Category: Blog

 

Had an interesting interview on Nine News with Chris Urquhart, whereby the subject matter had some disturbing ramifications and left a bad taste in my mouth.

Recently three teenagers lost there lives in a horror crash in Melbourne. Aged just between 15 and 19, these three young people left a wake of grief behind them as family and friends struggled to deal with the loss of a small group of kids whose lives were just starting.

Being the 21^st century, the way people deal with grief is markedly different from when I was growing up, and as one would expect from the younger generation, friends set up a Facebook page as a memorial and place where people could leave their condolences.

What the people who set up the account didn’t expect, and shouldn’t have to put up with, was a group of thoughtless, mean-spirited people leaving horrible and upsetting messages on the site, for what appears to be their own petty amusement.

Unfortunately Facebook has refused to shut down the site, which they don’t have to, but doesn’t make the grieving friends feel any better.

At the end of the day, this type of thing says more about the people who put up this kind of disturbing material and shows just how hateful and selfish some people can be.

Spoke to Chris Allen on A Current Affair last night about 3D television and how this technology will have an ever-increasing presence on the retail landscape over the next 12 months when vendors roll out their latest stock in about June.

There is no doubt in my mind that this technology will be the norm within the next 3-5 years, so it was interesting to get the perspective of retail outlets.

What Chris also talked about was the great deals you can now get on LCD, plasma and LED televisions. Whether the prices are coming down due to too many players in the market, too much stock, or the looming debut of 3D television is open to debate. What I do know, is that the deals out there at the moment and you can now get a reasonably sized television for a good price.

It still pays to shop around though, and the ball is definitely in the consumer’s hands when it comes to getting your new home theatre kit set up.

Travelling around the various tech shows across the planet, I’ve often stopped by the Microsoft stand to see their touch technologies on display. The best by far has been ‘surface’, the interactive table top that means you navigate the internet and other digital worlds from your seat. A finger, two fingers, a glass or a business card, can all interact with the surface table top.

Microsoft is finally launching the technology in Australia. If you have used iPhone, then you can use Surface. It’s natural, it’s interesting and it works. It’s been a feature on my Today Show segments for some time and finally it’s here.

Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices Division for Microsoft, is here in Australia to launch the product and he says he first saw surface seven years ago. This gives some indication of how long it can take to develop this technology. It’s not just the technology, it’s the organisation of the community to take advantage of the technology and make it work for more people.

For you, it means a table – you sit down at your interactive seat, and the world of exploration begins. Microsoft has decided that sharing a table is just fine, because it is possible to have more than one person at the table at once.

The first app on show at the launch was a wine app, which would be of interest to wine bar owners. If you are at such a bar, the surface will give you information about the wine to help you with your order. What foods go with the wine? What wine will you like? The surface will interactively work with you to make your choice.

Surface, above everything else is addictive. Sit people in front of it and watch them touch, play and explore. I think that once the technology becomes more wide spread, and cheaper you will see Aussies everywhere enjoying the experience. You’d hope so with Surface – at $21,000 a pop…