Yeah, I know, after all those jokes about big TV’s, dumb guys and penis envy, I turn into the average guy and go for the big honking flat screen. But it’s not about a big TV. In fact, the TV part is probably the least interesting feature. This is yet another elegant mashup of things that work well separately but becomes much more when fused together. In this instance, a ginormous wall-sized screen mixed with what is essentially a computer desktop full of essential widgets. Again, let’s talk practical life here: You walk into your fairly large kitchen/family room and instead of having to abandon what you’re doing to sit down to a computer and check your calendar, then flick on the TV to see weather and pick up another device to make a call, the size of this screen allows you to get your essential information in a much more passive way, but also gives you the freedom to interact with and manipulate the experience.
Imagine someone e-mailing you, say, a list of those endless school fundraising events and having them show up on your wall for easy reference next to a tool that can tell you the weather on that date. Yes, your computer can do that now, but taking the computer out of this and giving me more engagement with my surrounding instead of a small screen sells it for me. Of everything I saw, this is what I want right now most. If it can be done as a projection instead of a 108″ display - even better.
I have somewhat of a bias when it comes to technology. As much of a gadget fan as I am, I am most excited about those products that really address some of the basic needs that people have and make life just a little bit simpler and more organized. And frankly, the home is where the sweet spot is. The refrigerator is not a very sexy product and digital frames (like iPod docks) are now ubiquitous and a dime a dozen. But the combination of a refrigerator with a digital frame is one of those simple mashed-up ideas that are inspired.
The kitchen is the centerpoint of the modern home, still much more so than the family room with that enormous flat screen. The Westinghouse refrigerator elegantly answers a few problems: (1) What do I do with all those digital photos that never see the light of day on my computer, (2) How do I get those stupid magnets off my expensive stainless steel appliances, and (3) How do I engage my family in the place that they spend the most time without turning on another TV?
I know it’s an unusual choice for a top pick with all this other cool stuff around, but in terms of practical use and ready to market availability, this is on a short list of the things I came away wanting immediately.
Hard to explain, but let’s give it a try:
Panasonic’s Living Wall projects a customizable living room/mural onto your wall space (complete with virtual fireplace, aquarium and flat panel TV. The mural is actually an interface with which you can control through motion detection your music, movies, home security and (if you have complimentary cameras for the system) call up live pictures from any room in the house and lets you, for example, watch the baby while doing the dishes or entertaining.
The virtual TV and aquarium are linked into multimedia, so when you kids want to have fun they can wave at the aquarium on the wall and it turn the entire wall into a virtual Great Barrier Reef that they can navigate around. Ditto for the TV, which will be linked to travel documentaries that will take to the top of mountains or let you explore Beijing streets.
In a word, remarkable. Will it ever come to market? And does anybody even have a wall big and bare enough for it to make sense. No telling, but you can dream…
Another trend: converting your cellphones to landlines. PhoneLabs has come up with a docking and phone system that allows you to make your cellphone your home phone in a more permanent way. The system connects via bluetooth or the “Dock & Talk” module that also charges your mobile. Great for people who work at home and don’t want to keep track of a cellphone. One drawback: The best case for a land line is for emergencies. If there’s a power outage, you’re back on the cell for only as long as your battery holds out.
Steve Jobs should feel flattered. With few exceptions, nearly every new development at CES 2008 is a second generation variation of or improvement to an existing Apple product, from Apple TV to the iPhone. He should also be scared. For the first time, many of the improvements are not just different but much better. And also for the first time, some companies (like LG, iRiver and a handful of others) are stepping on Apple’s heels in terms of highly stylish design.
In no particular order:
1. The “socializing” or “MySpacing” of tech gear, advances in the “Share” function in everything from cameras to media centers to bluetooth in your car, allowing the relatively seamlesss ability to upload your photos/music/video to Facebook MySpace and other social networking sites. Most dramatically seen in the increase of dedicated “camera and video” buttons and editing software on nearly every line of new telephone.
2. Sensory Interfaces, better known as touch screens, on phones of course, but also now on large flat screens as a way to control music or movies while entertaining. An interesting but odd development that eerily harkens back to having to walk up and turn the pliers to change the channel after you broke the dial on your old black and white.
3. Wired Multi-room functionality or home networking. The democratization of the kind of high end controllers to move music and media through multiple rooms that you used to only see in Hugh Hefner documentaries and episodes of MTV Cribs.
4. Media centers without a PC. Companies are melding the easy interface TIVO with the functionality of Apple TV to make DVRs that control all of your media. Several are available now as replacements for your cable box. If you got cable before July 2007, you might want to make a call to your cable provider and see if you can get an upgrade.
5. Admission that all those wires and speakers have gotten unwieldy. Even as companies like Monster make bigger and more expensive cables, the companies making the devices they attach to are working swiftly toward wireless. Ditto for speakers. While some companies at the high end go completely retro by getting bigger and more obtrusive, at the consumer end, designers are trying to make speakers disappear into the background.
Sure, Oprah gave away another brand, but it’s Whirlpool that has the design edge on this wired refrigerator that lets you save your digital photos to a door-bound digital frame. What makes Whirlpool’s version cool is that the unit is removable. It runs photos via wi-fi and whatever flash drive you decide put inside it. All it needs now is a scanner so you can scan in all those crayon artworks and pieces of paper that the preschool teacher hands you after pick-up.
