Gadgets galore at CeBIT 2003

HANOVER, Germany — As usual, this year’s CeBIT trade show was packed full of consumer electronics and computing gadgets. Across the exhibition’s 27 halls were hundreds of interesting and unique gadgets and products and through these some trends were apparent. As has been seen in recent months, the division between the worlds of computing and consumer electronics is narrowing fast as technology that was once related to the personal computer is now mainstream, even among non-PC users.

OLEDs shine bright

A few years ago displays based on OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology were only on display as prototypes, but a handful of products with OLED displays was on show at CeBIT this year.

Perhaps the most impressive was a new digital still camera from Eastman Kodak. The EasyShare LS633 camera has a 2.2-inch active-matrix OLED display on its rear, which is a type capable of showing fast moving images in full color. Compared to TFT LCD panels of the type usually found on such cameras, the OLED is brighter and also sucks up less power. Features include a 3.1-megapixel image sensor and 3X optical zoom. It will be available in Europe, Asia, and Australia in April for around $400.

A number of other products with mono OLED displays were also on show.

Samsung Electronics has built an OLED display onto the outside of its new SGH-I500 smart phone, which has a clamshell design and a TFT LCD on the inside. The handset is a new version of its SPH-I500 phone that was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The SGH-I500 has the Palm 5.2 operating system — the first cell phone to include the latest version of PalmSource’s operating system — and that means it doesn’t need a dedicated graffiti handwriting area because everything can be done in a software pad on-screen.

The company was also showing a prototype Dick Tracy style watch phone with 256-color OLED display. The phone, scheduled to be available later this year, weighs less than 80 grams and also includes a built-in WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) browser, although the watch’s 96-pixel by 64-pixel screen, which has a diagonal width of roughly 3 centimeters, could be a little small for any serious mobile Web browsing.

Other cellular telephone makers are also looking towards OLED technology. Sanyo Electric was showing a prototype sliding-display cellphone with full-color OLED that it hopes to put on sale in Japan later this year and Motorola was showing its new V600 phone that includes an OLED display.

Hard disks leave the desktop

What started with Apple Computer’s iPod portable music player is now becoming mainstream. Several hard-disk drive-based digital music players were on show at CeBIT, including two new models from iRiver, a leading South Korean MP3 player maker.

The IHP-100 is a rectangular model with an internal 1.8-inch hard disk drive with 10GB of storage space. The IGP-100 is a smaller, round player with a 1-inch hard disk drive with 1.5GB capacity. Both players connect to personal computers using the latest version, Version 2.0, of the USB interface standard and have a battery life of between 14 and 16 hours.

Samsung shows a handful of hand phones

Samsung Electronics had one of the most interesting stands in the cellular telephone hall because it was packed with so many prototypes.

In addition to the new SGH-I500 Palm phone and watch phone, Samsung was showing two other smart phones. One is the company’s first handset based on the Symbian operating system. The telephone, which was first unveiled at the 3GSM World Congress Conference last month, is a clam-shell type design with a rotating display that can be turned to face outwards or inwards when the handset is closed.

The other is the SGH-i700, a PDA (portable digital assistant) handset based on Microsoft’s Pocket PC 2002 platform. The device is a phone/PDA hybrid and is designed to be used by people who want full PDA functionality on their cell phones. It was also launched at 3GSM. All three handsets are tri-band GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) models and the SGH-I500 and SGH-I700 also support GPRS (General Packet Radio Service). Samsung plans to launch the telephones in the European market in the third quarter of this year. Pricing details and launch details for other markets was not available.

CeBIT was full of other products that drew attention including:

Smallest Pentium 4 desktop system

After generating some interest a couple of years ago for its compact Pentium III-based personal computer, Taiwan’s Saintsong was back at CeBIT this year showing what it says is the smallest Pentium 4 desktop yet developed. It measures 20.5 centimeters by 15.6 centimeters by 6.1 centimeters and weighs 1.9 kilograms. The machine will support a Pentium 4 up to 2.8 GHz, up to 1GB of memory, an optical disc drive, up to 60GB hard disk drive and comes with built-in USB 2.0, Ethernet, modem, infrared, and a TV signal output. Saintsong says a barebones system will cost around $478 and should be available from April.

Thinnest flash disk

Power Quotient International had on display what it said is the smallest USB flash disk memory card available. The company has stripped away the metal casing that usually surrounds the outside of a USB plug and designed a thin plastic connector that slots straight into a USB socket. That enables the entire flash disk to be made thin, so the whole device looks something like a conventional memory card with a plastic connector added onto the side. The Taiwanese company calls it an “intelligent stick” and has already created USB 1.1 versions up to 128MB capacity, priced at $53, and expects a 256MB version within two months. A USB 2.0 version is also available up to 64MB costing $64.

Blue-laser optical disc players unveiled

NEC and Toshiba showed a pair of blue -laser optical disc drives for personal computers. They are based on AOD (Advanced Optical Disc), a next-generation blue-laser format that supports storage of 20GB of data on a 12-centimeter disc. A working prototype was on display on the NEC booth and a non-working prototype on the Toshiba booth. The format is battling Blu-ray, which comes from a group headed by Sony, and is targeted at storage of high-definition video.

Video over WiFi

At first glance, BenQ’s WM1000 Wireless Media Adapter looked like a typical Wi-Fi access point. But looks can be deceiving. The device is designed to stream DVD-quality MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group)4 video and MP3 music over an 802.11b wireless LAN connection, and can stream video from a PC to a television. In addition to receiving video streamed from a PC, the WM1000 can handle input from a DVD player or cable television, he said.

The WM1000 will begin shipping next quarter, the company said, and pricing was not immediately available. The company, based in Taipei, will initially release the product in Asia before rolling it out to other regions. The company did not give a timeframe for worldwide rollout.

Honey, I shrunk the SD

Memory cards keep getting smaller, which is good news for consumers because it helps device makers design smaller and more compact portable electronics devices. The smallest memory card yet was announced at CeBIT by the SD Card Association. The Mini SD form factor is 602 cubic millimeters, which is less than half that of a conventional SD card and just 20 percent of a Memory Stick. The Mini SD cards will be available in 16MB, 32MB and 64MB capacities shortly, SanDisk said. A version with 128MB capacity is expected to be launched worldwide in the second quarter and a 256MB version in the second half of this year. Prices for the cards were not announced and SanDisk declined to comment on pricing plans although said they should be around the same price as current SD cards.