Computex 2005: four pavilions news. Part II

Information in the ear, or a small memory shustraya

"At the moment, I - the only one happy owner of this jewelry," - smiled, marketing manager at Pretec Ingrid Wu, removing an elegant earring and inserting it into the USB-connector on your computer. "This is our presentation of" - she explained.

That same shackle ...

Companies Pretec, the author of more than one hundred patents in the field of memory cards and USB-drives, the developer of the famous standard memory cards CompactI / O, also known as CF, and the manufacturer of the smallest USB-drives of 2003, along with Intel-ohm was isolated a separate room that looked more like a boutique rather than a demonstration space technology company. All the left wing was covered with booths, upholstered in black velvet and painted them a variety of elegant ornaments and accessories - tie pins, key rings and pens ... All accessories are made on the basis of the new standard CU-Flash, the company has demonstrated in January at the International Consumer Electronics Show 2005. Drives made by this standard, fully compatible with USB, but substantially different in design from its predecessors, having a size of ten (!) Times smaller: storage size of the standard (21 x 1.9 x 1.9 mm) make them very similar to the SD card and RS-MMC. For comparison: it is considered so far camym miniature drive iDisk Tiny from Pretec, has size 32 x 13.5 x 4.5 mm (about these devices, see below).

Those same USB necklace ...

With their small size, they maintain the highest market rate of data transfer - read 166H (24.9 MB / s) and 80X for recording (12 Mb / s). In the production of a patented Pretec auto technology, the cost of these drives can be as low as $ 6 - a figure that will force many manufacturers start. "We tried to present a new concept, in which the USB technology is transformed into an accessory - explains Ingrid. - Unfortunately, our sales channels do not correspond to this format, so before the show we have not yet made a final decision about whether to go for sale accessories with our trademark. However, at the Computex products interested in a number of distributors, so I guess, on completion of the exhibition, we again discuss this matter with our management. At the moment I can say with certainty that in the second quarter of this year will go on sale pens CU-Flash ". In the same period, according to the Distribution of a press release, are expected to appear normal CU-Flash cards with memory capacity from 16MB to 1GB. According to customers' requests, the cards can be equipped with an authorization for access to information, protection of the recording and automatic start.

Handle with CU-Flash drives go on sale in June

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On the timing of the release of this elegant tie clips yet unknown

CU-Flash cards are now candidates for the PDA, which will significantly increase the chances of memory: the same Pretec has released a series of USB drives iDiskII capacity 32MB, 4GB, and here at Computex 2005 was also presented iDiskII 8GB, announced earlier but have not yet gone on sale. Like other drives in this series, iDiskII will be released with pre-mail client FlashMail, as well as security and MobileLock SecretZip. Mobile Lock will configure the computer so that it will only work when inserted in the USB-connector iDiskII, and SecretZip protect your files and archives with a password. According to customer's device can also be mounted module Bluetooth. Read / write drive is 16MB / s and 12Mb / s, respectively. Developers also promise to iDisk II 166x, which will provide speed to 25MB / s read and 12 MB / s on record - a record the options that were first presented by the example of iDisk Tiny 166x, showcased here. Cool? Of course, great. Such records! Such volumes! Such speed! And now the cold water: expected price of the device, which will appear soon, is 999 U.S. dollars.

All the champions in pedestale Honor

Despite the fact that the iDisk Tiny 166x, mentioned above, was introduced in January, he had not yet gone on sale, and proudly showed off the stand as a novelty. It is USB-drives iDisk Tiny series have been awarded the magazine "Time" award "the best device in 2003" (Best Gadget 2003). Also in progress drives this series was attended by such giants as Nokia, Alcatel, Yahoo, Visa, OKWAP, Mitac, Micron and others. Good news: in the second half of this year are expected to appear iDisk Tiny 266x, which means even greater speeds of up to 39.9Mb / s and 19.9Mb / s read and write, respectively. About the price, unfortunately, no information yet. Among the USB drives on the stand were also represented in his time flashed on the news unusual "indicator Ghost" (Ghost radar) and "USB-land": it turned out that both devices are released in Japan by Solid Alliance, used the stuffing from Pretec. Funny drives, filled in the form of land became the most popular in Japan, but to the indicator of ghosts in Solid Alliance seriously. "It's not a toy, it - the meter" - said during the release of a model vice president Yuichiro Saito. Recall that according to the description, the light begins to glow when it detects "unusual magnetic fields", which many viewed as a direct indication of paranormal activity. Judging by the color, showroom Pretec citizens from the other world to this day have not visited. "Anyone spotted during this time? - I asked for Ingrid." Oh, yes! To my horror indicator works in my office. We measured even when the equipment off and on, but stubbornly indicator is lit, so that the return to the office is always a little scary. "That's how. But some scary do not want to go to work and without any indicator ...

