
I’ll be getting an update on future plans from Aircell, the company behind GoGo Internet access on several major U.S. airlines, and looking at the latest ways to make sure your home is safe while you are away.
There is one very encouraging sign. A lot of the product manufacturers are talking about price points. In other words, they are very conscious of making products affordable to encourage consumers to part with their hard-earned dollars. And in the end, that may be what revives the consumer electronics business and keeps the economic recovery going.
More gadgets at better prices. That sounds like a winner.
Posted by JohnG in Business Gear, General Gear on January 7th, 2010
