Tech2

Ford hosted a bunch of non-car journalist and blogger types in Dearborn for a conference where the talk was about pretty much everything but the cars themselves.

Instead, the focus was on technology. It was a pretty cool event, the most fascinating part for us Sound+Vision folks being the push for more user-friendly in-car communications and entertainment.

Talk to your car, and have it talk back, after the jump.

It seems a growing number of people - or at least a growing number of op-ed contributors - have latched onto the idea that technology is bad, scary, and limiting our lives to ones and zeros. "The Flight From Conversation" and "The 'Busy' Trap" being two notable examples. It's something that Nathan Jurgenson calls "The IRL Fetish" (thanks Brian Lam of The Wirecutter for the link).

Jurgenson breaks down the idea better than I can. What I want to do is present the other side. I want to voice my strong and eternal support for the wonder that is the modern connected life.

Because, dammit, it's awesome.

I like writing about tablets about as much as I like getting kicked in the privates, but when big companies announce big dumb things, I feel obliged to cover it. Last week it was Microsoft, with their could-be-awesome-but-probably-won't-be Surface tablet. This week it's Google and the Nexus 7 (and the Q streamer). As usual, the lazy tech writers made hyperbolic comparisons, claiming it a Kindle Fire "killer" and... oh WTF IT'S THE CONTENT.

The annoying thing about Internet-connected smart TVs? Accessing the smarts usually costs you bucks. Probably 95% of the streaming Internet video I watch on my Samsung flat-panel is Netflix ($7.99 a month) or Vudu (usually $4.99 per movie for 720p high-def).

I recently got back from three weeks camping/backpacking in South Africa. For anyone who knows me, my using those verbs in the same sentence as “I” will be rather shocking.

Only sporadically near power, and often on the go, I was, with some careful preparation (and ongoing trial and error), able to use my iPod, watch TV shows and videos, and take over 2,000 photos, all without tech incident.

So with the summer travel season upon us, follow these tips and don’t miss a photo, track, or clip.

If what I heard today is any indication, Kodak’s decline may be Hollywood’s gain. When Kodak dropped the naming rights to the famous theater used to host the Academy Awards, Dolby picked them up — and gave the theater a first-class technical makeover.