SmartHouse Staff

Canon has added two new printers to its PIXMA all-in-one range however the company has refused to let SmartHouse staff ask any questions. They are also refusing to give journalists a retail price because of “retail pricing sensitivity”.

TRENDnet, manufacturers of networking products, have announced a new 108Mbps Super-G Wireless family of products which promises to delivers faster speeds at farther distances.

“The installed base of 802.11 WiFi users has grown rapidly over the past couple of years, so it is important to ensure backward compatibility with previous standards,” stated Matthew Mann, managing director, BAXIT Services, the distributor of TRENDnet products in Australia.

“The Super G MIMO product line delivers better performance for both Super G MIMO and existing 802.11b/g users providing assured compatibility and helping protect previous technology investments.”

The new MIMO Router and Access Points support Traffic Shaping Quality of Service (QoS) which prioritises multimedia traffic such as Online Gaming, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and multimedia audio/video streaming. These high bandwidth applications require a fast and reliable network connection. Combined with 108Mbps Super G speed, the new family is ideal for multimedia enthusiasts.

MIMO uses multiple transmitters and receivers to send identical data along different paths finding the fastest, most reliable wireless connection possible. By having multiple radio transmitters and antennas, the range and strength of the signal is increased, not only for Super G MIMO clients, but for regular 802.11b/g clients as well. As a result, current WiFi users will experience performance improvements without the need for a dual-end MIMO solution.

The intelligence behind the antenna solution is often described as “beam forming.” The router receives feedback from the client adapter and has the ability to focus the direction of the signal around potential interference. This adaptive transmitting feature helps provide a more reliable signal at extreme ranges.

Available now from selected technology outlets, the 108Mbps Super G Wireless family includes the TEW-611BRP Router – $269, TEW-610APB Access Point – $269, TEW-601PC PCard – $149 and TEW-603PI PCI Adapter – $179 (all prices in AUD$ and inc GST).

The box is a dangerous thing for any technology company. If your designer’s thoughts get stuck inside it, all that follows is evolutionary product after evolutionary product.

KODAK EASYSHARE-ONE

RRP$849  |  www.kodak.com.au 

Consumers get bored, you get bored, the products start to suffer, and ultimately it all comes crashing down around you.
With its EasyShare-one, Kodak’s proved it has a healthy fear of all things box-like – it’s created the most exciting camera we’ve seen for some time: a camera with a penchant for all things wireless.

Wireless tech means that after a hard day’s shooting you can upload your images to your computer at the touch of a button or, even better, upload them to the internet from a WiFi hotspot. To us, organising online photo albums from the comfort of a pub sounds like very good news indeed.

We love the EasyShare-one, primarily because it has the potential to be wireless and wireless things, as we all know, are brilliant.
Another brilliant feature of the Kodak is its viewfinder. OK, we’ve got swivelly screens coming out of every orifice, and while the finder is three inches big, it’s hardly innovative. But what is smart, however, is that this viewfinder is touch-sensitive and comes with a stylus. This makes organising photos and internet albums easier than a jaunt round the park.

So it’s user-friendly, but is the camera any good? It covers all the quality bases: 4MP CCD, Schneider-Kreuznach optics and a 3x optical zoom in a chassis just over 10cm wide and less than 3cm deep. It also shoehorns in a 30fps VGA movie mode, 6-shot 2fps burst setting, 3.3x digital zoom and more picture modes than you could ever possibly think about needing.

The final touch that marks the EasyShare-one out among many a competitive compact is its built-in 256MB of storage. Compared to the 10MB-odd that most compacts sport, this is obviously good news. It also means you’re less likely to need that SDIO slot for memory expansion, so you can be WiFied up at all times.

But if you do want to expand, the EasyShare will support and catalogue up to 1500 stored images. That leaves it entirely up to you to imagine all the possibilities.

The Australian smart handheld device market kicked off the 2005 calendar year on a resounding note with the converged market maintaining strong growth.

Dominated by HP, RIM, PalmOne, 02 and Sony Ericsson, these devices that combine data and voice capabilities have taken over the handheld segment.

Like the iPaq h6300 and the i-mate, giving the user a single device that can handle at least rudimentary PIM functionality along with voice and multimedia is without question the way forward.
In this category, the Research In Motion (RIM) Blackberry phones (pictured), available through Vodafone and Telstra, will increasingly come under pressure in the business market as more phones gain access to corporate email. Growth in 3G will also help sales as improved data rates makes content more accessible.

Optus and palmOne recently announced plans to offer corporate customers an integrated corporate email service on the Treo 650 smartphone. The solution, called MobileMail Corporate is yet another solution in the big push to wireless email access.
The Treo 650 smartphone from palmOne is a quad-band mobile with a good suite of productivity applications, including email, organiser and web access. Naturally based on the Palm OS, users can view, edit and create Word and Excel compatible documents and access PowerPoint presentations. No WiFi, but the device has Bluetooth and the usual array of multimedia capabilities including MP3 player, digital video camera and a large screen.

