Long-odds prediction for the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show: the mobile phone will be the set top box. Expect a prototype that tethers a large screen display to a media-rich smart phone. You walk in the room and your stuff appears on the screen. You will only have one channel and it will be whatever you want to watch, where ever you happen to be.
If someone doesn’t roll it out here in Las Vegas this week, you’ll see it shortly from Apple (which is too hip to hang at CES these days) or at a mobile phone event in someplace like Barcelona or Orlando or San Diego, at the latest.… More
I came in while John Chen, CEO of Sybase was speaking. He talked about how wireless is enabling mobile banking, commerce and philanthropy. Interesting stuff. But the best part was when he set the stage (perhaps unwitting, perhaps not) for the second speaker, Dr. Kristina Johnson, an undersecretary at the U.S. Department of Energy. Chen starting talking about various federal agencies, FCC, FTC etc., and called them the F-words.
When Johnson came up on stage, she didn’t exactly return the compliment, but she didn’t have much to say about wireless telecommunications or the mobile phone industry either.… More
F-Secure doing anti-virus, background app monitoring software for mob phones, downloads & runs just like anti-v for computers #showstoppers
F-Secure supports Android, Windows Mobile, Symbian now, sez iPhone and RIM in process #showstoppers #ctia
The Borg are invading the Enterprise (market), DeviceAnywhere selling racks to imprison phones & software to torture them #showstoppers
DeviceAnywhere hosts 2,000 phones & sells remote access to developers for testing, lashes them into racks like Borg mothership #showstoppers
Now IT depts can build mobile phone daughter ships using DeviceAnywhere racks & test enterprise apps on many phones at once #showstoppers
aisle411 wants to provide shelf by shelf, row by row info on where to find products in big box stores #showstoppers
aisle411 sez they can get 90% accuracy by asking shoppers to update product locations voluntarily, 99% if stores give the info #showstoppers
Pull out your iPhone in HomeDepot & ask for drill bits, scan bar code & get reviews, but won’t do price comparison #showstoppers
Guys might like aisle411 if it cuts shopping time & need to ask directions, not everyone wants to diminish shopping tho #showstoppers
aisle411 will find niche when RFID tagging is ubiquitous in, but conflicted biz model needs happy stores, not happy customers #showstoppers
Seven Networks makes contact, calendar, platform for carriers and OEMs, providing a free MobileMe clone for Samsung #showstoppers
No more guy directions on GPS nav units, Navteq testing “natural guidance” like go through second light & turn at yellow house #showstoppers
Navteq sez it’s directions like friends would give you, OK, but it depends on which friends #showstoppers
OK, Windows via iPad, but please wash
your hands afterwardsKineticD offering free remote access apps for Windoze and Macs, access on iPad & iPhone via RDP & VNC #showstoppers
Remote access suites are free, KineticD uses it to promote paid secure cloud storage, good apps, good marketing, good karma #showstoppers
Still, it’s unnatural to watch someone operate a Windoze machine on an iPad #kineticd #showstoppers
One OS to rule them all, One OS to find them, One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them #showstoppers
Starttalking does Android app that lets you address & write txt messages via voice, with no hands or eyes #showstoppers
StartTalking SMS app is free, will have premium app that does email, Twitter, Facebook, will support iPhone, RIM next year #showstoppers
Millennial Media is an old idea for new media, sells remnant ad inventory from mobile publishers to major brand advertisers #showstoppers
Damaka does mobile video conferencing between 4 users on peer to peer basis – want to stream a live concert to your friends?… More
PlasticLogic promises and deliversPlasticLogic is back with a real product this year, was worth the wait, $649 to $799 for coolest pro-level e-book reader.
PlasticLogic QUE Pro Reader delivers newspapers, displays work documents, has PIM functions, wireless connectivity.
Screen 10.7 inches diagonal, unit 8.5×11 total, wafer thin, light as feather, at top of a crowded category.
Xyxio has breakout potential although it’s a headscratcher at first look, control a computer with your breath.
Xyxio is a technology company, offers means to create devices that are breath controlled and do the same thing as a mouse.… More
“If you like developing for a 3-inch screen, I have a 55-inch screen for you,” challenged Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America, as he invited mobile application developers into the world of television. Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show, he introduced Samsung Apps, a consolidated app store for televisions, mobile phones and Blu-ray players.
You’re welcomeSamsung is a major mobile phone and television manufacturer, with a mobile phone app store already serving subscribers in Europe and Korea.… More
The set top box is on the run, harried away by television manufacturers. Toshiba sounded the hunting horn this morning, unveiling its Cell TV product line. Don’t be fooled by the name, it’s a classic case of branding in a vacuum. It has nothing to do with mobile phones. It’s a computer morphed into a set top box and wrapped with a big screen TV. The set top box is the TV.
Spot the set top boxToshiba calls the chip that powers it the Cell TV Broadband Engine, which was developed in a joint venture with Sony and IBM.… More
CES Unveiled was the usual mob scene. Maybe even more so this year. But its a good first look at what has the buzz and what doesn’t.
Lenovo tablet computer becomes a laptopLenovo was the only computer maker showing a genuine tablet computer at the event. And its a beauty.
It’s really two computers in one. The tablet runs on a mobile processor and has good, basic functionality. It docks into a laptop-like device. In fact, when it’s docked, it is a laptop.… More
ASUS chairman Jonney Shih gambled that he could set a meet-or-beat benchmark with an early Tuesday news conference at the Consumer Electronics Show. Risky strategy, because if he doesn’t have a game-changing announcement, ASUS will end up looking diminished with every comparison made during Wednesday’s wall-to-wall press events.
Didn’t happen. No tablet computer or e-reader or smartphone to announce.
Turns out, the game they’re trying to change is their brand positioning: shift the ASUS brand from representing smaller, cheaper, geekier laptops and netbooks to being a full-on, mainstream portable computer maker, with a design-driven, consumer electronics edge.… More
