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PCExpo 2003 October 1, 2003 New York City, September, 2003. The economic doldrums were evident this year at PCExpo 2003. In past years the show filled the massive Jacob Javits Center, but this year’s show barely filled a corner, and many of the major companies were missing entirely. Several companies were there, however, and they did display new and innovative products. Let’s look: AG Neovo, an LCD display manufacturer, introduced a new line of flat panel displays that feature a glass overlay optic filter that reduces glare, improves color saturation and best of all can be cleaned with glass cleaners. The glass has a fused-on coating and is impervious to damage from fingerprints and the like and also resists mechanical damage (unlike an unprotected LCD screen). The new displays sport built-in 2 watt amplified speakers. We especially liked the sharp, clear LCD display and stylish mounting with a black frame and chrome fittings. The e-series 17 inch model is $449 (analog), and the 19 inch model is $699 (analog and digital). Gvision, another display manufacturer, introduced a new line of LCD flat panel displays containing a built-in TV tuner, built-in 1 watt amplified speakers, USB ports, s-video/RCA video connectors and built-in 4-in-1 digital camera memory card reader. As a stand-alone display (not connected to a computer), you can watch TV, watch your camcorder (analog or digital) movies or see digital photos. Using the included features, you can also view thumbnails of your photos or run a slide show of the photos on your camera’s memory card. The three new models are 15, 17, and 19 inch. The MSRP has not been established but after rebates will be about $350+, and they will be marketed in the US under the Kogi name. WizCom Technologies introduced the Infoscan, a hand-held pen scanner that can scan, store and transfer up to 500 pages of printed data, anytime, anywhere. Transfer can be via infra-red, serial or USB connection, creating fully editable Word documents. Scanned data is displayed on the built-in screen so you can check for accuracy before transfer. The pen can also be used tethered to a PC, with the scanned data appearing at the cursor point in any Windows application. Great for students, researchers and others. Priced at $99. WizCom Technologies also introduced the newest model of its SuperPen Professional. This model can scan, store and transfer up to 2,000 pages of printed data, and it also can be loaded with several electronic dictionaries containing up to 250,000 words. The dictionaries are from the Houghton Mifflin collection and include Medical, Wall Street, Computer, Science and also a thesaurus. There’s an option to have the words spoken to check pronunciation, and a new feature with this model is the ability to scan in data in an Excel spreadsheet format. The scanned data, dictionary definitions and the spreadsheet are all displayed on the built-in screen prior to transfer. The SuperPen Professional is priced at $199. T-Mobile showed off the latest model of the wireless RIM Blackberry, the trim 7230, which T-Mobile will now be supporting. The Blackberry 7230 is a combo full-featured cell phone, PDA and e-mail manager. It uses "push" technology, so whenever an e-mail is sent to your e-mail address, it appears immediately on your Blackberry. The full keyboard makes replying easy. The PDA syncs with your Outlook contacts, calendar and phone book via cradle. Pricing is about $400 for the Blackberry itself with additional costs for various service options. Micro Research II introduced the 3D-Album DVD Suite 2.03 for creating animated photo albums. Included are dozens of colorful and eye-catching presentation templates. Included also is software for converting the finished animation into an AVI, MPEG1 or 2, Windows Media player or RealVideo formats for SVCD, VCD or DVD TV viewing. Additional free templates can be downloaded from their Web site. This is a cool, fun and useful product, priced at $64.90, and available at Office Depot. Also introduced was the 3D-Album Commercial Suite 3.0, which adds the ability to do hypertext as well as linked regions, vector drawing, photo editing, encryption and a host of other professional features. Available for $299. IBM displayed new laptop computers using built-in full wireless for on-the-road mobility, or WLAN (wide local area network) 802.11g or Bluetooth technologies for office, warehouse or home use. Priced at $850 and up. Olympus showcased its new line of Stylus 300 (3.2 megapixel) and Stylus 400 (4 megapixel) digital cameras--all sleek-looking in their compact brushed metal all-weather clam-shell cases. They have point and shoot ease of use, with additional features such as Quicktime movie mode, multi-mode flash and five pre-set scene programs. Street price Stylus 300/$280; 400/$350. Xerox showcased several of its business printers, including the Phaser 8200 which is now available with $230 rebate and free black ink for one year. Raxco Software demonstrated its PerfectDisk 6.0, an ultra-fast disk defragmenter and optimizer that includes features not found on the standard Windows defragger, such as defragging and optimizing the disk position of systems files. Priced at $45. Mitsubishi Electric introduced its Home Theater Projector, HC2 ColorView, which features automatic room lighting sensing, automatically adjusting brightness and color balance for optimal viewing. The projector can be used with TV, DVD, VCR or computer input. For the fashion minded, Case Closed displayed their Steve line of laptop carrying cases, made in bright colors and colorful prints. |
