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CeBIT Sydney 2005 T o keep up to date, we try to get along to at least a few computer and technology shows each year. CeBIT Sydney is one of them. Held during late May, the CeBIT show is arguably one of the most popular, aimed more at the business market than the “tyre kickers”. Last year, I recall saying “more of the same but different”. CeBIT 2005 was similar – a lot of the latest hardware on display; software to do just about anything (and if it wasn’t there, plenty of people who’d write it for you . . .) and plenty of people trying to sell you their particular gizmo or gimmick. If you were a sample CD collector, you could come away very happy indeed. I have to say that CeBIT is not the place to go to get a bargain. Even “special CeBIT show offfer” prices were generally not much better than what you’d pay at a retail or online shop (which in fact many sellers were from, just disguised a bit!). The two biggest things I noticed this year were Wireless and VoIP. Both were everywhere – Wireless in particular. It seemed that every second stand had something to do with Wireless – whether 802.11 variety or other incarnations such as WiMax. Antennas, connectors, cables, software, hardware . . . including a LOT of building-to-building solutions. It is very obvious that Wireless networking is here for the long haul – and for the long distance! And there were plenty of stands offering CD and DVD duplication; others with one of last year’s favourites, computer cooling. While many of the big multinationals had large, very schmick stands with everything just so, it’s often the smaller exhibitors, tucked away in corners and alleys, that have the most interesting products. This report is certainly not meant to be an exhaustive analysis of what was on offer at CeBIT – it’s more those interesting products which jumped out at me as I made my way through the four halls of CeBIT at the Darling Harbour Exhibition Centre. Jon Reid, of Bio Recognition Systems (whom SILICON CHIP readers may recall wrote an article on biorecognition a siliconchip.com.au by Ross Tester Just one half of one of four halls at CeBIT Sydney 2005. couple of years ago [gad, was it really January 2001?]) had a brand new D-I-Y fingerprint access control system kit called “Bioloc” which he was launching at the show. He claims the truly weatherproof system is a significant breakthrough in both price and technology and has promised SILICON CHIP a closer look at it shortly. (www.brsgrp.com) Dialogue Australia had their tiny “Flybook” notebook – well, it did have a Windows XP (home) computer inside (full XP, not Tablet PC), along with a GPRS phone (all you do is plug in a mobile SIM card), Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS and a touch-screen with stylus that converts your handwriting into a text document. And all this in a 1230g, 235 x 155 x 31mm package – claimed to be the smallest in the world. And yes, it comes in six stylish colours! We hope to have a closer look at this one in the future, too. (www.flybook.biz) Another intriguing little product was “egrips”, a self-adhesive grip for mobile phones, cameras, etc, etc. How often have you put your phone down on a sloping surface – like the car dashboard – only to find it slide away from you? Stick one of the self-adhesive egrips on the back of the phone and it will stay put – up to about 75° or so above horizontal. Being printable, they also make an ideal advertising medium. (www.egrips.com.au). Travroute had the latest version of CoPilot live, a GPS navigation system for pocket PCs, smartphones and laptops which not is claimed to be the first system which not only shows you where to turn, it tells you, giving the name of the street (ie, turn left into Smith Street in 250 metres). Other nav systems may tell you to turn but only at “the next left” and so on. (travroute.com.au) Another interesting application at CeBIT was Powertec Telecommunication’s Ericsson Wireless Landline system for cutting business telecommunication costs. In a nutshell, it intercepts calls made to mobile numbers (a huge slice of business phone expenses these days), identifies the number being called and automatically converts the call into the lowest-cost call possible. It does this by taking advantage of the called mobile carrier’s own discounts (such as the 20c Vodafone-to-Vodafone call rate). They claim to be able to dramatically cut costs – as much as 75% and even more. (powertec.com.au) Space does not permit mentioning a number of other exhibits that I would have liked to – and I haven’t even mentioned the various country exhibitions (USA, China, Taiwan, NZ, Germany, etc) who each had a number of subexhibitors; nor several State Government departments, again with several companies on their stands. If you are thinking about attending CeBIT Australia 2006 (9-11 May) allocate a full day to fully appreciate everything that’s there – four hours is not enough! If you can’t wait that long, CeBIT Hannover (Germany), the world’s largest ICT, event is on 9-15 March, 2006. But you’d better leave a bit more than a day for that one! (www. cebit.com.au) SC July 2005  13