Sony OLED TV- The Future of TV

The Sony OLED TV was first released in 2008. It is the first Organic Light Emitting Diode television. When measured, the XEL-1 model is just under 12 by 10 by 5.5 inches overall and weighs a little more than 4 pounds. It is only about three millimeters thick. The display on this small TV’s resolution is 960 by 540 pixels. This television offers picture quality with exceptionally high contrast, a very bright screen, outstanding color reproduction and an extremely fast response time. There is no backlight on these TV’s, so it is able to control all phases of light emissions from no light to its peak brightness. The new technology that is used displays exceptional color expression and detail without using a lot of power. Sony uses its own Super Top Emission technology to produce a wide aperture ratio producing high brightness and efficiency so the TV will display an accurate picture. This technology has a color filter and a micro cavity structure that allows it to reproduce all natural colors, so that all colors are what they were originally intended to be.
The display panel on the OLED does not use very much power because the light emitting structure of the panel eliminates the need for another light source. Since the OLED displays create their own light, any mercury associated with the usual TV backlighting is eliminated. The light emitted from the organic materials can spontaneously be turned on and off when an electric current is applied. This allows for rapid response times so there is smooth and natural reproduction of fast moving content(such as action movies and sporting events).
These new TV’s also feature the latest connectivity options, including two HDMI inputs and a memory stick slot so you can view high resolution photos. This model is also compatible with DMeX, so consumers can have BRAVIA Internet Video Link service on their TV. By using broadband connection, the module streams would select internet video-free of charge and put it right on the TV, without needing to use a computer.
This TV is one of the most important innovations in the television industry because it doesn’t only change the technology but also demonstrates a flawless picture quality. This flawless picture quality is soon going to be standard, so all TV’s will be compared to it. This is important in the future of the television industry because it allows you to do and see things that we have never seen on a television before. This new technology is allowing us to upload pictures and get movies straight off the internet without even needing a computer.

Rock Band: Dowloadable Song Tracks

A new way that people are purchasing music is through video games, such as Rock Band and Guitar Hero. These music-insprired games have become incredibly popular in the last few years. A recent innovation is the ability to download new song tracks to be played in the game. This is known as downloadable content, or DLC. The most recent game, Rock Band 2, includes 80 songs from popular recording artists on the game disc. Harmonix, the game's creators, estimates that they will have over 500 downloadable songs available by the end of 2008. Consumers can purchase these songs for $1.99 each by going online with their PS3's and XBOX360's. As the music industry and record labels struggle to find their audience, it appears that the videogame industry has given them a helping hand. The royalties paid to the record labels for the use of songs in the game is a new source of revenue. Due to the immense popularity of games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, new audiences are being introduced to the world of rock music. By hearing and playing songs in the game, it is reasonable to assume that fans might purchase a CD or MP3's of a band they first heard of in the game.

A few factoids about Rock Band 2

• Rock Band 2 is the first and only video game to feature the music of AC/DC
  
• Axl Rose chose RB2 as the first medium for fans to hear tracks from Guns n Roses long-awaited album Chinese Democracy
  
• The next game from Harmonix, creators of Rock Band, is going to feature the music of The Beatles
  

The fact that The Beatles are working with Harmonix on the next Rock Band game is HUGE. The Beatles are extremely restrictive about the rights to their music. In fact, there is currently no legal way to purchase music online from The Beatles. If you want their music, you're stuck with CD's, tapes, or records. In 2009, The Beatles will release their music digitally for the first time ever, starting with Rock Band. Perhaps this will pave the way for them to eventually reconcile with Apple Computer and sell their songs on iTunes. Sure, Rock Band is only a game, but it’s an extremely popular game that undoubtedly inhabits the living rooms of many households. It’s this reason that makes The Beatles’ decision to partner with Harmonix monumental. They will be distributing their music on a new, popular platform to generations of young people who may have never heard them. Sir Paul McCartney said, “The project is a fun idea which broadens the appeal of The Beatles and their music. I like people having the opportunity to get to know the music from the inside out.”

