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CES 2016: Skreens transforms your television into a media station

Denny | January 8, 2016

The company’s newest product, the Skreen Plus 4 provides a platform for all mobile devices on one screen.

At CES 2016, it’s not easy to stand out from among the thousands of products and gadgets, but Skreens managed to offer an incredible demo to differentiate itself from the rest of the exhibitors.

The company’s Skreen Plus 4 provides four HDMI input ports and one output to connect all devices to one screen.

The story behind Skreens began with a successful Kickstarter campaign in which it raised more than $470,000 in funding for itself. The result was an awesome demonstration for a product that offers a platform for viewing feed from all your various devices on your television screen. It may sound like a bit of a chaotic mess but its design offers users the ability to organize the display windows to best suit them.

In this way, Skreens can be used to toggle among all devices to give each full screen viewing as desired.

Skreens - Skreen Plus 4 at CES 2016 This offers an incredible way to multitask all in one place. Think about it. You can watch a movie, play a game on a console, keep up with a stock or sports ticker and even view a Twitter feed all at the same time. As you want to give each screen priority, you can shuffle from one to the next, resizing windows and moving them around for your customized needs, or simply using pre-created layouts on screen.

Among the components of the demo that was most impressive was the way in which the hubs could be worked into a daisy chain to allow for an even larger number of layout and feed choices. It works smoothly regardless of whether you have four, a dozen, sixteen or more. In fact, the founder and CEO of the company said that if there does happen to be a limit to the number of hubs that can be added, “we haven’t found it, yet.” Moreover, he explained that these feeds can all be run simultaneously without any deterioration in performance, unless it has to do with the WiFi performance in the location. That said, it would not be the result of the Skreen Plus 4 device, itself.

Skreens will start shipping its Plus 4 devices in March, with a two-port option retailing for $249, or a four-port option retailing for $449.

Mobile technology in Australia is causing a surprising waste

Denny | January 5, 2016

Nearly 35 percent of smartphone owners will update their handsets this year, regardless of current device function.

In Australia, the Deloitte mobile customer survey has revealed that regardless of whether or not the current mobile technology is still fully functional, 35 percent of smartphone owners will be updating their handsets at some point this year.

Nearly half of all mobile phone owners will be holding onto their current devices instead of trading them in or selling.

That said, when it comes to the same mobile technology survey, it appears that many Australians are hanging onto their old devices when they’re not using them anymore. While 48 percent plan to keep their current smartphones and continue using them, this year, 27 percent will give them away to someone else who can use them. Another 15 percent will recycle their old devices and 8 percent will sell them. Two percent plan to replace their devices because they have gone missing.

With only 15 percent selling their devices after they don’t need them, Australians are skipping an opportunity to make money.

When comparing this trend to the rest of the world, it is Singapore that is the region with the largest number of people who sell their old device models. Among them, 26 percent have done so. In second place is the United Kingdom, where 21 percent of device owners will be selling their gadgets when they replace them. Japan is not far behind, with 20 percent taking part in this online selling opportunity. In Germany, 16 percent will do so. Australia is ahead of only Canada, where only 13 percent of consumers will sell their used devices when they purchase new ones this year.

According to Jeremy Drumm, the lead author of the Deloitte report, a surprisingly large number of Australians simply tuck their older smartphone models into a drawer when they replace them. The majority do so in order to make sure they have a replacement quickly available if anything should happen to their newer model.

That said, this means that the mobile technology isn’t benefiting a friend or family member and it is not being sold in order to make a bit of money and provide someone else with an affordable device. This trend suggests that there is a considerable amount of waste being generated by the current device replacement habits in the country.