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Toys Hardware Technology

Cebit 2004 Coverage 112

Posted by timothy from the modern-cornucopia dept.
Koen writes "March the 18th, Teamhardware.com visited Cebit 2004, the largest IT fair in Europe. We made tons of pictures and gathered a lot of information. Topics of discussion: Intel, nVidia, ATI, XFX, Abit, Epox, Shuttle, DFI and more." Espectr0 writes "BBC News has an article with pictures of the new gadgets being shown at Cebit 2004. Some of them are: 3D screens, heads-up displays, all-in-one USB memory sticks and portable video players!"
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Cebit 2004 Coverage More

Cebit 2004 Coverage

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  • New Technologies? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jg21 ( 677801 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @03:59PM (#8628713)
    I wonder if it's true that we've reached a technology plateau or were there fundamental new technologies on show. Anyone?

    • Re:New Technologies? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by MoonFog ( 586818 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:01PM (#8628722)
      Most of the latest technologies are derivates of older ones. 3D screes, mobile phones with cameras etc etc. I guess it all comes down to how you define fundamental. Most of the gadgets are either as said derivatives or new places for old technology, for example a portable tv with hard-drive.
      • Yeah, the goods are just getting better. You can always improve an item by adding features, but I'l like to see some real new inventions/gadgets. TIVOs were pretty hot at first, now they got competition and HTPCs being built with free software. Wireless will be the latest thing to get integrated into everything. Wireless DVD players, home phones, hand-helds, etc. Soon if an electronic item doesn't have wireless it won't be able to compete.

        --
        Check here for the best price on tech gear. Sundays are c [dealsites.net]

        • Re:New Technologies? (Score:2, Interesting)

          by Froggert ( 187187 )
          As someone who works with portable technology all day, the next great technological leap in this area that I see is going to be making devices and technologies work together with better software.

          This, of course, has been promised for many years, but we've finally got a lot of the technology base required to make it seamless. On the way to a soccer game with two coworkers, I can now receive my office email on my smartphone, check the traffic conditions and decide which route to take.

          In a year or two (or th
          • In a year or two (or three), I'd expect that new cars would automatically detect that I've got a bluetooth phone, and use a standardized api to communicate back and forth. If a phone call comes in, the radio will turn itself down, and if I pull over to answer it, the radio will function as a speakerphone. What about if I have location services on my phone (and these are coming), and a GPRS net connection? I should be able to use voice command to tell the phone to download directions from here to X, and then

      • Re:New Technologies? (Score:3, Insightful)

        by GlasWolf ( 463510 )
        I completely agree that the majority of the new gadgets and gizmos are either refinements or the merging of two technologies, but I'm surprised you put 3D screens in that category. It's a technology that could eventually drive a fundamental change in how we interface with computers - calling it derivative is a little unfair IMO.
        • Yes, it can drive a fundamental change, but right now it isn't one imho. Right now you more or less use the same tv's and stuff for that. Fundamental change would be something like a hologram. That's 3D. Making a "regular" tv look like 3D (cause it sure as hell isn't REAL 3D) is not a fundamental change in my opinion.
    • It sounds like you've got really high expectations for "new technology" or what qualifies as new. Given that, consider the last 5 great things you consider "new technology" and aks yourself how often they come out. Is it so unreasonable that there isn't an announcement every year about a new technology that you consider new?
      -N

    • Re:New Technologies? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by NeoThermic ( 732100 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:13PM (#8628770) Homepage Journal
      Remember, one can never say that we've made everything as its the unexpected inventions that change our world.
      Remember the quote from the patent office in 1899, something along the lines of 'Everything that can be invented has been invented'?

      Look at what we have now, 105 years after that quote. Also to those who never thought SMS would take over.

      There is only such thing as a percivable technology plateau. Everything that we see around us seems to be the end all. We can't see why we would realistly need 32 TB of ram for instance. But just leave it a good 5 years, and I'm sure that someone out there will say 'I need more than 32TB for running this'.

      Fundamental new technologies are being invented as we type and read this, we just don't know about them yet. Once its released, it has the oppertunity to change it all. Think about the AT -> ATX standerd.. and the new one [PTX?]. Once released, it should change everything.

      Who knows... mabey in 15 years time, rather than watch our character on the screen run around the UT world with a gun shooting at the other people, we will be immersed in this game, made so real its impossible to tell the diffrence.

      Who knows... that just might require 32 TB of ram...

      NeoThermic

      • Re:New Technologies? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Espectr0 ( 577637 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:51PM (#8628925) Journal
        Remember when your OS came in 5 1/4 disks?

