Reporters Notebook
TWICE reporters give you a deeper look into their areas of expertise.
When Phones Crossover To Cameras
So when is a phone a camera and a camera a phone? The lines of distinction are becoming harder and harder to discern, and International CES 2012 will make that evident like no other showcase. All over the convention floor attendees will notice cameras, from point-and-shoots to more advanced pro-sumer models, incorporating Wi-Fi connectivity and, in some cases, Android platforms and apps to send im ...... Read More
Comments (1)Aftermarket Autosound As Smartphone Platform
Aftermarket car audio and car-A/V systems have turned into platforms that bring smartphone functionality to the dash, but not just for streaming music from a smartphone through a car stereo system. Companies such as Pioneer, JVC, and Kenwood are connecting smartphones to select multimedia head units to turn the head units into more affordable versions of in-dash navigation systems. These heads dis ...... Read More
Comments (0)Tablets: The Ultimate Crossover Product
If there ever is a vote held to name the official “Jack of all Trades CE Product,” my ballot would be cast for the tablet PC. The tablet is the ultimate crossover tool. A tablet can be a desktop computer, laptop, portable video player, music player, phone, video conferencing device, game console, e-book reader, digital camera and a drink coaster. Although I would be careful with that ...... Read More
Comments (0)Health In The Palm Of Your Hand
By all accounts, the emergence of the smartphone and tablet as tools for mobile computing, and especially the apps that drive them, has started a revolution in healthcare and fitness. Just as consumers discovered 10 years ago that the iPod could enhance their runs or gym workouts, today’s fitness buffs are faced with a rapidly exploding range of apps and sophisticated digital monitoring dev ...... Read More
Comments (0)Video Is Crossing Over With Multiscreens
The notion of “crossover” or shared multifunctionality across traditional product categories has had perhaps the biggest impact on the design of video and TV products since the concept of “convergence” was first tossed about more than a decade ago. But where convergence dealt with the melding of rudimentary PC functionality in a traditional TV set (often not even HDTV s ...... Read More
Comments (0)Audio In A Connected Home
Home audio has logged into the interconnected home, where primary music sources have shifted from standalone CD players, SACD players and AM/FM tuners to networked sources such as PCs, Internet radio, Cloud-base music services, and handheld mobile devices such as iPods and smartphones. This isn’t the first time that home audio has made a new connection. The first was in the early 1980s, whe ...... Read More
Comments (0)Is Amazon’s PriceCheck App A Retailer’s Opportunity?
The recent flap over Amazon’s PriceCheck app has caused a bit of a stir on TWICE’s talkback page, with readers calling the practice everything from unethical to arrogant. Amazon’s deal offered customers a discount if they went to a brick-and-mortar retailer and used Amazon’s PriceCheck app to check out a product in the store, but bought it from Amazon. Amazon was willin ...... Read More
Comments (7)Griffin Giving Away iPads, CES Trip
Griffin Technology’s AppPowered Holiday Sweepstakes is underway, a promotion to highlight the company’s AppPowered line of phone and tablet accessories. Each week through Dec. 15, Griffin will be giving prize packages built around their AppPowered “appcessories.” Prizes include Apple iPad 2s, a Gibson electric guitar, a home theater package and an all-expenses paid ...... Read More
Comments (2)Cord-Cutting Apps May Cost Sports Fans
Call it my suspicious nature or even a glass-half-empty attitude, but I don’t see the nascent brave new world of “cord cutting” fostered by potential new a la carte smart-TV channel apps as the panacea to rising entertainment subscription fees for which some have already started embracing it. In fact, on some content, like high-profile sporting events and blockbuster new movie ...... Read More
Comments (0)Google TV Continues To Change
It was an interesting week for the future of the Google TV platform. In separate public disclosures, Logitech’s chairman and acting CEO Guerrino De Luca told an analysts meeting that the company made a “big mistake” in the way it introduced the then $300 Google TV set-top box called Revue, and wouldn’t be making a second-generation model after current inventories are de ...... Read More
Comments (0)Disc-Based Entertainment Won’t Go Quietly
All the fuss over Netflix’s recent tribulations with disc-rental price increases and the moves by competitors like Dish Network’s Blockbuster unit to capture its disgruntled subscribers (800,000 by last count) has made one thing clear — U.S. consumers are not ready to abandon their disc-based entertainment systems just yet. Prior to announcing the price move and business sepa ...... Read More
Comments (3)Made In The USA Majaps
Electrolux’s construction of new manufacturing and research facilities in Tennessee, and LG’s just-opened R&D center in Illinois, are two more examples of the majap industry’s growing re-investment in America. After moving U.S. production to Mexico, Canada, China and other foreign shores, majap makers led by GE, Haier, Bosch, LG and Electrolux are learning, as GE Appliance ...... Read More
Comments (3)