Editorials

For part II of our pre-CES coverage we wanted to talk about some of the hype that goes into the largest consumer electronics show in the United States. I am not just talking about holding it in Las Vegas where the Elvis Impersonators and alcohol flows; I am talking about the lengths companies go to get people of all ages interested. The most common methods are of course the free stuff and the booth babes (which always end up being a big hit with the tech sites). In some cases companies resort to the allure of famous personalities.

When we first started following the collective that is called Anonymous we noted that there would come a time when any breach or hack would be thrown at their feet. This has now started to happen as the media (who has never really understood the situation) attempts to appear informed on the social hacking that is taking place in the world today. On December 25th the group AntiSec (a group formerly part of Anonymous) hacked into the Strategic Forecasting Website and the servers behind it.

Over the course of the next few weeks you will read dozens of articles on the web and in print talking about the top technology and how this or that product shaped the market. However, no matter how impressive the technology was there was one thing that shaped the world of consumer electronics more than anything else. The lawsuit; it is a simple and unfortunate fact that patent and copyright lawsuits had a bigger impact on the consumer electronic market than any 5 products put together.

Despite being delayed until sometime next year the vote on SOPA is still fresh in many people’s minds. Just recently GoDaddy came under fire for their support of the bill. One of their primary accounts (Cheezburger, the group behind I Can Haz Cheezburger) has threatened to pull its 1000+ domains if GoDaddy does not stop its support of the SOPA Bill.GoDaddy has now officially pulled their support (go figure) for SOPA.