By Laura Hudson

I recently had to take my two and a half year-old to the doctor because she was sick. Since I did not have an appointment, I had to take her during the sick hours. I knew we were in for a wait but I had no idea it would be almost three hours.

After reading Katie a couple of books and trying to explain to her for the hundredth time it was not her turn yet, I had completely gone through anything in my purse that might interest her when I saw my iPod Touch. I pulled it out and thought I might show her a couple of the apps that I have on there. She instantly saw that the background picture was a photo of her and got all excited. So I spent the next hour in the doctor’s office going through picture after picture that I have saved of her and her brother. She would provide commentary on each photo and got to the point where she was scrolling from picture to picture herself.

I was amazed that something I really thought of as a toy for me was something that was so entertaining to her.

By Tara Dunion

I had the pleasure of joining several hundred industry professionals gathered in NYC last week for the CEA Line Shows, which featured a keynote from the nation’s CTO, conferences featuring top industry experts and more than 40 exhibits from innovative CE companies. You can check out CEA’s news release for some of the event highlights or check out the event website or Dealerscope’s coverage.

I hope you enjoy these quick video soundbytes from Marty Porter, the executive producer of the event, and Frank Radice, the top guy at the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, who gives a good event recap on CE trends and why he’s glad he attended the event.

For this kickoff event, we’d love to hear from the attendees. What did you like best and what should we repeat? For those of you unable to attend, what do we need to do to get you there next year?

By Melanie Lambrecht

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) relies on volunteers at all levels of the Association for direction, goal-setting and governance. Whether you are looking to help the CE industry by developing CEA initiatives, creating industry technology standards or influencing legislation, there are many reasons to volunteer in one of CEAs working groups, committees, councils and boards.

Hear directly from your peers on why they volunteer.

CEA members may review the Call for Volunteers to learn about the division and council boards, organizational activities, and other projects where their industry experience would be valued.

You can nominate yourself or a colleague for a board position or simply volunteer your time via open volunteering opportunities. These ad hoc opportunities allow you to engage throughout the year as your schedule permits on a project-by-project basis in activities such as:

· Brainstorming market research studies,

· Advising on industry promotion campaigns,

· Writing newsletter articles,

· Participating in virtual communities,

· Reviewing consumer education materials,

· and more.

CEA welcomes volunteers for opportunities outside of the division/council structure such as Technology & Standards and Government Affairs. Those groups focus on industry-wide topics related to standards or policy. Another great way to get involved throughout the year is by attending CEA events.

We welcome your expertise, experience and enthusiasm to our active and talented group of volunteers and hope to include you in our 2009-10 volunteer activities.

By Jack Cutts

Last weekend I almost did the unthinkable: I came within a hair’s breadth of deleting all of my digital photos including the pictures of my wedding. I would’ve lost most of my digital music and tax records as well! Unspeakable horror awaits any man who commits such a transgression.

Sure, it started innocently enough. I was getting ready to install the “Release Candidate” of Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system when something in the install process didn’t agree with my hardware. After a few more tries, it was clear that things weren’t going to work as planned. Putting that task aside, I decided just to revert to my old installation of Windows Vista. No dice. The installation had permanently altered my disk partitions and it was as if the computer had undergone a lobotomy.

After the palpitations and nausea subsided, I remembered the trusty backup drive I had purchased just a month prior. This one-terabyte external drive was the perfect insurance policy against doing something stupid and I am very glad I took the time to set it up.

There are more than a few ways to back up a hard drive and there are two main considerations to make when conducting a backup – hardware and software. On the hardware side of the equation, one of the most common backup methods involves installing a second hard drive inside your PC and periodically dragging and dropping files over to the backup drive. This method works well, but since the hard drive is still inside the computer (and virtually always on), it’s somewhat more prone to failure.

Another method that has become extremely popular in the last few years is to purchase an external hard drive. These drives usually feature USB 2.0 or eSATA connectivity and are portable. Another class of external drives (”network attached storage” or “NAS”) will connect to the Ethernet network in your home and allow data backups from any computer on your home network. The speed of writing files to these drives is generally slower than using an internal drive but external drives can be moved from computer to computer and also only consume power when turned on.

