You're probably not old enough to remember the classic Timex watch commercials where Timex wrist watches -- pre-digital -- were put through a variety of funky tests and "keep on ticking." (I'm not sure I'm old enough -- I have a feeling what I'm really remembering is Mad Magazine spoofs on the ads.)
Some -- but not all -- of today's electronic devices can hold up to this.
After a large dollop of shampoo got spilled on a SanDisk Sansa C1 flash MP3 player, it stopped working. It "wakes up," but the controls don't work beyond that. (I haven't yet given up hope of resurrecting it, though.)
But, I'm happy to report, my little SanDisk Sansa radio/MP3 player has survived a cycle through the washing machine.
]]>And thereby hangs my admittedly long tale.
Aging Computers Get The Blue(Screen)s
I just picked up my new desktop computer will be ready on Friday. And not a day too soon, possibly thanks to my misplaced confidence, because where I briefly was back up to two working, albeit old, Windows XP desktop computers, I'm down to one, and that one's exhibiting new buggy behavior.
I bought my Athlon 1700 desktop back in Fall of 2001, and the Athlon 1800 early in 2003, from PCs For Everyone, a local (Boston-area) "white box" shop patronized by businesses, universities, along with Linux hackers, gamers, and folks like me who simply want a good computer.
(Here's articles I've written about this company, and more generally about buying from white box shops.)
They were, at the time, good, fairly priced systems configured more or less with "sweet spot" mid-range processors, a gig of RAM, separate hard drives for software versus data, and minor other frills, like nice lightweight Lian Li cases. Nothing fancy, just good systems for running the office and Internet apps I earn my living as a writer with. Although the Lian Li cases are easy-open, for the most part I've kept them shut, other than installing an eSata PCI card in one, a year or so ago.
According to most IT folks I've talked to in the course of researching articles, the standard "refresh" (replace with new) cycle for business desktop computers is three to four years.
So by any standards, my systems are, if not obsolete, entitled to be scheduled for replacement. However, up until this past year, they've continued to work. I've taken each in for service once or twice, over the years, resulting in a few hundred dollars of component replacement or upgrade, but, until this past year, they still worked fine.
But over the past year, my desktops had been so unusable for a few months that I was running off my notebook -- an IBM ThinkPad, itself at least four years old.
One system, nominally my "production" (do work on) system, was getting turgid to the point of uselessness -- it would boot up to Windows, but then often be slow, or incredibly slow. And the virus protection part of Zone Alarm kept turning itself off, a bad sign. Possibly I had an infestation of malware. Or Windows "Registry rot," or other inadequate Windows upkeep and maintenance.
The other system would boot up into Windows -- and then promptly crash, power cycle and reboot back into Windows, and then crash again.
I'd already been window-shopping a new desktop from PCs For Everyone. One project had me trying to run the Second Life client unsuccessfully -- it installed and ran once or twice, but on subsequent tries, it said, "not enough resources" or something like that.
And since I want to run XP Pro, not Vista, now -- before the end of June 2008 -- is the time to buy. (Vista Business offers a "downgrade" option that would let me switch over, but I've decided to get my desktop with what I plan to run, and worry about "upgrading" to Vista later -- or never.)
No Good Repair Goes Unpunished
I did manage to get both working again, to my pleasant surprise. At least, that's what I thought.
The one that was cyclically power/boot cycling worked fine, I discovered, once I removed one of its 512MB memory modules. (A lucky guess, on my part, as it turned out.)
The other machine -- which would finish booting into Windows and stay up, turgidly, proved t be fine in Safe Mode. So rather than attempt to reload Windows, I used Windows' System Restore utility to go back to the oldest Restore Point I had. This seemed to resolve the problem.
Voila, two working systems again.
Or so I thought.
Since my Test machine was down from 1GB to 512MB, I brought the apparently dead stick over to Micro Center (a computer-store chain which I like I lot), where the sales rep helped me a 1GB stick for $44 after rebate -- or 2 512's for a few dollars less. These both went into my Test machine, which seemed happier (faster).
Foolishly encouraged by my success in swapping RAM memory sticks, I said to myself, "I've got 1.5GB in my test machine, but only 1GB in my production machine... why not swap a module over?"
Even though the sales rep at Micro Center had made this point, I'd lost track that just because a memory module may fit in a motherboard slot doesn't mean it's compatible... and an incompatible memory module can have bad results.
My initial memory swapping simply caused my production machine to not boot, just beep. (These beeps have meaning, but I don't have the information at hand.)
