Reporter’s Notebook

Victorinox Swiss Army will be running a contest at International CES that challenges attendees to break into or bypass its data encryption and fingerprint-authentication...

I have attended about 130 trade shows and association gatherings over the years, not including events hosted by suppliers for their dealers. During that...

A notable news item slipped through the cracks this week amid the healthcare reform fracas and pre-holiday hubbub. Sol Price, founder of Price Club...

Griffin Technology is taking a page from Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in anticipation of International CES.A team of employees of the CE...

Probably the most uniquely New York-centric CE retailer around is J&R Music and Computer World in downtown Manhattan. Its “single” superstore, which opened in...

Slate’s Daniel Engber almost comes to the conclusion in this Slate article that cellphone cases and covers are a waste of money. He draws...

The morning after Thanksgiving my sister-in-law Mary Esquenazi-Wolf joined an estimated 175 million shoppers in that uniquely American ritual known as Black Friday. As...

Black Friday tip sheets, month-long sales and retailers’ own pre-weekend postings could spell the end of Thanksgiving shopping as we know it. In an...

As you might expect, a few retailers that depend on selling big-screen TVs for a living weren’t exactly all warm and fuzzy with the...

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) fired off a very interesting ex parte letter to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) last week is response to...

We’re hesitant to cite Black Friday sale prices, which a handful of Web sites have leaked over the last several years. For one thing,...

In January 2007 I wrote a blog called I Want My Downloadable Movies. While this dream is coming closer to reality due to better...

As I have said before in this forum, CE companies seem to save their best ads for consumers outside the U.S. The latest example...

Although some colleges are embracing the Kindle as a study tool, at least two universities are rejecting the device because they believe it discriminates...

Cheers to Sirius XM Radio for launching an aggressive ad campaign on Nov. 15. Retailers would have preferred to see it a year earlier,...

The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) proposed energy consumption guidelines for flat-panel TVs should raise some disturbing questions for anyone interested in the evolution of...

For most retailers, the e-Reader market presents short-term and long-term challenges despite bullish sales projections from Wall Street analysts. As editor Amy Gilroy pointed...

If you were one of the 50,000 or so fans at Game 1 of the World Series on Sunday in The Bronx, or knew...

Burger King Japan and Microsoft have teamed up for an unusual cross-promotion this week. Behold the Windows 7 Whopper.Measuring 5.1 inches in diameter, the...

Highlighting another hit product most consumer electronics retailers won’t be selling this Christmas, Amazon.com announced its Kindle e-reader is its No. 1 selling product...

Former Directed Electronics CEO and Consumer Electronics Association chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has been in the news of late and he has not...

New York is the city that never sleeps, so it is entirely appropriate that Best Buy chose the Big Apple for its first 24-hour...

The following statement was issued today by Monster Cable: “It is with great sadness that Monster announces the passing of Daniel Graham, who succumbed...

The New York Times has an article about Disney’s planned overhaul of its retail stores with the help of Apple’s Steve Jobs. “It’s time...

Back in my day, the jocks and the techies-A/V squad guys rarely had a topic that both could talk about, but it seems that...

As iRex Technologies, a spinoff of Royal Philips, unveiled its $399 wireless Kindle rival Wednesday at the N.Y. Historical Society, the elephant in the...

Registration for Shure’s sixth annual “Fantastic Scholastic” student recording competition is running now through Oct. 19. The competition is open to high school and...

Ready or not, a new era of 3-D 1080p (for each eye) high-definition video for the home is just around the corner. Executives from...

Executives from Nortek Holdings and its residential custom-install companies won’t pick up the phone to answer some basic questions about Nortek’s debt restructuring, which...

Wireless multiroom audio, wireless data networking, and wireless home-automation control are facts of life for systems integrators. And the development of wireless multiroom-video distribution...

While TWICE covers Mitsubishi’s audio and video products, the company is involved in other projects that are, or will be, literally out of this...

You can now track the swine flu epidemic in real time, thanks to “Outbreaks Near Me,” a new iPhone app. The app was reportedly...

Part of the joy of moving (insert sarcasm here) is discovering things that have been tucked away in your closet for years. In my...

Typing out a text message while driving is incredibly dangerous, but NASA and other space enthusiasts don’t think sending text messages to an alien...

Bob Dylan’s voice may soon be coming to you from your GPS system. According to a blurb in the N.Y. Daily News, Dylan is...

Should members of the Mobile Enhancement Retailers’ Association (MERA) – the car stereo industry’s version of CEDIA – vote in favor of InstallerNet’s bid...

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is laying the groundwork to take on Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in 2010.According to a story today in the...

Hollywood gets its inspiration, or lack thereof, for new television shows from a variety of sources; however, I never expected a writer’s muse to...

With iPhone activations showing no signs of slowing down, accessory manufacturers have been quick to jump on the bandwagon with a host of add-ons...

A pair of music artists has released what it’s hailing as the “first album of original music composed and recorded entirely on an iPhone.”...

The custom-install industry, like the rest of the economy, is showing signs of life, but no one expects a hockey-stick growth curve. In fact,...