“Steve has forever been the sort of countercultural guy,” said David Wertheimer, who worked at Apple and NeXT and is now CEO at the Entertainment Technology Center at the University of Southern California.

“Apple from the earliest days made a decision to court the creative community,” he said. “There’s something really powerful about talking to creative people in a creative language. You capture a group of people who have a great way to express themselves, and an active imagination. … That helped create this whole mystique. Steve embodied that.”

Jobs is “hugely opinionated, which helps him create big ideas,” Wertheimer said.

“He’s not quick to let go of ideas that he creates. If you disagree with him, you have to work very hard to get him to come around to your point of view. He can be very difficult. Incredibly smart and keen sense of what consumers want and will respond to.”

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If CES showed us anything, it’s that 3D is coming in full force by 2010. USC’s Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) is a place where all facets of the emerging technology come together in one place. Sponsored by major Hollywood studios, several television manufacturers and even a few car companies (Audi and Volkswagen), ETC is a lab dedicated to the understanding, standardizing and furthering of 3D in the home. The lab is involved in everything from focus groups, to panels that put Hollywood execs face to face with students, to 3D health studies.

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Last week the University of Southern California (USC) published a report suggesting that after seeing a 3-D film in the cinema in 2009, 40% of people would prefer to watch television in 3-D, too. “It will quickly become the new norm,” said David Wertheimer, director of USC’s entertainment technology centre. “It’s no longer a gimmick, but an expectation.”

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“Only a minority of films will be able to justify those costs, even in 10 years,” says David Wertheimer, CEO of USC Entertainment Center in the report.

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No manufacturer we asked would say one way or another, although two other sources (the head of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center, as well as Bruce Berkoff of the LCD TV association) said they do not.

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Do 3D TVs use more power?

No manufacturer we asked would say one way or another, although two other sources (the head of USC’s Entertainment Technology Center, as well as Bruce Berkoff of the LCD TV association) said they do not. On the other hand, it’s true that the active LC shutter glasses effectively block half of the light arriving from the screen, and the lenses are not entirely transparent to begin with, so logically a TV displaying a 3D image could use more power than the same TV to produce a 2D image of equivalent brightness. But it’s just too early to know until we can test one.

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There’s no doubt that 3D will take over Hollywood and movie theaters. It is on its way to becoming the movie going norm. David Wertheimer, director of USC’s entertainment technology centre says “It’s no longer a gimmick, but an expectation.”

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With the combined advent of 3DTVs headed to stores later this year, I do believe that 3D is here to stay, but I’m reluctant to agree with David Wertheimer, the director of the University of South California’s entertainment technology center when he says “It will quickly become the new norm. It’s no longer a gimmick, but an expectation.” Perhaps for big-budget blockbusters, but the technology still remains far too expensive for all the other movies.

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With the combined advent of 3DTVs headed to stores later this year, I do believe that 3D is here to stay, but I’m reluctant to agree with David Wertheimer, the director of the University of South California’s entertainment technology center when he says “It will quickly become the new norm. It’s no longer a gimmick, but an expectation.” Perhaps for big-budget blockbusters, but the technology still remains far too expensive for all the other movies.

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