Cebit2008
Latest
Minority Report-like interface gets demoed at CeBIT
It's far from the first Minority Report-like interface to make the rounds, but that doesn't seem to have prevented the massive setup pictured above from drawing a crowd at CeBIT, which one attendee thankfully captured on video. As you can see for yourself after the break, the rig lets you do all the usual moving, flipping and resizing, without the need for pesky gloves or silly headgear. Needless to say, there's no indication as to where this particular bit of technology is headed next, but it seems safe to assume that it'll become a fixture of trade shows for years to come.
MSI shows off bevy of new laptops at CeBIT
We already knew the GX600 would be showing itself at CeBIT this year, but apparently, quite a few siblings made the trek to Germany as well -- including the aforementioned unit's 14.1-inch sister, the GX400. Moving on, we've got the 15.4-inch GX620 and 17-inch GX720, and while the former looks to arrive in a wood, leather or carbon fiber finish, the latter supposedly arrives with a black lacquer coat and a built-in subwoofer (among other goodies). The GT-730 gaming lappie was also mentioned, but unfortunately, all we know is that it gets its graphics prowess from some form of ATI Mobility Radeon. The AMD-powered EX610 (15.4-inches) also turned heads with its integrated Blu-ray player and HDMI output, while the 17-inch EX700 sported the same along with a GeForce 8400M GPU. Hit up the links below for a couple more snapshots, won'tcha?Read - MSI laptops at CeBITRead - More MSI laptops at CeBIT
En-Twyn's En-Compass incorporates Powerline into socket
CeBIT and Powerline seem to have a thing for one another, and sure enough, this year we're seeing yet another firm storm onto the scene in an attempt to advance the flagging technology. London-based En-Twyn set up shop in Germany to showcase its En-Compass, which doesn't require any special wall cutouts and differs from most other Powerline systems by packing its electronics on the backside. In other words, you won't have any unsightly adapters protruding from the front. Beyond that, everything else works as expected -- Ethernet signals travel over your existing home wiring setup -- but unfortunately, the product is still stuck in prototype stage at the moment.
Conceptronic unveils Grab 'n GO Full HD media player
Conceptronic already made a relatively big splash at CeBIT, but to be honest, we're equally intrigued by its new Grab 'n GO Full HD Media Player. Hailed as a "personal bridge to stream all digital files," the device includes a gigabit Ethernet jack and a USB port for connecting flash drives or external HDDs. As for the all important file support list, you'll find the ever-popular XviD along with MOV, WMV, H.264, MPEG1/2/4, JPEG, MP3, WMA, AVI and VOB (among others). 'Course, it also supports 1080p output via HDMI, and there's even a coaxial digital audio output for good measure. Regrettably, there's no word on a price or release date just yet.[Thanks, kjeld]
Urban Tool's Bluetooth perCushion for rich urban tools
It's hard to pinpoint the most ridiculous thing about the Urban Tool perCushion which we first peeped as a concept. Is it the vendor's not so flattering name, the marketing shot above, or the fact that Urban Tool will be charging about $500 for their Bluetooth mono-speaker cushion when it begins shipping sometime between October and Christmas? We had the chance to try the perCushion out at CeBIT ourselves. The pillow itself is rigid -- think martini lounging, not bedtime -- and constructed with enough finesse to support your Bluetooth audio streaming or cellphone handsfree adventures in sloth. In its defense, Urban Tool knows that the perCushion is destined to be nothing more than a novelty product at that price range. It's simply meant to bring attention to the rest of its product catalog. Still, we're not sure this is the type of attention they wanted.%Gallery-17896%
CeBIT crackdown: 51 exhibitors busted for patent infringement
Apparently Meizu wasn't the only manufacturer to get a friendly visit from German police at this week's CeBIT tradeshow in Hanover. The word is that 51 different exhibitors got busted at the show for the patent infringement, with 180 law enforcement officers confiscating 68 moving boxes worth of gear. Primary offenses included Meizu-style MP3 / MP4 infringement, along with unregistered CD, DVD-R and DVD playback devices. All companies were informed of the rules before the tradeshow, and the warning we spotted at Meizu's booth (pictured above) should've probably served as a pretty good hint to these companies as well. China boasted the most offenders at 24, then it was Taiwan with 12, Germany with 9, and Poland, Netherlands and Korea with one a piece. Everybody else just isn't trying hard enough.[Thanks, Mademoiselle Y]
Video: Nav N Go's iGO My Way 8 GPS -- iPhone, iPod touch edition
