LATEST ADDITIONS

It takes a lot to design a killer-looking speaker, but perhaps that money is better spent on sound quality. Ever practical, the designers at China’s Microlab put all their budget into making the FC10 ($77) good quality speakers that look nice in person, but they most certainly veer away from the sleek and swoopy design that Apple designers have deemed essential. They have a clean and simple look, lacking the curved aesthetic that most products embrace these days. The FC10 are wedge-shaped speakers designed to solidly surround any laptop - Apple or otherwise; the pair weighs 4.41 lbs.

Samsung showed a 4K UHD TV with the M-Go Premium App. This app will stream 4K movie titles to the TV. It also will stream titles that have been “optimized for 4K.” These are movies that were not shot in 4k, but because M-Go is owned by Technicolor, the titles have been optimized in the lab and made available for streaming. While M-Go limited their announcement to Samsung TVs, it was clear (yet unspoken) that the Premium service will extend to other manufacturers’ UHD TVs.

iLuv offers a plethora of portable wireless Bluetooth speakers. Not surprisingly, at CES, they expanded their lineup in this popular category. In particular, three portable speakers caught my eye: the SyrenPro, Wavecast, and Rollick.

The third (and final) installment of the Hi-Res panels brought together experts from the retailing side of the business. Each panelist has a footprint in the hi-res market, and is knowledgeable of the inner workings of the market. They discussed ways to promote and retail hi-res products. Also on the agenda were challenges such as the need to demo hi-res playback to customers, and ways to educate and engage young generations of listeners.