Tag: mobile technology news

CES 2016: Skreens transforms your television into a media station

The company’s newest product, the Skreen Plus 4 provides a platform for all mobile devices on one screen.

At CES 2016, it’s not easy to stand out from among the thousands of products and gadgets, but Skreens managed to offer an incredible demo to differentiate itself from the rest of the exhibitors.

The company’s Skreen Plus 4 provides four HDMI input ports and one output to connect all devices to one screen.

The story behind Skreens began with a successful Kickstarter campaign in which it raised more than $470,000 in funding for itself. The result was an awesome demonstration for a product that offers a platform for viewing feed from all your various devices on your television screen. It may sound like a bit of a chaotic mess but its design offers users the ability to organize the display windows to best suit them.

In this way, Skreens can be used to toggle among all devices to give each full screen viewing as desired.

Skreens - Skreen Plus 4 at CES 2016This offers an incredible way to multitask all in one place. Think about it. You can watch a movie, play a game on a console, keep up with a stock or sports ticker and even view a Twitter feed all at the same time. As you want to give each screen priority, you can shuffle from one to the next, resizing windows and moving them around for your customized needs, or simply using pre-created layouts on screen.

Among the components of the demo that was most impressive was the way in which the hubs could be worked into a daisy chain to allow for an even larger number of layout and feed choices. It works smoothly regardless of whether you have four, a dozen, sixteen or more. In fact, the founder and CEO of the company said that if there does happen to be a limit to the number of hubs that can be added, “we haven’t found it, yet.” Moreover, he explained that these feeds can all be run simultaneously without any deterioration in performance, unless it has to do with the WiFi performance in the location. That said, it would not be the result of the Skreen Plus 4 device, itself.

Skreens will start shipping its Plus 4 devices in March, with a two-port option retailing for $249, or a four-port option retailing for $449.

The latest mobile technology isn’t enchanting all consumers

Some people feel that older smartphones offer them everything they need and are holding off upgrades.

The mobile technology industry’s smartphone segment is watching its sales slowing and it has been trying very hard to help to make sure consumers burn through their present devices as fast as they can so they will replace them with something new.

However, there is a chunk of the consumer market that isn’t interested in all the latest bells and whistles.

Despite the fact that carrying older forms of mobile technology, such as smartphones that are older than a couple of years or so, there is a sizeable group of consumers who aren’t taken in by all the efforts the smartphone industry is making to try to push them to drop their old tech in favor of larger screens, touchscreens without physical keyboards, or even non-flip phone designs. There are many different reasons that people are choosing to hang on to their older devices instead of upgrading – even when their mobile providers try to woo them with great upgrade deals in order to stick around with them for another year or two.

Many people find that they reach the point that they know and love the mobile technology they have.

Mobile Technology not impressing consumersThese individuals find that their devices perform all the tasks they need to complete and it stops them from handing even more of their lives over to a device they must carry around all the time.

The truth of the matter is that over 90 percent of smartphone owners change models within every span of two years. This, according to Ramon Llamas of IDC mobile phone trend tracking research firm. That said, there is a small but meaningful percentage of the population that is hanging onto their phones for three, four years or more.

While some people don’t want their devices to be as large as today’s typical offerings, others say that they aren’t actually all that impressed with the features currently being offered and they don’t see any reason to sign on to a new contract or hand over hundreds of dollars when their current mobile devices are still working.

Eventually, all mobile technology does need to be replaced in order to keep up with current standards, but it will be interesting to watch the replacement rates over years to come, and to see if people continue to want the latest or if they begin to hang on to what they already have as the novelty of novelty wears off.