But I mean that in the best possible way.

There’s the Google phone (hey, the PKD estate is suing Google for calling it the Nexus).  The Kindle DX is now international.  Apple will probably announce some kind of tablet computer later this month.  And the Consumer Electronics Show has just gotten under way in Vegas.

Of course the CES is showing a lot of gear that will be released in the coming months.  Some of the camera companies have been announcing new stuff all week – Panasonic, Canon, Samsung, etc.  Of course I’m anxiously awaiting any Nikon announcements – in particular if when there will be a successor to the D700 and what that might be.

There are two bigger themes at CES that will have a bigger impact beyond a new point and shoot camera.

The first is 3D for the home.  Hardware companies will be discussing initial offerings and some US cable companies, such as ESPN, have also announced some plans for 3D programming.  In Hong Kong, 3D is sure to lag behind.  HD offerings are pretty poor so far; then again most regular offerings are pretty poor.

The second comes to us from the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem.  This is a consortium consisting of most, but not all, Hollywood studios and some of the major hardware and software companies.  They are trying to devise a unified DRM solution for video downloads – one that will finally allow for portability between devices and platforms.   With content owners finally waking up to the fact that physical distribution is dying and that people who buy a movie only want to buy it once and then watch it on their computer, their living room TV, their laptop and/or their phone, this could have a huge impact if they get it out the door.

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