Welcome to another edition of What We’re Reading, Marxent’s weekly series featuring staff members highlighting the best articles, videos, music and more they saw over the prior 7 days. This week, those finds included stories from YouTube, Biz Tech, ESPN, and many more. Up first, it’s …
The Best Thing We Read This Week
It was a big week in New York City, as the annual National Retail Federation’s Big Show descended on the Jacob Javitz Center for three days of electrifying demos, speechifying, and elbow-rubbing with all of retail’s biggest players. More than 30,000 people attended the event, where north of 1000 businesses showcased their latest and greatest retail innovations. Wireless point of sale solutions? Check. VR retail breakthroughs? Check. Giant wisecracking robot shaking hands with the crowd? Checkmate!
Marxent was on hand, demoing our latest Virtual Reality and Touchscreen Showroom retail solutions. It was hard work, sure, but it was also a blast. And it was a lot to process. Which is why we’ve been spending the second half of this week reading all the press that came out of the event.
The Best Thing We Watched This Week
Last weekend’s Cowboys-Packers playoff showdown was the BEST football game of the 2016 season thus far. (Could there be a better game? Sure, I guess. Don’t ask me how, though.) Green Bay ran out to a big lead, Dallas rallied, the 4th quarter featured the kind of back-and-forth action that gives Roger Goodell morning wood. The game came down to a series of long field goals interrupted by another Aaron Rogers pass that defies the laws of both physics and common sense. The NFL has been under fire all year — Brady’s controversial suspension, the continued flood of concussion stories, etc. — but for one January afternoon/evening, the Cowboys and Packers reminded everyone watching why we love this game in the first place. And now it’s on to the conference championships!
Go on, keep reading
A company called Eonite has unveiled a new kind of low-cost sensor for Virtual Reality. The technology makes real-time obstacle detection possible, and will even track the user through multiple rooms. Very cool tech that we can’t wait to see in action.
Ah, the chicken nugget: the cornerstone of every 5-year-old’s diet. But which fast food eatery has the best one? Would you believe Wendy’s?
And Finally …
Attention Potterheads: A video posted Monday offers a terrific behind-the-scenes look at Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Fans of the Harry Potter books/films will be thrilled by what Universal has constructed. (I was there in November and was blown away, and I’m not even a fan!) So click play and see the magic that goes in to bringing Hogwarts, Gringotts Bank and Ollivander’s wand shop to life.