Here we go, the first honest to goodness GPS solution for the iPhone. Having already brought the solution to the PSP, Nav N Go have now worked their iGo My Way 8 magic into Apple's touchscreen devices. The prototype on display at CeBIT supports turn by turn directions and location finding via a WiFi key or fob. The WiFi key receives the GPS data and retransmits over WiFi while the fob offers the option to directly attach the unit to the iPhone or iPod Touch's docking port. Expect to hear more about these official 3rd party apps during our coverage of Apple's SDK launch event later today.Update: Reader Owen S. just noted that Nav N Go is using Gomite's adapters to receive the GPS signal. [Thanks, Andras]
Acer: Eee PC killer on track for Q2/Q3
We had the chance to corner Acer at CeBIT to ask them about their plans for that Eee PC killer. We received confirmation from Stefan Engel, Managing Director and Country Manager for Acer Germany, that they were on target for a Q2/Q3 release. Incidentally, they will continue to offer the 7-inch Packard Bell EasyNote XS (aka, Everex CloudBook, NanoBook, FIC CD260) along side the Acer branded 7- to 9-incher even though Packard Bell is all but officially an Acer subsidiary.
Video: Nabaztag reads bedtime stories better than daddy
The Nabaztag WiFi rabbit learned a new trick at CeBIT: reading RFID tagged children's books. Violet already loosed a book in France at Christmas and now plans to launch its first English language book in the UK within the month. Right, that's one less parental responsibility for you. It's also cooking up "ztamps" which are RFID stickers you can attach to anything you like. When each unique sticker is held to Nabaztag's nose, it responds with a predefined action like playing music, sending an email, reading off the latest headlines, etc. Really, it's not as crazy as it sounds. Check the video after the break -- now that they've fixed last year's service issues caused to overwhelming demand, parents might want to give this critter a second look.
Hands on Clevo's OEM-ready 15- and 17-inch gaming rigs
You may not know who Clevo is but rest assured your brand-named laptop vendors like Alienware, Voodoo, Hypersonic, and Sager surely do. The Taiwanese OEM just unleashed its new 17-inch pixel M570TU (pictured) and 15-inch M860TU rigs offering WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) resolutions right here at CeBIT. The 17-incher features Intel's "new generation" processor and chipset, 512MB of nVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX graphics, a 2 megapixel webcam, Blu-ray (or HD DVD drive too for suckers), TV Tuner, TPM, fingerprint reader, and e-SATA and HDMI ports around back. The 15-inch offers pretty much same as its bigger, 17-inch bro only without the TV tuner and Blu-ray disc drive. The M860TU does offer HSDPA connectivity though which is fair trade-off in our opinion.%Gallery-17717%[Thanks, bhattsan and Charles]
Meizu's CeBIT booth shut down over MP3 licensing issues, not the M8
Well, it looks like that Meizu CeBIT shutdown wasn't for what you'd expect -- in a Meizu forum post, Jack Wong says that an Italian company called Sisvel complained about another Meizu PMP's unlicensed use of the MP3 codec, and that's what prompted the 5-0 to arrive. Interestingly, Jack also says that it's all a big misunderstanding, because Meizu products, including the M8, don't actually play MP3s, just WMA, and that local distributors have to cough up the licensing fees for MP3 playback. Apparently the booth is now open again, with the offending PMP removed -- the M8 remains on display, probably because it doesn't actually work yet.Read - Jack Wong post at Meizu forumsRead - Heise article about the shutdown[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Simtrix trots out radically designed Swiftpoint mice
Sure, we've seen input peripherals stretch the core meaning of the word "mouse," but few have done it better than Simtrix. First up in the Swiftpoint series is the TriPed (on left), which was designed to be held much like a pen if needed and is aimed primarily at tablet PC / tabletop computer users; according to the firm, it "provides seamless transitioning between mouse, pen, and text entry." Moving on, we've got the equally zany Slider, which looks to grab more attention by being able to operate when sliding over a keyboard. Granted, folks with ergonomic / split boards are probably out of luck there, but that's not to say your thumb still wouldn't love this critter on a traditional mouse pad. Mum's the word on pricing and availability at the moment, but we'll keep an ear to the ground for whispers of either.[Thanks, Dave]
Logitech's ClearChat PC wireless stereo headset does VoIP, too
What's the use in having a wireless set of cans to rock with and a separate contraption to make / receive Skype calls on? Exactly, thus the Logitech ClearChat PC was born. Of course, it's certainly not the first cordless set of stereo headphones to sport a microphone, but being that it's built on 2.4GHz technology, you can finally take your calling habits wherever you go in the house (well, within 33 feet of the USB transmitter) without fear of static ruining a good pep talk. Quite frankly, it's a little unsightly for our tastes, but those who can overlook that can pick one up (in the US and Europe, mind you) for $99.99 this May.