The first memory slot had a lot of dust in and around it, so I took my can of compressed computer-cleaning air and gave it a zetz (little shot) of air, before replacing the module.
The computer didn't work any better... but now I noticed a sudden bad smell. So I turned the computer off, and the next day, I toted the computer over to PCs For Everyone's service location a half hour or so away in Norwood. (Their Cambridge sales/service location closed down a year or so ago, and, depending on traffic, wouldn't have been less time to get to.)
Three hours after I dropped the machine off, I got the bad news: fried motherboard.
Given the age of the computer, they didn't have any replacement parts to sell me. I might be able to find a motherboard and CPU somewhere like eBay, but that was a crap shoot.
Ah well, I still have one working desktop computer, I reassured myself. And I've been planning to buy a new desktop anyway, I've just been delaying it because the technology writing biz has been a little slower than I'd like lately.
Except, I discovered, that when I plug any USB storage, the machine again goes through the crash, reboot to windows, repeat cycle like it had before I replaced the bad memory stick. Not if I plugged in my USB printer, or my Bluetooth headset's USB charger cable... but for USB flash drives, a USB hard drive or CD burner (each of which have their own power supply, note), either to a USB port on the computer, or to the USB peripherals port on my KVM switch. Go figure.
This means, among other things, I can't do local external backups. Since I'm using an online backup service Data Deposit Box (see my review in eWeek) for nearly a year now, that's not a big deal, but it also means I can't download pictures from my digital camera, or retrieve/save files to USB sticks, or add stuff to my MP3 player.
So I ordered my new computer (more on this in future post), which I had pretty much spec'd out. And when I go pick it up on Friday, I'll bring this working-but-troubled-one in for service, to see if it can be (affordably) fixed. (Fortunately, my current desktops have 'lifetime free labor' service warrantees.)
With luck -- and, hopefully no more than a hundred bucks or so replacement parts -- I'll end up with one fixed aging desktop, plus a lovely new one. (I'll post a note on what the problem, and solution, with the second machine turned out to be.)
Like I said, both my desktops are are old enough that they've more than earned out, and entitled to go to the computer equivalent of Doctor Dolittle's Home For Retired Cab-Horses.
I'm sad that one or both will be retired. I'm annoyed at myself for possibly -- probably -- hastening one's demise and retirement, but at seven years, it's entirely possible the mobo immolation was coincidental (although coincidence is always to be distrusted). And it's entirely possible that this or something else would have gone wrong soon.
The reality is that I should have bought a new machine sooner, because the toll on my productivity outweighed the "savings" of not making the purchase sooner than I might otherwise. (I was also waiting until mid/late-April, for availability of Intel's new Penryn CPUs, admittedly.)
So, I'll be picking up my new desktop computer at the end of this week.
Lessons (re)-learned:
]]>
One recurring complaint in chats I have with some of my similarly-aged friends is that it's not worth repairing a growing number of our techno-doodads, because for around the same price, we can simply get a new one that's better -- more features, faster, smaller, whatever.
(And, by extension, it's similarly not worth getting the "best" anything... because in one to two years, it'll be obsolete anyway. Case in point: the Olympus D490 'clamshell' digital camera I bought in 2001 for somewhere between $400 to $500. It still works as well as it did then. But its level of "well" is no longer state of the art. Last summer I bought a Canon A570 PowerShot that's about the same size, but has more zoom, more features, way more potential capacity -- and cost around $220.)
But what's bugged me even more over the past few months is that it's turning out to often be easier -- and close to more sensible -- to consider getting a new device than getting a new battery for it. In particular, for cell phones and flash MP3 players.
Losing Their Oomph
The rechargeable lithium-ion batteries, commonly used in notebook computers, cell phones, media players and other mobile/portable devices, have a useful lifetime of, with luck, two to three years. (Some, like iPod batteries -- I'm told -- are more in the one-year zone.) Somewhere in this time frame, the battery stops holding as much charge.
The batteries on my cell phone and media player had, within the past several months, slid into the "not enough charge" range, particularly my cell phone when using it with a wireless Bluetooth headset. Even when I'm not talking, the mere fact of having Bluetooth turned on, on the cell phone, drains the phone battery much faster.
So I started looking around for new batteries.
And this brings me to the annoying, sad, irritating, really-piss-me-off grim reality of today's techno-gadgets, even worse than "you usually can't repair them and even when you can, it's worth it because you can usually get a BETTER whatever for not much more, perhaps even less, than the cost of repairs." Namely, that the same just about holds true for getting a replacement battery.
