Archive for the &;CES&; Category
Technology Lifestyle MagsDisappearing
May 4, 2009
And a good thing, too. I have before me a copy of CE Lifestyles, the February 2005 issue. The cover photo is a bodacious babe smiling a come-hither smile at her digital-camera wielding boyfriend. To further convince the fickle consumer, the cover price reads $5.99 $1.99. Now apparently called First Glimpse, you can subscribe for just $29 a year.
For years, publishers thought the combination of fetishized cool consumer electronics and hot cover babe would turn people men onto the so-called &;CE Lifestyle.&;
Why do these publications never take off? Now, of course, advertising is a memory, as are freelance, photo and model budgets. But that&;s not the real reason.
A long time ago I went to a presentation by some of the editors of Entertainment Weekly. EW itself is in trouble now, but not because it didn&;t follow the editors advice. In terms of coverage, he said, &;Movies are best, then music and television. Then sports. Last is technology.&;
Tags:Consumer Electronics, death-of-magazines, technology-journalism Posted in 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, CES, technology-journalism, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment &;
FyreTV&;s Wireless PornServer
January 27, 2009
There seemed to be plenty of leakage at the Consumer Electronics Show this year from the Adult Entertainment Expo. (And vice versa; Fox Home Video was promoting the &;legit&; release Choke, starring Angelica Huston and Sam Rockwell, by distributing faux anal beads at the adult show.)
A case in point is FyreTV (www.fyreTV.com) which used one of the press parties at the &;legitimate&; show to demonstrate what it proudly called &;the world&;s first wireless IPTV set-top box (or BoXXX, as they would have it) for streaming DVD adult content.&;
The wireless &;BoXXX&; ships with any new subscription, which starts at $9.95. The company signed to provide content from such stalwarts of the industry as Vivid, Wicked Pictures, Evil Angel, Seymore Butts and Sin City, among many others.
Is there a catch? According to one spokesman I talked to, it&;s no &;all the porn you can eat&; plan. The $9.95 basic service offers just 100 minutes a month, giving users an incentive to limit their &;viewing&; to 3 minutes a day.
Just don&;t fall asleep&;
Tags:Adult-Entertainment-Expo, BoXXX, CES, Choke, Consumer Electronics, FyreTV, porn, Sam-Rockwell, technology, technology-journalism Posted in 2009 Consumer Electronics Show, CES, porn, porn-industry, Television | 2 Comments &;
Look Out Below! Americans Toss AnalogTVs
April 9, 2008
The Consumer Electronics Association claims that only 15 million televisions will be &;removed&; from the homes of people who get their TV signals over the air, and of those, 95% will be &;sold, donated or recycled.&;
But who would buy an analog television when what the CEA likes to call the &;digital television transition,&; (a process now approaching the length of the 100 Years War) is complete?
As for donations, tried to donate a monitor or computer lately? Many people end up doing nocturnal dumpster dumps in frustration. And the last thing charitable organizations want is a haul of unsellable obsolete televisions.
That leaves recycling. How it will be done isn&;t so clear; Sony will take back their own aging TVs, but other owners are out of luck. While Erin Monaghan suggests making your TV into a planter or fish tank, you still need to get rid of the TV tube, which Earth 911 suggests can contain 4 to 8 pounds of lead.
I say bring back the halcyon days of Led Zeppelin at the LA Hyatt, the notorious &;Riot House&; on the Sunset Strip, and launch the old TVs from the balcony to an empty swimming pool.
Look out below!
Tags:recycling, Riot-House Posted in analog-to-digital-TV, CES, Consumer Electronics | Leave a Comment &;
The Analog TV Set That Won&;t GoAway
December 5, 2007
The Consumer Electronics Association has been saying the US is in the midst of the &;digital transition&; for years. If so, it&;s one of the longest on record. With less than a year and a half to go before analog programming is cut off, less than 15% of Americans have digital sets. Worse, less than half of those actually watch high definition programming according to Nielsen Research. (Hat tip to www.nikkifinke.com).
It&;s no surpise: analog televison sets are persistent in your house&;they just work. Unlike computers, they don&;t get obsolete every two years. And although prices on plasma, DLP and LCD TVs have been dropping, so have real estate values&;it&;s harder to get a home equity loans to make your house pay for its home theatre.
The CEA&;s sales numbers look good; sales of digital TVs rose from 12.5 million in 2005 to 18.5 million or so in 2006, or 50%. But there&;s probably close to 300 million TVs (one for every American at home, in the bars, hotels, etc.) meaning 250 million CRT analog sets are still humming contentedly. Only a fraction will be replaced by 2009; prepare for lots of &;fixes&; using set-top box analog to digital converters.
I&;m bracing for another massive Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. And this year, with high gas prices, foreclosures up and a recession coming, the sunny view always portrayed by Gary Shapiro of the CEA (home of the &;biggest and best CES ever&;, every year) looks gloomier.
Posted in 2007 Consumer Electronics Show, analog-to-digital-TV, CES, Consumer Electronics | 1 Comment &;