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| EMagazine Volume 6 Issue 1 Feb / Mar 2001 |
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Toys Editorial - February 2001 - [HTI Home Page] |
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Believe
it or not this is the 27th issue of this Emagazine. And things have changed
amazingly for us at HomeToys and for this industry. I went to CES 2001 earlier
this month and have been able to see and test a few of the awesome Home Toys
that are starting to emerge. From 45's to LP's to 8-Tracks to Cassettes to CD's
to Mini Disks to Electronic 1's and 0's floating in space (MP3's) ... music has
come a long long way. In my opinion MP3 music is the most impressive advancement
in Home Entertainment in my lifetime (and that's a big chunk of history as we
know it). I'm sitting here writing this editorial while listening to a random
selection of my complete music selection (150 hours) ... including a bunch of
Woodstock selections thanks to Napster ... excellent sound quality (look Ma no
hiss) ... coming from a device that's smaller than an 8 track tape. And ... if I
get tired ... I can pick it up and go for a bike ride without missing a beat ...
or flick on the stereo amp and broadcast it to the whole neighborhood. This is
all made possible by Creative's Nomad
Jukebox.
Next most impressive Home Toy ... how about the Orinoco wireless residential gateway that I'm using with my laptop. Need to get a file from the home office network with some notes about this editorial ... ethernet speed ... got it ... even though I'm sitting out on the porch sipping a mint julep :-) What is the stock market doing ... open browser ... my.yahoo.com ... Greenspan just lowered the interest rate and the market took a dive ... read the story about it ... check prices again ... now they're up ... what does my horoscope say ... "Financial opportunities abound, but they may be colored by a deadline of some sort." ... honest ... that's what it says. Check the weather for the weekend ... looks pretty good considering it's February ... OK ... back to work on this editorial. Oops ... forgot to send email to my son to let him know that we'll be visiting on the weekend ... OK done and I see that one of the articles in this issue needs some editing (email from the author) ... now back to work for sure. All this occurs at ethernet speed (11 Mbit/s) without any wires attached to my computer ... now that's impressive I think. Now I remember why I started this business ... all I really wanted was the opportunity to play with some fun toys.
My
point ... cool stuff is starting to arrive on the scene ... finally. I think the
standards wars and technology races are nearing an end and we ... the people ...
are starting to benefit with some amazing opportunities to enhance our
lifestyles. Have a look at some more toys we found. My youngest son Brandon did
some scouting around and wrote about what he liked at CES
2001. Also have a look at
Navin Sabharwal's Outlook for 2001
for some insight into what we have in store.
This month there are a wide variety of articles on topics from Home Entertainment Control to Internet Long Distance telephone services. Many thanks to those who contributed to the effort as well as our advertisers and supporters who help make it all possible.
Don't forget to check out the new "Learning Center". This resource will help people with all levels of experience get more out of what HomeToys has to offer. Just choose your level of expertise from a list ... Beginner / DIY / Home Planning / Builder / Designer etc. and you'll be presented with a series of links to articles / reviews / libraries etc. that will help you find and learn what interests you. We will keep it up to date with new content as it becomes available and as always we welcome your input. If you think we can improve the resource or you have suggestions of things to ad please email me at bobh@hometoys.com .
The next issue theme is Free for All 2001. If you have any knowledge or ideas ... let's hear about them. New products launching ... new technologies emerging ... What's New and Important to the Home Automation and Networking world??? Share your knowledge and experience by sending an article to news@hometoys.com
Special thanks to all of our Mentors for their input for this issue. New articles from David Gaw - Residential Gateways , Wayne Caswell - Data Networking and Reza Raji - Home Control Networks. Would you like to become a mentor in your area of expertise? Please email bobh@hometoys.com if you do.
As always I ask that if you like HomeToys and what we provide for you ... the best way to show it is to support our advertisers and sponsors. Click those banners and check out these Hot Products. For those of you in the industry who would like a presence at HomeToys, we have several ad opportunities available which are both creative and effective. Click here to see the options and help us spread the word.
Enjoy!