(Assuming you can even find the right battery, of course.)
For a notebook computer, the economics aren't quite as bad -- today's notebooks cost (mostly) between six hundred to two thousand dollars, so a hundred or two hundred dollars for a new battery, in return for another year of notebook life, isn't a bad trade-off, if your notebook's got enough power and you like it.
But for consumer/portable electronics, I'm discovering, not so easy.
Old cell phones get little respect
For my Nokia cell phone, which I've had, I think, for about two years, I've NEVER been able to find a replacement battery in either the Cingular/AT&T store I got it from, nor at any store. Cingular (the original Cingular, before they were bought by AT&T) didn't even have spares when I first bought the phone.
I've looked without luck since then, in Staples and other stores, as having a charged spare is often convenient when I'm travelling. (I'll write about RECHARGE IN YOUR POCKET another time.)
From Nokia's web site, a new battery for my phone is $49. For that price -- or less -- I could get a whole free new phone from Cingular as many or more features (as long as I renew my contract). There's something wrong about this. I spent five or ten minutes looking over their choices -- I really should be trying out a Blackberry, and/or learning to text message, and all that, but I wasn't ready to be picking a new phone JUST BECAUSE I CAN'T FIND A NEW BATTERY (at a reasonable price).
(Especially since I'd want another set of wall and phone chargers, for my travel kit, driving up the total price if my current ones didn't fit the new phone -- and that would mean that Bobbi and I would no longer have charger-compatible phones.)
You-Do-It Electronics Center, a great independent electronics store a few miles away, had a third-party one for $30, according to their inventory system. But the guy at the register couldn't find it in the wall rack behind him.
Fortunately, Googling turned up a number of choices, including, astonishingly, one for $9.95 INCLUDING SHIPPING. Other choices ranged form twenty to fifty dollars, some of which were for lower-capacity batteries, to boot.
After a day of brooding, I cranked up the browser (Mozilla), and Paypalled the $9.95.
It arrived a few days later -- labelled as from Nokia, although without the holographic sticker that's on my original battery.
For the first month or so, this one has been lasting a day and a half on, with Bluetooth on. This makes me realize my original battery's capacity had degraded to probably half at least six months ago.
I think the new battery's already degrading, but whaddaya want for ten bucks. Maybe it's time to go look for a new phone. Or maybe I need to buy a name-brand battery from a name-brand supplier.
Play It Again and Again, Sam
That left the media player -- a Sandisk Sansa C1, which I'd gotten at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show from Sandisk, as their attend-our-press-conference goody. It's got a great FM tuner in it--important, as I listen to radio more than tunes, and 1GB of internal memory. (And I've added two GB more, into the micro-SD slot.)
New, the C1 originally listed for a little under $100; I've seen them on sale for $49 on J&R.com, probably as a discontinued item.)
Naturally, the battery is a size not carried by Radio Shack, drug stores, etc. (I haven't tried 1-800-Batteries or other battery specialist stores.)
The new battery "kit" from Sandisk is $20.
A new MP3/radio player of comparable storage is like $40-50.
Happily, in informing me that they didn't carry this size battery, the Radio Shack salesperson asked me how long I'd had the player, and hearing "just under a year," informed me that Sandisk was offering replacements, under warrantee, and I should call them.
I did, and after a few minutes, Sandisk support said they'd send me a replacement battery -- advising me that when this one went, I'd have to buy a new one. (Fine by me.)
(Of course, it wasn't quite that simple... three weeks later, with no new battery in sight, I called Sandisk support back up, and they said, whoops. One batteryless month later, when I called, I found they'd gotten my address wrong. A total of slightly over two months later, the new free replacement battery arrived.)
So, that's two moderately-happy battery-story endings -- and also another happy-ending (with middling middle) tech-support tale.
I'm still philosophically peeved. But at least I can be listening to the radio or complaining on the phone while peeved.
And that's why, when I went looking for a new digital camera, my first criterion was "Must use AA batteries."
]]>I schmoozed with or otherwise looked, and took press materials from, at least a hundred of these several hundred exhibitors, including Diskeeper, D-Link, Lenovo, NetGear, Nikon, Olympus, Paragon Software, Sandisk, and Rebit, to rattle off a few from memory.
