Blogs
A Year’s Worth Of News In A Week
In the May 5 issue of TWICE, I wrote a column called “Possibly A Memorable Week.” Well, the week of May 12 is definitely...
Post Type blog
Blogs
Will Pioneer Sell Off Its AV Business?
Pioneer hopes to strike a deal by July to divest itself of its A/V business but remain in the car electronics business, which generates...
Blogs
Should Apple Get The Beat …
The Financial Times caused an uproar when it was the first to report that Beats Electronics and Apple are said to be in talks...
Blogs
Through The Years With J&R
It was a Thursday in 1972. I remember it clearly. I was working at a small distributor in Brooklyn when a young couple walked...
Blogs
Strategic Vision In CE Is Needed Now More Than Ever
It’s spring again, and financial reports are coming in from many consumer electronics companies — some of which are reporting higher year-over-year sales and...
Blogs
Smartphones: A Bridge To Digital Life
Mobile is quickly replacing the PC as the preferred means of connecting to the Internet, and the variety and convenience of mobile apps have...
Blogs
Shalam’s Personal Appeal For Immigration Reform
Let me take you back to 66 years ago when my family came to the U.S. from Egypt and I was allowed to remain...
Blogs
Can There Be One App to Control All Appliances?
Just like A/V manufacturers, each appliance maker would like consumers to buy all their appliances from them. And just like A/V manufacturers, appliance makers...
Blogs
Best Buy Gives New Life To A Tired Model
The consumer technology landscape is shifting rapidly. More than ever before, new products are changing the way we interact with our electronics; our electronics...
Blogs
From Hand-Crank Record Players To Wireless Audio
Wireless multi-room audio and high-end audio dominated the news cycle in recent days, but on a recent weekend trip to New York’s state’s Hudson...
Blogs
Has Amazon Met Its Match?
Only two things in life are certain, Benjamin Franklin assured us, and Amazon is quickly coming to terms with one of them. A new...
Blogs
The Sound of Whole House Audio, Minus the Wire
It’s safe to say that the custom installation business is my primary source of income. Looking at it from an entirely self-serving point of...
Blogs
Bluetooth And The Decline Of Civilization
It was in pleasant, civilized San Diego that I got a glimpse of an unpleasant future. It is a future that recalls the decaying...
Blogs
Speakers May Be The Weakest Link Audio Systems
When you’ve been in the audio business for a while, family friends, friends — and even friends of— assume that you know something, or...
Blogs
No Blah, Blah, Blah: An Open Letter To HTC
Dear HTC: I love your phones. Your Evo 3D had a glasses-free 3D display years before Amazon’s rumored handset. Your UltraPixel cameras with Zoe...
Blogs
Aereo’s Founder On ‘Protect My Antenna’ Initiative
Last December, we agreed to the broadcasters’ request to seek review of their claims by the United States Supreme Court. We made that decision...
Blogs
Wearables, ‘Force Fields’ & Calling Balls & Strikes
The baseball season has finally begun, and if you are a fan, you have also begun to experience, once again, the selective calling of...
Blogs
What Could Have Been …
The year is 2000, and I’m 10 years old. I’m mesmerized by the Cybiko. It’s purple, and it has a little antennae and lots...
Blogs
So I Got A Call From Harry …
“STEVE!” The well-known slightly raspy voice tinged with his Brooklyn roots was unmistakable. Harry Elias was calling. The former executive VP/COO of JVC, a...
Blogs
TV Equals Family
More than ever before, I think the television is returning to its roots. I remember my mom telling me stories about how, when the...
Blogs
CU: Time Warner Cable/Comcast Merger Bad For Consumers
Consumers stand to lose out if Comcast and Time Warner Cable are allowed to merge, according to Consumers Union, the policy and advocacy division...
Blogs
The First One Now Could Later Be Last
It is only a matter of time and success rate before competitors re-engineer the functionality of your new product or service, and bring to...
Blogs
Survey: 4K Looks Bright Despite Bandwidth Limitations
With the opening of the National Association of Broadcasters Convention (NAB) next week, Ultra HD TV will be top of mind with many exhibitors...
Blogs
A Clarion Call To Retailers
As if merchants needed another reminder of Amazon’s growing dominance, a new study suggests that most of its customers are bypassing brick-and-mortar altogether. According...
Blogs
Outboarding Hurts All Of Us
I have been involved with the consumer electronics (CE) industry most of my life. Like many of you, I eat, sleep, and drink consumer...
Blogs
HTC One M8 Is A Great Phone, But …
It’s a great phone, better than last year’s version, which was HTC’s best-seller ever. Will the next-generation HTC One (M8),however, win back market share for...
Blogs
When Sears Goes, Who Gets The Spoils?
Janney Montgomery Scott retail analyst David Strasser raised that question today in a research note, with the emphasis on when, rather than if. Based...
Blogs
How A Small Company Can Get Big Results In D.C.
My introduction to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) was through the International CES, which, for many in the tech industry, serves as a yearly...
Blogs
Setting The Record Straight On UHD
On behalf of the manufacturers, retailers and content developers who are members of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), we want to set the record...
Blogs
2ND Annual TWICE VIPs Starts Today
From the “How Fast Time Flies Dept.” is news that nominations are being accepted, beginning today, for TWICE’s second annual VIP Awards program at...
Blogs
Staples: Guilty By Association?
Two major chains in this business both announced financials this week, and some online “pundits” have lumped them together, with their futures being described...
Blogs
Consumer Electronics And The “Always-On Consumer”
Consulting firm Vivaldi Partners recently released a study of the many behaviors of a group they call the “always-on consumer” (or AOC). This study...
Blogs
Dish Disney Deal Swaps Ads For Flexibility
It’s been a busy week so far for Dish Network. On Monday, the satellite-TV provider reached a long-term carriage agreement with The Walt Disney...
Blogs
Will Bricking Smartphones Thwart Theft?
According to industry analyst Gartner, 435 million smartphones were sold worldwide in the second quarter of 2013 alone. Smartphone theft is also on the...
Blogs
Best Buy Adds Dialogue Coaching To Support Services
Oscar nominee Jonah Hill owes Best Buy a huge shout-out, whether or not he wins Best Supporting Actor this weekend. He explained on the...
Blogs
DTS Measures Audio’s Pleasure Potential
“Young Frankenstein” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” come to mind whenever someone talks to me about putting an electrode-embedded headcap on your...
Blogs
‘Share Doesn’t Pay The Bills. Profits Do!’
Whenever my appendages hit the keyboard, this philosophical entity invades my body and out spews idyllic ideas. I’m thinking about manufacturers caught in this...
Blogs
Pssst … You Are Not Alone
Last week while watching the new Google Glass gaming ad, I had a frightening premonition. I could see myself on a train sitting next...
Blogs
Sony Offers Unique Look At A World In Miniature
Northlandz is a model-train mecca in suburban Flemington, N.J., that has delighted my two young sons for years. Now almost 10 and 8 years...
Blogs
CE/Majaps Sales? The Glass Is Half Full, With Snow
So, when is a report on lower monthly CE and major appliance sales not necessarily bad news? When it is weather related is my...
Blogs
No Carrier Price Wars?
No price war among carriers? That was the conclusion of one carrier executive during a recent investors’ conference call. But I’m not so sure....
Blogs
It’s a Sad Day for the PC Industry
Sony announced today that it is shutting down its worldwide PC business and selling it off to a Japanese investment firm that will maintain...