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CES 2014 – The Year of the…? (Insert Your Favorite Gadget Here)

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Photo of CEA/CES logoWhen I was little, I came home from school one day, excited to tell my mother about all my new friends. One-by-one, I named each of them, calling each one “my best friend.” When I finished, I’ll never forget what she said. “If they’re ALL your best friend, then you don’t have a BEST friend.”

The Consumer Electronics industry over the last few years and continuing into this year – has fallen into a troubling state of highly fragmented technology trends. It is in this environment – the absence of any clearly defined, overall technology trend – Gary Shapiro and the CEA try to field their annual technology exposition known as the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).

So what was the big tech innovation at CES?…Well, it’s complicated… [Read more…] about CES 2014 – The Year of the…? (Insert Your Favorite Gadget Here)

Gibson Brands Goes ‘Back to the Future’ to Celebrate 120 Years

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Photo of Gibson CES Promo

Gibson Brands took advantage of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to make a bit of a show of their own to celebrate 120 years in business. The company, which serves up 23 different brands of musical instruments, professional audio products and, more recently, consumer electronics products, chose a unique way to mark the occasion by going “Back to the Future.”

See more on how Gibson chose to celebrate their 120-year anniversary… [Read more…] about Gibson Brands Goes ‘Back to the Future’ to Celebrate 120 Years

Amazing! Sony CEO Admits Company Failings – Says ‘Wow’ is Future

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Photo of Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai
Kazuo Hirai, Sony CEO

Sony’s CEO Kazuo Hirai gave a relatively compelling keynote presentation that was in stark contrast to their rather dry Mike Fasulo and unemotional press conference. Not only was Hirai dynamic and at times, emotional even – he competently and capably articulated a new and strong vision for the company based on the Japanese word “kando” and the English word “wow.”

See the surprising twist in the Sony CEO’s presentation…including a moment that NO other Sony CEO would ever dare to try…admitting past product failures… [Read more…] about Amazing! Sony CEO Admits Company Failings – Says ‘Wow’ is Future

HiFiMan Lauches Two New Digital Music Players at CES

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Photo of HiFiMAN 802 digital music player
HiFiMAN HM-802

HiFiMan is an independent manufacturer of a variety of largely high-performance audio products. We first met the company two years ago at CES, and were amused and impressed with company founder Dr. Fang Bian. Bian is an enthusiastic lover of high quality music and created some superior digital media players and headphones to better reproduce it. Serious, but sincere, Bian’s company has launched two new interesting digital music players – one offering “reference” level performance…and the other a more affordable option for the music lover on a budget.

See more on these interesting new products from a digital audiophile company… [Read more…] about HiFiMan Lauches Two New Digital Music Players at CES

GoldenEar Continues Line Expansion, Launches New Triton One Flagship Speaker at CES

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GoldenEar logoGoldenEar Technology is one of specialty audio’s success stories, launching only a few short years ago, in late 2010. Many industry insiders told us at that time that the industry had no room for yet another loudspeaker line. And yet, since GoldenEar launched, we’ve heard nothing but accolades from industry reviewers…and more importantly, dealers. We’ve also watched their dealer network, and their product line-up, continue to grow.

Now GoldenEar’s Sandy Gross has launched a new flagship model called the Triton One… [Read more…] about GoldenEar Continues Line Expansion, Launches New Triton One Flagship Speaker at CES

At CES: Samsung Shifts Emphasis from Smart TVs to Smart Home

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Photo of Samsung's Curved TV UnveilingSamsung’s press day conference was the most unusual we’ve seen with everything from a product that caused an audible gasp of amazement from the crowd…to one of their celebrity presenters running from the stage in mid-presentation. But we believe we detected a subtle but significant shift with their TV business being less prominent and more in balance with the company’s other products such as their appliance, computer, and mobile businesses.

See more on our initial impressions of Samsung below… [Read more…] about At CES: Samsung Shifts Emphasis from Smart TVs to Smart Home

Panasonic Gives the Back Seat to Consumers, at the Consumer Electronics Show

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Photo from Panasonic Press ConferenceOne of the bigger surprises on Press Day (the day before the show opens) at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was the Panasonic press conference. We were quite surprised when Panasonic opened their press conference at the consumer electronics show, talking at length about their non-consumer businesses.

Their official tag line at the event…Panasonic A Better Life. A Better World…seemed very generic and not particularly entertainment linked. But the more interesting tag phrase that we heard several times throughout the presentation was – Panasonic is more than a TV company…seemed to suggest that the company was distancing itself from its consumer TV business. Or at least, re-prioritizing their business segments as they spent the first several minutes of their presentation talking government, security, and commercial applications for Panasonic technology.

See more from this surprising Panasonic presentation… [Read more…] about Panasonic Gives the Back Seat to Consumers, at the Consumer Electronics Show

CES Opens to Press and Already…A Couple of Surprises

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Photo of CEA/CES logoPress Day at CES is – to put it mildly – a bit of a grind. A seemingly never-ending series of scheduled press presentations that are scheduled one hour apart so the press can run from one supposedly 45-minute (of course they all run long) event to the next. The hallways often look more like a mosh pit as reporters, bloggers, and editors push, shove, and elbow their way to the next presentation hoping to get a seat close enough that the presenters don’t look like ants.

It’s easy to become jaded, as one sits through slickly produced, Hollywood-style presentation after another. Rarely, do we get surprised.

But this time…we got a couple of surprises… [Read more…] about CES Opens to Press and Already…A Couple of Surprises

Energy Squad Says Dealers Found ‘LED Diet’ Training Quite Fulfilling

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The Energy Squad logoEnergy Squad, LLC, a distributor exclusively focused on offering energy-efficient or “green” technology products nationally, announced today that earlier this month it had completed its first round of dealer training on their “LED Diet” program – a solution first announced at this past CEDIA Expo. For this first 2½-day intensive training, the company brought in dealers from all across the United States who were interested in learning how Energy Squad’s LED Diet program could help make their customer’s energy usage lean – while making their integrators’ profits fat.

See more on how Energy Squad customers are putting their clients on an LED Diet… [Read more…] about Energy Squad Says Dealers Found ‘LED Diet’ Training Quite Fulfilling

Easy Access Distribution Says 14th Annual Dealer Event a Huge Success

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Easy Access Distribution logoEasy Access Distributing announced last week that their dealer event held last month, called the Emerging Technologies & Home Awareness Expo was a huge success. Held at the Courtyard by Marriott in Billerica, Massachusetts, the company said the event drew an attendance of 170 area integrators over two days.

See more about this large area event… [Read more…] about Easy Access Distribution Says 14th Annual Dealer Event a Huge Success