CES 2016

Netflix Co-founder and Chief Executive Reed Hastings joined Consumer Technology Association President Gary Shapiro in the opening Keynote of CES 2016 to discuss the history of TV from three broadcast networks to pay TV and VCRs to DVRs and now streaming. The emphasis was that we are moving toward what people want from TV—being able to watch anything we want, anywhere we want—and ended with an announcement that Netflix is now making that happen globally.

We got a back-room briefing and did a little nit-picking on the technology behind Samsung's 2016 SUHD TVs. Here's what we learned...

It may be next fall before we see TCL’s premier Xclusive X1 Series. The largest is the 65-inch model shown here. No prices were offered as yet (projected retail prices were, in general, in short supply at the show)...

Like many demos CES, this 2.35:1 (21x9) “scope” curved LCD widescreen Ultra HD design was likely brought in to test its commercial viability with the army of retailers who attend CES. According to the information I received, however, TCL (a Chinese company) does plan to distribute it in Hong Kong, at least initially...

Parent company Invoxia calls Triby “the next generation voice-controlled speaker for the kitchen”, which is a relatively boring, generic description for a device that is much more exciting than that tag line makes it seem to be. And now that Triby is “the first third-party device to announce integration with the Amazon Alexa Voice Service” it’s even more exciting.

Andrew Jones speaker demos have been reliable crowdpleasers at CESes going back many years. Having decamped from TAD and Pioneer to the German company ELAC, he continues to impress.