When they first got off the ground - literally -about three years ago, the XM and Sirius satellite radio services focused their attention on the millions of people who get into their cars and drive somewhere every day.
Audio and video often seem like nothing more than numbers games. So much is specified in some kind of figure: 7.1 channels, 200 watts, 800 lumens, 90 decibels. Sure, it's simplistic and pandering, but on the whole it's good. If Match.com could deliver this level of precision, I'd be a much happier man.
Yes, friends, I'm talkin' Touchscreen Takes Over Tabletop - that is, "surface technology" mates with a traditional piece of household furniture. Brought to you by home-entertainment-and-automation company Savant, the Rosie Coffee Table Touchpanel Controller basically has an Apple computer inside of it and runs on Savant's programmable Rosie control system.
If I hear one more old fart who grew up separating seeds from stems in the middle of a gatefold cover say we've got to save the album, my head is gonna EXPLODE!
Price: $2,199 At A Glance: Image pops with room lights on • Minimizes room reflections with lights off • Fixed frame—no retractable version
Lighten Up
Many of us will tolerate a projection system that requires a totally darkened room for movie watching. But when other family matters make this impossible, or when your buddies come over on a Sunday afternoon for the big game, how many of us are willing to totally blacken the room and leave everyone to stumble around in the dark?
Aside from a huge, costly flat-panel TV, the easiest way to put a big video image up on your wall is to buy a front-projector/projection screen combo. And with good high-rez front projectors now selling for as little as $2,000, that option can be particularly budget-friendly.
One of the very first things we saw in Season 2 of Lost was a needle dropping on the title track of Mama Cass's 1969 album, Make Your Own Kind of Music, inside "The Hatch" (a.k.a. "The Swan"), the underground locale that drove much of that season's action.
Godsmack, Boston's multiplatinum metal growlers, took the nation by storm this past April by debuting at #1 with their heavy-hitting, aptly named fourth album, IV (Republic/Universal). And though the band's drummer Shannon Larkin loves his iPod ("every single song on it came from my own collection"), he still has a thing for CDs.
January 8, 2007 - Sharp introduced its latest products against the backdrop of a 108-inch LCD HDTV - the world's largest. No price (or model) was given for the prototype, but expect it to exceed your budget if and when the gargantuan panel makes it to production.
Remember that commercial when plasma TVs first came out, with that couple randomly placing their new plasma set on different walls around their apartment until they finally settled on a ceiling mount? That ad always bugged me because they made it look so easy to just decide where you wanted your TV to go and then put it there. What about the power? What about the cable hookup?
Flat-panel TVs have been the rage for a couple of years now, and even if the larger sets are still beyond most budgets, speaker manufacturers are falling over themselves to offer the latest flat-panel-friendly model. Thin is definitely in.
TV addicts have been time-shifting since the analog days of the VCR, but ask them if they know how to place-shift, and you're likely to get blank stares.