interent radio on PSP

It doesn’t take an expert to realize that traditional radio is dying in the near and far future. The Radio landscape that was once dominated by only AM and FM stations has dramatically changed over the past 10 years both within the industry and beyond its borders. New technological forms have invaded the industry and changed the way we broadcast, receive, listen and even consume radio. HD radio, satellite radio and internet radio are some of the more obvious new radio forms responsible for the fall of traditional radio. But the thing that is up and coming in the last couple of month has to be PSP’s latest innovation.
Whatever your ear poison, chances are PSP’s latest 3.93 firmware upgrade has an option for you, thanks to it adding 20 new themed radio station players to listen via any Wi-Fi hotspot. The idea of streaming and listening to internet radio on PSP is “the Killer” feature that will storm the industry at a rapid rate. Who knew expanding your music library could be so easy. You can pigeonhole your taste at ease and listen to music by genre, artist, year and many other categories. Sony was successful in coming up with a fairly simple implementation for the average customer. This gives the consumer the ability to listen to internet radio on the go. It is easy to use and install, in just few steps you will be browsing through the many genres and music stations that are available.
The significance of this innovation lies in the effect it will have on traditional radio. This innovation by PSP gives listeners the luxury of listening to internet radio on the go. In other words, this feature introduces a new trend of internet radio by streaming audio podcasts off the internet, where pretty much you can make your own station and share it with friends or the whole world. It is the popularity of PSP especially among young generations that makes this feature threatening to the traditional radio. The impact of this new innovation will be felt by the traditional radio stations that depend on listeners in their car. Such listeners now have the option to connect their PSP to their car and listen to commercial free radio or even their own radio, instead of the more conventional stations.

Follow up to the Future of a Media Industry-Hologram

Have you been watching the news lately? If not, here is what you have been missing out on. Just recently on November 4th of 2008 on Election Day, CNN broadcasted an example of Holographic image technology. Although this was not a real Holographic, this is a great example on how the Future of Media will be. This embedded video clip from you tube serves good evidence. I believe this new technique and this new approach will be set off into another direction. Not only will we see this on the television series of Star Wars, but we will also see this in the future of our media industry.

As you can see the news begins with Wolf Blitzer where he mentions that CNN is going to do something different that’s never been done on television. Seconds later Jessica Yellin, ET’s reporter who was in Chicago, appears in holographic form at the CNN election center. As Blitzer mentions, she is said to be the first who is beamed into the CNN election center. Yellin appeared somewhat fuzzy and her image projected a few feet in front of Blitzer, a red glow appeared around the edges of her. While having conversation with Blitzer, she refers herself as the Star Wars character Princess Leia. She then explains the remarkable set up of this projected hologram. Her image was being filmed in Chicago by 35 high-definition cameras set in a ring inside a special tent, which were processed and synchronized by 20 computers to the cameras in the New York studio. This technique helped transmit what looks like an entire body image. A remark that Blitzer states to allow the viewers believe that he was really seeing her as he would see her in reality was, “Its still Jessica Yellin, and you look like Jessica Yellin, and we know that you are Jessica Yellin.” The way he addressed this seemed like he really wanted the viewers to believe that he was actually seeing her in holographic form.

Many viewers made negative compliments about the “via hologram” that was being aired on CNN. I found some examples, but the one I found to be my most interest was this one.


What the heck were they thinking? It was obvious that they weren't holograms, but for ANY news agency to pretend otherwise is silly at best, insulting and LIES at...worst? No, insulting and lies is exactly what it was.
And CNN is supposed to be a class act? The world standard?
Really, what the...heck...were they thinking? It wasn't April Fool's day either, it was coverage of THE BIGGEST STORY IN YEARS!!!

Although what you saw was not a real Hologram, I believe this new technique and this new approach of Holographic Technology will be launched into another direction in the future. Many years down the road from now there is going to be a way that television does interviews like this because it allows for a much more intimate possibility for a better interview.