And there were over 2,700 exhibitors at CES 2008, with I-don't-know-how-many products. I saw probably a hundred, maybe two hundred of these -- many at the "Innovation Center" at the Sands/Venetian. (Fortunately, I'd already chatted with many of these folks, at the Pepcom, ShowStoppers, et c.
Here's brief notes on a sampling -- four dozen or so -- based mostly on the notes I typed into my trusty "pocket-sized" NEC MobilePro 780. (I've also got a one-foot stack of PR CDs, two dozen USB drives (totaling about 15GB) of press kits, and a modest two-inch stack of PR paper I brought back.) There were lots more interesting products, but I can't include them all (especially not in this forum, which I'm doing for free).
I'll do, and post to TechRevu.com, category-sorted summaries (including some stuff not noted in this report), and "Dern's Picks For CES2008." (And I'll go back and put links to them here.)
Yoggie's USB-stick Linux-based firewall and security apps -- not just software, but also a processor, rather than consume your computer's CPU resources. Less than $100, I'm curious to try one.
Sandisk is adding a auto-backup service to some of its Cruzer Titanium Plus flash drives, via BeInSync online backup using Amazon Web Services. The first six months of the service are free; $29.99 per year afterwards. Also, optional password protection and AES in-hardware encryption, and two years free BoomerangIt lost-and-found service. The 4GB flash drive should be available March 2008, MSRP $59.99.
NRG was showing a solar recharging dock -- technically, a solar panel, and a separate, also AC-powerable, dock -- to help keep mobile devices charged, and provide a way to recharge them during (daytime) power outages. (Too) expensive for most of us, IMHO; available March 2008.
Got data you want to protect from fire and other disasters, and aren't using an offsite data backup service? Or CD/DVDs and a few other things you want to (also) protect? Consider a fireproof drive or safe from Sentry Safe.
HTC Shift - Mobile 3G Cell Devices with Big-Enough Keyboard Another entry blurring the line between big Internet-enabled cell phones and small cellular-broadband enabled notebook computers, the HTC Shift includes Vista Business, a 7" display, 30GB (or bigger) hard drive, tri-band, quad-band, WiFI and Bluetooth, in a two-pound package.
Giving the finger(s) to handhelds and mobile devices: interface developer Synaptics Inc. is adding support for "pinch" and "momentum" finger gestures for touchscreens, in addition to its existing "ChiralMotion" scrolling gesture support.
Online PC service/support/training firm PlumChoice was at ShowStoppers, providing service via remote access. I don't (yet) know how much it costs, what exactly they do, etc., but I'm sure it beats being asked by family and friends to fix their computers.
Beceem has chipsets for mobile WiMAX, e.g. notebooks and handhelds with built-in WiMAX (or, for all I know, PCMCIA or other add-ons). Mobile WiMAX can be the metro alternative to cellco broadband, let's wish them luck!
Brother was showing its HL-2170W WiFi-enabled laser printer, MRSP $149. (Other printer vendors, like Lexmark, already offer WiFi-enabled printers -- see my eWeek news story, and add-on WiFi print servers are appx $40-$100.)
IoGear continues its foray into the pocket-sized mobile rechargeable power pack for cell phones and other handheld/mobile devices, with its GearJuice, MSRP $49.95 with six charging tips. Also shown: their smaller SlimCharger and Rescue Charger.
Wenger's best-known product line is Swiss Army Knives, but they also do other stuff, like their new Ibex computer backpack, MSRP $89. No wheels or handle, but very impressive padding against the back. (Victorinox makes a nice wheeled backpack, although I'm still quite happy with my Targus 15.4" Rolling Notebook Backpack.)
Samson Tech makes high-quality mobile stereo audio recording easy with its Zoom H2 Handy Recorder, MSRP $199, and H4 Handy Recorder (around $500, from the looks of it. AA-powered, very interesting!
Energizer's moving beyond just-batteries to also offer Energizer Light on Demand-- lights plus rechargeable batteries, and a docking/mount, so they can act like normal use/emergency in-place or cordless mini-lights or removable flashlights.
Want VoIP at home, in your small office, or on the road, but having trouble telling whether it's working? Vonage's new V-Portal router, with two RJ-11 (POTS) phone jacks, plugging into any broadband. It's got an LCD for install, calling, and troubleshooting info, and is small enough to be part of your portable tech kit.
Clean gunk and germs from device screens with Monster Screen Clean.
Fujitsu has added Wide-Area Networking to its already sweet 1.5-pound ultra-ultra-light Lifebook u810 Mini-Notebook PC, MSRP around $1,000 (not counting WAN service). On the list of "Things I want to try."
