Ken C. Pohlmann

Quick. What's the company everyone loves to hate? The cable company, of course. The aggravating installation, the inexplicable outtages, the maddening programming bundles, and the fees. Oh yes, the fees. But there's hope, and possibly change. President Obama has endorsed a proposal that would eliminate perhaps the most annoying cable TV fee. That's good, right?

Vizio recently unveiled its new P-series models. And they are pretty impressive, featuring 4K UHD and the very cool SmartCast app that essentially builds in all the capabilities of Google Cast. Since they are Vizios, they are very competitively priced. Very nice. The problem is, if you want to be a stickler for details, these devices aren't actually TVs.

Depending on how long you keep your cars, it's entirely possible that your next car will drive itself. Even if you're two years into a three-year lease, given the furious development of autonomous technology, self-driving cars are a fait accompli. But more to the point, given the interests of this site's readers, self-driving cars open the door to entirely new kinds of vehicle entertainment systems. Case in point: this patent recently issued to Ford.

I'm on record (ha!) stating my opinion that the vinyl resurgence is socially and morally significant. Interest in vinyl is up, vinyl sales are up. Are downloads and streaming in trouble? Well, of course not. Still....