Page 1: CeBIT
<B>Intro</B>:
CeBIT America is a show based primarily upon business relationships. While not a consumer show, I went anyway considering I had nothing better to do that day. The show itself spans for three days, but one is enough to cover the show floor. If you've never been to NYC, welcome to the Javits Center.
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<B>The Show</B>:
As I already stated, the show isn't really meant for consumers, and as such, won't contain much new stuff. That being said, it was still a good time. Let's get down with the pictures.
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The above picture is from a demonstration given by HP. The funny thing about it was that they were taking about how their primary concern is customer contact, and on that note, saying that their service centers will have coherent (read: english speaking) people on their support lines. The real kicker in this instance is that if you happen to have a HP computer and called a service center recently, they are in another country (most likely India) and you can barely understand them - not to mention the fact that they don't have a clue about what they're supporting. HP was supposed to show a new digital pen, but I never got to see it. They did have some notebooks and their Ipaq line of things. Nothing special really.
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The next thing that caught my attention was a diagnosis program that was running intensive loops on every piece of hardware on the test computer. When I repair computers, having the right testing tools is very important. Usually, we don't have the right tools!
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My friend Eddie that was with me was pretty interested in these 'club for PCs' type locks. The company, Compucage, demonstrated for us how the locks work. They get bolted down on the floor or the wall and, just like the club, they secure a PC case. They also make lock downs for laptop in both the upright and closed positions (perfect for retail stores). The keys that open the locks are uncopyable. The supreme test was to take a bolt cutter and unleash on it.
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Any person in materials science will tell you this is nothing impressive. All we have shown is that the material that the lock is made of is harder than the cutter.
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Now we move on to a company I've never heard of. Swedx makes some damn fine wood products. The interesting thing is that the monitor, keyboard and mouse were all made out of wood. There was no sign of a case, but the products demonstrated were absolutely incredible. The craftsmanship was excellent. The finish was perfect. Sweet.
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They have a whole line of different types of wood on different LCD monitors. One can only wonder if the wood keeps too much heat in the monitor (this is the most likely reason that LCDs are the only type used). The mice and keyboards were of excellent quality as well. If you are a woodworker, this set is for you.
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Stylish and simple, the back of the monitor shows the company name, with holes for cooling. Pretty amazing product if you ask me.
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Next up in the PC products we have cooling products from Glacialtech (I've never heard of them). They had pretty much standard heatsinks and fans. Nothing much to note. I'll see if I can get some samples from them for testing soon.
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Random shot of a Logicube cloner. This thing was pumping nearly 3GB/min of transfer. That's insane!
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Next up is some active memory cooling from Supertalent. Will have to see if I can get samples of that as well. One can only wonder if RAM actually needs active cooling in today's market. They have lights on them for dual purpose.
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Scythe was there at the show (or a distributor of theirs, couldn't tell). Anyway, they were showcasing some of their quiet thermal solutions for CPUs and GPUs.
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Silent PC cravers take note. This shot shows a fully loaded system that was generating hardly any noise. I couldn't hear the fans until I was about a foot from the open side. Pretty remarkable stuff. Scythe makes some great products.
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Iomega threw their weight around at the show showing off their new network attached storage stuff. They also had their Zip drives there. I can't believe zip drives are still around. CD-RW's are so much cheaper. Zip disks are still about ten bucks a piece retail. What a showpiece for dead technology.
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LG was showing off some monitors and optical drives. I went over there looking for a new phone. I was disappointed
.
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APC had a huge spot for their server UPS system, but I took a shot of the consumer stuff for filler.
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Lastly, a company called Foxda was showing off MP3 players/USB storage devices. I'll have to try to get my hands on those as well. They are able to play MP3, WAV and WMA types of files. They'll also store any piece of information.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
I'll have to go to more consumer type shows soon. While this show was okay, I'm waiting for Comdex or something else of that nature. Stay tuned, we'll have some genuine reviews coming soon.
