Yesterday, I had the privilege to attend the Pepcom sponsored consumer electronics event: Digital Experience. The event was held in New York City at the Metropolitan Pavilion. The exhibitor list was fairly extensive and featured over fifty companies from big names such as Alienware, Belkin, Dell, HP, JVC, Kodak, Seagate, Western Digital, Palm, Sprint to smaller companies such as Novint, swaptree, Cellfish and blinkx.
Pepcom Digital Experience New York June 27th Part 1
Article by: Tomas Ratas
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The event hall was a spacious area which had a New York City art exhibit appearance; it featured white columns interspersed throughout the area. The theme for the event was the British Invasion and featured many Union Jack Flags, concert posters from various British bands, a pub, a dart throwing area and a live band playing various tunes fitting the theme of the event.
Before the show started and the press was allowed into the venue, we were given access to free wifi and were able to mingle with each other. During this time I was able to meet Sal from XYZ Computing.
Since this was my first time as a member of the press at one of these events, it was nice to see someone from a smaller tech review website. Being surrounded by the folks you read at the New York Times, PC magazine, Forbes, etc, can be a little intimidating.
Once the event began, I made my first stop at the Sandisk table. They were promoting their new microSDHC Cards which are the worlds smallest flash cards for mobile phones. They were available in two sizes: 6- and 8- Gigabytes. Indeed these were small SD cards. They make the miniSD cards look gigantic. The nice feature of this new card is that it comes with both a standard SD and mini-SD adapter.
Another product that Sandisk was promoting was the new Cruzer Contour, which adds a sleek new appearance to the Cruzer line. It features a glossy black top and silver metallic body and comes in 4- and 8- GB capacities.
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I next visited the Digeo table who are the makers of the Moxi. For those not familiar with the Moxi, it is touted as a DMR (Digital Media Recorder) and it is vying to be the media hub for todays home. They were promoting the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR which should be available sometime this fall. This product in conjunction with the Moxi Mate allows access to the Moxi Multi-Room HD DMR from another room. One exciting feature is the ability to start watching one program in one room and finish where you left off in another.
The Digeo folks were especially enthusiastic about their interface which allows the viewer easy interaction with the system. Plus unlike Tivo, the TV show you are watching is never off the screen at any time. That is definitely a plus. My favorite feature is the ability to add a USB hard drive for additional storage space. No more hacking the PVR to add a larger hard drive!
The folks at Kingston were displaying their memory, flash memory and USB storage products. One of the featured products discussed was the MobileLite: a 9-in-1 USB card reader that helps mobile consumers navigate multiple expansion memory card formats more easily when moving between mobile phones, digital cameras, PCs and portable media devices.
Another neat product was the Ultra-Portable USB microSD Reader and Card Bundles. Coming in either the 1GB or 2GB flavors, these card readers make the interaction between microSD cards and the pc seamless.
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The next stop was at Sanyo where they were touting the Xacti E1 as the worlds first waterproof camcorder. Described as ideal for active families, vacationers and water sports enthusiasts, the ultra-compact E1 can record high-quality video and 6-megapixel stills under water to a depth of five feet for up to one hour at a time.
The E1 shoots TV-quality MPEG-4 video and utilizes the state-of-the-art Advanced Video Codec AVC/H.264. Incorporating a special Qpixel brand H.264 chipset, the E1 delivers a significant 25 percent reduction in video file size, along with improved video quality versus traditional MPEG-4 recordings. Completely tapeless, the device records both video and still images to a standard SD memory card or high-capacity SDHC card. Users can record a phenomenal 10 hours of full-motion 640 x 480 pixel, 30 frames-per-second video on a single 8-gigabyte SDHC memory card.
Next on the Digital Experience tour, I stopped by to chat with the folks from DLO aka Digital Lifestyle Outfitters. They were featuring the new TuneStik with Remote which features a Wireless FM transmitter plus powerful RF remote control to manage your iPod in the car or at home. A nice feature of this product is the steering-wheel cradle for the remote allowing safe iPod control while driving.
Their other featured product was the HipCase for iPhone and the Jam Jacket for iPhone. Since the iPhone does not debut until this Friday, it was neat to see accessories for it making an appearance. I was more shocked to see Andrew from DLO wearing the HipCase and carrying what appeared to be the iPhone. Unfortunately, it was just a prop, so I have yet to see an iPhone in the wild.
DLO is a licensed manufacturer of iPod accessories, so they are well aware of the specs for the iPhone and have designed the HipCase and Jam Jacket to tailor fit the newest Apple product. The Hip case is sturdy leather and features a Velcro, not magnetic closure. While the Jam Jacket like the model for the iPod features a protective lint resistant silicone case with or without integrated cord management.
Part II Coming shortly…