DVR view: Fast forward or slo-mo? -- Industry observers and research firms say that digital video recorders are popular in the U.S., but there�s little they agree on beyond that, such as how quickly DVRs will reach critical mass and what effect the commercial-skipping gadgets will have on the TV advertising industry. Case in point: Research and consulting firm Accenture predicted late last week that DVRs will reach into 40 percent of U.S. homes by 2009, up from 8 percent today. Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, meanwhile, says in its latest five-year forecast that only 23.6 percent of U.S. households will boast DVRs in 2009. Accenture says up to 50 percent of all commercials are skipped in homes with DVRs, while PwC, citing a CBS study, says that 64 percent of DVR viewers skip all commercials, and 26 percent skip most of them. Accenture says that ad skipping will result in a slower-growing TV ad industry, while PwC�s �Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2005-2009� report concludes that, �on balance, we do not expect DVRs to have a significant impact on television advertising.�
Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is quietly becoming one of the most strategic short-range wireless technologies in the market, moving from niche deployments into the mainstream of smartphones, cars, and smart spaces. As the ecosystem matures and next-generation implementations arrive, UWB is shifting from nice-to-have to a foundational capability for secure access, sensing, and high-performance device-to-device connectivity. UWB Technology Market Development Unlike Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, or legacy IEEE 802.15.4 implementations, UWB combines three powerful attributes in a single radio: secure ranging, radar-like sensing, and low-latency, high-throughput short-range data. This allows networking and IT vendors to architect experiences that blend precise location, context awareness, and rich interaction in ways traditional connectivity stacks cannot easily match. According to the latest worldwide market study by ABI Research, UWB is expected to be one of the fastest-growing wireless connectivity...