Kevo Gateway Takes Smartlock Control On The Road

Even though I’ve yet to wrap up my Kevo Smartlock review, Kwikset has gone ahead and revealed phase two of their Unikey-powered connected home strategy. There’s a variety of ways to slice and dice these smart components, and Kevo only ships with Bluetooth capabilities – unlike some of their competitors, who integrate WiFi. To extend … Read more

Tablo OTA DVR Now Available For Pre-Order

The cord cutting options are heating up, with Tablo poised to ship in February. I spent some quality time at the Digital Experience with CEO Grant Hall going over their offering… that consists of both two- and four-tuner configurations to pull in luscious broadcast video via antenna, without going through a cable company. Like Simple TV, the … Read more

Vizio Doubles Down On The 5.1 Soundbar

Those following closely know the original Vizio 5.1 “soundbar” was one of the best tech purchases I made in 2013. Unlike traditional soundbars, in addition to being paired to a subwoofer, the Vizio also includes a pair of rear channel speakers (that connect to the subwoofer, which communicates wireless to the soundbar) to provide a … Read more

Intel Paints Sci-Fi Picture of the Future

Intel 3D camera

Call me a Sci-Fi nut, but I’m a sucker for stories about human/brain interfaces, virtual reality, and the coming Singularity. And Intel’s press conference hit every one of those trigger points at CES this afternoon. Senior VP Mooly Eden described blended devices where brain and machine are physically linked together and said he believes it’s a matter of “when” not “if” that vision becomes a reality.

Eden also alluded to Kurzweil’s Singularity theory that computers will surpass human intelligence in the coming decades. According to Eden’s calculations, silicon will have more transistors than the brain has neurons in only a dozen more years.

While the presentation was heavily aspirational, however, Eden also offered several concrete developments from Intel for the pragmatists in the audience.

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TV OS Wars: Welcome to the Front Line

ActiveVideo AmEx ad

TV service providers have had a monopoly on the consumer television experience for years, but the CE guys finally have a chance to get in on the game. From LG’s launch of WebOS TVs to the incorporation of the Roku platform in TCL and Hisense sets, CES is full of news about how the TV companies are banking on delivering better software to differentiate themselves.

As Dave alluded to, however, it’s hard to imagine that consumers are going to pay too much attention to software when they buy a TV. Worse, the messy ecosystem means it will take longer for any useful new applications and features to gain traction. How are content companies and developers going to deal with creating TV apps for a thousand different connected TVs, set-tops, and streaming sticks?

The one interesting solution out there right now is ActiveVideo’s CloudTV distribution platform.

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Netgear Routers Charge Facebook Check In for WiFi

A clever new Netgear router feature caught my eye this morning from CES. Tailored to small businesses, Facebook Wi-Fi enables that local cafe or bead shop to offer free wireless… in exchange for a Facebook check-in. Win-win? From the press blast: NETGEAR is making the Facebook Wi-Fi login available on its premium line of next-generation wireless routers … Read more

Roku TV Launching This Fall

roku-smart-tv

Nearly two years after announcing their MHL Streaming Stick designed to make dumb TVs smart, Roku has now inked deals with Hisense and TCL to produce Roku TVs — in sizes ranging from 32″ to 55″ that are expected to ship this fall. It’s a great win for manufacturers looking to integrate a mature and continually updated platform. But, like LG, Roku and their partners will soon learn if a television operating system matters to shoppers the way it does in mobile as these guys collectively work to shorten the consumer television refresh cycle.

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