Digital Media Trends - Holiday 2009
    (11/2009 - In Progress)

    by Douglas Dixon

Trends in digital media products and technology for the holiday season. (Notes for my Holiday Gadget talks.) 

With links to my Digital Media Galleries, recent articles, and Manifest Tech Blog.

From Q1 09 - see CES 2009 Summary
See also my presentation on The Growth of Flash

Trends: Hot New Products and Technology

Contents:

• Portable / Wireless Media: Mobile broadband / Smartphones, Players / wireless, Storage
• Portable Accessories: Audio comfort, Power packs, Peripherals
• Digital Imaging: Camcorders, cameras
• Home Media: HDTV / projectors, Networked / webcams, DVD

Trends: Portable / Wireless Media

Mobile Communications Trends - Holiday 2009

• Mobile Trends - Mobile Communications Gallery
• Mobile Broadband
  • Cellular Wi-Fi - Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot
• Smartphones
  • Media Phone - Apple iPhone - App Store
  • Cloud Phone - Google Android - VZW / Motorola Droid - Navigation
  • Windows Phone - AT&T HTC Pure - Windows Mobile
  • Organizer / PDA - Blackberry, Palm WebOS
  • See Flash presentation: Smartphones and Convergence Devices
• Netbooks
  • vs. Smartphones vs. Laptops
  • See Flash presentation: Netbooks

Portable Media Player Trends - Holiday 2009

• Market and Pricing - Portable Media Player Gallery
• Best of both: Flash + features
  • Apple iPod shuffle - No controls, Voiceover
  • iPod nano - Video camera, Mic, Speaker, Fm Radio, Pedometer
• Wireless players
  • Apple iPod Touch
  • Microsoft Zune HD - OLED, HD video, HD Radio
  • Archos 5 Internet Tablet - Android
• Hard disk players - iPod
• Alternate Delivery
  • eBook Readers
  • Portable Game Systems - Nintendo DSi, Sony PSPgo

Portable Storage Trends - Holiday 2009

• Market and Pricing - Portable Storage Gallery
• Flash Memory Cards
  • Formats - SD, microSD, CF for pros
  • Capacity - SDXC from 32 GB to 2 TB
  • Performance - HD Video, Photo burst mode
  • See Flash presentation: Flash Storage
• USB Pocket Drives
  • Rugged - LaCie imakey
  • Integrated package - Verbatim Tuff-'N'-Tiny
• Portable Hard Disk Drives
  • Display - Verbatim InSight
  • Rugged - LaCie Rugged
• Solid State Drives (SSD)
  • Faster boot & application launch, Rugged, Lower power
  • See Flash presentation: Solid State Drives (SSD)
• Data Transfer
  • USB 2.0 to SATA to USB 3.0 **
• Cloud Storage - Online
  • Netbooks, LaCie / Wuala
  • See Flash presentation: The Future of Storage - Cloud storage

Trends: Portable Accessories

Portable Audio Accessories Trends - Holiday 2009

• Bluetooth Headsets
  • Noise reduction - Aliph Jawbone Prime, Jabra BT530,
  • Style, Form - Plantronics Discovery 975, Newton MoGo Talk
  • Comfort (in-ear, ear hook) - Plantronics Voyager PRO
• Earphones
  • Noise Isolating - Altec Lansing BackBeat Earphones
  • Volume Limiting - Logitech / Ultimate Ears - Kids Loud Enough
• Headphones - Noise reduction, Wireless
• Portable Speakers -
  • Altec Lansing Orbit USB Portable Speakers

Portable Power Trends - Holiday 2009

• Battery Power Packs / Universal Chargers
• Interchangable Tips - Duracell, Energizer Energi To Go XP (XPAL)
• Removable Battery - Miccus ChargeBlock for iPod / iPhone
• Fuel Cell - Medis
• Renewable Energy - Solar / Crank Power - Solio
• Wireless Power - Powermat, Duracell MyGrid / WildCharge

Portable Peripherals and Accessories Trends - Holiday 2009

• Mice / Keyboards - Mobile
  • Logitech Performance & Anywhere Mouse MX - Darkfield
  • Microsoft Arc Mouse, Bluetooth Keyboard
  • Newton MoGo Presenter Mice - PC card
  • Verbatim Easy Riser Mobile Mice - Adjustable-height

Trends: Digital Imaging

• Photo + video, HD (10+ MP, 720p/1080p)
• Touch-screen interface
• Upload directly to Facebook, YouTube; Wi-Fi, GPS tagging
• Smart: Face finding (sideways), smile, blink
      Auto scene selection / shooting mode
• Quick power-on, quick ready to shoot
• Bright colors - light blue, orange, green

Video Camcorders Trends - Holiday 2009

• Pocket Camcorders - HD
  • Pure Digital / Flip HD, Audiovox / RCA Small Wonder, JVC Picsio
  • Kodak, Creative Vado, DXG, Sony Webby
• Digital Camcorders: Flash - Smaller, HD
      Sony, Canon, JVC, Samsung, Panasonic
• See Flash presentation: Digital Camcorders

Digital Photo Cameras Trends - Holiday 2009

• Face + smile finding / Face recognition - remember settings
• Video / HD DSLR - Nikon D90, Canon, Panasonic ...
• Front LCD - Samsung DualView
• Instant prints - Dell Wasabi, Polaroid PoGo Camera + photo printer
• Selective Focus Lenses - Lensbaby
• Wireless -Wi-Fi -Eye-Fi card (blog - video)
• Flexible Tripods - Joby Gorillapod, SteadePod
• See Flash presentation: Digital Cameras

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Trends: Home Media

HDTV / Display Trends - Holiday 2009

• Brighter, contrast: LED backlight
• Thin, Emphasis on design: Invisible speakers
• Full HD: 1080p (full 1920 x 1080 progressive)
  
• Fast motion: Frame doubling 120 Hz, motion interpolation
  
• Connected TVs: Web, widgets; Play from networked devices; PC on TV - - Yahoo Widgets
• Soon: OLED LED (Organic Light Emitting Diode)
• Futures: 3D TV
• Handheld projectors - Pico / mobile - 3M MPro120 Pocket Projector

Home Networked Media Trends - Holiday 2009

• Home Networked Media Sharing
• PC / TV Media Capture
• Home Video - Webcams
  • Astak Mole Internet camera
  • Microsoft LifeCam Cinema
  • Logitech QuickCam
• Home Media Servers: Backup / archiving

High-Def DVD Trends - Holiday 2009

• Blu-ray Disc, Interactive Disc: Digital Copy (article)
• Game Systems: Sony PS3, Xbox 360
• See the High-Def / DVD Gallery

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