12 Jan 2009 13:41
Samsung Pico Projector
What if you could avoid the conference-room projector problem altogether by simply bringing your own projector to your presentations? This might soon be possible, as several vendors at CES were showing off miniature projectors about the size of a smartphone.
The most impressive of these projectors — which are based on DLP projection technology — was the Samsung Pico Projector [pictured]. It even has its own internal storage where you can drop your PowerPoint files and run your whole presentation straight from the device. Alternatively, you could hook up your laptop or smartphone to the mini projector and run the presentation that way.
This will not run a presentation in a big lecture hall, but it would be handy for sales people, project managers and executives who do lots of short presentations in small conference rooms. The product will be released during the first half of 2009.
Asus Eee PC T91 Convertible Tablet
With its first Eee PC — one of the big hits at last year's CES — Asus helped launch the worldwide netbook market into the stratosphere in 2008. This year at CES, Asus unveiled a new model called the Eee PC T91 that features a touchscreen and a flipdown convertible tablet display. Asus has tweaked the tablet interface so you can use a standard stylus, but also made it a touchscreen that responds to human hand gestures.
The T91 runs on a 1.33 GHz Intel Atom processor, is an inch thick, weighs about 0.9kg, and has an 8.9-inch screen with LED backlighting. In addition, it includes a built-in TV tuner and GPS.
The product is expected to be released during the first half of 2009, but pricing information has not yet been released. With all the features being packed in to this product, some are concerned that the price will be so high that it will no longer be priced like a netbook. However, Asus chief executive Jonney Shih has said the company is committed to making the price very attractive.
Netgear 3G Mobile Broadband Wireless Router
3G mobile broadband can bring internet access to places where you can't get Wi-Fi or don't have DSL, cable and other services. At CES 2009, Netgear announced that it wants to make it easier than ever for small teams to share 3G broadband with its new 3G Mobile Broadband Wireless Router.
This could be a great solution for small offices in remote locations, temporary offices, mobile offices and teams at events. It essentially allows you to share one 3G broadband card instead of each worker needing a separate card. It costs $129 (£87) in the US, but that does not include the cost of the 3G card or the cellular broadband service.
DisplayLink
DisplayLink is a USB display technology and not one specific product, so it is a bit of a strange fit for this list. However, since it offers important benefits for IT departments, we had to include it. DisplayLink was on show at last year's CES, and it has made a lot of progress in one year.
The technology, which allows a computer to connect to up to six displays over USB, is now embedded in many LCD displays and USB-based docking stations from big vendors such as Lenovo, Samsung and Toshiba. This can allow IT departments to standardise docking stations across the enterprise, so they don't have to switch every time a user gets a new laptop. It also simplifies docking for users, so they only have to plug in one USB connector to get all their peripherals, plus multiple monitors. For those who need more than two monitors, DisplayLink allows you to do it without buying extra graphics cards.
The technology is even embedded in several projectors now, so connecting a laptop to a conference-room projector — a common problem that results in a lot of IT calls — can be as easy as plugging in a USB cable.
EcoButton
Getting users to actively participate in energy-saving activities is tough, because it can sometimes impede productivity. Also, it's often difficult for users to realise how much of an impact their actions can have. A new product called EcoButton deals with both those issues, by helping users conserve power on their PCs.
When users walk away from the PC, they simply hit the button to quickly drop the PC into a low-power mode. When they return, they hit any key on the keyboard, and the computer quickly springs back to life. When it does, it shows a splash screen with stats showing how much money and carbon emissions the user has saved that day and for the life of the PC (while it has used EcoButton). Hit the keyboard one more time, and it takes you back to your work.
Right now, this is a good solution for small business. Later this year, EcoButton will be releasing a commercial version of the product that will be friendly to corporate IT departments.
