consumer

GM chairman to keynote CES

General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will be a keynote speaker at the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show, the Consumer Electronic Association announced Monday.

This will be GM's first keynote at the trade show, which is known for attracting celebrities eager to see the latest in high-tech gadgets, as well as the world press.

Wagoner joins technology leaders Bill Gates of Microsoft, Paul Otellini of Intel, and Panasonic's Toshihiro Sakamoto, who have also confirmed as speakers for the international trade show that takes place annually in Las Vegas.

While Wagoner might seem like a stretch for a … Read more

What's up with watts: how much power do you need?

Amplifier power is measured in watts, as in "100 watts per channel," but what does that really mean? Do all 100 watt per channel receivers deliver 100 watts? And what about those "1000 watt" home theater in a box systems? Are they more powerful than 2,000 A/V receivers? And what about high-end 100 watt per channel high-end power amps? Are all watts created equal? I don't think so!

Unfortunately power ratings are a near meaningless way to compare the loudness potential of one receiver, amplifier, or HTIB against another. That's what power … Read more

America on a media diet?

Today's Boston Herald reports that Americans consumed less media in 2006 than they did the year before. Are we losing interest in media or are we just becoming more efficient consumers?

… Read more

At CES, watch out for wireless high-def TV

At the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, Samsung showed off a plasma TV that got data from an 802.11(n) link.

At CES in January 2008, you should expect to see a lot of TVs demoed with WirelessHD, a wireless protocol with a lot more bandwidth.

That's the world from John LeMoncheck, president and CEO of SiBeam, the chip company that has devised the spec and will come out with chips based on it. (I spoke to him a few days ago at the AlwaysOn Stanford Summit). Several consumer electronics manufacturers will likely show off TVs and … Read more

LG: Big in Iran

You can't pick up a newspaper these days without reading about ominous signs of political turbulence in Iran. But there is a human side to the country, too.

And that human side wants to watch music videos and clean their floors. That pretty much explains why South Korean electronics giant LG is the primary advertiser on Iran Music, a music video channel out of the country. Three videos go by, and then there's an ad for LG vacuum cleaners, including the robotic vacuum that competes with the Roomba.

Sometimes ads come on for other LG products, but primarily … Read more

Intel CEO sees new markets for growth

Intel's president and chief executive officer Paul Otellini sees cell phones, consumer electronics and emerging markets as the next big engines of growth for Intel.

Speaking at a conference in New York City Thursday, he told financial analysts that he sees three $10 billion chunks of business that Intel could address in the next several years.

The first major opportunity will come from a proliferation of Internet-enabled consumer electronic devices. By 2011, the entire consumer electronics market will be worth $60 billion, he said. Otellini believes that about $10 billion of that market will require technology to connect those … Read more

Study: U.S. adults spend $1,200 a year on electronics

News flash: Americans have money to throw around. And we like to spend it on shiny, new gadgets.

The Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group representing electronics companies, released a study Thursday that shows the average American adult spends $1,200 on electronic gizmos each year. The result is that the average U.S. household has about 25 consumer electronics products each.

Though we're still snatching up CE mainstays like cell phones and cameras, the top growth sectors in the industry are digital video recorders, network routers, MP3 players and cable modems, according to the study. So, though it'… Read more

RIM tells developers to have more fun

BlackBerry is branching out. Beginning Tuesday, Research In Motion will open the BlackBerry platform further by offering developers APIs (application programming interfaces) that allow them to make more interesting lifestyle-oriented applications.

Having customer relationship management software on your smart phone is cool and all, but soon BlackBerry addicts will have access to applications that are far more consumer oriented: apps with embedded audio and video, more location-based services, support for better 3D graphics, and more customizable wallpaper and ringtones.

The new collection of BlackBerry APIs are based on the industry standard Java Micro Edition.

After 10 years, IBM to return to CES

SAN FRANCISCO--IBM will return to the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the first time it's had a presence at the Las Vegas convention in 10 years.

No, don't expect to see a Big Blue-branded digital media player to take on the iPod. Instead, the company will tout lower-level technology that gadget makers can use, such as technology for nearly instantaneous translation of speech into Arabic or Chinese, said Mike Fay, an IBM communications executive, in a gathering here with reporters on Thursday.

IBM makes most of its money selling business-oriented products such as servers and server software as … Read more