Digital Bling

Broadcom CEO Scott McGregor recently posed the question to Electronic News: If you only had an hour at the Consumer Electronics Show, what would you do? When this question was passed along to me, I chuckled and said, “You try to get in the building.”

Unless you’re new to this industry, you know how massive the annual January event is. Last year’s event attendance topped 150,000, making it the largest trade show in the United States and one of the largest across the globe. This year, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), CES’ host organization, is expecting even more techies to swarm the Las Vegas airport and has expanded its presence to accommodate the additional attendees and exhibitors. Instead of staying confined to the Las Veg...Read More

The term Black Friday in theory refers to the day retailers go from the red to the black. But for myself and many other people, the “black” in Black Friday refers to the pitch black early morning sky that greets us as we crawl out of bed at 4 am to hit the 5 am sales, hoping to save a few bucks and some time during the rushed holiday season.

So why do I do this? Am I so cheap that the idea of saving $10 on a $30 sweater draws me out of my warm and cozy bed? No, in fact I could care less about the clothing deals.

I’ve been doing this for the last three Thanksgiving weekends and each year it has been for the same reason: to get out there and get whatever electronics my loved ones want and to be done with it.

My annual experience has taught me to avoid spec...Read More

November always disappointments me. While there is never a long line to vote, there is always a long line -- one that forms days before release -- for the hot holiday gift. So far this year, that appears to be the PS3.

I took a trip to Circuit City Wednesday night to buy my husband a birthday present (the Tivo 80-hour Series 2 DVR DT) and found the store front mobbed with customers intent on buying a PS3 when the gaming console hits shelves Friday. The line was a good 30 people deep, full of tents and portable heaters, the occasional guitar and more McDonald’s wrappers scattered on the ground than on the side of the Jersey Turnpike.

But here’s the rub. The ones I spoke to, students mostly, bundled up for the rainy November weather here in New York, weren’t there to buy a PS3 for their frat houses. They were looking to make some cash. The plan w...Read More

Broadcom is looking to leverage its success in the set top box (STB) market as it moves more into the next-generation DVD market. The company today unveiled an SoC that integrates both Blu-ray and HD DVD optical disc formats in a universal single chip.

The idea here is that instead of forcing drive manufacturers to choose between the two competing blue-laser DVD formats, Broadcom wants to provide a cost-effective chip that handles both, allowing manufacturers to buy in bulk, and promoting universal player end products, so consumers can switch back and forth between the competing media.

Once expected to be a big seller this holiday season, the high-def DVD players have barely made a dent in the market and remain a high-priced early adopter technology...Read More

It’s that time of year again. Halloween has passed, the holiday toy ads are starting to run on TV, and as of Wednesday it was open season for 2007 Consumer Electronic Show press invites.

Indeed, CES is right around the corner. I’ve received more than a dozen inquires so far and the 2007 International CES New York Press Preview is just next week.

I’ve always had mixed feelings about CES. It’s a mammoth show -- the largest trade event in the United States and one of the largest trade events in the world -- that brings together all aspects of CE, but is very difficult to navigate based on its size. CES 2006 according to the event’s host, the Consumer Electronics Association, drew a record crowd of 152,203 industry professionals, with 2,700 exhibitors in a record 1.69 milli...Read More

A new industry group emerged today that could pose a threat to the 802.11n and ultrawideband camps, but at this point there isn’t enough information being released to tell if how serious a threat it will be.

LG Electronics, Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic), NEC, Samsung Electronics, SiBeam, Sony and Toshiba today announced WirelessHD, an organization that aims to develop a specification for a wireless high-definition digital interface, intended to allow high-definition audio video streaming and high-speed content transmission for CE devices -- one of the main goals of both 802.11n WLAN and UWB.

But the joint release, found on the WirelessHD Web site, lacks some important information. It’s wh...Read More

There are conflicting reports swirling around about how this holiday season will turn out for the consumer electronics market. iSuppli this week reported that product delays, competing standards and inventory shortages will hamper the season’s usual celebration for the industry, as Santa’s sack will lack one “killer app.” Meanwhile, the Consumer Electronics Association has said that the season will reach record sales for CE products, with CE gifts expected to account for a quarter of all gifts with revenues reaching $21 billion this holiday season, compared to $17 billion, or 21 percent, in 2005.

I don’t think either report is entirely correct. What will guide this holiday’s shop...Read More

It’s official. AMD has merged its company with ATI Technologies through a $5.4 billion acquisition.

