New York’s Consumer Technology Showcase is held at the World Trace Center from June 12-14, 2008 in association with International CES in an effort to provide consumers with an overview of upcoming mobile deices, video games platforms and other technology devices and appliances. As of now visitors have enjoyed with hundreds of new products and interesting prototypes, among which we have brought for you the following report.
BENQ
BenQ, a company that was about to disappear of the technology scenario after its fusion with Siemens, is back with a non yet named prototype product, but it is basically fall into the Ultra Mobile Category that we are seeing around us lately. At BenQ’s Stand the only information available is that it comes packed with a RSS reader and it’s ideal for social network.
Gigabyte
Gigabyte upgrades your life… or at least is what the slogan of this Taiwanese company claims. Although Gigabyte develops a wide array of products such as mobile phones, server and storage facilities, PC peripherals, desktop PC, laptops and many more, its non-named yet prototype features another of the new and already popular Mobile Ultra PCs. This model is built with Intel Centrino Atom Processor and Linux operating system, featuring email and MSN Messenger facilities.
Lenovo
Lenovo is a company headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, with offices in China and Singapore, resulted from the acquisition of the IBM Personal Computing Division. Lenovo is introducing a product called “Ideapad” and the idea behind it a handheld resembling an Apple iPhone in conjunction with a Sony Mylo released back in 2006. However, Ideapad is a Linux-based device built with 1 GB internal memory, 2-megapixel camera, audio recorder, video player and other basic features, plus Wi-Fi, USB and Bluetooth connectivity.
Fujitsu
Another company targeting the Ultra Portable PC market, introducing Lifebook featuring an Intel Atom Processor, Microsoft Vista Basic Operating System, 7-inch +/- touch screen display, 20GB HD, Mini PCI Express slot, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Lifebook comes with a docking-station, apart of several other innovative features for an UMPC of its kind.
Emotiv
This in an electronics Australian-based company focusing on brain-computer interfaces based on EEG (electroencephalography) technology. At Digital Downtown, Emotiv is presenting the EPOC Headset, a gadget that serves to read a user’s brainwaves and translate them into a game adventure, sort of living your own Tron movie. EPOC connects to PC via a wireless USB making easy load new game settings to enjoy your feelings and thoughts virtually.
Compal
Compal Electronics (not to be confused with Compaq) is a Taiwanese manufacturing company best known as producer of a large number of notebooks and monitor models for Dell, Compaq, Hewlett Packard, and Toshiba. However, Compal is now introducing a non-named yet prototype of Ultra Mobile PC with MSN messenger, keypad, and some of the Lenovo’s Ideapad characteristics.
You are still on time to meet technology experts and see their products exhibited at Digital Downtown in New York’s World Trade Center. Otherwise, summer is just around the corner, time in which many new gadgets will be released.
Sources:
Digital Downtown
PC Magazine
In the middle of great expectation Apple has finally released the new iPhone 3G. This new version of the popular Apple’s slim handset is fully developed around the 3G technology and incorporates new features not seen in the previous iPhone generation that includes an improved sound quality, Wi-Fi Connectivity, and GPS mapping starting for as low as $199 through AT&T. Marketed as twice as fast half the price, iPhone 3G is now three-in-one devices: the classic iPhone, the popular iPod touch and a convenient Internet AT&T. 3G is undoubtedly faster than any other smartphone you have tried before the launching of the 3G cellular networks, the next generation in mobile communications that provide cell phone user with broadband speed similar or above your traditional PC or laptop broadband. Besides its funny multimedia side, this time Apple kept in mind the enterprise features such as GPS maps, push email, contacts, calendar and more.
Like the iPod Touch, Apple’s iPhone 3G is available in two different model, the 8GB in black color or the 16GB model in either black or white. One or another models are 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.48 inches (115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm) and weigh only 4.7 ounces (133 grams.) There are not physical changes in iPhone’s 3.5-inch widescreen with Multi-Touch display that supports 480 x 320-pixel resolution at 163 ppi and multiple characters and languages displayed simultaneously. iPhone 3G comes packed with stereo earphones, built-in microphone and rechargeable lithium-ion battery, Dock Connector to USB Cable, USB Power Adapter, Cleaning/polishing cloth, SIM eject tool and documentation.
iPhone has been in the mobile phone industry for over an year now. Amidst very heavy critical reviewing it has carved a niche for itself which has been because it is no nonsense device built on principles that it should complicate the way the phone would be used. Built with just 4 buttons and a huge 3.5” screen, the phone is easy to use over for a very tech-phobic of users.
Let’s discuss the interface of iPhone. It runs on resolution of 480×320pixels which makes the images feel very real due to high pixel density of 160ppi. The standby screen displays almost all the applications which the phone has. With the most basic telephony related apps down in the bar like Phone dialer, messaging, safari web browser and iPod audio player. The interaction is through multi tap and gestures like drag for scrolling through the display, single tap to select item, double tap to zoom in and out in almost al applications except photographs and pinch un-pinching of fingers for zooming in and out of photos. Though even after the 16GB version of iPhone has been released and many firmware upgrades have been given, the interface still remains sort of buggy. The input to the phone is through a virtual on screen keyboard only, which though is having set of very big keys, but it’s not possible to bring the keys in landscape mode for typing which could have been better for using the keys stretched over the entire screen. But honestly speaking, the keyboard of iPhone lets down because speed of typing on a hardware keyboard is just not possible on the virtual keyboard and with lot of missing symbols like period from the alphabetic view of the keyboard, you have to open the symbol list a lot many times.
One of the major drawbacks in iPhone is that it still can’t work on 3G networks. The EDGE support for AT&T network is good, but when you make a call you can’t use data and vice versa, data speeds are not worth to be talked about as when the review was being done, opening of youtube on the safari browser was a very bad experience, sometimes the video loaded and after 10-15seconds of buffering it displayed warning that the video is unavailable. Call quality is also not bad, but people who had been using 3G based services would find the difference pinching.
