A quick web search of items before their time will provide a long list of gadgets and machines rejected by our predecessors which are now shaping our future. For example, Apple’s Newton was considered a flop when released in 1993, but upon close inspection it strongly resembles the highly popular iPads of today.
Christmas morning probably saw more than a few gift recipients searching fruitlessly for just one more HDMI port behind the television. High-Definition Multimedia Interface cables have quickly become the standard for connecting all audio/visual equipment to our televisions, but with everything from your cable box to your PlayStation to your BluRay player to that new streaming media device you found under the tree all vying for one of those precious ports, how do you deal with a lack of them?
You have several options at your disposal when trying to detect, diagnose and resolve network problems. Listed below are the basic troubleshooting tips that you can go through to eliminate hours without Internet connectivity. However, the most serious of problems need to be solved by a network technician, but you can avoid technicians if you follow the steps listed below.
Hundreds of vendors fly to Las Vegas each year. Some skip out on one year and others are regulars. It is impossible to visit each and every booth in four days, but the biggest names cannot be missed. Everyone needs to know what they will roll out later in the year and what new technology will revolutionize the way we live. Here is a look back on some of the biggest booths at CES 2015.
Remember the popular IBM commercial from back in 2000, where actor Avery Brooks acknowledges the pivotal year as the century turns and questions the availability and absence of flying cars, saying we were promised this futuristic invention, looking around the roadways and stating, “I don’t see any flying cars.”
If you look around, there are several large name brands that are moving forward and away from your traditional headphone/earbud design. Brands such as Panasonic and Aftershokz both have some type of listening wear making use of bone conduction. One would think that with all of the financial resources they have at hand, they’d have a more audible product. Luckily for everyone, Cynaps is working to take the mobile audio market by storm. Especially for those who find customization important.
Most businesses have developed an intense focus on issues related to security. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering the stories that have hit the headlines revealing large security breaches at major corporations like Sony, Target and Home Depot. At the same time, many organizations have made great strides in adopting bring your own device (BYOD) policies, allowing employees greater freedom in using their own devices while at work. These two trends, while seemingly unrelated, are actually closely intertwined.
The OnAir box is a clever little device that enables music lovers to turn existing stereos and TVs into connected devices to create a true multi-room music listening experience. From what we’ve seen, not only does it provide simplicity of use, but also delivers a great design while offering a great user experience without the need to upload a single file to the cloud.
So how have Chet and Belkin remained largely undetected by the Silicon Beach spotlight? Some would say the best way to hide something is in plain sight. But we would be missing the point entirely by focusing on the how, when the real question we should be asking is…why?
Virtual reality has always fascinated me. As a designer by trade, I have always loved different visual experiences. There have been many companies over the last few decades that have tried to do something in this space but these products have not really taken off. I had the pleasure of playing with a developer preview of the Oculus Rift over the weekend. There is still a ways to go before it is ready for daily consumer use, but give it a year or so and it could be part of your weekly gaming and/or web surfing experience.