Amiga fans, interesting (good?) news - Amiga, Inc. has added more multimedia and gaming features to version 2 of its AmigaAnywhere "run anywhere" platform that lets apps be run on a bunch of platforms. It's an environment, not an "OS," incorporating all sorts of personal and other config data.
Also for mobile recording-oriented audiophiles and dictationists: Olympus' LS-10 Linear PCM Audio Recording Device, MSRP $399.99.
Invisio was showing its consumer line of Bluetooth headsets -- small! I'm curious to see what they sound like (at both ends). The Invisio G5 includes a charging case that can recharge the headset five times before itself needing a recharge. The Invisio Q7 will use bone conduction technology.
Joby, the folks who brought us the GorillaPod flex-leg camera mini-tripod, was showing its Zivio Bluetooth headset, featuring a telescoping microphone boom intended for environments like high-noise public areas and moving automobiles which have traditionally tasked headsets to provide clear audio.
Ricoh announced half a dozen new single-pass laser color printer/multi-function devices (MFPs), from $399 to $849, intended for small offices and other lowish-end business users, with features including front-panel access and short-paper-path.
Via Technologies had several tables' worth of UMPCs and other products and prototypes at Lunch@Piero's, using their small-to-real-small motherboards, including MTube, the world's smallest x86-based computer.
In the sub-$500 sub-notebook range, Everex was at Lunch@Piero's with their CloudBook ultra-mobile PC -- 7.1" screen, same form factor and price zone ($400-ish) as the Asus EEE, but with 30GB hard drive instead of flash RAM, DVI output, camera, and media readers. It's running gOS Rocket, a Linux derivative. (I and others suggested they should also offer Windows, for Windows users willing to pay more to run in an environment they were more familiar with.)
Penton Overseas has ported their DVD-based foreign language learning programs to iPod versions.
Hughes Network Systems is up to 365,000 users of their satellite broadband service (for when you can't landline or metro wireless broadband), and has a number of new distributors.
New USB drives from Kingston include a 2GB Traveler that includes Migo software, and an 8GB HyperTraveller.
Internet-enable your pill bottles with GloCaps; they won't confirm that pills have been taken, but can do a light and sound alert on the bottle to remind the user it's time to take 'em.
Flir's new infrared video cameras are a good add-on for vehicles (BMW's mounting them below the headlights) to let you see obstacles you'd otherwise not detect in time, also for security applications.
ZPower's silver-zinc rechargeable batteries will be challenging LiON for use in notebook, cell phones and other portable electronics; the vendor claims they'll provide 40% more run time in the same factor as LiON cells.
In addition to cool mobile peripherals like their CardScan business card scanner, Newell Rubbermaid now offers postage-printing devices with features like no-monthly-fee, your graphics (e.g. pix) as stamps.
Paragon Software was showing Partition Manager 9.0, and Drive Backup 2008 Server Express; the higher-end version of Backup includes CDP and other additional features.
IBM is using virtual worlds ("intraverses") for a fascinating range of internal applications, including data center monitoring, bringing in retired (IBM) experts, working with multiple companies. Way cool!
Recognizing that some peripherals don't need to be on when the computer's off (and often don't have power switches), APC's adding "slaved" outlets that turn off when the device plugged into the "master" outlet is turned off or "goes to sleep, on devices including its MSRP $99 Back-UPS ES 750 (1 master + 3 "slaved" backup'ed outlets, plus 4 other power-backed and 2 surge-only outlets), and its Power-Saving Surge Arrest, MSRP $39, 1 master outlet, 3 "slaved," 3 additional.
Speaking of power monitoring and saving, PC International had both their MSRP $49 KillAWatt EZ single-out power monitor, their KillAWatt PS Power Strip (MSRP $99), which displays how much power is going through them. And they will be introducing a wireless monitoring unit that can send its information to a display (which will monitor up to 8 remote units).
Xantrex, now working with/through Duracell, has nifty mobile chargers and power devices, ranging from the smallest third-party power "brick" for notebooks, through their $99 PowerPack 300 lead-acid-based home/auto 12Ah 300-watt battery/inverter and air compressor combo suitable for, among other things, jump-starting a car.
Sandisk's new Sansa TakeTV PC to TV Video Player lets you, like the name implies, moved video from a computer and play it directly on your TV (using the connector cradle). Convenient. The $99 model holds 5 hours, the $149 holds 10 hours.