The new supercharged AMD made the announcement this morning, promoting its new Fusion initiative, a plan that will see AMD marry its CPU expertise with ATI’s GPU expertise in the x86 realm. AMD’s first target with Fusion seems to be the PC space. Indeed, AMD heavily peppered its release with the term “Vista,” Microsoft’s upcoming operating system. This is hardly surprising considering the advances AMD has made with PC makers in recent months, including a very noteworthy deal with Dell for PC space and words from the company...Read More

Motorola may be calling its $3.9 billion purchase of Symbol Technologies an enterprise move, but overtime we’ll see the combined force look to the consumer communications side.

Moto, one of the strongest names in wireless and mobile, will make the Holtsville, N.Y.-based company a wholly owned subsidiary and the cornerstone of its networks and enterprise business.

And with the purchase of Symbol -- by the way, its most costly acquisition since 2000 when Moto shelled out $17 billion for set-top-box maker General Instruments -- Moto gains all of Symbol’s RFID, mobile computing, data capture, wireless infrastructure and mobility management expertise.

Symbol is best known for its handheld scanners with integrated RFID to track goods and mostly runs with the manufa...Read More

Whenever I turn on the TV lately, “Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith” is on. It’s unavoidable. I’m not a Star Wars fan, but I find myself compelled to watch it over and over again.

In the same manner, whenever I open a tech pub or surf my usual sites, stories on Microsoft’s Zune portable MP3/media device can’t be avoided. Indeed, Electronic News is running one today about Toshiba’s involvement, which is a little odd as Toshiba has its own Gigabeat line. In essence, Toshiba is producing a product that will challenge itself. Of course, Zune won’t be chasing after Gigabeat’s market share. Dubbed “The...Read More

Air travel has always been something to be more endured than enjoyed, and it just got worse. Airlines and airports are taking extra precautions with our favorite portable devices and we could soon be forced to check things like our laptops, iPods and cell phones when flying.

This comes after British security agents uncovered liquid explosives that could have be triggered by an electronic signal. So far the United States has banned liquids and gels on flights, with some exceptions like small doses of medications. For flights to and from Britain, however, no portable devices can be carried on.

The U.S.’s official statement right now is that flights within the 50 states will allow you to carry on such devices. And while the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has lowered the nation...Read More

Intel is hoping it can repeat history. The company’s major investments in WLAN through its Centrino line – investments not only in technology, but in partnerships, marketing, advertising, etc. – a few years back helped put the 802.11 family of products on the map. While there were other companies with 802.11 technology out before it, those companies were happy to see Intel join the playing field, if only for the weighty influence it would give to the wireless space.
 
Now it looks like Intel is tossing its weight in again, this time to WiMAX’s benefit. Rumors have swirled that Intel was looking to sidestep WiMAX and continue solely down the WLAN path, dumping its WiMAX efforts as it continues it reorganization. Its $600 million investment in Wi...Read More

I’m probably one of the few people on this planet who could care less about the World Cup. I’m not a soccer, or football, fan. (Thanks to ENews Production Editor Laura Klemba and Contributing Editor Colleen Taylor for helping with the soccer terminology in Will Mobile TV Make Its Goal?) But I do have to admit, the Cup is having its affect on the consumer electronics industry. The U.K. has reported higher sales of digital radios because of it and a survey of companies there concluded that businesses even expected the game to raise morale (some even planned on bringing TVs into the o...Read More

Apple has found a worm in its stock options practices and has taken it upon itself to remove it. The company has started its own investigation into its stock option granting practices, even checking into Steve Jobs’ history. Smart move. It was only a matter of time until the government and company stockholders moved on to it. Really, how much more can KLA-Tencor or Altera be chewed out? We’ve run out of ways to say “SEC Investigates” and “Shareholders Sue” in headlines. What was really interesting for me to see today, however, was the description of Apple as a company as stories poured into online media outlets. Most publications, inc...Read More

Spansion announced this week that it has grouped a security controller IC with flash and SRAM on a multi-chip-package to offer the mobile handset market an extra level of protection against thieves. And that’s cool, but there are a whole slew of cell phone security options out there that the industry just hasn’t latched on to yet. Biometrics, specifically fingerprint scanning, is at the top of the list as an easy and affective way to ward off thieves. The technology is starting to catch on in laptops, but hasn’t moved far beyond that. Biometrics is a field I’m personally hoping will grow by leaps and bounds in the coming years, for two reasons. Fi...Read More