10 Comparisons Between Star Trek and Modern Technologies

For those of us who were around to watch the original Star Trek series on television, we remember thinking how cool it would be to have some of the great gadgets they used. The future is now! Many of their ‘futuristic’ ideas have become available in some form, since then.

1. Communicators to cell phones – Flip open devices that allowed you to communicate with others from almost any location. Of course, there was the occasional atmospheric interference that cut off your connection to the other person. Lots of similarities in these two.
2. PADDs to tablet computers - Personal access display devices were used in Star Trek: The Next Generation. They were flat panel touch screen devices that were used for a multitude of tasks and gaining access to all kinds of information. Although the PADDs were a bit undefined at the time, they have definite similarity to the ipad and other tablet computers.
3. Ear piece headset to bluetooth technology – Wireless headsets were worn on the bridge of the Enterprise. They were small and attached to one ear. Bluetooth headsets are used in environments today that are not near as sophisticated as the star ship’s command deck.
4. Portable data disks to floppy disks/data drives – Thin, small pieces of plastic were inserted into the computer consoles of the star ship, which were close in size to the 3-1/2 floppy disk. Today we have even smaller USB data drives for transporting data.
5. Voice commands to voice commands – The ability to give verbal commands to electronics is a true reality today, even though it isn’t used as often as it was on Star Trek. Computers and many cell phones have the capability of being directed by voice command.
6. Tricorder to modern thermometers – The tricorder could scan a person’s body and provide readings on a number of different things. There have been some similar devices created, but the closest one to be seen in many homes today is the modern digital ear thermometer. The thought of getting a temperature reading from an infant so easily was not even thought of by mothers during the first years of Star Trek.
7. Transporter to GPS – No, we haven’t been able to ‘beam’ anyone up or down, but we can locate people just as specifically with a GPS as the transporter was able to lock into the location of people it was called on to retrieve.
8. Diagnostic scan to CAT, MRI and ultrasound – Dr. McCoy could lay you on his diagnostic table and perform a scan of your body to come up with a diagnosis. We use several different scanning technologies for diagnosis today.
9. Phasers to Tasers – In Star Trek, they pointed their phasers at the enemy and were able stun or disable them with a blast of energy. The reaction to being struck by a taser looks very similar to what you saw by those who had been hit by the beam of a phaser on the television show.
10. Video Screen Communication to Skype – We may not talk to people on a screen quite the size of the one Captain Kirk used on the Enterprise, but we easily communicate from screen to screen using Skype. The big screens are used, though, for teleconference speaking, all the time.

No one guessed at the time that Star Trek first aired, just how fast some of those technologies would develop. We still aren’t traveling at ‘warp speed’, and we haven’t found the Vulcan’s with those pointed ears, but Spock could show up any day now.

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Netflix rises as studios' DVD money plunges

Not long ago, ambitious young executives at the six major Hollywood film studios maneuvered to get into the home entertainment divisions.

Nowadays, getting assigned to home entertainment is like being sent to the Eastern front. Better to work in theatrical distribution, international, or maybe studio facilities. Recently, I spoke with an executive from one of the big studios who, while discussing the challenges of working in the film industry, noted there was one silver lining: "At least I don't work in home entertainment."

The home-entertainment divisions at the studios typically oversee sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs as well as Internet distribution. But the DVD has long been synonymous with these units for the simple reason that the discs account for the vast majority of revenues. This week, Sony, Time Warner, Viacom and News Corp., reported earnings and their film divisions continue to see falling DVD sales.

For the quarter ended December 31, Paramount Pictures saw a 44 percent decline in home video revenue from the same period a year ago, according to Viacom, Paramount's parent company (don't people give DVDs as holiday gifts anymore?).

Bad films or dying format?
Time Warner, which owns Warner Bros. Pictures, generated $923 million in revenue from home video and electronic delivery of feature films. That was a 23.5 percent tumble from the $1.23 billion made during the prior-year quarter. Sony and News Corp., which operates 20th Century Fox, don't break out their home video numbers, but they both signaled that DVD sales were ailing. Sony reported that Sony Pictures suffered a 20 percent overall decline in "sales and operating revenue" in the quarter partly due to "lower home entertainment revenues from catalog product."

For two decades, DVDs and before it, VHS tapes, were a huge source of profit for the studios. DVD sales outpaced box office sales between 2002 and 2009. Barry McCarthy, Netflix's former chief financial officer, noted a couple years ago that the DVD was the most successful consumer product launch in history measured by penetration into U.S. households. He said five years after debuting, DVDs could be found in half of all U.S. households. But the garden years appear to be over, as consumers continue to show less and less interest in physical media and turn to the Web for entertainment.

In their earnings report, the studios blamed the poor quarterly performances in home entertainment on the high number of hit films they had during the prior year. The way the studios tell it, they produced a higher number of popular films in 2009 than they did in 2010 and that resulted in lower DVD sales. This explanation, however, doesn't jibe with box-office figures.

Overall ticket sales in 2010 were $10.5 billion, just shy of the record-setting $10.7 billion generated in 2009, according to Boxoffice.com, an online service that tracks theatrical revenue. There was plenty of popular films last year. What this suggests is that in a down economy, people continue to find enough money to go to the movies. What they're apparently cutting back on is DVDs.

Why own movies?
Now, contrast the studios' dismal quarterly numbers with Netflix's performance during the same period. The video-rental service, which mails DVDs to subscribers as well as streams films and TV shows over the Web, added 3 million subscribers in the quarter--largely on the growing popularity of its streaming service, the company said.

It's not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it shows significant numbers of consumers are moving to Netflix, a service that all but eliminates the need to own movies.

Netflix now has 20 million total subscribers, a 60 percent year-over-year increase. If Hollywood wants to know where the DVD money went, this would be a good place to start looking. It shouldn't be hard to figure out that Netflix is thriving because it provides consumers with what they want: convenience, control, and a good price. For $7.99 a month, a Netflix subscriber gets access to all of the service's streaming content. That's just a better deal, when a single DVD often costs twice that amount.

That Netflix offers an alternative to owning movies or paying for cable TV, may explain why Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes has criticized Netflix so much lately. Another reason could be that at this early stage, Web-video distribution doesn't appear to be the cash cow that DVD was in its heyday.

The good news is that not everybody at the studios sees Netflix and Web distribution as a threat. A group calling itself DECE--made up of film studios, software, and hardware makers and almost everybody else connected to film and TV--is trying to create a set of standards and specifications designed to make approved digital content playable on a wide range of certified devices. The standards are called UltraViolet.
Supporters say this could help mainstream consumers make the jump to streaming distribution. Critics say this is an attempt to wrest control of digital distribution away from users. Regardless of whether UltraViolet works, it's a sign that some at the studios see the end of the DVD coming and are preparing for that day.