RiData's new Yego Y-shaped USB drive has two USB ports, so you gain, rather than lose, a USB port when plugging the drive in.
D-Link's new DLife.com service will autoconfigure your (DLink) equipment, making it easier to set up a home network, including peripherals.
Norazza had two interesting products: its Pocket RAID for portable RAIDed disk storage (sample pricing, $499 for 2x80GB), and its Hard Drive Destroyer, which punches holes in a hard drive's platters, rending them unreadable. At $8K, the disk destroyer's not for (most) end users, but maybe you'd pay a buck or two for walk-in access?
What do you get when you cross roller skates with a Segue? Answer: iShoes -- rechargeable battery-powered wheeled twelve-pound pair of shoe accessories. A charge takes you two to three miles, at up to 13.5 miles/hour. About $599.
Medis soon won't the only company with disposable fuel-cell-like pocket power for mobile devices. PowerAir's ThinkZinc portable power pack packs 40WaH -- about 40 AA cell's worth -- of power into an easily-pocketable shell -- $30 including cable and USB adapters, additional adapters $2.99 each. ZincAir refill packs are $20 each. Scheduled to start shipping October 2008.
CallPod's mobile accessories include their ChargePod -- think a six-outlet charger for mobile devices (pricey, but maybe worth it in space/weight savings) -- and their longer-range -- up to 300+ feet -- Dragon Bluetooth headsets.
Techsonics was showing a interesting bunch of rechargeable GoGo PowerPack mobile chargers, including its $49 PowerPack and $24.99 PowerBurst.
The $9.95 CamGrip, like the name suggests, is a hand-sized grip that screws into your camera or camcorder's tripod socket, to hold it more steadily -- particularly helpful with the smaller cameras available today.
The Data Locker external USB hard drive includes a touchscreen PIN pad, which adds password protection to the drive's boot sector -- i.e., removing the drive from the case won't bypass the password protection. $99 for barebones case, $129 with 80GB drive up through $299 with 250GB drive.
Want 802.11n speeds on your local WiFI -- without replacing your router? Or add WiFi to your wired router? Try TrendNet's $49 300Mbps Wireless Easy-N-Upgrader,
WIth Com One's $249 Phoenix Wi-Fi Radio, you don't need a computer to listen to Internet radio stations. (You'll need WiFI, of course -- and a computer to do any station set-up.)
Want to try out a mobile phone before buying? Try the TryPhone site, which has virtualized versions of a growing number of models, along with links to reviews, demos, how-to help (and, of course, buy-me's).
New optical drives from LiteOn includes their more-affordable-than-read'n'write BlueRay read-only-capable internal drive, for about $150, and an MSRP $289 external version. Also seen, a soon-available external slim DVD writer in the $99 range.
Want RAID-like external storage redundancy without the management hassle? Data Robotics $499 Drobo lets you mix-and-match any-capacity drives as an external USB device, and the $199 Drobo Share lets you put your Drobo on the network. (I'd want to know more, try this, and compare it to two-bay SOHO RAID NAS devices along with NetGear's pricier high-featured ReadyNAS line.)
And there were hundreds of others I saw, and thousands I didn't, but like I said, I couldn't possibly have gotten to see everything, and don't have time to report here on the ones I did see.
]]>For the 4,500+ press, analysts and other media who have multiple turfs, or are generalists, trying to see some of everything at the Los Vegas Convention Center and Sands/Venetian exhibition areas and other meeting areas, not to mention get to any of the press conferences, is exhausting, impossible, or both.
And since the primary purpose of the exhibits and booths is for sales prospecting, it's often hard to get the right people or information at the booth -- although there are a lot of scheduled and unscheduled press chats.
The afternoon/evening multi-vendor press/analyst-only events have evolved as an alternative solution -- bring press, vendors (and their PR folks) into one big room starting sometime between five and seven PM (when the show floor has closed, anyway), add food and drink, and let simmer.
The opportunity math is compelling in both directions.
Journalists have access to anywhere from 20 to 150+ vendors -- and (as I've proven), it's possible to touch base and chat briefly with nearly all these in an event's three to four hours, and still have time to eat, and schmooze with our fellow wizards. (And the odds are that at least a third will be way out of each person's turf... although if they've got an interesting tchotchke (giveaway), we often stop by those tables as well.)
At 20 to 30 vendors per hour, only a few of these conversations will be in depth... but a minute or so is enough for a quick "what is it, who's it for, what's new, how much, available when, let's follow up post-show." More to the point, the next table is only a few yards away.
