Industry

Post-CES Layoffs

Anybody else notice how much bad company news there’s been post-CES? Digeo killed its planned retail products and laid off half its staff. Sprint is eliminating 4,000 jobs. Yahoo hasn’t announced specific numbers, but the word is that “1,500-2,500 jobs may be eliminated in the next two weeks.” (There’s an interesting post on GigaOM on … Read more

Digital Media Bytes

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our other blogs: Networking HDTV at Home: Connected Home 2 Go Snapstream Shuttering Couchville TV Listings: Brent Evans Geek Tonic Broadband by the Byte: Connected Home 2 Go Hauppauge Unveils Real-Time USB HD Recording: Brent Evans Geek Tonic WiMAX at CES: Connected Home 2 Go

CES: Too Much Is Not Enough

Vudu made a couple of CES announcements… Since their $399 movie download STB isn’t quite expensive enough, Vudu has introduced a higher priced model at $999 – offering only increased storage. From a business perspective, I get it – hard drives are cheap and “Vudu XL” margins will be much higher than the base Vudu … Read more

Retrevo at CES

By now it’s clear that I have something of an obsession with Retrevo as a buying guide for consumer electronics, so it was good luck when I ran into CEO Vipin Jain just inside the door at the CES ShowStoppers event. He had Retrevo up for display and was quick to show me some of … Read more

CES: The Biggest Bombshell

The bombshell: Warner Bros announces they’re dropping the HD DVD format to exclusively produce Blu-ray Discs. The aftershock: HD DVD Promotion Groups cancels their press conference. This seemed to be the most discussed topic in the days leading up to CES, both on-site and online. At this point, the next generation optical disc war has … Read more

CES: It’s a Wrap!

I’m going to do a bit of Memento trickeration here and continue to cover CES – out of order and after the fact. As with most folks, I didn’t encounter anything truly revolutionary… though it’s not always immediately apparent at CES what may be a game-changer, with thousands of companies competing for attention. Having said … Read more

Broadband in the 2008 Election

Broadband = Good. Broadband means better communication, education, information, business, entertainment, social networking, etc. etc. (It also means jobs for me and Dave :)) So it only makes sense that broadband should at least get a mention or two in the presidential election campaigning. The Speed Matters organization (affiliated with the AFL-CIO) has collected information … Read more

Best CES Marketing Gimmick So Far

noritsu-ces.jpg

The flood of CES email has been overwhelming the last couple of days with product announcements, media pitches, and pleas for booth visits and interviews. However, my favorite pitch of the lot didn’t come to my inbox, but my mailbox. A long, flat envelope arrived with the words, “Photos – Do Not Bend” on the front. When I opened it up, a family photo stared back at me on top of half a dozen other prints. Not my family, mind you- though I did spend a moment trying to place the models as long-lost cousins on my mother’s side. No, this was a photo of a pretend family with a note slipped underneath. The note said, “OOPS! Not Your Photos?” Then it advised me to stop by the Noritsu booth at CES to pick up a free print of any digital photo of my own – 8×10 or 10×36 panorama – and learn more about the company’s retail inkjet photo printer. Cute.

I’m unfortunately still skeptical of photo printers – more because of the cost of photo paper than the quality of the printing. However, if I can get myself over to the South Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center, I’ll definitely stop by Noritsu. And pick up my free print.

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