John Sciacca

You know that commercial where the dad uses Alexa to turn on the front yard sprinklers to soak his daughter’s boyfriend? The hardware behind that voice-activated dousing is Rachio, and they are at CES showing their new Gen 2 sprinkler controller.

Want to watch the new movie Joker on opening night in the comfort of your own home theater? Red Carpet Home Cinema has a system that can make that happen…provided you can pay for the privilege.

Kaleidescape Brings Movies to Life With Cinema One Kaleidescape demonstrated their latest product, the Cinema One, which brings the movie and music streaming performance of the company’s regarded Premier line to a far more affordable – sub $4,000 – price point. (Expect a full review of the Cinema One from Darryl Wilkinson.) Kaleidescape also had one of the sweetest booth giveaways at the Expo, drawing a card each day at 4 PM and giving the lucky winner a Cinema One! Also new from the company is the addition of cover art view to their awesome iPad control app. Now users can browse through their movie and music collections using the same cover art view that had previously only been available on the on-screen GUI. Want to shuffle the titles around? Simply give your Pad a shake.

The problem with DVDs is they're just too damn cool. With their pristine pictures, multichannel digital sound, and cheap prices, what's not to love? Storing and managing your collection, however, can be a problem. Though I don't consider myself a huge collector, I have amassed close to 100 DVD movies. My current storage solution is a trunk my wife picked up at a yard sale for $3.