CES 2021 Recap

It’s a wrap: all-digital CES 2021 is in the books!  I have to say that for a virtual conference, it was very impressive.  If I had to choose which company really brought it, Samsung is at the top of my list.  Their keynote primarily focused on where we have always spent most of our time: HOME.  From gadgets that help cook, clean, stay fit, and feed your pets…much props to their adjusting to the times we live in!

Hopefully you were able to get a chance to drop in and see all the greatness CES has to offer!

 

CES 2021

Personally, this time of year is filled with much excitement and anticipation in making the early morning drive from SoCal to Las Vegas to arrive shortly before the opening of the convention floor waiting to view the latest offerings tech companies from all around the world for the next 3 or 4 days.  Unfortunately those plans will have to be on hiatus (hopefully for only this year) due to the pandemic however kudos to CTA (the organization that runs CES) in putting together the first ever virtual, all digital, distance conferencing (ok I made the last one up lol) …

Bottom line, even though I’ll miss exploring all that CES has to offer in person I’m glad that we have the technology available to ensure that the show will go on!

Here’s to CES 2021!  Enjoy!

Let the best docking station win

As a result of the current COVID-19 pandemic being experienced worldwide, many of us around the world have been forced to step our game up when it comes to our WFH setup.  And as Ed Bott explains in his latest article here discussing the topic at hand, we initially thought working from home would be a short term thing but reality is (and for me personally its already been over 5 months and counting…) this is going to be a long term proposition that has no end in sight.

If you were (or worse yet, still!) using a laptop to conduct your WFH business daily, consider purchasing a docking station that will convert your device into one that will bring convenience, comfort, and higher productivity for now and in the foreseeable future amid this pandemic.

Nvidia > Intel

If someone were to tell me ten years ago that in 2020, Nvidia would be worth more than Intel in terms of market capitalization value I would have thought you were crazy.

We’ll today, that exact thing just happened…

According to Marketwatch via PCGamer.com, Nvidia has a net worth of $251 billion dollars with Intel checking in at around $248 billion.

My how the tables have turned!

Should Microsoft make their own CPUs?

In light of Apple’s decision to move away from Intel processors, many in the industry have been asking: should Microsoft also follow suit in manufacturing their own as well?  While they have a past history in doing just that (see the short-lived Surface RT), Brien Posey at Redmondmag.com makes the case that they should not and continue building their relationship with Intel and other chip makers.

See his article here for the full story and feel free to chime in on whether this would be a good thing for Microsoft to do.  Enjoy!

Virtual vs In-Person Conferences

A few years back, I remember reading an article discussing how the trouble of attending a tech conference in-person far outweighs the benefits that could come from it.  Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced practically all well known tech conferences to shift to a virtual format at least for the remainder of this year.  Ironically enough, the organization that runs CES (shown in the featured image) plans to hold the show as scheduled in early January 2021 while adopting physical distancing and cleanliness measures.

As the pandemic has continued keeping me work from home since March, one bright side of this is that almost all the companies that throw these huge (and expensive) conferences have shifted to a virtual format that’s free for attendees and others like myself who would not have been able to attend.  Still, despite the great advances in technology that have made virtual conferences possible, the social interaction that us humans need is something only that an in-person conference can bring.

Kurt Mackie has written an article that gives his perspective on attending in-person conferences and makes no apologies about what his preference is; I have to say that I mostly agree with him.  Check out his article here and here’s to hoping that at this time next year, in-person conference will be back and safe to attend.

Issues with Zoom

Amid all the security and privacy concerns regarding Zoom and the subsequent hacking of it that has randomly taken place, their CEO has responded via a blog post on the company’s website detailing the issue at hand.

Although this doesn’t absolve them at all, it’s definitely a good first step in working towards making the necessary changes to give their 200 or so million users some peace of mind.

Check out the post here for more details!

COVID-19 and working from home

 

Just came across a great article by Susan Bradley from Askwoody.com who does an awesome job of explaining the challenges that come with being forced to work from home.  My two main takeaways is 1) how will businesses meet the challenge of making this as convenient as possible for its workers and 2) how will workers be able to balance this new normal given that school-aged children are also home bound as well and need to meet their educational goals?

Check out the full article here for more details!

Verizon joins the free data party! (finally)

In order to help customers impacted by the coronavirus epidemic, the company will be giving an additional 15GB of data for free.

Whether you’re a regular consumer or a small business, you’ll be allowed to take advantage of this offer between March 25 and April 30.  As a Verizon subscriber, I greatly appreciate this however I wish that they would have jumped on the bandwagon much earlier and extend it for a longer period of time.

For more info on this, check out the post from Appleinsider.com here.

A closer look at the Modern Desktop

The latest buzz throughout the IT industry is about the ever changing landscape of its future, namely the shifting of all things towards cloud computing.

As more resources get redirected to the cloud, what does that mean for the average end user?  On the surface, you may think “mot much” but when you take a deep dive into the topic at hand, it is quickly realized that the expectations for productivity can increased being that whatever devices that are assigned to them can be managed and monitored at all times.

For a more detailed explanation, Paul Schnackenburg did a masterful job here in breaking down this shift towards what is now called the “Modern Desktop” along with its pros and cons on how it can and will affect us going forward…