Ken C. Pohlmann

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Signals
Circuit City: Retail Resurrection
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 09, 2016
When's the last time that Circuit City crossed your mind? It's probably been so long that you can't even remember the last time you thought about it. And yet, the name Circuit City is instantly familiar to you. That's called name recognition. And clearly, rather than starting from scratch to build name recognition, you'd prefer to start with something well known. That is why Circuit City is being resurrected.

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Signals
Coming (Fairly) Soon: Car Theater
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  May 12, 2015
Start saving up now. In about 20 years, you'll have to buy another complete home theater. Except this one won't be at home. It will be in your car. Put in perspective, the Compact Disc is about 30 years old so 20 years isn't so far off. Like I say - start saving now.

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Signals
Coming Soon to a (Home) Theater Near You
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 23, 2013
So far, this has been a pretty good year for moviegoers. The Hollywood dream machine has cranked out a steady stream of big-budget movies with colossal production values. If you enjoy getting your eyeballs fried by flying fireballs or your ears rocked by rampaging robots, the multiplex has been very, very good to you. But how will these screen gems look from your Lay-Z-Boy? After our reviews of the theatrical releases, I asked colleague Leslie Shapiro (our Grace Notes blogger) to join me in eagerly anticipating their Blu-ray releases.

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Other Tech
Coming Soon to a Brain Near You
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 02, 2006

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Signals
Coming Sooner to a Home Theater Near You: Paramount Tests Shorter Release Windows
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 14, 2015
If you have a home theater, it's easy to see that commercial movie theaters are both your friends, and your enemies. On one hand, without them and the billions of dollars they generate, movie studios would never spend the hundreds of millions of dollars required to make a movie. We owe the content we watch at home to the commercial theaters. On the other hand, adversarially, these theaters get first dibs on all content, and we must impatiently wait for home media to eventually appear. Don't like waiting? Well, if things work out, you soon might be able to cut in line.

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Other Tech
Connecting the Dots
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Sep 06, 2005

Sorry to break the news, but your shiny, spiffy iPod is an obsolete piece of junk. Ditto the other electronic toys you tote in your L.L. Bean knapsack. They'll soon be vacuumed up, integrated, and reissued as a new paradigm that we can't live without.

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Signals
Connecting the Dots: From OLED to Quantum Dot (QD) TV Screens
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 04, 2014
As you know, LG is pulling the plug on its plasma production. Over time, LG expects that OLED will become the dominant TV technology. But, that time isn't quite here yet, mainly because OLED isn't entirely affordable for everyone. But with plasma going, going, gone, what technology is best suited for lower-cost LG screens? Enter the dots.

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Signals
Conspiracy TV Inc.
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Feb 13, 2013

I travel. A lot. Hotel rooms are not my home away from home — they are my home. As such, most of my TV viewing is done in hotel rooms. Thanks to the miracle of jet lag, I know the late-night schedule everywhere around the world. I’ve watched Wheel of Fortune in 53 different languages, and counting.

I’m also familiar with every brand of flat-panel TV. Samsung, LG, Vizio, Panasonic, Hitachi, Philips, Magnavox, Toshiba, JVC, Sanyo, Sharp, Sony: I’ve seen them all. And I know I’m in a faraway place when I’m staring at a Kogan or a Vestel. It doesn’t make any difference. They all have one thing in common: All of these TVs sound terrible.

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Other Tech
Converging on the Future
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 28, 2002

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. This is not your father's stereo. In fact, it's not his home theater either. Kenwood has come up with a networked home entertainment system that promises to provide easy access to movies from a DVD megachanger and music from a variety of sources, including CDs, MP3 music files stored on a hard-disk drive - even Internet radio stations.

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CES 2014
CoolVox Cranks Up the Fridge
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jan 10, 2014
I have long regarded refrigerators as being the most selfish of the kitchen appliances. Toasters, for example, must exert tremendous heat to partially carbonize my toast, and blenders, the poor things, whip themselves into a frenzy as they mush things up. In contrast, fridges mainly just stand there, self-absorbed, trying to look cool, intentionally not sharing their air conditioning with the rest of the kitchen. Recognizing this, Whirlpool has dramatically reinvented the refrigerator - transforming it from aloof SOB, to DJ party animal.

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