The Future of Print: E-ink

Books and printed works seem to be the media source that has the largest disconnect of what people assume to be happening, and what actually IS happening. Many people assume that with the advent of different technology, books as a medium are slowly dying off. With different mediums such as television and the internet, it seems like books don't have much in terms of use in a contemporary setting, and most futurists and sci-fi geeks don't picture the twenty-first century man picking up a light novel for entertainment in their depictions of the future.

But despite these assumptions, books as a medium are still going strong. While an astounding amount of information is available on the internet, much of that information is cited from books. At the same time, print icons such as Spider-Man, Frodo Baggins, and Harry Potter are being moved onto the big screen, and many other printed works such as the graphic novel "Watchmen" and the recent hit book "Twilight" are making the jump as well. Informational reading such as textbooks are still thriving as a business. If the hundreds of dollars spends on textbooks each semester doesn't demonstrate that, the gamut of self-help books published and sold every month surely will.

In other words, books are not dying. They are, however, taking key innovations from other mediums in the same way that the other mediums have been influenced by books. One such innovation is the invention of "E-ink." E-ink is a new technology with the aim of replacing physical ink and paper. E-ink is essentially a microfilm, containing various capsules (which are invisible to the naked eye) of positively charged "white" particles and negatively charged "black" particles. The white particles are automatically pulled to the top of the capsules, which is attached to the "screen" of the device, and makes it appear white. Particles then dragged down from the top in specific arrangements, darkening them in order to make various letters, symbols, and shapes. The particles can all be pulled down and lifted again by a minimal to darken or brighten the screen as the situation demands.

E-ink has already been integrated into "ebook" portable reading devices such as Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader. Beyond that, E-ink has been integrated into other technologies as well, such as certain cell phones and laptop computers. As it stands now, E-ink is often considered as a "replacement" for paper-printed book. In large part, the general aim seems to be to be rid of the numerous paper books one might own and instead put them on a portable device of their choosing. However, the youtube link provided above shows a fascinating use that is actually the opposite of what the suggested idea. The video is of the October 2008 issue of the Esquire magazine, which actually integrates E-ink into the pages of their own magazine. The result is a unique, if somewhat alarming, look at what may be coming in the future of print.

In Ridley Scott's 1980s sci-fi masterpiece "Blade Runner," the backgrounds and settings visually assault your senses by the sheer amount of all of the things that are glowing and shiny. Nearly everything that is interacted with has some sort of glowing feature, but there is a startling lack of books. With E-ink and ebook technology, the printed word appears to be following its media counterparts right into such a setting. While books have largely remained the same since the printing press, new innovations are right at the doorstep. The as-of-now shockingly dull book and magazine section and magazine section may soon be completely revamped and replaced with glowing, interactive products and displays, while still retaining the same function.

What Does the Future of the Music Industry Hold for Us?