Indicator ghosts

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USB-land

And, finally, map the standard Secure Digital (SD) with a new high-speed interface, presented earlier, but so far the market has been received. Works on technology "Dual Channel" is based on a 16-bit bus architecture that provides the speed 133x (20MB / s), which exceeds more than twice the rate of the previous generation (the 60s, 9Mb / s). On the stand were presented cards with 256MB, 512MB and 1GB (soon also pledged to 2GB). Unfortunately, no information about the price again unavailable.

New speed SD. Very soon.

Features a new series of SD memory card from Pretec:

Dimensions: 32 x 24 x 2.1 mm

Weight: 2 g

Speed:> 20MB / s

Operating life: 100.000 cycles of read / write

Watertightness

Resistance to physical stress in the 1000G

Vibration resistance

Low power consumption

But there was not the only Pretec. Completely identical to the map presented in the first pavilion, Kingston. The first in a series of Ultimate, SD-card company that repeat exactly the characteristics of the cards from Pretec, the only difference that Kingston promises a lifetime warranty, but Pretec was more cautious: I agree that 100,000 cycles, sounds a bit different ...

Unfamiliar familiar

Of course, neither Acer, or BenQ is not submitted by me no attention, although neither one nor the other company did not provide any new products at the exhibition. Despite the fact that the new smartphone / communicator in the first quarter of 2005, Acer had promised last year, at the very beginning of the exhibition Campbell, Cann, who heads the company's mobile division, announced that the new device will appear only in 2006, with no additional information company did not tell until the end of this year. We only know that the new device or a smartphone (yet completely clear) will be equipped with a module WLAN 802.11b (Wi-Fi). Change of date, according to Mr. Kanna explained by the uncertainty in the market: while it is not clear what mechanism of data exchange will prevail in the near future - GPRS or 3G. All the more surprising news appeared on the release of a new line of Acer Ferrari PDA series based on the model of n50, which appeared last week. Despite the fact that the company color of Ferrari and its symbol - the horse - were the main motive for stand design Acer, but this applies only to the demonstrated basic model - Ferrari 4000 notebook. CCP Company, on the background of all this magnificence has been allocated only a small glass cube, seemed unduly neglected. Were presented to the CPC model n50 low, n50 high, n35 and n30. Unfortunately, our questions on the "nobody could not answer, so we turned on the passed us at a company with a number of questions and expect a response shortly.

Stand and model in the shadows shaming

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Stand and model in focus

Features PDA Acer n50:

Processor: Intel PXA272, 312/520 MHz (depending on configuration)

Memory: 64 MB Flash ROM, 64/128 MB (depending on configuration)

OS: Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (Pocket PC)

Display: 3.5 "TFT LCD, 65536 colors, 240x320

Ports: USB host / client 1.1, Serial, Infrared

Slot: SDIO (SD / MMC)

Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 1.2, WLAN 802.11b (Wi-Fi)

Dimensions: 120 x 70 x 17.4 mm

Weight: 150



Features PDA Acer n35:

Processor: Samsung S3C2410, 266 MHz

Memory: 32MB ROM, 64MB RAM

OS: Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition (Pocket PC)

Display: 3.5 "TFT LCD, 65536 colors, 240x320

Slot: SDIO (SD / MMC)

Wireless: Infrared

Dimensions: 120 x 72 x 20 mm

Weight: 165



Features PDA Acer n30:

Processor: Samsung S3C2410, 266 MHz Memory: 32MB ROM, 64MB RAM

OS: Windows Mobile 2003 (Pocket PC)

Display: 3.5 "TFT LCD, 65536 colors, 240x320

Ports: USB host 1.1, infrared

Slot: SDIO (SD / MMC), CF Type II

Wireless connectivity: Bluetooth 1.2

Dimensions: 118 x 71 x 13 mm

Weight: 130

The basis of the stand "Handhelds" BenQ was the communicator and the smartphone P50 P30. According to the on duty at the booth manager until the end of the year no new products in the line of PDAs and smartphones are expected, the company only plans to upgrade some already released models, though no details about the nature of these updates did not know. A strange decision: against the backdrop of the rich promises of competitors of the model pales: small battery capacity, relatively low CPU processing speed, small memory ...

