Video: K&S Unveils Smallest, Affordable GSM PhoneWatch At CES 2010

January 7, 2010

The W is both a classic digital watch and a full blown GSM smartphone!

Kempler & Strauss’ W Phonewatch is one the most innovative product I’ve seen at this year’s CES this year, along with Parrot’s drone.

The W is the world’s smallest full-function GSM quad-band cell phone watch, but no 3G data yet.

It incorporates many of the features found in full-sized smartphone, including a wrist watch, a touchscreen interface, still and video cameras, MP3 player, a 4GB microSD card, and productivity applications: calendar, address book, voicemail, SMS, call log, speed dial, ring tones with vibration mode, calculator, stopwatch, and various games and utilities.

For $199, the phone watch comes unlocked – for AT&T and T-Mobile networks – with a stereo Bluetooth headset, the Communicator.

Here are the main technical specifications for the W PhoneWatch shipping during the first quarter 2010:

  1. It incorporates a GSM phone that supports the 850MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, and 1900MHz bands;
  2. Has a 1.5-inch TFT LCD micro-touch touchscreen with a screen resolution of 128 x 128 and displays 260,000 colors;
  3. The watch measures a mere 57 x 45 x 18mm and weighs only 2.5 ounces;
  4. Fully compatible with Bluetooth v2.0 headset and hands-free devices;
  5. The still camera captures JPEG images at resolutions up to 640 x 480, while the integrated video camera captures video in MPEG 4 (AVI) format at a resolution of 128 x 104;
  6. Supports video playback of MPEG4 files and music files including MP3, WMA, WAV, and AMR but no AAC :-(
  7. It can be charged by USB or via the included battery charger;
  8. A full charge provides up to 150 minutes talk time, up to 150 minutes of music playback, and up to 100 hours of standby time.

Finally, below is a video excerpt of the demo we had of the W cell watch taken at yesterday’s Pepcom Digital Experience media event during CES:

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Panasonic To Post $4 Billion Loss; Cuts 15,000 Jobs

February 4, 2009

One after the other, Japanese electronics companies are being hit by a double whammy: the sudden global consumer demand collapse and the appreciation of the yen versus the dollar.

Last in turn is Panasonic, which said today it expects a net loss of $4.2 billion for its fiscal year ending March 31, and plans to close 27 manufacturing sites (13 in Japan and 14 abroad) – about 12% of its global production facilities- and lay off 15,000 workers -  5 per cent of its global workforce – by March 2010. Half of the cuts will be in Japan.

Earlier this month, NEC announced it is cutting 20,000 jobs, while Hitachi, Sony, Toshiba and others have also recently announced thousands of layoffs.

In a press conference in Tokyo, Panasonic’s management did not say when they expect sales to eventually turn around.

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Novatel Wireless Shows Mobile 3G Wi-Fi HotSpot (video)

January 13, 2009

 

MiFi is equivalent to a walking Wi-Fi hotspot!

MiFi is equivalent to a walking Wi-Fi hotspot!

At the Consumer Electronics Show, Novatel Wireless showed its 3G mobile Wi-Fi hotspot the size of a credit card, MiFi, which was previously announced last month but won’t be available until mid 2009.

In a nutshell, MiFi is a walking 3G Wi-Fi HotSpot: subscribe to a data plan (CDMA or GSM) and as soon as you turn on the device up to 5 users can share the same wireless broadband connection. And it also works in a car!

Applications hosting will lower data plan costs

MiFi will cost around $200 before carriers’ subsidy. The card-size device has also an
on-board linux capable to host applications.

“MiFi being able to host software applications is going to help bring the price of data plans down because the carriers are going to be able to sell software applications in addition to just connecivity. That’s what we all want, a $20 to $30 data plan versus $50 to $60 today,” explained Novatel’s spokersperson Michael Kelly.

Below is an excerpt of Kelly’s presentation of the MiFi:

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Imation Ships Kit To Migrate PCs To Solid State Drives (video)

January 13, 2009

 

Imation kit makes it easy to upgrade disk drives to SSDs

Imation kit makes it easy to upgrade traditional disk drives systems to SSDs

2009 is the year that solid state drives (SSDs) go mainstream.

Storage company Imation announced at the Consumer Electronics Show last week a consumer line of SSD drives (the M-class) available in 2.5-inch and 3.5- inch configurations, and with capacities ranging from 32GB to 128GB. Prices start at $180.

But more importantly is the availability of an upgrade kit that makes it easy to migrate the operating system, applications and data from an existing hard disk drive to the new Imation SSD.

For Imation director Bill Simser, SSDs allow for faster boot times, quick loading of applications in memory and writing data on the drive. 

Below is a video excerpt of Simser talking about the latest Imation SSD consumer products:

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Recession Hits CES Attendance; Down 22%

January 12, 2009
Lots of empty spaces and less attendees at this year's CES

Lots of empty spaces and less attendees at this year's CES

Based on preliminary estimates, the organisers of CES said that more than 110,000 people attended the conference last week in Las Vegas. The final audited numbers will be released in 3 months!

