Consumer technology these days is the Incredible Ego Machine.

Exhibit I:

Sony Bets on a Countertop View of the Web

From the WSJ review by Katherine Boehret:

This week, I tested a product that represents Sony’s attempt to wade into a new category: the $200 Dash (sony.com/dash). This gadget, labeled by the company as a Personal Internet Viewer, is like a digital photo frame on steroids. It’s meant to run in the background of your life, cycling through on-screen data, slide-show style, while sitting on a kitchen counter, desk or nightstand.

Sort of like the crawl across the bottom of the screen on ESPN, CNN, or NECN.

Except the Sony version is MECN.

Huh. That’s pathetic.