#2 CES TV trend – curved screens
Yep, your flat screen in obsolete. What you need is a curved screen. So say the TV manufacturers. Why curved? The idea is that when you are sitting in the sweet spot watching your display it will look better if the whole screen is the same distance away from you. Obviously the bigger the screen the bigger the distance difference from the middle to the edge. Of course those on the periphery are SOL as you sit in your sweetness. No problem, some of these screens are “bendable”. They will curve and flatten out as needed. Ever been to an IMAX? Did you notice that the screen was curved? Phones are also going for the curved displays but for different reasons.
In this humble translator’s opinion, curved screens will be a need to have on the biggest top of the line models but will not de rigueur for the 
average living room display for a year or two. The curved screen with the 4K picture is a pretty noticeable upgrade to your living room TV. Dare I say it? It’s almost like 3D.
Most important thing you could learn about looking at all the new TVs at CES – they are connected
Many people want to see things on their TV that they don’t have on a disk
, that isn’t broadcast from a TV station. They want their stuff on the TV. For this to work, the TV has to be connected to the home network and the internet. This is not new. Most manufactures have been working on this for years. Unfortunately they all tried to position themselves at the content provider, “I will give you connectivity but use my apps, my services . . .”. TV manufactures are terrible application developers. The stuff on your computer or even you phone is 100 times better than what Sony or Panasonic will give you on their TVs. People like Roku popped up and did a far better job at giving you what you wanted on your TV. The manufactures had to change, they began offering the good services (Netflix) instead of their own home grown debacle but they still wanted to control the experience so they owned the app. Unfortunately they are still terrible app developers. Your phone’s version of Netflix might be updated and improved once a month. Your TV’s version is lucky to be updated ever in it’s life.
At CES this year a 2nd tier manufacture Hisense, announced they were selling a Roku TV. Roku would take care of what they are good at, building apps (updating them) and connecting to the most popular services and the TV manufacturer would worry about the hardware and building TVs. One TV, one remote, no boxes, all of your stuff the way you like it, that is the value proposition. Roku is taking this pitch to other manufacturers. I think there will be more than a couple that jump on board. The TV guys are figuring out that connectivity is approaching the top of the priority list and proprietary software differentiation is not the path to the promised land. Of course the old guard haven’t figured this out yet, but that’s what makes them the old guard.
The exact opposite is happening with companies like Tivo. Tivo’s real value is not building boxes with hard drives in them it’s creating software that makes it easy to watch what you want when you want it. Tivo will move away from making hardware and your Tivo “box” will be in the cloud. 
We talked about connected TVs, what about connected babies ? Intel is showing off a product that combines a onesie with built in sensors, a turtle transmitter and a smart coffee cup. The computer and wifi is in the turtle which can be moved from outfit to outfit. It connects to the green stripes across the front then transmits that info to a phone app or smart coffee cup. You can see the baby’s skin temperature, activity level and position with a glance at your Smartphone. Truth is stranger than fiction, this will be available next week. It will be $100 for 3 onesies, a turtle and the app. I think you are going to see these on the news shows.