“The Internet of Everything!” Please let’s make The Internet of Everything Bowl (featuring two 7-5 teams, natch) happen this year (around Dec. 23, natch). (Photo credit: The Verge)
So, the CES is happening now in Las Vegas — the big annual conference that highlights consumer electronics — and Qualcomm had the honors of delivering Monday night’s keynote presentation. Lovingly documented by The Verge, the presentation featured:
* Three actors depicting hip new youth in a way that makes The CW look PBS-staid by comparison
* Big Bird alongside a man wearing what appears to be a Big Bird pelt
* Maroon Five, with Dido overdubbed on the feed (creating a decidedly different experience for those in the arena vs. the rest of the world)
* Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer doing the Running Man (literally)
* Guillermo del Toro showing a room full of a technology professionals a slashery vampire scene from Blade II
* Bishop Desmond Tutu
* An electric-powered Rolls Royce
All of this (especially jumbled into one presentation) is sort of over-the-top awesome, hatched up by a team no doubt wanting to make a splash, and ending up making a different sort of Twitter-snarky splash. (Really, the best part of The Verge’s coverage is using tweets to help narrate the evening’s programming.)
At the end of the day, though, phrases like “Born Mobile,” “Generation M” (or, worse, “Gen M”), and “The Internet of Everything” has the unmistakable waft of marketers trying too hard to make hip lingo happen. Mobile’s an increasingly important technological sector, to be sure, but today’s youth are never, ever going to call themselves Gen M. (But then again, we’re also skeptical that Kimye will stick as a name for Prince Kanye and Princess Kim.)
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