October 25, 2006

New York City: The Javits Convention Center reverberated with the sights and sounds of the electronic era at DigitalLife 2006 on October 12-15. Mobility was the buzzword, highlighted by a keynote address by the Senior VP of Intel’s Ultra Mobile Group, whose quote, "Mobilizing the Internet will be the next big thing," says it all. This mobility means you can access the Internet anywhere, anytime, from your wireless hand-held, pocket-sized device.

Top on the list of mobile products are those designed for entertainment and utility, so they do it all: music, videos, movies, photos, games and Internet. For example, the just-launched Palm Treo 680 Smartphone (www.palm.com) is a quad-band world phone that runs Palm OS and has integrated MP3 player, digital camera, camcorder and video player. Use it to access e-mail and the Internet, keep contacts and calendars (which are automatically synced with your home computer) and--oh yes, call home. It comes in four colors and lists for $199, although price may vary with carrier.

PC Mobility comes in the pocket-sized Sony Vaio UX Micro PC (www.sony.com) which runs full Windows XP and features a slide-down qwerty keyboard, two digital cameras, a 4.5 inch screen and WiFi wireless connectivity.

Coming soon is a widescreen pocket tablet PC from Asus. Although not a phone (yet), it does all the other Internet, e-mail and media stuff using WiMAX, an emerging wireless network from Sprint that’s said to be four times faster than cell phone networks. Coverage and availability is limited now but expanding. The extra speed (bandwidth) will make it possible to download HD video content as well as the usual media content. This device also syncs with a new Volkswagen car entertainment system to control what is played and where it is played in the car.

Also on display was the sleek new Sony PlayStation 3, with its built-in Blu-Ray disc player. It’s not just for games any more, but an entertainment device demonstrating spectacular graphics. And the Sony eBook Reader, a thin pocket book size device with a 3.5 by 5 inch easily readable screen. It holds hundreds of books, zooms for easy reading, plays MP3 music and supports PDF format documents.

Home remote control will be available from Wayne-Dalton’s Home Settings (www.wayne-dalton.com/access). You can easily and economically set up a wireless system in your home to control almost anything that has a switch: lights, furnace, coffee pot, electric blanket, gas fireplace and such. The system accommodates wireless sensors for temperature, flooding and more and is controlled by a hand-held remote that’s easily programmable. Programming sets up a series of "scenes:" a morning scene could turn on the coffee pot and light the way to the kitchen; a night scene could open the garage door and turn on the house lights. Using optional software, the entire system can be monitored and controlled from anywhere you have Internet access via laptop or cell phone.

We saw several products incorporating added appeal for the more design-conscious women’s market: Sony Bravia HD TV comes in a choice of designer bezels, and their new C series laptops come in several colors including pink, green and purple.

Steffi Thomas Headband/Headset

The Pepper Pad 3 (www.pepper.com) Web wireless WiFi Web computer is sleek and stylish, sporting a 7 inch touch screen, and comes in several colors. It can surf the Web to stream and display photos, video, music and eBooks and control the TV. And one strictly for the ladies: a Steffi Thomas (www.steffithomas.com) phone headset that features both earpiece and microphone on flexible arms attached to a headband. Headbands come in 30 colorful fabrics, with 16 colors and styles for the connector button and a cute earring-like dangley thing.

Also on display was Invisible Shield (www.ShieldZone.com), a protective tough plastic piece that fits over the LCD screens of iPods, most popular digital cameras, and cellular phones and keeps them from scratching, guaranteed.

The Darth Vader mimobot (www.mimoco.com) USB drive, the first of four cute Star Wars doll-like USB drives, is scheduled for release before the holidays.

A special press-only event showcased many terrific products: CarMD (www.carmd.com), a hand held device that plugs into your car’s computer socket, downloads diagnostic information and then reads that info into your computer. The included software reports the health of your car’s engine and, if a problem, gives you free access to CarMD’s web site where you’ll upload the info and get advice on repairs and approximate costs. Valuable info when you bring car to the garage.

Paragon Software displayed the new version Drive Backup 8.0 (www.drive-backup.com) that provides an automated personal or network backup and strong recovery tools using Windows, Linux or even DOS. CardScan (www.cardscan.com) demonstrated their business card scanner and software that saves time by automatically scanning cards and organizing the info into a contact database. Upload the info to their Web site for worldwide access.

Kingston (www.kingston.com) showed their DataTraveler Secure, a USB 2.0 Flash drive that keeps data safe with hardware-based encryption and password. On a fun note, SmithMicro (www.allume.com) showed off their Morpheus Photo Animation Suite which uses two or more photos to create a series of morphs.

There’s much more to report so stay tuned.

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