“The vision of a digital home in which music and video is streamed between devices is still 10 years away, says a leading music technology businessman,” Darren Waters reports for BBC News.
“John MacFarlane, chief executive of Sonos, said neither consumers nor the technology itself were ready,” Waters reports. “Sonos makes wireless (wi-fi) music streaming systems, aimed at customers who want to listen to their digital music around the house.”
“Apple and Microsoft are among many firms betting on the digital home,” Waters reports. “Apple manufactures a device, called the AirPort Express [with AirTunes], which plugs into a hi-fi system and lets users broadcast or ‘stream’ their music from a PC or Mac via a wireless network.”
Waters reports, “About one in six homes have a home network in North America, according to a recent report from Forrester Research.”
“The report’s author, Charles S. Golvin, said: “Most networks simply enable basic PC activities like broadband, file and printer sharing. ‘The shift to the entertainment-centric network remains well into the future.’ According to Forrester, only one in five people who have a home network actually use it to listen to music,” Waters reports. “And of people who do not have a home network, one in six said it was because they did not understand what one was.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dirty Pierre le Punk” for the heads up.]
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
I got my grandparents set up with airport express for their whole house from their iMac. They forgot the next day and never use it.
I enjoy it though.
But, he’s right.
This whole “digital-home” concept will have to be easy and straightforward in order for any kind of mainstream adoption to occur. I don’t believe that Microsoft and its OEM partners can’t make that happen, but I’m sure Apple can. All they would need to do is add a room selector to the Front Row application and they’re done. It’s funny to see friends and family “ooh and aah” at my home iMac when I hit the remote and play a HD movie trailer I downloaded. They absolutely love it and then wonder why their Dells can’t do the same.
Jim, I have that shirt….
Most people can’t afford a home, let alone a digital one. Heh!
Apple can have my credit card the day they produce a true media system. I’m waiting.
who gives a crap about being digital, tv sucks, internet sucks, phones suck, everything sucks. I rather live in a rainforest or in a cave next to a fresh water fall with no technology near me.
Who gives a crap about the digital home, I want my freakin flying car!
“I got my grandparents set up with airport express for their whole house from their iMac. They forgot the next day and never use it.”
AG Pennypacker, did you perhaps write this article about setting up a computer for your grandmother?
http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/linuxbeat3.htm
(Funny!)
macromancer:
I want a stealth flying car with six side mounted 0.5 caliber machine guns, for purely defensive purposes, of course.
In a utopian society we would all have a need for a digital home network setup with streaming this and that.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your perspective), we are more than 10 years away from this.
For those that can afford (involving time & money here.) the convenience, we are there today. It just takes a little thought & effort to set up a non-standard setup. Apple definitely makes this the easiest with their hard & software.
For the remaining Techno-peasants, forgetabout’em.
I have 2 kids in gradeschool and a hundred home improvement & maintenance projects on the back burner. My AC/DC & Tom Petty CD’s are in the basement next to a box of analog sound equipment with dry-rotted speakers. I myself have no time to sit in my livingroom flicking between Madonna Videos and bootleg Jackass Video clips while sipping on Kalifornia Koolers.
MW – business.
I second dennis’s link. If you have any desire to see the inner workings of a linux geek, try this. I warn you its not pretty.
http://www.divisiontwo.com/articles/linuxbeat3.htm
LOL! I thought this was a joke but I think the guy is dead serious. It just shows you that linux people have no idea what the hell anybody wants. That poor grandma is going to be so confused and will immediately lose interest in everything related to computers. That box is going to sit in the corner and collect dust while she boots up the mac to run claris works. What an idiot.
I networked my home (in Oz) when I had it built in 1997 (i.e. ran Cat 5 cable throughout.) Most thought I was mad, but over the coming years, many came to understand why I did it, and despite wireless being introduced since then, cables are still faster when copying huge volumes of data at a time (at least at the moment.)
I’m ready and have been waiting for the Digital Home. I think it would have been here ages ago if DRM hadn’t been the primary focus of companies’ interests. Pity really.
(And I love how they blame the consumer as “not being ready” etc, but really, lots of consumers are ready, it’s the companies who aren’t coz they haven’t figured out how to screw $$ out of you and have you repay for stuff you might already own! e.g LPs -> CDs)
Re: linuxbeat3 link
What an idiot! The guy left off the most important piece of software Grandma would use – Basilisk.
Jay, I think you’ll find divisiontwo is a joke site.
As an example, the main page contains a link to this site (which was created by them):
http://www.dellrumors.com/
Classic!!!
Other pages on divisiontwo’s site are just as amusing, esp. the G5 laptop rumor.
“About one in six homes have a home network in North America, according to a recent report from Forrester Research.”
I’m surprised the numbers are that high. What segment of the population did they use for their analysis? Interesting, I would have thought it to be much lower than 16%. Although, within range of my home there are three unsecured networks I *could* access for free Wi-Fi if I wanted too. And no, I wouldn’t because I have a much faster BB connection.