HP Mini 2140 business netbook
Netbooks have been designed as entry-level computers that are primarily used to access the web. However, more than a few business professionals have snapped them up to use as highly portable machines that they can easily take on the road. At CES, HP became one of the first big vendors to tailor a netbook to the business crowd with the HP Mini 2140.
This little powerhouse has a standard configuration of an Intel Atom 1.6GHz CPU with 1GB of RAM (expandable to 2GB), a 160GB hard disk, a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and a 10.1-inch LED-backlit widescreen display that offers 1,024×576 or 1,366×768 resolutions. It also includes several features that are found in HP's line of EliteBook business laptops: Magnesium alloy casing, HP DuraKeys and HP 3D DriveGuard. Plus, you can load Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista Business on this machine. The cost is £397 (excluding VAT).
Fujitsu S300 scanner
I've been happily using photo scanners for almost two decades, but I have never found these scanners to be very useful for digitising business documents. The scanning quality of the documents is usually inconsistent, and the optical character recognition (OCR) software typically mangles enough characters that it is faster to have a clerical assistant re-type the document. Fujitsu has changed that with a product line that brings document scanning to the desktop with one killer feature: it actually works.
At CES, Fujitsu announced its S1500 scanner, which replaces the top-of-line S510 desktop document scanner. However, Fujitsu also demoed its ScanSnap S300 Scanner, which is a step below the S1500, but still impressive. This slimline scanner can handle a stack of documents at time; it has two cameras, so it scans front and back simultaneously; it automatically reads text and flips scans to portrait or landscape mode; and it can quickly turn your whole stack of documents into a multipage PDF, with document-level encryption and password protection, if needed.
It is also the most accurate business card scanner we have ever seen, plus it imports easily to Microsoft Outlook. We have seen it perfectly reproduce the formatting of documents imported into Microsoft Word. The S300 costs about £225.
ThinkPad W7000ds Dual-Screen Mobile Workstation
Lenovo has built what it considers to be the ultimate laptop for engineers, photo professionals and CAD designers. The ThinkPad W7000ds includes a full keyboard with number pad, built-in Wacom tablet next to the touchpad, options for dual- and quad-core processors, up to 8GB of RAM, both discrete video and high-end NVIDIA graphics, up to three internal hard drives (with options for RAID 0 and 1), and an integrated colour calibrator.
However, the most innovative feature is the display. The main WUXGA screen supports 1,900×1,200 resolution. It also includes an integrated second display that pulls out from behind the main screen and features a WXGA screen with 768×1,280 resolution.
Best of show: Palm Pre
In 2008, most tech pundits and commentators had abandoned Palm and left it for dead. The once-great PDA and smartphone maker had been eclipsed in the burgeoning smartphone market by Apple and Research In Motion, the Palm operating system was outdated, and the company hadn't released an innovative hardware device since it first launched the Treo line in 2003.
At CES 2009, Palm surprised nearly everyone by stealing the show with the unveiling of its new Palm Pre smartphone and the Palm webOS that runs it. The Palm Pre is a slim, elegant phone with a full-length touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard.
The user interface of the new Palm features several innovations that will keep Apple and RIM on their toes. The biggest innovation is the multi-tasking in the new Palm WebOS, because multi-tasking has been a major limitation on smartphones — including the iPhone — until now. Palm has broken away from the window concept and created a multi-taking interface that relies on a deck of cards as its model. A user just pushes the centre button on the Palm and then flips through open apps and clicks one.
As for the Palm WebOS, it is based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Palm thinks it will be an easy and popular platform for programmers to design software to extend the functionality of the device. Palm has also done an excellent job of allowing the communications and contact management software on the Palm Pre to segment or combine personal and business work, based on user preference.
The buzz about this phone from CES attendees was so intense that there were even BlackBerry and iPhone users who were talking about switching to the Palm Pre when it comes out during the first half of 2009. If Palm delivers a fast, usable device based on the prototypes it showed at CES, then it will definitely have the first real challenger to the iPhone in design, interface and smartphone web browsing.
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