Although Blu-ray seems like the ultimate in futuristic home technologies right now, it will look like a dinosaur by 2013. By that time, streaming content from the Internet and from room to room will be relatively commonplace, and the idea of spinning a plastic disc to watch a movie will seem positively archaic.
Currently, only a minority of tech-savvy power users practice streaming media from one room to another. They use products such as the Sonos Music Bundle, and the D-Link Media Extender, Apple TV, and the new Roku Netflix Player. And while the Apple TV has achieved a modest degree of success, it hasn't sold as well as Apple had originally hoped. It seems that most people simply aren't ready to stream videos and music throughout their homes.
But as HD media downloads become more popular, streaming set-top boxes that carry video and music should ride the wave, displacing Blu-ray and even the tried-and-true method of carrying iPod docks from one room to another.
The widespread adoption of streaming media will have other positive impacts on your household -- it will reduce living room clutter, and, by extension, nagging spouse syndrome.
Table of contents from the Industry Standard special feature, Ten Technologies from the Digital Home of 2013:
- Introduction: What your future really looks like: The Digital Home of 2013
- 1. The Digital Home of 2013: High-speed telecommunications
- 2. The Digital Home of 2013: It's an HD world
- 3. The Digital Home of 2013: Gaming gets real
- 4. The Digital Home of 2013: Reach out and touch something
- 5. The Digital Home of 2013: Automated home control
- 6. The Digital Home of 2013: Green goes mainstream
- 7. The Digital Home of 2013: Welcome to the cloud
- 8. The Digital Home of 2013: The rise of streaming media
- 9. The Digital Home of 2013: Online distribution of TV, movies
- 10. The Digital Home of 2013: Collaborating across town, and across the world
- Sidebar: The castoff home technologies of 2013?
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