4K TV

Sony previewed an ultra-short throw projector called "Life Space UX" – producing a 147” display in native 4K. Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai took the strange opportunity to call on Sony employees to create products with a "wow" factor, calling for a "One Sony" ethos. "No more commodity products ... no more just good enough products. We must and we can do better. These products must be fantastic objects that engage all of our senses."

Sony’s new 4K X9 range – 55, 65, 79” - was impressive with a bold wedge shape to incorporate a larger set of speakers. Screen contrast range has increased by 200%.

Sharp showed its Aquos Q-line 60 and 70” range – what can I say except that Sharp makes good gear and that it added ’10 million sub-pixels’ [to its HD screens]. Sharp is not as bullish about 4K take up and will continue to develop HD and 4K TVs concurrently.

ZTE showed a portable combined Wi-Fi hotspot and projector. This shows the convergence of devices – the 1080p projector runs Android and has HDMI and Wi-Fi to communicate with data sources – the same chip can transmit as well. Watch out for ZTE – it is breaking out of the manufacturing mold to become a designer. It also makes smartphones and showed off the Eco-Mobius modular smartphone – replaceable ram, storage, camera and other modules.

Kogan previewed its 55” 4K TV for AU$999. iTWire commented yesterday that 4K was still a long way off being a viable resolution due to lack of native content and large file sizes. HD TV would look better with 4K up scaling for sure.

What Kogan has proven is the embodiment of Moore’s law – technology gets faster, cheaper and better. For fear of proselyting (attempting to sway someone to my opinion) memory, storage, processor power, graphics power all cost the much the same to produce as their predecessors – often less as economies of scale kick in - as evidenced by Apple squeezing every last bit of life out of its iPhone 4/5 chassis design.

Progress and change costs money - research and design of the new silicon, and the retooling to change the product. Early adopters and big brand users always pay much more. Then market forces and economics (push/pull/demand/supply strategies) kick in to influence sustainable pricing.

It is no surprise that Kogan, a low overhead, online operation, can cut out some of the supply chain and bring generic, technically competent, bland, products to market. I could not have put it better than CEO Ruslan Kogan ““The real innovation here is the price.”

Wearables

Antivirus and security company Trend Micro issued a stern warning that security and privacy threats will be an issue with wearable computing. “Every time we connect a new class of device to the Internet, we learn the hard way how it can be attacked and subverted,” says Trend Micro’s Global Threat Communications Manager Christopher Budd. He mentions that attacks, especially on Android powered devices can hijack web cams, open microphones, and using Wi-Fi and wireless, intercept data sent to cloud based apps.

As someone who has become semi-addicted to the TV series ‘Person of Interest’ over the Christmas non-ratings period it is an eye opener to see the apparent ease that nefarious types can access and subvert smartphones and security cameras etc. - let’s not get paranoid either about the references to the NSA inspired, mass surveillance ‘machine’. To quote Budd “How can you know who’s watching the video capture from your Google Glass?” 

LifeLogger is a small, 9 gram, camera with GPS, OCR, face, and audio recognition that clips over the ear and records 720p 30fps video, stills and audio. It stores this in an internal 32 or 64GB flash memory and can be manually or persistently activated (all day – but the battery won’t last). It uses micro USB or Wi-Fi to upload to a cloud based app to do something with the captured information.

Garmin showed the Vivofit fitness band that lasts a year on a pair of CR1632 coin cells. The trade-off is that the display has no backlight. It calculates: steps; goal countdown; distance travelled; calories burned; sleep quality; and the time of day. It is compatible with Garmin's heart rate monitor. It has a unique, red, on-screen inactivity bar that starts growing if you have been still for an hour. "Sitting is the smoking of this generation," a Garmin spokesperson said. It has a full set of apps called Garmin connect as well as compatibility with many third party fitness apps.

Sony showed its prototype head tracking addition to its VR headset known by the inspiring name HMZ-T3 Personal 3D viewer (Oculus Rift shines in the name stakes). Price AU$1499.

Nuance – of Dragon Dictate fame – showed off an Android app for what could become more of a universal interface for smart watches. It also supports Swype technology for potentially easier use of the small screen.

Camera

I glossed over the Samsung Galaxy Camera in earlier reports but it appears that it may offer more than expected. Highlights include:

• 21x optical zoom with optical image stabilisation and 16MP CMOS will make this a very useful camera
• 43-86mm, F2.8-5.9 – not the best low light lens but good for general use and good depth of field
• 4.8”, 1280x800, smartphone style viewfinder – excellent clarity
• 1.6 GHz quad core processor and 2GB ram – much faster than the previous model
• 8GB storage but a 64GB compatible micro SD slot fixes that
• NFC tap and go to pair with a smartphone – and use the phones remote view finder app
• GPS tagging
• More smart mode software and filters – 28 now
• 1080p video record
• 2000 mAh battery
• 283g

Don’t confuse this with the Galaxy S4 Zoom which is a smartphone with a camera stuck on.

Smartphones and companion watches

Samsung’s Lee Young Hee said that a new version of the Gear watch would be released along with the Galaxy S5 by April. Reviews of the existing Gear watch have been universally poor mentioning: short battery life; lack of non-Samsung Android compatibility; poor screen; heavy and bulky; poor third party notification integration; and more. Hee said that all would be addressed including a separate new fitness band. It has several competitors - including LG with its ultra-slim OLED band and Toshiba with a health watch – and others have shown off some formidable devices.

Hee also said that the Samsung S5 will have the same look as the Galaxy Note – smaller bezel, leatherette back, 21MP camera and the iris scanner – "Many people are fanatical about iris recognition technology ... We are studying the possibility"

Pebble announced the Steel. Its original smart watch has delivered all that it promised – it is good looking and reliable. Steel has been described as a 'grown up' watch with leather and metal links (silver or black) – it looks more like a 'normal' watch.

Windows 8.x

Samsungs new Ativ Book 9 and Ativ One are receiving rave reviews. Just to confuse you the One 7 is a 24”, 1920x1080, i3/i5, all in one, that looks particularly Mac-like in gleaming white. Equally confusing is the Book 9 – a 15.6” 1920x1080p, i5/i7 notebook. I am beginning to like the Ativ Windows 8.x series.

Speakers

One for Dr Who tragics - Massive Audio unleashed a full-size Dalek - as the world's loudest and largest Bluetooth speaker. Believe it or not there is a push to have the affable green Android icon replaced with the more menacing exterminate variety. I would vote for that.

Acoustic Research has a new ‘AR for Her’ line that includes a handbag shaped speaker, flowerpots, zipstick and more.