Like the Force, computer and Internet technologies are increasingly with you. You can store all your CDs on a computer hard disc and mix them in with your Internet music — but now you can do it on your sitting room hi-fi. You can take your laptop with you anywhere in the house — and stay connected to your home network and the Internet. You can walk down the street with no technology in your briefcase or pocket — but have a computer on your wrist. And as for your dog, he can have a computer too — inside his head.
You can see this world of ever-expanding computer gadgetry
this week in Hanover at the CeBIT trade exhibition, which
attracts more than 600,000 visitors each year. In 2002
computer technology will continue its invasion into home
entertainment, notably though hard-disc technology. Sony
is introducing a hard disc hi-fi system that can store
up to 500 CDs. If you don't have the song you want on
a CD — no problem. If it's on the Internet you can
download it — through MP3 — and add it to
your collection. Sony also has a car version that fits
into a standard dashboard radio slot and can store 170
hours of music. Philips is taking this hard-disc techno-logy
in another direction by launching a video recorder with
built-in dvd player that can store up to 38 hours of TV.
Fujitsu-Siemens, Germany's biggest-selling PC company,
is going one better. Its activy Media Center hard-disc
system has a dvd player, as well as a satellite tuner,
plus it can connect to the Internet via DSL or cable.
Computing power is also becoming ubiquitous as it escapes
its wired shackles. Still in their infancy, Bluetooth
and a wireless system called Wi-Fi are opening up new
ways of working — and having fun. Bluetooth is a
simple wireless technology, designed to let you connect
your printer to your PC, your organizer to your mobile
phone or your
| SONY
AIBO ELECTRONIC DOG Now you can tell
this pooch to heel from any-where in the world via
the Net |
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| HP JETDIRECT
380X Lets you connect to your printer
from the garden |
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ACTIVITY MEDIA CENTER FROM FUJITSU-SIEMENS this all-in-one entertainment machine includes digital video recording, Internet access and a satellite tuner |
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digital camera to your PC
— or all of them to each other. At last
year's CeBIT, Bluetooth bombed: devices from
one manufacturer often would not work with
products from another.
But Bluetooth is back, in a big way. There
are slip-on devices for all types of Personal
Digital Assistants (PDAs), digital still and
video cameras, printers, keyboards, mice and
all sorts of gadgets. New Bluetooth mobile
phones will be featured on Nokia's, Motorola's
and Siemens' stands, to name but three. CeBIT
visitors won't need to look hard for Bluetooth
wireless earpieces either. GN Netcom's latest
jabra two-inch diameter earpiece is typical:
it has a "flip boom" microphone that activates
the headset, saving on battery life.
While Bluetooth is essentially a replacement
for a short cable, Wi-Fi, also known as 802.11b,
is more like a long, fat cable. With a range
of up to 100 m and high data speeds, it is
a network technology that allows you to do
things you couldn't do before — like
taking your laptop out into the garden while
remaining linked to a home network and a high-speed
Internet connection. (In fact, at the show
Nokia will be unveiling a card for your laptop
that will allow you to connect with Wi-Fi
at home or in the office and use mobile phone
gprs technology when you are out of Wi-Fi
range, so you will always be able to get to
your e-mails — what joy! The Nokia D211
will be available in the second quarter of
2002.
You can also use Wi-Fi a bit like a "super
Bluetooth." A printer with Hewlett Packard's
new-at-CeBIT Jetdirect 380x wireless print
server add-on connected can be positioned
anywhere in a Wi-Fi network area. Not the
most entertaining gadget, you might say, but
if you plug the same technology into your
home stereo system you can connect it to your
PC and all its Internet music.
If you need a break, you can step outside
wearing your IBM WatchPad. Developed in conjunction
with Citizen, this tiny prototype PDA is navigated
entirely by voice. You no longer have to worry
about your clumsy fat fingers as you access
your appointments and address book. If you
want to synchronize with your PC, you can
do that too — with Bluetooth, of course.
IBM is also demonstrating another prototype,
the infoScope, which can translate signs when
you are out and about in a foreign country.
The infoScope uses a digital camera to capture
a picture of a sign, which is sent back to
a central computer via a mobile phone system.
There the image is analyzed and the original
word is extracted, translated and sent back
to you. Then you'll find out the hotel has
no rooms available.
Computer technology can even get around on
its own legs — and stay connected to
the Internet too! Sony's latest Aibo electronic
dog has an optional Wi-Fi connection so you
can control it via the Internet from anywhere
in the world. Or, using a 75-word vocabulary,
you can just tell it to "Sit in the corner!"
The way computer technology keeps spreading,
in a couple of years maybe the CeBIT exhibits
will come to us. |
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PROMOTION