CeBIT America is a show based primarily upon business relationships. While not a consumer show, I went anyway considering I had nothing better to do that day. The show itself spans for three days, but one is enough to cover the show floor. If you've never been to NYC, welcome to the Javits Center.
<center>
</center><B>The Show</B>:
As I already stated, the show isn't really meant for consumers, and as such, won't contain much new stuff. That being said, it was still a good time. Let's get down with the pictures.
<center>
</center>The above picture is from a demonstration given by HP. The funny thing about it was that they were taking about how their primary concern is customer contact, and on that note, saying that their service centers will have coherent (read: english speaking) people on their support lines. The real kicker in this instance is that if you happen to have a HP computer and called a service center recently, they are in another country (most likely India) and you can barely understand them - not to mention the fact that they don't have a clue about what they're supporting. HP was supposed to show a new digital pen, but I never got to see it. They did have some notebooks and their Ipaq line of things. Nothing special really.
<center>
</center>The next thing that caught my attention was a diagnosis program that was running intensive loops on every piece of hardware on the test computer. When I repair computers, having the right testing tools is very important. Usually, we don't have the right tools!
<center>
</center>My friend Eddie that was with me was pretty interested in these 'club for PCs' type locks. The company, Compucage, demonstrated for us how the locks work. They get bolted down on the floor or the wall and, just like the club, they secure a PC case. They also make lock downs for laptop in both the upright and closed positions (perfect for retail stores). The keys that open the locks are uncopyable. The supreme test was to take a bolt cutter and unleash on it.
<center>
</center>Any person in materials science will tell you this is nothing impressive. All we have shown is that the material that the lock is made of is harder than the cutter.
<center>
</center>Now we move on to a company I've never heard of. Swedx makes some damn fine wood products. The interesting thing is that the monitor, keyboard and mouse were all made out of wood. There was no sign of a case, but the products demonstrated were absolutely incredible. The craftsmanship was excellent. The finish was perfect. Sweet.
<center>
</center>They have a whole line of different types of wood on different LCD monitors. One can only wonder if the wood keeps too much heat in the monitor (this is the most likely reason that LCDs are the only type used). The mice and keyboards were of excellent quality as well. If you are a woodworker, this set is for you.
<center>
</center>Stylish and simple, the back of the monitor shows the company name, with holes for cooling. Pretty amazing product if you ask me.
<center>
</center>Next up in the PC products we have cooling products from Glacialtech (I've never heard of them). They had pretty much standard heatsinks and fans. Nothing much to note. I'll see if I can get some samples from them for testing soon.
<center>
</center>Random shot of a Logicube cloner. This thing was pumping nearly 3GB/min of transfer. That's insane!
<center>
</center>Next up is some active memory cooling from Supertalent. Will have to see if I can get samples of that as well. One can only wonder if RAM actually needs active cooling in today's market. They have lights on them for dual purpose.
<center>
</center>Scythe was there at the show (or a distributor of theirs, couldn't tell). Anyway, they were showcasing some of their quiet thermal solutions for CPUs and GPUs.
<center>
</center>Silent PC cravers take note. This shot shows a fully loaded system that was generating hardly any noise. I couldn't hear the fans until I was about a foot from the open side. Pretty remarkable stuff. Scythe makes some great products.
<center>
</center>Iomega threw their weight around at the show showing off their new network attached storage stuff. They also had their Zip drives there. I can't believe zip drives are still around. CD-RW's are so much cheaper. Zip disks are still about ten bucks a piece retail. What a showpiece for dead technology.
<center>
</center>LG was showing off some monitors and optical drives. I went over there looking for a new phone. I was disappointed
.<center>
</center>APC had a huge spot for their server UPS system, but I took a shot of the consumer stuff for filler.
<center>
</center>Lastly, a company called Foxda was showing off MP3 players/USB storage devices. I'll have to try to get my hands on those as well. They are able to play MP3, WAV and WMA types of files. They'll also store any piece of information.
<B>Conclusion</B>:
I'll have to go to more consumer type shows soon. While this show was okay, I'm waiting for Comdex or something else of that nature. Stay tuned, we'll have some genuine reviews coming soon.