CES Wrap-up

Is the Future Here?

This year's Consumer Electronics Show has come & gone...

and everyone wants to know, "where are we headed?". Or, are we already there. Well of course we never really get there, only continue the journey. After walking many miles on the many show floors, two themes were very evident. First, that this industry, even in this "New Economy", is not sitting back and waiting for something to happen. Second, that where and how we get our music, news and even movies is changing, and changing fast!

Most of us have already started getting at least some of our news from the Internet. And although it's easy if we happen to be on the computer, it's not convenient for the rest of our day. Music is now mostly "collected" from the Internet now. But if you don't want to pay $.99 a song or download from some questionable site that doesn't compensate the artist that created your favorite music (and risk the threat of viruses), this is not your best option. As far as movies, we do pay-per-view, Netflix or head down to the rapidly vanishing local video rental store.

With respect to music several companies, most notably Sonos, have already started changing how we get our music. The music available to us is more diverse and less expensive than ever. For everything from your favorite band in high school, to XM & Sirius radio to AM & FM stations across the country or across the world, it's all available for less than the cost of one CD a month! Much of this is even FREE!

And it?s changing for movies too and changing fast! TV manufacturers have already begun providing Ethernet connections on the new TVs. Features like Netflix (movies), Picasa (photos), YouTube (videos) and even Facebook & Twitter (social networks) are accessed right from your TV. They have over 20,000 movies available. Better still, some of these are free! A little know, but great, service called VUDU is also available. If these manufacturers have their say, much more is on the horizon. Streaming home movies stored on any computer in the house, soon will be just another choice with your remote. Choosing one of your favorite shows from the "cloud" will be just like having a DVR with everything already recorded on it. As I eluded to before, this "future" is already under way, the infrastructure already in place. We are catching up with the capabilities of our everyday electronics. They're getting easier to operate, giving us more information and taking us to more places than we ever imagined.

In some upcoming articles we will talk about some of these new technologies that are coming, and some that are already here. We'll see how they can simplify & enhance your life.

If there are any topics you would like to see covered here, please write me at:

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If you're wondering about something, someone else likely is as well.

Dan Gawne

President,

A/V Environments, Inc.