CES 2015

The Philips Pronto touchscreen remote control revolutionized what a non-professional programmer could do when it came to customizing their personal controller. User groups traded graphics files, created games, and spent hours tweaking and refining their beloved Prontos. But this venerable remote was discontinued by the manufacturer several years ago, and the Pronto name was all but lost, only to be spoken of in hushed and revered tones.

But, good news, Pronto and iOS lovers! The new Pronto Peel is going to bring some of the love and control back in a new form factor and simple to use way!

First, when you can intersect technology and beer, you are likely never going to go wrong. I have met very few people in this industry that don’t also love a good ale, lager, IPA, Belgian, stout, lambic, or other.

Now, I love craft beer. Like, I love craft beer. In fact I have a separate blog devoted to reviewing the stuff, and I’ve drank/reviewed almost 400 to date. But, I have no real interest in making beer. To me it is too much hassle, too much mess, too much chance for bacteriological contamination ruining the batch, too much chance of crafting gallons of stuff I wouldn’t want to drink. In a way, craft beer is like sausage for me; love to drink it, don’t really want to know how it is made. However the good folks at PicoBrew also love beer, and their new Zymatic fully automatic brewer is just high-tech and awesome enough to make me reconsider my non-brewing ways.

The Alpha VS21 sound base is the first TV sound solution from PSB and therefore the first one to be tweaked by celebrity speaker designer Paul Barton.

If adding a USB DAC to your system would be one box too many, Creek offers one with a CD slot, so you might eliminate the disc player.

While Emotiva's powered speakers and pre-pro aren't new, they did combine to provide one of the few surround demos at the Venetian.

If you buy a whole system from Steinway & Sons, you'll have access to the P200 pre-pro, which handles every conceivable height-enhanced surround format.