Similarly, exhibitors get the chance to be seen by hundreds of press and analysts -- many of whom would never take -- or have -- the time to find the vendor's booth on the show floor. Many vendors, in fact, are at Lunch@Piero's, Pepcom or ShowStoppers without being exhibitors at the show itself -- leveraging the show's press attendance.
(I'll write up a longer, more general "do the math" discussion at a later date.)
Note, this "be near the show but not an exhibitor" approach isn't parasitic, in my and other peoples' opinion. Many press folks -- including myself -- wouldn't go to CES, or some other events if there weren't a Pepcom or ShowStoppers event, because without them, we can't count on seeing enough good stuff easily or at all. In fact, Pepcom does some "freestanding" events (ShowStoppers hasn't -- yet), when there wasn't a trade show to also go to... and I've sent myself to some of their New York City ones.
A Few Words About The Events Themselves
The multi-vendor press/analyst events for CES 2008 (that I was aware of, and attended), were, in chronological order:
CES Unveiled", "The Official Press Event of the International CES," Saturday, January 5, 4PM-7PM. 70+ vendors, with an estimated ~1,000 attendees.
"CES Unveiled" is CES's kick-off event for the press -- a large roomful of vendor tables plus a steady stream of food.
When I went to CES last year, I didn't get into town in time to go to this event. Friends who did re-assured me that pretty much every all the vendors there were also at Pepcom, ShowStoppers, or both.
This year, I scheduled my flight so I could hit Unveiled as well -- since CES is my main marketing & research trip for the year, I figured I should try to get to as many press events as possible. This year it was in the Sands Expo, down the hallway from the Sands press registration and press room -- easy enough to get to.
Memo to self for next year: get in line earlier, like at least an hour earlier. "CES Unveiled," unlike Lunch@Piero's, Pepcom and ShowStoppers, is open to anybody with a CES Press or Bloggers badge. Even though it was Saturday, the room was packed. Not as tightly as a Tokyo subway car at rush hour (and I was in Tokyo, for the first time, this summer, so I know what I'm talking about :-).
Marty Winston's Cherry PicksSunday, January 6, 9 AM to Noon. Maximum of 100 vendors. (See CES Report #2 for notes and coverage of this.)
Pepcom "Digital Experience, Sunday, January 6, 7PM-10PM. ~160 vendors, and an estimated 1,500 attendees. (Pepcom reports 900 for their 2007 CES event.)
Pepcom's events are usually scheduled for the night before the show floor opens, with ShowStoppers getting the subsequent night. (There used to be more such events, J.P. Davis, and somewhat further back in trade show history, Silicon Valley Northwest, if memory serves. This often meant two such events in one evening, tricky at best to get cross-town in a timely fashion. Fortunately for us press folks, J.P. Davis got bought up, leaving us with a manageable one event per night.)
Pepcom typically seems to have slightly more exhibitors than ShowStoppers -- but, with only three hours instead of four -- that isn't necessarily a good thing, it means less time to make the rounds and chat briefly with as many as possible. They also had less open floor space, so things were more crowded.
Lunch @ Piero's, Monday, January 7 and Tuesday, January 8, 11:30AM-1PM. Appx. 20-24 exhibitors, and probably 400-500 attendees.
Journalists need to eat lunch, and while the CES press room has free lunch (along with breakfast and mid-day snacks), the food's not that great, the line can be long, and if you don't get there in time, it can be all gone.
Many vendors schedule press conferences around noon and include lunch -- but unless it's an announcement you care about (or are assigned to cover), this can be a bad use of time (and no guarantee the food will be something you like).
Piero's Restaurant is a short block and a half from the Las Vegas Convention Center. For 23 years, ace PR woman Pat Meier has been renting Piero's out for PR lunches during CES, Comdex (and possibly other Vegas events, for invited members of the press. In roughly one half of the restaurant, vendors stand by tables; in the other, there's good food, tables, and chairs.
The chat space can be crowded, but Lunch@Piero's provides a good break from the show floor and a convenient way to see and talk with the exhibitors -- many of whom aren't at the rest of the show. (And it's a chance to sit down and talk with colleagues.)
ShowStoppers@CES 2008, Monday, January 7, 6PM-10PM. Appx. 130 exhibitors, and an estimated 1,500+ attendees.
