By Nancy Johnson Horn, Editor
Last week I attended a lunch hosted by Techlicious, with LG, Philips, and TripIt at BLT Fish in NYC.
Techlicious founder Suzanne Kantra had some incredible stats for us.
34% of U.S. broadband households have a smart TV, which has increased 31% since last year — Source: Parks Associates
80% of flat panel TVs will be smart-enabled by the end of 2015 — Source: Parks Associates
12.7 million UHD 4K TVs are expected in 2014 vs. 1.9 million in 2013 – Source: NPD DisplaySearch
Tim Alessi of LG spoke to us about Ultra HD’s and Smart TV’s.
For more info go to LG.com.
Philips:
I’ll admit it, we’re also behind in our audio speaker use (we’re still old skool with a stereo system, and it’s not hooked up to our TV). Lindsay Woods of Philips taught us about soundbars, something I hadn’t known about before.
TVs are too thin to accommodate high-quality speakers. To create great sound, most speakers need to move volumes of air and with cabinets measure less than a pencil’s width thick, there just isn’t room. Soundbars are a great alternative and have really taken off, but they block the IR controls if placed in front of most TVs and tend to be on the big/bulky side. Soundbars are better for wall mounting.
There’s a new category of speaker: Soundbase – also known as the sound stand, speaker stand, and sound platform. The soundbases sit below the TV, so they don’t interfere with your remote. They can now accommodate big screen TVs.
Some have integrated subwoofers, Blu-ray players and the smarts to run apps like Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Instant Video.
TripIt:
If you aren’t familiar, TripIt is a wonderful travel organizing app that creates a master itinerary so you can access all your travel plans, any time, on any device. Did you know that 40% of online traffic related to travel queries now comes from mobile devices? Plus 44% of travelers use their smartphone to research travel while they’re traveling, according to the JiWire Report.
With TripIt (free), you can:
- Organize all your travel plans in one place with master itineraries for every trip
- Simply forward all your flight, hotel, car rental, and restaurant confirmation emails
- to plans@tripit.com
- View your detailed TripIt itineraries any time, on any device
- Sync your TripIt travel plans with your favorite online or mobile calendar
- Selectively share itineraries or specific travel plans with family, friends, and colleagues
- via email or text
- Add or edit plans with ease
Trip It Pro does everything that Trip It does, but also does way more than just organize your travel plans. It also alerts, monitors, notifies, tracks, and shares — so you’re always in the know, on the go. You might be able to find some of these features in other apps and sites, but with TripIt Pro you get them all in one place.
Win It!
We’re giving away 2 Trip It Pro subscriptions, each good for 1 year. That’s a $49 value each.
Enter Below
Thank you Techlicious, and sponsors LG, Philips, and TripIt for a great lunch and gift bag.
beth says
I went to Turkey in April
Nellie @ Brooklyn Active Mama says
going on a lot of trips this year so I would love to try this out!
Kerri says
We just came back from North Carolina. I need to find out more about Techlicious.
Gemarla says
I like the TripIt app. Seems very useful for us, since we go away so often. Will definitely check it out!
Kris says
I am still on my trip in California 🙂