        And now, some of then come in DVD?

        It's scary. Software programs will get so big that to a point humans won't be able to develop them.

        Now, a decent game takes near 3 years to develop, when those old commander keen games were done in 3 months

      • Everything that can be invented.... (Score:4, Informative)

        by D. J. Keenan ( 524557 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @11:32PM (#8630982) Homepage
        Remember the quote from the patent office in 1899, something along the lines of 'Everything that can be invented has been invented'?
        This letter [economist.com] to The Economist gives different perspective on that old story:
        It is an historical myth that the commissioner of America's Patent Office recommended it be abolished in 1899. Rather, he asked for a funding increase because of the heavy load of applications, arguing that anyone who would deny him additional funding must believe that "everything that can be invented has been invented."

        It's interesting, too, to see how little times have changed since then--the patent office saying that it was overloaded and needed more resources.

    • I think that new 17 by 17 cm motherboard is certainly deserves merit. If it's as modular as a normal sized motherboard I think it would be useful. They only problem is that there probably isn't anything available to put on it yet. I wonder if any new standards will come out of it as well.

    • Re:New Technologies? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:29PM (#8628840)
      What were you expecting, the holodeck or something like that. Heck when the lightbulb was made I am sure people went. Why do we need this, our gas lamps work perfectly fine. Or when the car was first invented, wow thats kinda cool but our horses are still better. Technology and most any other types of advancements like art, music, etc... Are a process of derivation of one idea to the next. Lets find a way to take a picture, (the Camera), Lets find a way to make pictures move (the movie camera), Lets find a way to make the pictures in color (color film), Lets find a way to send pictures across radio frequencies, (TV), Ok now lets make that color (Color TV), Now lets find a way people can record their own movies for TV (The Camcorder), Lets make it smaller and cheaper, Now lets find a good way people can distribute their own movies (VCR), Lets make them cheaper, Lets improve the image quality on the screen (HDTV), Lets improve the ability of the VCR (TiVo),...

      Each step in the process in not a major change and people can usually take or leave the technology for a while to let it mature and having the other devices to give it extra value. Heck they said the same that you did back in the late 1800's that science and technology is about to plateau. But don't be suprised that you will show your grandkids your Old Apple G5 3Ghz or ultra small 64ghz laptop system and they call it an old, slow, big piece of junk, the way that we see the old mainframes today.
    • But perhaps more importantly, were Infinium Labs there to show off a real Phantom? :-/

  • Wonderful (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:04PM (#8628734)
    I'm no troll, buy maybe a bit off topic.

    It's wonderful how the consumer technology market is always ahead.
    But about the technology to help save humanity(eco, stupidity, famin.. etc)!

    I know that people rarely think about these kind of things, let alone do something about it, cuz we have better things to do, but one day all these things that we push to the side will bite us when we least expect it.

    If you don't believe me, just wait and see!

    • Re:Wonderful (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      You can't fight stupidity. A stupid human will still remain one, even if he has a machine doing all the thinking for him.

      Famine is pretty much caused by there being too damn many of us. It's hard to fight this, as well (mass murders aren't a solution).

      As for ecological problems, no technology by itself isn't enough. A drastic change in mentality is also required -- one that would make people understand that this planet is not for us alone. That we need all those other species as well. That even though we'

      • Re:Wonderful (Score:2, Insightful)

        by Justice8096 ( 673052 )
        Hmm... if famine was truly caused by there being too many of us, then there is no reason for dieting, and no one would complain about Genetically Engineered crops, or organically grown crops. Everyone would be equally hungry. Oh, and there would be no subsidies for farmers not to grow crops.
        One day, famine may be due to overpopulation. Right now, it is due to politics or isolation of a population. Or both. Honestly, human life isn't that important to us. Neither is animal life.
        Put it all into perspective
    • Unfortunately, a disaster has to occur for the majority of people to take notice. For example, until the environmental issues start to cause disasters, like sea levels rising and flooding NY City, nobody will really take the threat seriously. Yes, there are some S. Pacific islands starting to feel the effects, but until it becomes worse, very few people will care. By then, I'm afraid, it'll be too late. :(

  • largest IT fair in Europe.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Uzull ( 16705 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:08PM (#8628750) Homepage
    "Cebit 2004, the largest IT fair in Europe." Funny. Here we say that it is the largest IT fair in the world (www.heise.de) !