A third option requires no hardware at all. “Cloud storage” – as it’s become known – involves online backup and remote storage of your files. Virtually all cloud storage providers charge a monthly fee and do not offer quite as much space to store files as a local solution would offer but users also can gain access to their files anywhere they have a connection to the Internet. For those who have only a few gigabytes of files to backup, cloud storage is a fairly low-maintenance and powerful solution.

On the software side of the equation, user can choose the “drag-and-drop” method of file copying that we’re all used to by now, or you can buy one of a number of applications specifically designed to make backing up easier. At home, I use a program called Acronis True Image. Imaging a hard drive is a powerful way of backing up because it not only preserves your files, it also preserves the entire state of your computer including all operating system files, installed programs and other settings.

One final thing to consider is that even with an external hard drive, none of your data is truly safe if something happens to the hard drive. At home, I store my backup hard drive in a fire-proof safe under lock and key along with my passport, birth certificate, and other important items. While this might seem paranoid, it offers peace of mind and one less thing to worry about.

  By Ellen Savage

My six year old son has a morning ritual which was causing me to lose sleep. He wakes early, usually before anyone else in the house, turns on the television in our family room and watches cartoons until the rest of our family rises. I’m glad he is able to entertain himself while I try to get a little extra sleep, but I was worried he’d stumble upon inappropriate content as he was looking for the Disney Channel.

About a month ago, I activated the v-chip parental control option on our television. V-chip allows consumers to block programs based on TV ratings. Each program has a rating ranging from TV-Y (programs appropriate for children, including ages 2-6) to TV-MA (for mature audiences only).

Activating the v-chip function on my television was quick and painless. It took me about three minutes to navigate through the menu selections using my remote and input a four-digit code. Now, if anyone tries to view a program with a rating exceeding the ones I specified, our television screen turns white and asks for the code. You either need to enter the code or select another program with an “unblocked” rating.

We have been using v-chip for a few weeks, and so far I’m pretty satisfied. My kids have not been tempted to try to figure out the code; if a program is blocked they ask for help. I forgot to give the code to a babysitter to use after the kids went to bed, but that’s been our only hiccup. V-chip does not substitute parental monitoring of their children’s television viewing, but it has allowed me to give my kids added independence while still having some control over what they watch.

Despite v-chip’s wide availability (it has been required for the past decade in all televisions over 13 inches) and ease of implementation, a 2004 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that only 15 percent of parents have ever used the v-chip. It’s difficult to find more up-to-date statistics, but in my own informal survey of five other parents, none had ever used the technology. I find it striking in an age of “helicopter parents” that usage is so low.

What about other parents out there? Do you use the v-chip? Why or why not?

By Jim Barry, CEA’s Digital Answer Man

In the midst of the “Digital Answer Man Tour” in Texas last week I did a last-minute DTV reminder segment live on the morning news on KDFW, the Fox affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth www.myfoxdfw.com, I expect this will be my last DTV transition explainer, but then I thought that in February too!

With its flat terrain and powerful broadcast stations Dallas is a market with some of the lowest cable penetration in the country meaning that the DTV transition resonates more there than in many other cities. The recent Nielsen figures also put it as the second “least ready” for the transition (behind only Albuquerque) with many viewers still “unprepared.”

As part of CEA’s DTV education efforts I’ve travelled to hundreds of TV stations in the past decade but no station I’ve encountered is doing more to educate its viewers about the DTV transition than KDFW. Along with the now ubiquitous ads, infomercials and on-screen messages the station has – like many broadcasters — a terrific website with clear information and links to other key resources.

Even better though, KDFW’s excellent consumer reporter Steve Noviello (who incidentally won an Emmy for his CES coverage a few years back) has not only done many on-air explainers, he’s gone out to viewers’ homes to help them connect their converter boxes. He asked viewers to contact him if they needed help and they did. Interestingly, many of his viewers who are reluctant to give up their analog TV have nevertheless embraced the digital world of the internet and contacted him via e-mail

In what has become a familiar refrain most of the issues involved reception or integrating other devices with the antenna, TV and converter box, including VCRs, DVD players and recorders, and a TiVo!

As I write this, there’s just a week left before the analog cutoff – Finally!! If you’re reading this after June 12^th, you know what transpired. If it’s before there’s still time to get a converter box and help a neighbor hook up that ’92 Magnavox. In either case check out the link to the DTV section on the KDFW website and the videos of Noviello’s helping-hand visits to his viewers’ homes.

