Computex 2010 Show Coverage - Part 6
We continue to bring you the best from Computex 2010. Join us as we check out Aiptek, Gajah, Holux, Ikonik, Leadtek, Opera, Plextor, Roxio and Zalman.
Aiptek's Booth
It was all about 3D at Aiptek's booth, which has products ranging from pico projectors to photo frames and camcorders.
As it says, this is a 3D photo from Aiptek. Of course, getting the 3D image created is an issue that needs to be addressed too.
This is Aiptek's pocket sized 3D camcorder, i2, which as you can see, has two lens for filming 2D and 3D images. It can even do 720p HD recording and with only four buttons, it's a simple recording device for quick and dirty recording. It also has a 3D TFT display so you can playback what you have recorded without glasses. It supports HDMI output.
In case you have doubts over what kind of 3D technology that Aiptek is embracing, these polarizer glasses should be the answer you need.
A display showing off the capabilities of Aiptek's 3D HD camcorder, the i2.
Ebook Reader Section
While the ebook reader craze appeared to have cooled slightly since the flood of devices we saw at CES 2010, Computex did have a section dedicated to ebook readers from many brands. We took a look at some of the more interesting ones.
First, we have the greenbook, which like so many others, uses an E Ink display to imitate the look and feel of paper. Formats supported include PDF, eBPUB, HTML, TXT, JPG and DOC. Multiple languages like Chinese, French, German and English are also supported.
BenQ too has an E Ink based ebook reader. Its main attraction of the BenQ nReader is that it can connect directly to eBook Taiwan, a platform for delivering the ebooks to the reader.
The BenQ nReader is not the thinnest of ebook readers and we saw these connectors on it, including a microSD card slot and a mini USB port.
Color ebook readers are not too far off in the future. This prototype from Delta has a 13-inch display with 4096 colors and a 16-level grayscale.
The ASUS DR-900 ebook reader looks very slick and polished. ASUS has chosen the electronic paper display from SiPix and like E Ink, it requires no backlight or constant refreshing of the image. This 9-inch version is also very light at less than 500g.
The extremely thin (less than 1cm) ASUS ebook reader.
The Qisda ebook reader comes in the usual two sizes of 6-inch and 9-inch but with a capacitance touch screen, handwriting support and Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. A microSD slot is also present. From these specs, it certainly looks like a capable ebook reader.
This device from Inventec is not strictly an ebook reader, but according to the firm, this Dr.eye device is a handheld mobile internet terminal. It has multimedia capabilities and a camera for photo and video. It weighs little at 250g while being able to do things like allowing users to check email.
Gajah's Booth
We haven't heard much of Gajah before this, but it seems that this company was founded by a group of young entrepreneurs when they were studying engineering at NUS. The firm is currently involved in CE and multimedia devices, with ebook readers its main focus at Computex.
This is the BK6001, which uses an ARM processor and has a 6-inch E Ink display (8 greyscale levels). It supports microSD card for external storage and a variety of ebook and multimedia formats like PDF, ePUB and even OGG. At around 170g, it's light enough with a battery rated at 20 hours or 4000 pages.
The Oaxis BK6002 meanwhile has received a Computex 2010 award for its design, which is done by Gajah. It has similar specs as the BK6001.
Instead of using E Ink, the 7-inch BK7002 uses a TFT LCD panel and is powered by a 400MHz ARM CPU. Battery life is accordingly reduced, with a max of 8 hours for ebook, though audio playback can be extended to 40 hours if the backlight is turned off.
Holux's Booth
Holux does car navigation systems and the GPSmile 62AS is a fine example. This 5-inch device comes with a TFT LCD with touch screen and has a vehicle rearview camera
For those who love the outdoors but are perhaps lacking direction sense, Holux has two GPS devices to help. The FunTrek 130 PRO and the GPSport 260 PRO are both versatile devices with multiple functions, including having a heart rate sensor monitor. The GPSport even has a pedometer and barometer.
Roxio's Booth
Roxio was showing off its involvement in 3D, probably the big thing now for digital media.
Roxio CinePlayer 3D is demonstrated here along with a pair of 3D glasses. With Blu-ray 3D being released gradually, it's important to have the software to play them.
Roxio's CinemaNow powers the user interface for rental chains like Blockbuster.
Ikonik's Booth
Ikonik had a lot of casings on display, many of which have been specially designed to accommodate today's ultra-large graphics card. This is the M1000. Another unique thing about it is that it has a hot swappable HDD SATA tray.
The G910 supports up to six fans and has a tool-less installation design.
Like the other casings here, the SOHO 1 has been specially designed to accommodate graphics cards up to 330mm in length.
This cool red casing has an equally cool name - Optimus 1200.
Also on display were Ikonik's Rich Power PSUs, which features Japanese capacitors for enhanced efficiency.
Leadtek's Booth
NVIDIA's latest GeForce GTX 465 makes its appearance at Leadtek's booth.
This is the WinFast ExBox 100, which runs on Windows 7.
Opera's Booth
At Opera's booth was a showcase of products using their software.
Many of the latest TVs come with in-built web browsers. Take this Philips 8000 series LCD TV for instance, it uses an Opera web browser.
Tablets are the rage these days and this Toshiba JOURN.E Touch tablet runs on Windows CE and uses an Opera browser.
Web browsing on the Nintendo DSi XL is made possible by Opera.
Plextor's Booth
We are more familiar with Plextor the optical drive manufacturer, but the company has a few other tricks up its sleeves.
Yup, Plextor has a 2-bay NAS (up to 4TB) that supports DLNA 1.5 and even has a BitTorrent client. It comes with two USB 2.0 ports and is available on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms.
If you need more storage with more features, then the Plextor PX-NAS4-BL1 4-bay NAS fits the bill, with its network load balancing feature, support for RAID and hot-swappable drives. There's even support for AES-256 encryption.
This is the Plextor we know, with this internal 12x Blu-ray writer that can write to single layer BD disc at up to 12x speed and a double-layer disc at 8x.
Plextor also has SSDs ranging from 64 to 128GB in size. These 2.5-inch MLC-type drives support up to SATA 6Gbps and are Win 7 Trim Command compliant. They use a Marvell 8-channel controller to achieve a max sequential read speed of up to 400MB/s
A USB 3.0 external HDD from Plextor with a shiny exterior housing that weighs around 190g.
An external top-loading Blu-ray optical drive that reads at 4x max.
Zalman's Booth
Besides your usual CPU and VGA coolers, Zalman also had a 3D display to show us.
For those who intend to take their CPUs to the next level, a competent aftermarket CPU cooler is a must and here are Zalman's offerings.
This is the VF3000 dual-fan VGA cooler.
Not wanting to be left out of the 3D bandwagon, Zalman also had a 24-inch 3D monitor on display.
Showgals of Computex 2010 - Part 1
Showgals of Computex 2010 - Part 2
Showgals of Computex 2010 - Part 3
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