What is happening to music? Will we be renting music from everyone instead of owning it? Will we be free to play it on anything we want or anywhere we want? I think that the future of music remains unclear. Many are challenging the idea of DRM for very legitamate reasons such as they can't play music on other music players becuase of the DRM. Many argue the rights of DRM to be reasonable, becuase they think music should be paid for and they're trying to put some control on it. I feel the pain of both sides. Understanding that anyone can try to justify their illegal and/or wrong behaviors such as stealing music. Anyone can say,"well I only need one stick of gum so I have a right to steal a piece out of this package. They are obviously wrong for stealing, but they can justify the'r actions until they're blue in the face and the silly ness continues. One side says it's okay to download illegally, "we have the right", and the other side says it's wrong, "music artists aren't getting their well deserved profit anymore". I don't feel we have the right to free music. We never have been able to get music free before unless on the radio, so why should we be able to download it for free? However, the problem lies deeper than just the downloading dilema. It is more of a need to answer the question, "what should a person be allowed to do with the music once they have paid for the download?", and "how much will it cost a person to download and how much will they charge for a person to do what ever they want with it, playing it anywhere on anything?". When we had tapes, they weren't handed out for free. You had to buy it, and if you felt you had the right to have it for free, you could steal it and risk getting caught for shoplifting. If you knew someone who had purchased the tape you could dub the whole tape on a blank tape and pass up the expensive costs of the original, or you could wait for the song to come on the radio and record it from their. Then the CD came, and the decision became, "do I buy the single tape with the one popular song I like?, or should I buy the new hip CD that I can play in the car cd player and the new stereos and at all my friends houses with their new cd players? Then burning CD's became intelligently affordable and popular, and everyone had all these anonymous discs with all kinds of illegally downloaded and burned music to share freely. Then, the popular and sheek ipod came. Now, you can take your music with you everywhere without scratching, skipping, tape eating, burning discs or stealing, and all the other ancient annoyances like dropping your walkman while rollerblading or carrying a boombox with you where ever you go to hang out. Either way you look at it, the game is all about the internet now. Figuring out how to control the consumers who download music and find a way to make money without having the music given away for free. Everything on the internet is free, so now the game is how can we create the coolest products to acces the best music. The only way to control the illegal downloading is to continue to have products for consumers to desire, and designing the products to only be capable to download from particluar stores and played on particluar music players. Even the cell phone music players are the best creations so far becuase everyone has a cell phone and now the game is who has one with music and how are they going to get their musc? It seems that the game of music retail and consumption is getting so difficult that the easiest way to have music is to download it illegally. The myth "it's simple, and not everyone gets caught", can be tricky to believe. I don't know about all that, but I think that it is possible for the government to get involved and regulate it and just come down hard on the internet. It's possible, but I didn't say I agreed that it'll be fare or not and people will definately not like it. Some people don't agree with the legal age of alcohol consumption either, but just because their is a legal age to drink doesn't stop people from drinking under the legal age limit. They risk getting caught, and some do get caught and pay the consequences. If they can't figure out how to control the online music industry their might not be a music industry. Still, between record labels' new ideas and computer companies' new ideas something has got to form a pattern for consumers to easily conform to a mutual, modern way of getting music while the music artist still gets a revenue. The future of music lies in the hands of the computer/internet industry now.

A New Look For Books!

Torn pages, lost covers, no biding and using bookmarks as place holders. All these things are so 1999, it’s the 2000’s and the new millennium and with that comes new technology whether it’s with television, newspapers, radio or film things are changing every day.

As my fellow P.O.P.(Power Of Print) Stars and I presented the wonderful world of books, so much has gone down in the world of print and books are catching up with the times and becoming more exciting than just 340 pages bound together telling a story of a boy who has lost his dog and must travel back in time to change his past to fix the present. Now maybe that example was a little farfetched, but any story someone can write with proper mechanics and grammar have the potential of having a book published and being on the New York Times Best seller list. So I digressed a little bit away from the topic at hand, but as I’ve said before when most people read about books whether it’s a book report or a research paper on the history of them, society or our class rather lose focus quickly.

Though I am aware that people that really read and appreciate books are the type of people that will never let go of a real book just because there is something about holding it, and turning pages and all that and not just reading it off a screen, the future of books is inside the Sony E-Reader is the next big thing in the world of books. As the video shows, the ereader allows nontraditional readers to have a on the go electronic folder of essentially 350 ebooks. The model shown in the video features the book light for dim light reading and also a stylus pen which allows users to search for books out of their database. To say the ereader will make more people read would be a false theory, because though the technology is update and allows users to page through a digital version of books that we page through every day at libraries these ereaders take a good chunk out of your pocket. They’re saying this model in the video is about 400 dollars, unless you have a lot of money and 400 is pocket change for you, not many people are going to add this to their bookshelf. Which brings up an interesting thought is there going to be ereader bookshelves probably not seeing as the ereader holds thousand s upon thousand pages, but I had to mention it. I to this point read books very rarely, unless it’s related to pro wrestlers or tips of making it big in Hollywood and there is many classic novels I’d read again and again, but books are not my favorite past time, but until they adapt them with ereader I don’t plan on making a purchasing on one, but that doesn’t mean if someone from class gets one I won’t want to check it out. Thanks for reading everyone, can’t wait to read the rest of my P.O.P. Star’s blogs and everyone else’s of course.