Dreamcom 10 series laptop is totally adjustable, ergonomic
CeBIT never fails to produce some fairly zany kit, and just like last year, we've got yet another incredibly weird laptop hitting the scene that promises to be your neck's best friend. The Dreamcom 10 series machine features a vertically adjustable LCD along with a docking station to avoid using that totally cramped integrated keyboard. If you can make it past the outside without gagging (okay, so it's not that bad... maybe), you'll find a 2.2GHz T7500 processor, 2GB of DDR2 RAM, a couple of USB 2.0 ports, ExpressCard slot, 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600, Bluetooth / WiFi and a 160GB hard drive for good measure. Not a peep has been uttered in regard to pricing, but c'mon, your health is worth whatever they charge, right? [Via MobileMag]
Panasonic's Atom-based UMPC Toughbook is officially official
Panasonic just owned up to that Toughbook UMPC we spotted yesterday at CeBIT. No real surprises, the unit runs Vista on an Atom CPU, sports a 5.6-inch LCD and is slated for a Fall release.
Buffalo's LinkStation Mini packs 1TB into entirely too small an enclosure
This has got to stop, people. We just can't stand to think of all these bits and bytes -- not to mention their offspring -- crammed into something like this Buffalo LinkStation Mini NAS. Dual 500GB 2.5-inch hard drives were just never meant to be in this close of proximity. Oh, it has RAID 0 / RAID 1? We suppose those 1's and 0's will just have to suffer. The LinkStation Mini LS-WS includes an FTP server, DLNA and iTunes capability, can share a printer of USB and reads memory cards and other mass storage devices. Buffalo plans to ship it in March for 85,000 yen (about $824 US).[Via Engadget Japanese]
Vodafone's Otello draws a blank on Chancellor Angela Merkel query
If there's one person at CeBIT you don't want to not recognize, it's German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Nevertheless, we can only assume that Vodafone booth workers were left with their tails stuck between their legs after said figure gave its recently announced picture-based search engine a go. Upon Otella returning nothing after a picture was presumably snapped of Merkel, she quickly asserted: "I am not in the database." Better still, she continued by proclaiming: "That's a major gap." Heck, maybe she should be happy -- after all, Vodafone's set to trial the service with Europe's "best selling tabloid," and not being in there would most certainly be a good thing.
Eyes on NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2
At this point, the only thing that could make NVIDIA's GeForce 9800 GX2 any more real is an actual street release. Nevertheless, here it is, displayed with glory and gusto at the Innovision booth here at CeBIT. They wouldn't take it out of the case by order of NVIDIA but we did get confirmation that the anticipated graphics king will launch before March is done for an undisclosed price. Plenty of pics of the card and box for your GPU sleuthing in the gallery below. %Gallery-17659%
Hands on with Olympus E-420 -- the world's smallest DSLR
There it is, the world's smallest DSLR -- the Olympus E-420 (left) -- snuggled up next to its slightly bigger E-410 bro. Note that the E-420 on display at CeBIT is a near-final, fully-functional engineering prototype. What more can we say, it feels great in hand and the space and weight savings are certainly welcome. However, without any images to compare the best we can do is ogle the gallery until the reviews roll in.%Gallery-17653%
Foxconn's Extreme Overclocking setup is actually rather extreme
We've seen some overclockers go to pretty great lengths to keep those chips cool while they crank up the GHz, but Foxconn's demonstration at the company's CeBIT booth is really a sight to behold. They appear to be using copious amounts of liquid nitrogen, along with other black magicks, to boost a Core 2 Extreme processor almost past the 6GHz mark. We're a little short on specifics, but this setup was certainly hot, and by hot we mean cold.%Gallery-17559%