New to the market is the latest from O2. The Xphone IIm runs Windows Mobile 2003 and is being pitched at commuters on its entertainment strengths. Unlike the phone’s data centric siblings, the O2 Xda II range, this is a phone first and foremost with less processing power and a focus on easy access to MP3s and video playback. It does however feature Microsoft Pocket Outlook and MSN Messenger to keep you
in touch.

A new range of 5.1 gear for PC, including surround headphones, has been released in Australia.

Now you can hear REAL 5.1 when you are on the move or need to keep the volume down on your home theatre system or console games because the neighbours are complaining!
MM Gear’s multi channel 5.1 surround sound headphones have six discretely embedded speakers so they give real 5.1 channel surround sound! MM Gear has more than 200 worldwide patents in specific and unique audio technologies – so you get the only true surround sound for headphones available!
Now you can play your console games and enjoy absolutely real 5.1 surround sound without upsetting your parents or flat mates! Plug into your home theatre late at night and immerse yourself in the grand cinematic soundscape without waking the neighbours! Plug into your notebook when you are on the move and enjoy the full pleasures of 5.1 wherever you happen to be! Even if you don’t have a sound card MM Gear has developed a plug in and play USB sound card to help you out!
MM Gear 5.1 surround sound headphones are the most advanced surround sound headphones in the world – allowing you to enjoy surround sound anywhere and anytime!
5.1 Surround Sound Headphones (M500FL) – available now $99 (incl. GST)
MM Gear 5.1 surround sound headphones have 6 discrete speakers, giving true 5.1 channels in a compact, comfortable and attractive design. Enjoy crisp, hi fidelity sound from your home theatre, computer and even your console games! With the launch of Microsoft’s 360 and Sony’s PS3 on the horizon these headphones will make an excellent gift or accessory if you are a gamer!
USB Sound Card & 5.1 Headphones Package (MP-5010M) – available now $149 (incl. GST)
This product packages MM Gears 5.1 surround sound headphones with MM Gear’s external USB sound card! So you can plug into any PC and experience 5.1 sounds – even if you don’t already have a sound card or one cannot be internally fitted in your laptop! The USB sound card plugs into any standard USB port and is immediately ready to use! It is compact enough to travel well, and can be connected to any speaker system as well as MM Gear’s 5.1 surround sound headphones! With channel-by-channel volume control and an inbuilt amplifier you don’t need anything more to enjoy rich sound through your headphones!
5.1 Surround Sound Headphones and Amplifier Package (MH-5011M) – available now $149 (incl. GST)
MH-50100M includes MM gear’s 5.1 surround sound headphones PLUS a 5.1 channel headphone amplifier! This is a solution that can be used with your DVD Player, your Desktop PC (if it already has a 5 channel sound card) or your home theatre system! Because this package provides a real surround sound field comparable to a complete multi-channel speaker system, users experience REAL 5.1 channel surround sound and feel the sensation of real and live sound when you watch DVDs, listen to music, or play console games.

For more info visit http://www.lakopacific.com

So the traditional PDA market is not great, but we predict traditional PDA makers won’t stay out of the smartphone category for long.

IDC recently revealed that the pen-based PDA market took a sequential nosedive in the first quarter of this year, suffering a humiliating 26 per cent crash, while it’s voice-enabled cousin took all the limelight.

PDA’s are still looking for their killer application. Equipping them with GSM/GPRS will certainly help the category, enabling Blackberry-style email connectivity. What is really needed though is for critical business applications such as ERP and CRM to graduate to inbuilt mobile support. Sure you can build it in yourself, but if it comes straight out of the box, it makes it more compelling to business.

Meanwhile, the idea of connecting these troubled islands of computing power is catching on. Of course, then they are not PDAs, they are converged devices and as they morph into the new category, adding voice, VoIP and multimedia features, the lines between PDA and smartphone will continue to blur.

Take the HP iPaq 6300 series as an example along the way. Packed with quad band GSM/GPRS, WiFi and Bluetooth, this device offers real mobility, processing power and all the multimedia features of today’s mobile phones.

Another in this data-centric category is the i-mate PDA2 (pictured). Just announced, this tri-band, WiFi, Bluetooth phone runs Windows Mobile on a 520MHz XScale processor with 128MB RAM. Email is easily set-up using free hosted Exchange from i-mate.
Both of these products are currently being sold with Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003. Microsoft’s announcement that Windows Mobile 5.0 features email integration with Exchange servers support will make these platforms more compelling for business users. Coupled with the announcement in March that Symbian is licensing Microsoft’s Active-Sync technology to deploy as a plug-in, making over the air email a possibility will also bring products like the 3G Motorola A1000 into competition with ; active-sync technologythe Blackberry.

Canon has added two new printers to its PIXMA all-in-one range however the company has refused to let SmartHouse staff ask any questions. They are also refusing to give journalists a retail price because of “retail pricing sensitivity”.