July 1, 2007

Digital Focus 2008: Where the HOT Companies Strut their HOT Technology

I made my annual ritual to Digital Focus 2008, by PR firm Pepcom. As usual, the exhibits were very good. There were several companies at hand who are always there, but a few knew ones as well.

Much of the technology at Digital Focus was for consumer media (photos and video) and there is also a good number of technology for businesses. In this overview, you'll find what I scouted out, for your business - in no particular order.

zBoost extends cell phone coverage in your office or car. If you just bought a new lease on an office, only to find that you can't get cell phone calls that could be detrimental to your business. zBoost, by Wi-Ex extends your cell phone range and ends dead zones.

As I was walking around the many booths I was surprised to see a booth by General Electric. GE was showcasing its line of cordless phones and some with Skype integration as well.

Sprint was in the house, showcasing a range of mobile phones and services. Sprint's focus at Digital Focus was more consumer oriented but Sprint, as you know, does have a huge business focus.

Simulsays is that latest service from Simulscribe. Simulscribeg is converts voice mail to text so you can read it. Simulsays lets you scroll through voice mail and listen to it - no more dialing into voice mail and pressing 3 to delete and 1 to save.

I was glad to see Handmark at Digital Focus. This company has been around since the dawn of PDAs. My Handspring Visor, is lovingly in my "digital box" collecting dust. I now have a Dell Axim and within a few weeks will probably get a Motorola Q. Handmark was was showcasing their new Pocket Express service with a full line of news, weather, sports, search and other information. If you're looking to jazz up your mobile device and make it a productivity tool kit - Handmark's site is a must visit destination.

There's a lot of makers of camcorders but I was quite impressed with the evolution of JVC's line of cameras, in particular its line of cameras with built in hard disks - the Everio line. This line is feature rich and worth checking out. I bought a more traditional JVC camera some years ago using MINI DV tapes. I'll probably buy one of the hard disk versions soon.

If you have a lot of business cards and are tired of manually data entry, Neat Receipts has a nice solution. Not only does it do business cards, but it also specializes in scanning receipts into spreadsheets!

Holding the newest ultra-mobile OQO computer in my hand made me wonder, maybe there is a better way to be mobile than lugging a 6lb notebook around. The OQO is a teeny, tiny, fully powered computer. It's keyboard is small, like a Treo or BlackBerry keyboard and it's screen is just as small (approximately). However, with an external keyboard and mouse and hooked up to a full sized monitor - you have your entire computer with you. No synchronizing needed. The newest version has built in wireless broadband.

GuardID's ID Vault is a USB key sized device which stores your personal / financial information so it's protected from scammers, phishers, hackers and other unsavory characters. ID Vault monitors more than 7,000 financial sites and the top 500 shopping sites and signs on automatically.

I was drinking some soda at Digital Focus and "ran into" some fish tanks...inside the fish tanks were working Casio cell phones. Hmmm..if your job location is one of complete dirt, grime, pressure, heat, water and more - you should really look into Casio's new G'zOne line of phones.

New advanced convenience features include Bluetooth capability for a safe, total hands-free communication experience as well as GPS, speakerphone, a built-in camera and a handy, bright lantern to guide the user whenever, wherever. Designed to survive in extreme elements, it is also resistant to humidity, salt fog, and solar radiation.

Digital Focus attendees dropped the phone repeatedly on the floor and it worked just fine.

There were a lot of other companies as Digital Focus as well, including:

Belkin, Blackberry, CA, Dell (very nice and colorful computers), Fujitsu (more mobile tech), Helio (nice looking cell phones built for productivity), HP (full line of notebooks), Kodak, Lenovo (more notebooks), Palm (showing off their Foleo), Seagate (you NEED backup), Skype, Support.com, Symantec, Toshiba, Western Digital, (competes head on with Seagate).

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