Immerse Yourself in Emerging Media: A Look at Hot New Products

amp160About a week ago I attended a presentation at my agency given by editors of Popular Science magazine They had just attended the Consumer Electronics Show and seen some amazing new things things that will effect and change the way we reach out to consumers things we need to know about BEFORE they arrive amp160So they put together a presentationdemonstration of some of the neatest new items Each has been designed to meet one central need Mobility Consumers no longer want to be tied to their living rooms to hear music or view entertainment They wonamp8217t tolerate being tied to a landline to communicate with others We all want to connect view listen be entertained anywhere anytime on our schedule and on our terms amp160I got a chance to take a glimpse into the future and see hear and touch some of the productsamp160The Medis Fuel Cell 50 is a 247 power pack that will keep any handheld device iPod laptop etc running when a plugin is nowhere to be had These power packs provide enough juice to keep the average cell phone running for 30 hours or an iPod stoked for 6080 hoursamp160The Meraki Mini 50 and promises to bring whole communities together This wireless router can allow a city block or a whole village to share the same internet connection Just one Mini will create an entire WiFi network around the single Internet connection Add a second one within 150 feet and it can pick up and amplify the original signal so that everyone who hooks in gets the same signal strength as the originator The editor giving this presentation gave an example of the Miniamp8217s potential from his own experience He lives in a newly gentrifying part of NYC that still has a great deal of crime His neighborhood organization wanted to communicate to its members via email in order to work toward cleaning up the hood but they soon learned that many of the earlier residents didnamp8217t have Internet access With just a few Minis he can help link everyone in his neighborhood new and old online Thatamp8217s 50 very very well spent amp160The Phoenix WiFi Radio ComOne 249 looks like the radio Grandma used to have sitting on her kitchen counter It is so much more This product allows you to listen to Internetbased content such as radio stations streaming online broadcasts and podcasts without having to sign on to a computer and going online All you need is a broadband connection and youamp8217re good to go This radio is also battery powered so itamp8217s fully portable and never needs a computer interface It also has integrated stereo speakers Because it looks acts and is used by the consumer just as they would a radio itamp8217s ideal for those less techsavvy amp160My favorites from the presentation were of course those things that made TV watching better easier or more portable The Verizon VCast Mobile Network allows you to watch live TV in real time on your cell phone While I loved the idea of being able to whip out the cell and watch Young and Restless during my lunch hour I amp8216m still not sure I would enjoy watching even my favorite programs on my teeny tiny cell phone display To battle that problem Popular Science tells us that some manufacturers like Texas Instruments and others already are working on palm sized projectors that would free that TV picture from that little screen and allow the user to project that program on a screen a wall or wherever amp160The highest ticket item was the Sony OLED XEL1 an 11inch ultrathin television 3 mm that also presents the most brilliant sharp HD picture youamp8217ve ever seen This baby sells for 2500 and is a bit small for my taste especially at that price But man what a picture Letamp8217s hope they can bring that technology to larger screens at lower prices soonamp160At many of these types of agency presentations the presenters will do a drawing at the end to encourage people to come and to stay as well as to make sure we all bring our business cards The prize at this presentation was a SlingBox which helps turn any Internetconnected PC or laptop into your home TV The Slingbox sends whatever your cable box TiVo or Direct TV HDDVR receives to any computer anywhere in the world You can also control your home TV from that computer so if you find youamp8217ve gone to work and forgotten to set your TiVo to catch Oprah Slingbox has got you covered The lucky winner of the Chicago presentationamp8217s SlingBox was ME And I canamp8217t wait to hook it up and let it rip amp160Make sure you take some time to catch this presentation when Popular Science brings it to your town They will be presenting in NYC from now through April 17 at OMD McCann PHD Carat MediaEdge and Initiative in LA on April 2829 at Initiative Saatchi and RPA and on May 19 in Detroit at CampbellEwald They also plan to come back to Chicago and head to Minneapolis and San Francisco later in the spring or summer

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Immerse Yourself in Emerging Media: A Look at Hot New Products

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MAREN YESKA

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

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Immerse Yourself in Emerging Media: A Look at Hot New Products

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