SAN DIEGO – The annual two-day DEMOmobile show last week featured an eclectic array of hardware, software and services aimed at the ever more discriminating digital consumer. Here’s a look at some of the standout products:
Viewsonic media gateway and adapter: A company that built its reputation on displays dives into home media networking with a suite of products for wirelessly streaming audio, video and still images. The $799 WMG120 gateway with 120 gigabytes of storage is a media server and wireless router (with a built-in print server) that can stream two video files simultaneously to different rooms, where a $299 WMA100 adapter picks up the signal and decodes it for hi-fidelity viewing and listening on home entertainment centers or a TV-display. Wi-Fi standard: 802.11g. Remote control included. www. viewsonic.com.
On-air entertainment: Watch live TV on your Wi-Fi enabled laptop or handheld computer. Currently in testing at the Austin, Texas, airport for Wayport users, the service is billed as the first broadcast entertainment system for public hotspots. The Sunnyvale, Calif., company hopes to persuade Wi-Fi providers to install its servers at hotspots, where each would provide eight channels of TV to up to 100 simultaneous users plus video-on-demand. TiVO-like time-shifting features include pause, fast-forward and rewind. www. onairentertainment.com.
Pepperpad: A two-pound wireless computer for mobile, recreational computing, the Pepperpad features instant-on with a Linux-based operating system. Does e-mail, AOL-compatible instant messaging and the Web with integrated Mozilla browser and photos, video and music. QWERTY split thumb keypad flanks the 800-by-600-pixel touchscreen, or use the included Bluetooth wireless keyboard. 20-gigabyte hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 802.11g Wi-Fi, scroll wheel and D-pad for navigation. Stereo speakers, microphone, video and audio outputs plus USB 1.1 port for data transfer. Available in 2005 for $800. www.pepper.com.
Evernote 1.0: Capture, organize and locate notes, handwritten or typed, URLs, Web page excerpts, drawings and more on your computer, Tablet PC, PDA or smart phone and view them anytime, anywhere. Using EverNote Corp.’s Internet-connected servers, your “notes” are automatically and securely synched across all your devices. Key to the product are handwriting recognition technologies the founders have licensed to others. Currently supports Microsoft Windows, with Palm OS promised for November. Company founder Stepan Pachikov says the product is free through July and that he won’t charge until it supports all platforms. www.evernote.com.
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