Ken C. Pohlmann

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Other Tech
Reality Bytes: Pssst! Wanna Buy and iPod?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 11, 2007

You're enjoying a lovely evening in the park - sandwiches and softball. A nice-looking kid comes over and offers to sell you an iPod for $100. You're reluctant, but it's a really sweet deal. You agree. The next day, you find out you've bought stolen goods. Congratulations! You're a business partner in the latest crime wave: stolen MP3 players.

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Other Tech
Reality Bytes: The Price Is Right! Or is it?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Dec 02, 2007

How much is music worth? Nietzsche wrote, "Without music, life would be a mistake." That places a high value on sounds that entertain and sometimes inspire us. Then again, at 3 o'clock in the morning, you'd pay good money to have the music at the party next door shut off.

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Other Tech
Reality Bytes: Thoughts on Apple, EMI, and DRM: To Unprotect and Serve?
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 02, 2007

Here's some summer reading: Thoughts on Music, by Apple's Steve Jobs (apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic). It's not a romance novel, or even a juicy tell-all. Instead, his short treatise may change the future of recorded music.

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Other Tech
Reality Bytes: Turn Down the Funk
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Oct 19, 2008

You know what I'm talking about. You're watching your favorite TV show - well, okay, actually you're just mindlessly dozing in front of the tube (maybe even with a little drool), and then suddenly a LOUD COMMERCIAL jolts you wake! What the heck? Why are the commercials always so much louder than the programs?

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Signals
Receiving the Zombie Apocalypse
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jul 12, 2021
Those poor dumb bastards didn't make it. But you did. At least so far. Every night, when the Zeke's come out to play, it gets pretty intense – all alone in your basement, crouching in the darkness. If only there was some way to connect to the outside world. There must be other survivors, but where are they? Fortunately, you remember a blog you once read.

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Signals
Redbox Renters Beware: Mystery of the Missing Audio Track
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 24, 2015
When you buy a Blu-ray Disc for $25, you expect the very best quality. When you rent a Blu-ray for $2, do you still expect the best? Or would the budget pricing lower your expectations? Do you simply assume that the bits comprising a rental movie are the same as the retail movie? You might be surprised to learn that not all bits are created equal. And therein lies a mystery.
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Signals
Remembering a Remarkable Man
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Jun 13, 2022
I’d like to tell you about Thomas Yuen, former chairman and CEO of SRS Labs, who died earlier this year at the age of 70. I didn’t know him well, but he made a tremendous impression on me.
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Signals
Remembering the Time When that Radio Station Bricked Your Car’s Radio
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 13, 2023
Has this ever happened to you? You’re cruising down the boulevard, listening to your favorite music on your favorite radio station, then suddenly your infotainment system goes dead. WTH? If you were driving a Mazda, this might sound all too familiar.
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Signals
Reporter’s Notebook: Reflecting on 2014 CES
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Apr 22, 2014
Editor’s Note: The following article appears in the May 2014 print edition of Sound & Vision.

How Was Your Day?

Friday afternoon, McCarran Airport. The International CES ends today. Some bitter-enders are still at the convention center, but for me, the show is over. With a mixture of relief and regret, I toss my press pass into a recycling bin. As I wait for my boarding call, I pull out some notes, trying to make sense of what just happened.

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Signals
Revenge Spending
Ken C. Pohlmann  |  Nov 08, 2021
I hate Covid. You hate Covid. We all hate Covid. But we love home theater. That creates the circumstances for an interesting scenario that economists refer to as “revenge spending.”

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