CES Preview: The Walled Garden Is on Its Way Back!

If you are going to CES in Lost Wages just look at how many companies are hoping to get in the way of an open Internet againamp160For the record Iamp8217m not going to be there Iamp8217m in Pagosa Springs skiing at Wolf Creek Colorado Twentysix years in a row at CES was more than enoughSamsung has a amp8220smarterthanaverageamp8221 television it hopes is the new central and closed system for your homeAmazon got there first though with the Echo in my living roomamp160 Alexa is my new favorite personal assistantamp160 More useful than Siri if my iPhone isnamp8217t in my hand amp8230 or Cortana amp8230 or Google Now amp8230 or Jarvis amp8230 or amp8230 however many new ones will be at the Las Vegas Convention CenterAlexaamp8217s Svengali thatamp8217s Amazon personified tells me about something new it can connect to and monitor almost every weekamp160 Control my thermostatamp160 Checkamp160 Control my blindsamp160 Checkamp160 Control my refrigerator microwave stove et alamp160 Check Watch the weatheramp160 Check Monitor traffic Check Tell me a Trump joke Check Tell me a really bad knockknock joke Check Let me order right from Amazon by voice Checkamp160 Make certain I stay Prime CheckAmazon is moving quickly to be the first to make sure my house is an Amazon SuperPrime house and nothing elseBut you might note this has been tried before Prodigy originally Trintex Aol et al had previous flings at keeping us locked in a unique ecosystemamp160 It didnamp8217t work Aol even tried to just be an Internet portal That didnamp8217t work eitherMaybe one of the new Internet of Things startups will try the Mozilla path of open sourcing with open sesames to all your electronicdigital devices regardless of their parentageamp160 But walling you in a la Amazon is so much nicer for the waller if not necessarily the walleeSo amp8230 look around the CES tech overload Does it signal the dawn of Samsung neighborhoodsamp160 Or culdesacs that donamp8217t allow Appleamp160 Will Google fiber cities evolve into Googleonly citiesamp160 Then how soon will Alphabet allow Google to run WiFi off every fiber amplifier and connection in every Google cityThink of your future as tiny sensors with alwayson WiFi watching more things in your home than the settop boxes recording and reporting back what channel or OTT service you might be watching amp8230 with of course facialrecognition software behind cameras embedded in whatever device youamp8217re watching making sure to get the demographics and numbers right as it reports back to ratings centralBut heyamp160 If you wear an Apple watch connected to every beat of your heart and part of your body and Apple keeps relentlessly innovating so that all your iPhone can do gets smaller and smaller and smaller and sensors are everywhere on your body and everywhere in your home amp8230 well the only decision youamp8217ll ever have to make is which device to watchcommunicatemonitorlisten to or whatever because they will all be interconnected and awake all the time amp8230 and watching you tooThe Internet of Things just might be the next big step in the rise of the machinesamp160 John Connor is truly dead and buriedamp160 Just kiddingHappy New Year Enjoy CES And donamp8217t worry next yearamp8217s show will be even biggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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CES Preview: The Walled Garden Is on Its Way Back!

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Paul S. Maxwell

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