  • Microsoft Targets Portable Porn Market (Score:5, Funny)

    by amigoro ( 761348 ) on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:11PM (#8628761) Homepage Journal
    Last Image [bbc.co.uk]

    Here is the pocket multimedia player we have heard so much about recently. Sporting an 80 GB hard drive, this beauty can store and play all your pictures, music files and video files, (in Windows WMV format).

    Nuff Said.

    Moderate this comment
    Positive: Offtopic [mithuro.com] Flamebait [mithuro.com] Troll [mithuro.com] Redundant [mithuro.com]
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  • Nicest thing for me is the nanode (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Space cowboy ( 13680 ) * on Sunday March 21, 2004 @04:13PM (#8628776) Journal
    a gorgeous [nanode.com] box using the nano-itx layout referred to earlier on /. I think a set-top box is coming my way :-)

    Simon
    • You darn kids and your mini/nano ITX based HTPCs! In my day we had real HTPCs, the VAX 11/720 HTPC and the Sun 6/690 HTPC with IPI drives. None of this namby, pamby ITX stuff.
      • Ya know, back in the day when everyone had a massive wooden console TV, you probably COULD have stashed a VAX or something inside the cabinet.

        Some people I knew had a big (25"?) TV in a massive wooden console with a phonograph and stereo speakers. I think the whole cabinet was like 5 feet wide by 3 feet deep. Wouldn't need some lame nano-itx case for that.
        • I have often wondered if the acceptable convergence device will be a tv/pc/pvr/et.al in one huge box ala the old TV consoles. The female acceptance factor will more easily be appeased with such a set up. Cables and wiring would be out of sight, and a piece of well finished wood looks nice in most homes.
          • ...which is why televisions often were sold in console format. You didn't want to spoil a "furnished" room with a bunch of plastic. In the latter part of the 1970s, people just accepted the idea of a TV as a device unto itself and consoles went out, and the TV itself become a kind of modern design itself.

            We've almost looped back completely with the rise of the armoir, which is a kind of do-it-yourself console TV/stereo.
      • [shudder] Thanks! You've just reminded me what it was like to share a 1-mips machine with 70 other people, running an abortion of an operating system, and with a C compiler that made up code for you when you had syntax errors.

        God, I'm going for a lie down!

        Simon.
    • Biotech breakthrough creates biggest apple ever :)
    • What does this picture prove? :)

      http://www.mini-itx.com/news/nanode/images/nanod e- 08-large.jpg
  • the next big leap after flat screens, if they manage to make them affordable and harmless to the long term for your vision.
    Can't wait to work on a 3D desktop or to play Quake-like on these babies...

  • But are there any... (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ...booth babes as hot as Ceren [freebsd.org]?

  • Here is MY coverage (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zone-MR ( 631588 ) * <slashdot@NoSPam.zone-mr.net> on Sunday March 21, 2004 @06:12PM (#8629300) Homepage
    Just posted this entry [zone-mr.ath.cx] on my blog.

  • knoppix 3.4 (Score:4, Informative)

    by sewagemaster ( 466124 ) <sewagemaster&gmail,com> on Sunday March 21, 2004 @06:22PM (#8629339) Homepage
    this is the same Cebit fair [cebit.de] where knoppix [knopper.net] announces/showcases their 3.4 release (Kernel 2.6 included in the bootCD).
    • I am so ready for this release to be posted for download! I check knopper.net [knopper.net] and the torrent tracker [uni-kl.de] every day hoping to see it ready for the masses, but no luck thus far. Looks like it's on hold for the general public until Cebit is over. If anyone has information on when it will be available to the rest of us, please let us know.

  • Motorola pricing for their new phones... (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Man, did anyone see the pricing [mtekk.com.au] for the Motorola Windows phones? $920 in the US for the benefit of running Windows?!?! Give me a Linux phone any day. Estimated cost: $50 for the parts :-)
  • ...but my boss and the software I have written are.
    And in the middle of the presentation on friday it crashed.

    So I sit here, read slashdot and wonder how long I'll keep my job.
  • I understand that MythTV [mythtv.org] is being demonstrated at CeBIT by Axel Thimm (the AT-RPMS [fu-berlin.de] guy). Good to see these projects getting some publicity.
  • ... and patriotisim spot on me:

    You got it wrong. It's the largest IT fair in the _world_.

    Things I consider interessting for foreign visitors to Hannover, if you have some time of you might want to check them out:

    1) Food: "Das Pfannenkuchen Haus" in the city 'district' Calenberg. German style Pancakes and good german beer in original-stle potterware beermugs. And patented beer-scales. Go and see what I mean. :-)

    2) Recreational: Herrenhauser Gaerten (The Herrenhaus Gardens): A large baroque style Garden c

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