How should you prepare your Home Theater in Los Angeles for 2012?

Dan was having a pretty good week at the start of this new year and decided to watch some TV on his Home Theater in Los Angeles. He took his mail with him and started opening it as he turned on the news with his Universal Remote.  After kicking off his shoes and letting out a big sigh, all was right in his world, Dan thought.  Unfortunately he then got to his American Express bill from Christmas and decided the world was just a bit more cruel than he wanted it to be at that moment.  However, a different thought then emerged when he remembered how much his family was enjoying the new technology that entered their home this past Christmas.  “What, if any, changes do I need to make to my Home Theater this upcoming year?”

At Technospeak, we spend a lot of time keeping current on all the latest technology trends.  As such, we know that new technologies and improved technologies are being released at a dizzying pace.  This can be a bit daunting for many to keep up with, but at the same time a bit stressful if there is a must-have technology that passes you right by.  As such, we thought it might be helpful for our clients to know of a few upcoming trends in technology we think we will see this year.

OLED TVs.  OLED TV technology has been around for many years, but due to the materials required to build it and the newness of the technology itself it has not been widely advertised.  This year might just prove to be different.  Both Samsung and LG will be releasing OLED TVs to the general public, claiming that they will forever change TV technology.  Now some of you might be saying “wait a minute, we already have LED TVs now don’t we?”  Well, technically we don’t, but $100 of millions of advertising dollars would tell you otherwise.

The reason is that today’s LED TVs are just LCD TVs with LED backlighting instead of the flourescent tubes that used to be used for backlighting.  But to make LCD with LED backlighting sound extra sexy, HDTV makers started calling them LED HDTVs, as if they were something different than LCD.  Unfortunately they are not.

OLED is completely different. OLED combines the color creating and the backlighting aspects of LED into a single, thin sheet. OLED is so thin that LG’s 55-inch HDTV measures a just 4mm thick and weighs 16.lbs.  That is about the thickness of a pencil and 1/3 the weight of LCD TVs with LED backlighting sold today.

Manufactures of OLED TVs are promising that one day, you may be able to roll up and carry an OLED HDTV like a yoga mat.

Faster Smartphones and Tablets.  Any size, shape, style or operating system at speeds that rival your current desktop computer. If 2010 was the year of the iPad and 2011 was the year of Android “copycats,” then 2012 will finally be the year of maturation. Tablet and tablet manufacturers finally are coming into their own on how to develop, build and market these devices. Be on the lookout especially for hybrid tablet/laptops and Windows 8 tablet prototypes.   Windows 8 you say?  Yes’s that’s the rumor from those close to Microsoft.

Ultrabooks. Ultrabooks are ultra-powerful ultra-thin laptops.  Apple beat the PC world to the punch with the 2010 MacBook Air, but with Intel’s new Core i-series CPUs hitting a sweet spot, more PC vendors are jumping on board to build ultra-powerful and ultra-thin mobile computers. Expect competing specifications on thickness, weight, CPU power and battery consumption to dominate the scene. If you’re a PC user, there may never be a better time to be shopping for an Ultrabook.

Apps in your Car.  Like it or hate it, your car will be more connected than ever this year.  Companies like Ford are introducing a cloud-connected concept car that can beam data between cars and sync your schedule and music from home.  Other manufacturers will also be showing off apps that can help with auto collision avoidance, land drift assistance, parking, speed monitoring, hands-free, text-to-voice, driver drowsiness detection and more.

Apple iTV.  One of the more anticipated releases in 2012 is Apple’s long-rumored LCD HDTV. Among the expected hardware benefits of an Apple HDTV will be built-in Wi-Fi, built-in webcam and Facetime video telephony, a powerful custom processor so it’ll be as much computer as TV (essentially an iMac for the living room), ability to run all iPad and iPhone apps – especially games controlled by an iPad or iPhone, which will give video game console makers more sleepless nights, and voice control via Siri and the iPhone.