The NPD Group’s Paul Gagnon and Ben Arnold presented “7 Ways the CE Consumer Has Changed” in the last few years. U.S. consumer attitudes and behaviors changed from early-pandemic lockdown to the slow reopening, and then the fear of inflation and recession. In general, consumers are buying more for individuals than for shared home experiences, they have equipped themselves for remote work which may suppress future sales until they are ready to upgrade, and they buy when bargains appear even if they plan to actually open them for a holiday or special occasion. Read more

Nvidia announced during CES this week that it plans to roll out its RTX Video Super Resolution feature in February for web video content viewed through Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers. The company promises AI upscaling up to 4K quality, but the feature requires a PC running a Nvidia 30- or 40-series GPU. The technology — which can upscale video with resolution between 360p and 1440p, including 1080p, and up to a 144Hz frame rate — has already been available on Nvidia Shield TV and Shield TV Pro streaming media players. However, introducing browser support should significantly increase its audience. Read more

Nvidia will bring GeForce NOW cloud gaming to cars via Android and web browsers. At CES 2023 the company announced automakers Hyundai of South Korea, Sweden’s Polestar and Chinese EV maker BYD as the first streaming partners, with titles including “Cyberpunk 2077,” “The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt” and “Fortnite” among initial offerings. While Nvidia did not announce a launch date for the new service, it said GeForce NOW will “stream a real-time, full PC-gaming experience to software-defined cars.” The company added that in-vehicle gaming can “enhance time spent charging or riding in vehicles.” Read more

QuickVid is a new AI-driven text-to-video platform aiming for a mass market user base. The tool draws on various generative AI systems to automatically create short-form videos for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok and other platforms. Created by former Meta Platforms programmer Daniel Habib “in a matter of weeks,” QuickVid is quite rudimentary, though Habib says he plans to continue fine tuning and adding features. Unlike Google and Meta have done with their nascent text-to-video systems, QuickVid has bypassed the formalities of research papers and industry previews and jumped directly to a public-facing website. Read more

At Nvidia’s CES 2023 keynote, executives revealed new products and innovations in laptops, gaming, the omniverse, robotics and auto technology. Nvidia senior vice president of gaming Jeff Fisher focused on the company’s AI developments, emphasizing that, “AI will define the future of computing,” and adding that “this has influenced much” of what the company is showing at CES. He highlighted the company’s “new era of laptop computing,” powered by its Ada Lovelace architecture, GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUs and new 5th generation Max-Q technologies with DLSS 3 for quadrupled speed. Read more