That’s far fewer than the 130,000 the group predicted for this year and 22 percent off the 141,150 who attended last year. Which was already down from the 143,695 who attended in 2007.

Last week, Las Vegas hotels felt empty and the taxi lines were sparse, aside from Thursday and Friday nights. The show floor itself had a lot of “open spaces” that were previously reserved for companies that eventually canceled their presence at the last minute.

Many companies significantly reduced their presence at the show, both in booth space and employees.

However, despite the lowest attendance number in years, CES is still a must event in the consumer electronics industry.

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Cisco Tests Consumer Strategy With First Audio Product; Video Is Next

January 12, 2009
Cisco CEO shares trends and opinions with press and analysts at VIP event in Las Vegas

Cisco CEO (left) shares trends and opinions with press and analysts at VIP event in Las Vegas

Cisco has refined its consumer strategy in a big way at CES, putting its name brand side by side with its consumer brand Linksys.

“Consumers were not aware that Linksys was part of Cisco. Using the Linksys by Cisco tagline make it finally perfectly clear,” explained a Cisco spokesperson.

The San Jose, Calif.-company entry in the consumer market with its recently announced home audio streaming device is the first step before adding more video and telepresence products.

“We’re testing how the market, the consumers but also the channel are reacting to the new audio product. We will then use what we’ve learned in our next generation of products,” added the Cisco spokesperson.

Speaking at a private event in Las Vegas, Cisco CEO, John Chambers, said that the best acquisition target is still a 100-person or less start-up. And there are plenty of good start-ups for sale in Silicon Valley right now, he said.

Although the chief executive excluded the possibility of any “mergers of equal” - labeling them as failures -, Chambers acknowledged that he was open to large deals to get into new markets.

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SD Memory Cards To Store Up To 2 Terabytes!

January 12, 2009

 

The first SDXC cards will be available by the end of this year

The first SDXC cards will be available by the end of this year

The SD association announced at the Consumer Electronics Show its latest SDXC (extended capacity) card specification that will allow standard SD and microSD cards to store up to 2 TB and with transfer speeds up to 140 Mbits/s and subsequently 300 Mbits/s.

 

A 2 TB SDXC memory card could store an estimated 100 HD movies, 480 hours of HD recording or 136,000 fine-mode photos. 

The organisation expects the first SDXC to be available by the end of the year with capacities reaching 64 GB – doubling the current 32 GB limit – and 128 GB.

SDXC will compete effectively with the CompactFlash card format

HD Camcorders and digital SLRs are the primary target for these new high-capacity cards. With SDXC, the SD card association has finally a viable rival to the CompactFlash memory format used today in digital SLRs and higher-end devices.

Here’s a video excerpt of an SD Card representative Rex Sabio explaining the SDXC format:

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2009: Blu-ray Sales Will Exceed DVD Revenues In U.S. (video)

January 12, 2009
Blue-ray sales will finally take off in 2009

Blue-ray sales will finally take off in 2009

With the end of the high-definition DVD war a year ago at the Consumer Electronics Show – Sony’s Blu-ray standard won over Toshiba’s HD-DVD – Blue-ray sales are poised to take off, said the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

Since first released in June 2006, over 10 million Blu-ray players shipped, and more than 1,100 Blu-ray titles are now available in the U.S. 

For 2009, the CEA expects the sale of Blu-ray players to double at about 10 million units, representing 10% of all DVD players (standard and next generation) sold worldwide.

In the U.S., Blu-ray DVD sales will exceed standard DVD revenues, which is explained by the 5 fold price difference - at least - between the two generations of products.

Here’s a video excerpt from CEA analysts explaining the Blu-ray trend:

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Low Power, High-Speed Bluetooth Products Expected in 2009 (video)

January 12, 2009

bluetooth_logoA very very fast Bluetooth is coming later this year.

At the Consumer Electronics Show last week, the Bluetooth organisation behind the wireless technology plans to adopt a high-speed version of the standard by the second quarter of this year, with compatible products expected by the end of this year.

“We’re looking at 480 Mbits/s compare to 3 Mbits/s for classic Bluetooth. Today’s speed is perfect for voice applications that you have today. The new high speed will be ideal to transfer your music library from your computer to your iPod wirelessly,” explained Bluetooth spokeperson Starr Million Baker.

The Bluetooth organisation is also working on a low power version of the standard that will enable Bluetooth products to last months or even years.

Here’s a video excerpt of a Bluetooth representative about the upcoming standard:

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Is Seagate Getting Ready To Go Private Again?

January 12, 2009

It looks like it as the hard disk-drive maker appointed chairman Stephen Luczo as CEO, a post the Seagate veteran of 15-years held from 1998 to 2004.

It makes sense for Seagate to go private

Most noteworthy is that Luczo led Seagate’s privatisation in 2000 and then its public offering in 2002.

The Scotts Valley, Calif.-company market capitalisation is only worth about $2.3 billion despite having over a $1 billion in the bank, questioning the rationale of being a public company in these eratic times.

In addition, Seagate said earlier today it planned to reduce its U.S. workforce by about 10 per cent. About 8,000 of its 54,000 employees are located in the U.S.

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