If you’re tired of paying the Man – ie: the exorbitant rates demanded by the cable or satellite provider – for your TV content, but have held off on cutting the cord because you can’t stand the thought of parting with your program guide or DVR and the sweet, sweet awesomeness which is time-shift viewing, then Tablo might be the solution you’ve been looking for!
Many people care about the look of their homes, their furniture, and the accessories they buy, but even though audio components are shrinking, most speakers still look like large, decorator-unfriendly, black and grey boxes. In-ceiling speakers may look more discreet but they can be difficult an expensive to install. ClearView Audio’s CEO Stefan Bokamper claimed, “We wanted to design something that was as invisible to the casual observer as an in-ceiling speaker. When a friend walks into your house they wouldn’t know where the music was coming from.”
If you’ve never seen a 3D printer in action, well, then you are missing out my friend. Watching the printer head whizzing back and forth, slowly growing, building and creating a 3D creation, it is just totally cool and like magic. And in the world of 3D printing, MakerBot is at the forefront.
MakerBot’s Chief Executive, Ben Petti, says that his company and product is about unleashing your creativity and to date there are over 44,000 MakerBots in the world. And they see this number growing to over 1,000,000.
A consortium of flagship audio/video companies have once again teamed up to provide the most immersive, over-the-top home theater demo at CES 2014.
Using detailed engineering schematics from Antony Grimani’s firm, Performance Media Industries (PMI) they rebuilt a meeting room in the Venetian into the ultimate movie listening and viewing space. Grimani told me that his company reengineered the room omitting all of the “wrong” hotel dimensions, and coming up with the layout and design for the room’s seating, riser heath, screen size, acoustic treatments and more.
Door locks are not meant to be cool. Door locks are not meant to be sexy. Door lock are supposed to be utilitarian devices that keep the bad people out of your house when you’re not home, and require limited access by using a good, old-fashioned key, the way our forefathers intended.
These are all things that Goji has clearly never heard, because the company’s new Smart Lock is by far the sexiest industrial design I’ve seen on a door lock. In fact, I think that Goji might do for the smart lock what Nest did for the smart thermostat.
Dish President and CEO, Joe Clayton, kicked off the company’s press event by welcoming the crowds to “part three of DISH’s transformation.”
Building on the success of its Hopper and Joey multi-room DVR system, DISH announced several significant upgrades to the system today. Where the previous Hopper system was capable of recording three programs at once – or up to six when using the PrimeTime Anytime feature – the new SuperJoey will record a breakthrough eight shows at once! (Any four shows plus the four major broadcast networks when using PrimeTime Anytime, or the five network tuners recording/watching any five shows from any network.)
For some, video’s Holy Grail has become the quest for glasses-free, 3D TV. IZON held a press event to put on a technical preview of their take on this technology. Along with a 3D Blu-ray player, IZON used a 20-inch monitor with their technology built-in and showed Man of Steel, the latest Superman movie, in 3D. Nary a pair of glasses was in sight.
As 2013 winds down, it seems appropriate to share the trends—tech and otherwise—that struck me at the annual CEDIA (Custom Electronic Design & Installation Association) Expo this past September in Denver.
Back when I was a kid, I took my TV watching very seriously. It was an active event that demanded laser-like, sugar-fueled focus. I mean, just one glance away from those glowing cathode rays could result in missing some crucial Scooby Doo or Brady Bunch plot twist, possibly resulting in years of wondering what exactly happened to Marsha’s nose.
Reaching back into the days before DVR, DVD-R, or even VCR, you basically got one shot at watching something. And that meant TV viewers had some serious skin in the game when watching a show that was important to them. There were no pausing, no on-demand, and no Web streaming alternatives.
Perusing your favorite AV site (it’s this one, right?!), browsing real or virtual aisles of an electronics store, or surfing the Web, you’ve undoubtedly run across multiple companies offering to improve your audio by adding a soundbar. With models ranging from sub $100 to over $2,000, it’s a category that has exploded practically overnight.
In a way, soundbars can be likened to nuclear power; used correctly, they can improve your life, but misused can kill everyone in the world several times over. (I don’t have all the science needed to back that up, but I’m pretty sure it’s true.)