By MIKE BERMAN
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
A tip of my cap to the folks at Ziff-Davis Media for having the guts to bring a consumer-oriented tech show to Manhattan.
Now in its third year, DigitalLife rekindles memories of an era when tech shows were fun to attend and you'd gawk in amazement at all the new goodies awaiting the common, everyday computer geek.
The show, admittedly not a Goliath and geared to gamers, has grown steadily during the past three years and hopefully will continue to attract the thundering herds of savvy consumers needing their yearly tech fix.
Add to this press-only events from Pepcom and Showstoppers showing off even more tech toys and cake to celebrate Sonic the Hedgehog's 15th birthday, and you have the recipe for five days of digital delights.
AMD and Intel showed off their new processors to a crowd that was hungry for more computing power (especially for games), with AMD hitting the road running with a new 4x4 processor set nicknamed The Quadfather that provides twice as much computing output of the new Intel Dual Core 2 processors. Also, all the speed comes directly from the processor and is not dependent on a front-side bus that you find on Intel motherboards.
AMD also announced alliances with Alienware and Gateway to produce Media Center devices that come very close to achieving Bill Gates' vision of the computer becoming the center of our entertainment universe. While Gateway's offering looks, smells and acts like a PC, the new offering from Alienware is an entertainment center component featuring 5.1 Dolby surround sound, digital and component video and a DVD player that anyone would be proud to display in their living room.
The Z-Wave Alliance has taken home automation another step closer to practicality with more than 100 companies jumping onboard to offer everything from lamp modules to routers designed to work together using a Z-wave chip, allowing them to be controlled from a single console, PC or digital phone. Most notable among these companies are Levitron, Lynksys and Intermatic. Other devices that will remotely start your automobile, open the garage door and turn on your lights and perform other tasks have also jumped aboard the Z-Wave bandwagon.
Sega showed off the new, high-flying versions of Sonic the Hedgehog designed for Sony's upcoming Playstation 3 and the new Nintendo Wie gaming consoles. Other games of note included the world-wide debut of Final Fantasy XII from Square Enix (formerly SquareSoft) for the Playstation 3, which promises to set a new standard for multimedia RPGs; the new Splinter Cell Double Agent for the Xbox 360, and a bevy of sports games from Electronic Arts, including Madden 2007, NBA Live 2007 and Tiger Woods Golf 2007 for the Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation 2.
The new U3 Smart USB flash drives were also prominently on display. For those unfamiliar with U3, this is a new standard for what used to be known as thumb drives, allowing you to carry complete programs and files in your pocket. You can run them on any USB2 equipped PC without having to install them on the computers' hard drives. Be prepared for capacities of up to eight gigabytes in the new batch of these drives.
Last, but not least, are new high-speed wireless modems and routers using the yet-to-be-approved wireless N protocol. Up to 16-times faster than 802.11g, these devices blow even Ethernet networks away. Look for devices from Linksys, Belkin, and D-Link using what they are calling the "Draft N" protocol to hit store shelves before the Christmas rush.
(Mike Berman can be reached at jocgeek(at)earthlink.net or through his Web site at www.jocgeek.com.)
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