BenQ in the exhibition ...

... And beyond

Characteristics of the communicator BenQ P50:

Processor: Intel PXA 272 416 MHz

Memory: 64MB Flash ROM, 64MB SDRAM

OS: Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC Phone Edition

Display: 2.83 "TFT, 262000 colors, 240x320

Phone: GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Camera: Built-in 1.3 MP

Battery: Li-ion, 1240 mAh

Ports: USB 1.1, Infrared

Connectors: SDIO (SD / MMC)

Wireless communication: GPRS (class 10), Bluetooth, WLAN

Dimensions: 122 x 60 x 20 mm

Weight: 170g

Communicator P50 from BenQ

Features Smartphone BenQ P30:

Processor: Texas Instruments OMAP 1510 based on the ARM9, 144MGts

Memory: 32MB ROM, 64MB RAM

OS: Symbian OS 7.0/UIQ 2.1

Display: 2.66 "TFT, 262000 colors, 208h320

Phone: GSM 900/1800/1900 MHz

Camera: Built-in 1.3 MP

Battery: Li-ion, 1050 mAh

Ports: miniUSB, Infrared

Connectors: SDIO (SD / MMC)

Wireless communication: Bluetooth

Dimensions: 118 x 52 x 17 mm

Weight: 150g

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BenQ P30 Smartphone

Dessert. Cards on the table!

Could not resist. Mobile game reviews, the soft parade ... The spectacle of glowing table with the maps interesting. Judge for yourself - play two. On the table are lit cards, players flip their light touch, an image of playing field is set, accompanying all of the relevant sounds. Before us - the concept of Tyco, which specializes in touch coatings for electronic kiosks, gaming machines, office equipment, etc. Complex, according to their manager, is designed for a myriad of tasks, ranging from games and finishing with a demonstration of a variety of slides, applications, documents. Quite simply - by matt glass top table, made the touch on technology companies, the picture is supplied with a conventional projector. Everything works as an ATM - and simply by pressing the screen / on the table. Very easy and convenient.

Dab in the table can now be usefully

Of the trends. Funny. "We wanted to create something new. The difference between" - said the manager of X-Micro. Distinguished. Fit video display diagonal of 1.3 inches. Honestly, can be seen. But the pixels are floating in the catalog of course ... everything is beautiful, but to enjoy, we must look through the aquarium. Back to the Future ... Period KVN-s (do not show, the first TV) is returned.

And what is there for a point? Ahh, the detective ...

From oddities. Seen there is very familiar characters. At first thought - her ... Only. Ru is not enough. Good look ... But no. And its not at all. Strangers.

Here they are. Letters. But not ours. Overseas

6 hours. The doors are closed

Streams tired and happy visitors are directed to the exit. The next day, the exhibition is over. 10:00 passed completely unnoticed. Walk from the body into the body in search of some companies attempt to discern the most for the allotted time, the interview, clarify details, test devices, viewing press kits, back issues ... One of the rooms Taipei Times this week, an analyst at Meryll Lynch complained that the exhibition was a little novelty, basically all the equipment was already presented at trade shows Consumer Electronic Show in January and the spring CeBit. This is partly true, but now we know that soon we await the new devices from Mio, we know that Asus In very interested in entering the Russian market, we saw a new concept from Pretec, we know the plans of some of the companies, as well as many others and I am sure, soon the flow of news, which began with the will to grow like a snowball. Anyway, I am convinced that on the island of Formosa, as Taiwan is called, the production of PDAs and smartphones will thrive, their numbers will grow upward, more and more. Not for nothing because it is located in Taipei, the highest skyscraper in the world.

Taipei 101. The tallest building in the world.

The authors, translation:

Vladimir Ghukasian