Mele’s Musings

A Home Network Where Your TV Talks to Your Fridge

The internet will truly be everywhere.

Picture: archrecord.construction.com

Article excerpt:   Across the consumer electronics industry, leading players are revamping their audio and video equipment for a future centered around the Internet, a world in which televisions, stereos and computers — even dishwashers and refrigerators — can communicate with each other over a wireless home network. Expanded lines of networked entertainment equipment will take center stage this week at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin, the largest consumer electronics convention in Europe, with 1,200 exhibitors and 200,000 visitors. Sony plans to introduce plug-in adapters to enable some of its Bravia television sets to connect to the Internet wirelessly. The Dutch consumer electronics maker Philips will demonstrate a line of stereo systems that can wirelessly tap into music stored on personal computers or laptops in other rooms, streaming music through the house.  Pioneer, Samsung and Sharp will present flat-panel TVs that hook up to the Internet, some with wires, some without. Hewlett-Packard’s MediaSmart L.C.D. TV will wirelessly stream high-definition video.
The rest: NYTimes.com

Musing:  I love the idea that all of our devices will have wireless internet connections.  It will allow information to be passed back and forth between consumers and companies, and make repairs, updates, etc. so much easier and more convenient.  It may even cut down on waste (fewer devices tossed) and still provide a revenue stream to companies (more services).  I wonder how soon those connections will be meaningful, and how soon people will get used to using them.  Just having wireless in the device does not mean people will use them – and I suspect a lot of that will happen.  People will have to trained to use their devices differently, and the usefulness of the interactivity on the devices needs to be high, or people will just ignore it.