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PCExpo 1999 June 28, 1999 NEW YORK CITY - Evolving trends in the computer world were evident everywhere as we made our way through the crowds filling the Javits Center during PCExpo ‘99. The trend that’s rising fastest is Internet use: there’s a dramatic rise in the number of people using the Internet, the amount of time they spend on it, and the number and types of businesses and services now available on it (E-commerce). Another rapidly evolving technology is the use of wireless devices for everything from Internet connections to entire computer systems. And digital cameras were everywhere, all offering better pictures and featuring lower prices too. There was much more. Here’s a sampling of some of the many exciting new products and services we saw: Xerox is introducing a $99.00 color inkjet printer that produces photo-quality prints for pennies per print. The prints we saw were impressive. Separate color ink cartridges let you replace just the one that’s empty, and the printer comes with free lifetime Internet access too. Look for this printer in August. Many other printers boast new and improved photo-quality printing. An interesting printer from Polaroid lets you use the associated software to just click on any picture on screen to get a Polaroid print of the picture in 10 seconds. Digital monitors, both flat panel LCD and CRT-based models, will be out by September. We saw incredible picture, graphics and text quality from a preview model of a ViewSonic digital monitor. The better LCD displays are still pricey, but lower than last year. The CRT-type digital models are priced competitive to the older style analog monitors. And they’re available in black as well as the traditional office beige. Palm Pilot and similar palm-sized devices are becoming multifunction, thanks to an increase in computing power, an operating system and more memory. For example, you can download maps and travel directions from your computer, check real estate listings, send and receive faxes and much more. The new Palm VII is wireless and has a built-in modem and radio transceiver; this means you can connect to a new wireless service that has some Internet features, such as e-mail and limited browsing for goods and services or information. This wireless service, called Palmnet, is now available only in NYC but will soon be available nationwide. Palm-sized devices that use Windows CE (such as the Casio Cassiopea) as the operating system can, with a wireless modem, do full Internet browsing, e-mail and even video teleconferencing. Digital still cameras were introduced by camera makers and also by computer companies and other electronic companies. Most digital cameras now have mega-pixel quality. One has a built-in modem, allowing your camera to call up your home or office computer and download the latest picture(s) you’ve taken. Most of these cameras use SmartMedia memory cards for quick change storage, but Sony has a Cybershot camera that uses a Memory Stick for removable memory. The stick is about the size of half a saltine cracker. Many of the new digital still cameras can also record short video clips, complete with audio. To ease your digital photo experience, new photo services on the Internet help you send, store and print images and order prints, photo mugs, shirts, and more; these services can even help you choose the best camera for your needs. New video cameras and software for video snapshots, messaging and conferencing or video editing are all easier to use. Now, for less than $500, you can add near-professional video editing to your computer and camcorder. Also evident were ultra-thin (we mean one-half inch), lightweight laptop computers with big screens, complete with DVD drives and much more. And there’s a new PCMCIA Iomega card drive, with its new 40MB mini-mini removable disk (half-dollar size) for additional storage. USB devices were everywhere: monitors, printers, scanners, keyboards, mice and even digital camera SmartMedia card readers. We also saw E-commerce for every type of goods and services, and there’s improved software to find it all. One such program we liked was Copernic 99, which queries up to 300 search engines, prioritizes results, eliminates duplicates and verifies sites. Two of the keynote speakers, Marc Andreessen from AOL and Robert Herbold from Microsoft, made interesting predictions about the future of computing. Among them: Every device with a screen will connect to the Internet. Computers will be as easy to use as cars or TVs. Computer chip prices will fall to 1 to 2 cents each. Computing power will increase one hundred fold or more. New fiber optic technology will markedly increase bandwidth. Needless to say, we’re excited about all of this. Stay tuned. |