As one who has been involved in the DTV transition for almost 20 years, it’s been a pleasure to see these excellent grassroots education as the days dwindle down to the analog cutoff.

By Carolyn Slater

Isn’t it lovely to be able to appear just a bit smarter and better informed than you really are? Well those nice folks at CEA Publications (of which I’m a part) can help you out with that.

Each year, we bring together some of the best minds in the consumer electronics world to dig up the facts, figures, forecasts, trends, hot products and hot topics in the industry and present them in one easy to access publication. The publication is Digital America and the 2009 issue is now available as a hard copy, a downloadable pdf or a CD.

You may have already heard about CEA’s world-class consumer and market research and there are indeed plenty of the latest findings to be discovered throughout the nine product category-specific sections: accessories, audio, automotive electronics, digital imaging, gaming, home networking, home theater, video and wireless communications.

· For example, did you know that sales revenue for in-vehicle entertainment devices rose 9.3 percent in 2008 to $11.7 billion?

· Or, that despite our challenging economic times shipments of digital cameras are forecast to rise in 2010 and 2011.

· Maybe gaming is your thing. In which case you might be interested to know that global gaming sales reached $32 billion in 2008, exceeding the sales of DVD and Blue-ray combined.

· And not forgetting that ubiquitous device that we can’t live without– the TV. Do you know the difference between High-Definition (HD) and Standard-Definition (SD) and how many are sold of each per year?

Access to this kind of in-depth information can change your life. Well maybe not, but it could upgrade your credibility, career and definitely the caliber of your elevator chat.

Digital America 2009 also contains a comprehensive history of the CE industry, so next time your kid asks who invented TV, you can not only tell them who, but when and how.

You can round out your reading and reference experience with a chronology of CE milestones all the way from 1752 to the present day, a list of industry sources and information on CEA’s Market Research, Technology and Standards and industry leadership.

Who says you can’t have it all!

By Sean Murphy

It is always wise to consider the future. This is true during the best of times; certainly it is true during challenging times. With the ongoing economic uncertainty, the implications for the CE industry are crucial, and manifold. Which categories are slumping? Which ones are weathering the storm? Which ones are even expected to excel? These are the billion dollar questions that any CE insider would pay dearly to answer. Of course, just about everyone would acknowledge that this information is impossible to attain, and it would be prohibitively expensive to even get a glimpse. Right? Wrong! As many CEA members are already happily aware, this exact information is not only available, but is free!

The semi-annual CEA Industry Forecast provides the opportunity to get a glimpse of the total CEA market. Projections are given not only for the coming year, but extend to the next five years. These famous Forecasts reveal the size and growth of over 150 Consumer Electronics (CE) product categories based on consensus data from leading manufacturers and retailers. Whether it’s home entertainment, electronic gaming, in-vehicle technology, or emerging categories such as Netbooks, Blu-Ray DVD Players and Soundbars; CEA’s methodology produces second-to-none accuracy. All of this data is available to any company that participates in the forecast process, and any company involved in the CE industry is welcome to join the party!

The Forecast enables companies to analyze the industry, ascertain what trends are impacting CE, determine which categories are thriving, and better understand where growth and opportunity exist. A consensus methodology means CEA uses direct input from participating companies, making the results an accurate-as-possible reflection of the industry itself. Concerned about exposure or providing sensitive information? No worries! The information CEA utilizes are at the total industry level—as opposed to a company or specific product level, and is completely confidential.

We encourage any CE manufacturer to participate and there are two ways for companies to get involved. The first is the Quantitative Method, where you complete a user-friendly forecast input form provided by CEA, for any category (or categories) you are involved in or knowledgeable about. The second option is the Qualitative Method, which involves a brief discussion with one of our industry analysts, where you provide your thoughts on total size and growth of relevant product categories, as well as any other salient perspectives.

The reward for this minimal investment of time and energy is substantial. Any company who participates receives a free copy of the forecast. That’s all? That’s all! Non-participants, on the other hand, are charged $6,500 for the total forecast results. The forecast is available for delivery in mid-July. To get involved, simply send me an email at smurphy@ce.org or you can reach me by phone at 703-907-5220. I look forward to hearing from you!