Digital Experience Media at Metro Pav

The annual Digital Experience Media exhibit which was hosted by Pepcom was held last June 24 at the Metropolitan Pavilion, New York City. Around 45 exhibitors offered their latest and coolest consumer electronics and software products. For this holiday season of June and July you may start early shopping with these new products to buy:

Marvel showcased its plug computing products. Unlike other networking products, a plug computer is designed to offer PC-like performance. The company’s SheevaPlug is an embedded computer that plugs into the wall socket and can run network-based services that normally require a dedicated personal computer. Featuring a 1.2 GHz Marvell Sheeva CPU with 512 MB of flash memory and 512 MB of DDR2 memory, the SheevaPlug provides enough processing power and resources to run any embedded computing application.

As shown below, Energizer showcased Energi To Go Portable Power for Cell Phones. It now includes rechargeable power packs that use lithium polymer battery technology to power a wide variety of mobile electronic devices including smart and cell phones, iPhone, iPod and MP3 players, GPS units, digital cameras and camcorders, netbooks and laptops.

The company Wi-Ex showcased its zBoost cell phone signal boosters. zBoost Your Life Holiday Profiles products included zBoost-ONE PCS, zBoost-ONE UMTS, and zBoost International. According to the company zBoost devices reduce dropped calls and improve cell phone signal indoors, as well as increases signal and speed of aircards, EDGE and 3G technology.

Plantronics featured its latest wireless headsets for unified communications, PC multimedia and mobile use. Shown at their booth was the Savi Office and Savi Go wireless headsets for office workers and provides a single wireless headset for mixing desk phone calls with PC audio and softphone calls. Savi Office gives you the freedom to talk hands-free and work without the hassles of a cord, up to 350-feet away from the desk. Very impressive! In addition Savi Office is built on digitally encrypted, voice-dedicated DECT 6.0 technology. What I liked about The Savi Go headset is that it allows users to switch between their mobile phone and PC calls with the touch of a button (multipoint technology). Both headsets feature PerSono Suite software to help manage PC audio and calling.

HTC showed its newest range of Android and Windows Mobile smartphones that are available now and for this year’s upcoming holiday season.

HP ( www.hp.com/personal) showcased the TouchSmart IQ800 series PC, which will officially be available on June 28, 2008. With just a touch of a finger it is very easy to use.

One of the products Kingston Technology displayed was the SSDNow V Series. It is available in 128 GB and 64 GB capacities.

MWV presented the Natralock security packaging, a paperboard-based alternative to plastic clamshells that combines sustainability and protection into one environment-friendly packaging solution for the consumer electronics industry.

NVIDIA showcased how its Tegra and ION technologies bring the power of advanced visual computing to a broad range of handheld and mobile platforms—from smartphones, MP3 players, and PNDs to mobile internet devices (MIDs), notebooks, and netbooks. Shown below is the Tegra module. Tegra-based devices deliver desktop-class Internet browsing with Flash video and animation acceleration, and up to 1080p video playback.

If you are looking for a unique holiday gift, I recommend the ioDIGITAL vertical spa from Moen . It features simple dials (one for temperature/one for flow) – allowing you to quickly and accurately set the preferred combination of temperature, flow and spray outlets. It also features easy-to-read LED indicators which alert the user when the shower matches the settings.

Among the phones, Blackberry displayed the recently introduced BlackBerry Tour Smartphone.

Just in time for summer fun, DeLorme showcased the new handheld GPS models (with support for Navionics lake and coastal charts). The Earthmate PN-30 handheld GPS receiver (see image) offers top-end GPS capabilities, plus the PN-Series’ exclusive aerial imagery display features, but it’s also affordably priced and easy to use.The PN-Series topographic map DVDS are included for transfers to the device; users can load the maps they need and be ready to go within minutes of opening the package. In the field, users will discover lightning-quick satellite acquisition, thanks to the high-sensitivity 32-channel Cartesio chipset. Signal retention is ultra-reliable even in dense forests. A powerful dual-core processor renders map and imagery screen views with instantaneous speed. The PN-30 is waterproof and WAAS-enabled for superior accuracy, and has a bright-color TFT screen for readability in any light conditions. With all those features, the PN-30 is offered for $299.95 (suggested retail price-available in July)

Further Readings

• As prices fall, smartphones make consumer gains (cbc.ca)
• Mobile Phones Beat PCs for Young Women (marketingvox.com)
• Gizmodo, Engadget, and Now GDGT (nytimes.com)
• The Eight (Seven...Six?) Information Devices I Can't Live Without (xconomy.com)
• Opinion: Why the iPhone can't be killed (macworld.com)

A Snooker Table with a Built-In Hidden Sofa Bed

This is such a cool idea. This is a sofa with a poo/snookerl table built into it, hide-a-bed style. What an ideal addition to your apartment or your house. Tthe couch is about 6 foot long and apparently, it’s quite popular in the UK where they’re fairly cheap.

A joint venture from Pierce Upholsterers and Accrington and Riley - makers of fine British pool tables, and this was produced in the 70’s. It’s made of a neutral brown dralon fabric and when opens it flips into a pool table with adjustable leveling feet to make it level. What a fantastic idea which was decades ahead of its time. It probably didn’t do too well because manufacturing it would’ve been costly without a computer/motion controlled assembly line. But with the advent of not only computers for design and manufacture, this piece could easily make resurgence. And why stop there? Imagine a sofa with built in ping pong table, air hockey table, poker table!

Currently for bid at eBay.UK at about $200 US but it’s sure to go well north of that.

Further Readings

• Sofa Transforms Into a Pool Table (neatorama.com)