Mohu Expands Into Audio with BeBox – Mohu started in 2009 as a miltary contractor making flat antennas. It adaped that technology to the CE market in March 20111 with its paper-thin Leaf HDTV antenna thru Amazon. Their Leaf antennas are sold by several chains and about 65 regional retailers. Now it has added portable speakers with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi so that you can take your music with you, without beig tethered to an AC outlet. Their $499 BeBox single-chassis powered speaker using Android features a color touchscreen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi streaming of downloadable music apps, and playback of music from USB sticks, memory cards and embedded memory. The 14-lb. speaker accesses the Google Play store and can stream online music when it is connected to a home’s Wi-Fi network. It has a three-way speaker system, a 100W Class D amp, and a rechargeable eight-hour battery.
Smart Homes Skew Young; Older Households Buy More Devices – A survey by Parks Associates found that although younger households adopt smart-home devices at a higher rate than older ones, older households own more smart-home devices on average. Among broadband households in the U.S. with head of household ages 25 to 34, the adoption rate of smart-home products is almost 30%, the highest of any age group. But with households ages of 35 to 44, although adoption is only 21%, they own the highest number of smart-home products with an average of two. The adoption dates are lead by networked security cameras, smart thermostats and smart door locks. 40% of U.S. broadband households now own a smart home product.
Will Smart Homes Soon Be As Common As Smartphones? – 68% of Americans say that smart homes will be as common as smartphones within ten years, and 83% expect smart home devices to be packaged with other services such as cable and Internet. People expect simplicity and security from unauthorized users in their smart homes. 74% expect them to be as simple as setting up a cable TV and there is concern about the number of passwords to be remembered for various devices. 82% agreed that security is a priority for life in a smart home and 52% would like fingerprint-recognition technology to secure their smart home. The surveyors wondered whether the smart home would live up to user expectations.
ViewSonic Ships Two Sub-$1200 HD Video Projectors – The new LightStream 7 models have enhanced technologies for color accuracy and enriched sound in 1080p resolution. Both have the company’s SuperColor technology with a newly-designed color wheel. An integrated speaker delivers immersive audio quality with greater frequency range and minimized distortion. They also have PortAll – an integrated MHL/HDMI port that allows users to wirelessly stream multimedia content via an optional wireless HDMI dongle.