Part Two of Nemo’s MWSF 2005 Expo coverage, continuing from the previous posting:
Special thanks go to publisher Tim Robertson, for editing our text submitted late last night for early posting this morning, complete with product photos; to David Weeks, who is on his way back to Arizona after putting up with my corny jokes and manic behavior for several endless days and nights; to David Casseres, newest member of our MyMac.com MWSF team, for his wisdom and sense of perspective; to Owen Rubin, super writer and high-energy product investigator, for his ongoing energy and insights; and to cousin Jim Nemo, for his endless support of MyMac.com and reliable chauffeur service door to door each day! Without all of them, we would flunk MWSF 101.
Now back to Wednesday afternoon on the Expo floor:
2:00 — IOGEAR
http://www.iogear.com
I have a fondness for this enterprising peripherals company, based on their products I reviewed following the 2004 Macworld show. Lewis from IOGEAR proudly showed me their newest KVM device to run two computers with the same monitor, and a hot-item DVI-KVM for digital video. I don’t use or understand this aspect of technology, so I’ll need a little help from Owen or Tim to supply a coherent explanation once the units are shipping.
IOGEAR’s cute USB flash drive-equipped mini-mouse soon will have 128 MB capacity. Yippee! I use my 32 MB original version every day in my work as a residential private computer tutor.
The ION Tri-Select Combo external powered hard drive includes an easy, automatic backup feature, and the ION-UP Combo mini-drive runs either with FireWire or USB connections.
Last items I saw were Bluetooth mouse and adapter dongle, both of which we’ll review as soon as we can.
We expect to have ongoing evaluation of IOGEAR equipment during 2005. Let us know if you hear of other items from them that you want us to look at.
2:20 — ADS Tech
http://www.adstech.com
Andy Marken, PR professional, demonstrated latest products from this company previously unknown to me. I like their simple-box approach to analog-digital audio transfers, and their empty-box solution for people who need a handy powered FireWire / USB drive enclosure for full size bare drives.
We’ll have more on the companies Andy represents once the dust settles and I’m back in my home office.
2:30 — LaCie
http://www.lacie.com
Caught up with Owen and Casseres here. Melissa from LaCie walked us through their entire new product lineup. Owen is excited about LightScribe, mentioned in his report from yesterday, and also Fast Coder (for digital video encoding) plus Silver Screen (for transmitting video from computer to television). He’ll have to say more, because this is his territory, certainly not mine.
David, Owen, and I were stunned by the quality of LaCie’s 321 monitor, a mid-priced beauty for graphics pros. With its special automatic calibrator puck device, for under $2,000 you can have easy, custom monitor profiles that are (I hesitate to go overboard) perfect. I’m v-e-r-y tempted to audition this monitor, but it’s better suited to Tim’s graphics capability.
You’ll definitely see coverage of LaCie products in MyMac.com this year, including a few that were announced but we’re not able to mention yet.
3:00 — Atempo
http://www.atempo.com
Whoa! I’m over my depth here. This ambitious data security company makes enterprise-level server-based products for backing up and restoring company data. John Dean from Atempo patiently penetrated my meager brain cells with an explanation of how and why this is possible, especially using OS X’s core technology. I’m going to ask Atempo to give us a brief summary, to help readers who are able to take advantage of this solution. These people are heavy duty, if that’s your focus.
3:20 — Wiley
Hooray! Finally met my two primary media contacts from this venerable publisher. Mac Superstar Bob LeVitus was holding court on several topics. It’s always a treat to spend quality time with Dr. Bob. Wiley supports MyMac.com with frequent shipments of books to be reviewed by Bob and other authors, and we pledge to be as fair and opinionated as in the past when discussing their titles in 2005.
3:30 — Rick Smolan of America 24-7
http://www.america24-7.com
I’ve been a huge admirer of photographer and publishing impresario Rick Smolan for over twenty years. His latest monster project was to create 53 books with images by thousands of photographers to represent one complete day in the life of every state of this sometime-great nation.
David Casseres heard Rick speak at yesterday morning’s MWSF presentation by David Pogue, and Rick told me that David and MyMac.com will be able have access to the books for review purposes.
Learn more about this cultural and publishing extravaganza at:
4:00 — LQ Graphics
http://www.lqgraphics.com
Chris Meyer and his wife run this mom and pop shop. He’s the developer, engineer, tech supporter, and shoeshiner, and wife Jill does everything else. Along with Jeff Carlson from TidBITS and Jason Snell, editor of Macworld Magazine, I admired the skill used to create Photo To Movie, taking users “beyond the Ken Burns effect.” I have clients who need this product right now, today, or sooner! My favorite feature is PTM’s ability to edit and transition entire or parts of songs using a really simply scrubber interface, ala iMovie. I could go on at length, but time is short, and you’ll hear more from them (and us) on Photo To Movie as soon as possible.
4:30 — Wrap-up
Lost track of Owen, but the two David’s and I compared notes, submitted photos, and discussed our Thursday plans back in the Media Room. Weeks has left for home and work, Casseres will reappear either Thursday or Friday, I’ll be attending hardware and software appointments most of the day along with Owen, and Tim will be posting our submissions as quickly as possible.
We see other publications such as ours whose writers and photographers wear custom logo shirts. Next year, with our snazzy “retro” new logo on newly designed cards and shirts, we make a fashion statement in our Macworld SF 2006 presence. How about a shirt design contest, Tim?
Thanks to everyone for following along. I’ll write more later today, and/or post additional photos.
Nemo
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