ShowStoppers and Pepcom are the two big evening events, these days. I've been going to ShowStoppers events since they began 15 years ago -- back in the days of Comdex, PC Expo and other shows, and when Interop (a.k.a. N+I) was a big show, three or four ShowStoppers events a year. (They're currently doing at least seven ShowStoppers in 2008, but I only expect to get to one other besides the CES one, at most.)
Slightly fewer vendors isn't necessarily a bad thing -- combined with four hours to Pepcom's three, this meant we had more time to chat meaningfully with more of the exhibitors. Plus, this year's ShowStoppers had more open space than Pepcom -- i.e., less crowding, easier mingling -- and they also had tables and chairs, in addition to the standing-height tables, so we could actually sit, rather than be on our feet all evening after being on our feet most of the day.
There's some exhibitor overlap among these events -- I'm guestimating about a quarter, possibly more, of the vendors were at more than one event. But schedule permitting, it still makes sense, IMHO, to hit Unveiled, if possible, in my opinion; it extends the see-and-schmooze opportunity, and will free up some time at Pepcom and ShowStoppers to see the vendors who are at those events only...or to go back to a vendor with follow-up questions.
Rough totals for these events: 400 exhibitor tables -- factoring in repeats, say, 300 unique exhibitors; 16 hours (staying there the whole time, and going to both days of Piero's, ignoring that some events ran up to half an hour beyond official closing).
]]>The two-day Storage Visions 2008 partner event, Saturday January 5 and Sunday January 6 at the Flamingo hotel, includes products, services and technologies aimed at small, medium and enterprise and also home, mobile and consumers. The room of vendor tables is modest -- maybe two dozen -- but it isn't hard to find interesting stuff there, like
Marty Winston's Cherry Picks for CES 2008
When it comes to spotting good products and getting the right info on them -- including PR contacts, which a surprising number of vendors are bad at doing -- Marty Winston is one of my favorite resources, and with good reason. Marty not only knows how to do the job of reaching press people right, but he does right. That may be, in part, because he is one; according to Marty, he's taken on the unique role of being a "journalist to journalists." (The other reason being that he knows what journalists are interested in, and need -- which isn't always the same as what vendors want to say.)
Marty's 26-year-old weekly to-journaliists-only free Newstips Bulletin (all email these days) provides informative paragraph-length news coverage ideas and contact info for products of each of his sponsors' companies in particular, plus a lot of reviews and special reports that are strictly Marty's own work.
A few years ago, Marty joined the press event scene, first with his Cherry Picks, and then also with another event. To qualify for Cherry Picks, products must be relatively new (announced within the cut-off), and meet Marty's assessment that they're press-worthy and novel. The press sits; each vendor gets on stage for a minute spiel -- and press gets a clipboard with one-sheeters for each product with vendor and PR contact info, MSRP, and availability data, plus a paragraph or two description, and picture.
Last year, there were enough presenters that Marty had to rigidly enforce the sixty-seconds-and-you're-done time limit. This year, there were somewhat fewer presenters; Marty sensibly took advantage of the extra time to allow a minute or two of Q&A for each presenter, and more presenting time in some cases. This worked to our advantage, in my opinion; we got answers to questions it might not have occured to us to ask.
Additionally, Marty has added a "Green Room" row of tables for after the presentations, where we could go up to vendors to see the products up close, and ask more questions. (And there was lunch.) Last year, press and vendors simply milled around; this gave us more opportunity for one-on-one microchats and see-it's.
This year's Cherry Picks included:
Coffee & B-Roll -- It's CES and it's Vegas, Jack
CES, the Consumer Electronics Association's annual International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas, in early January, is, according to CEA, "the world's largest consumer technology trade show, and North America's largest annual trade show of any kind." CES isn't for consumers, any more than Comdex was for end users (although some show up); it's for the retailers, manufacturers, installers, engineers, corporate buyers -- plus media folks (that's me), industry analysts, and sundry others.
Over 140,000 attendees, from 140 countries, are expected this year, to see a subset of the 2,700+ exhibitors, and perhaps catch some of the keynote speeches (including Bill Gates) and other sessions. That's Comdex-class city congestion, especially since CES's exhibits are too much to fit in either of the Vegas' two convention centers. So CES (like some of the last Comdexes) is distributed between the Las Vegas Convention Center including the Las Vegas Hilton and the parking lot in front, and, a few miles away, the interconnected Sands Expo & Convention Center and the Venetian Hotel... plus sundry related meetings and events all over town.
That's still not as big as the annual CeBIT show in Germany (I went to CeBIT in 2005, once was enough, thank you), where people often commute/travel in daily from one or two countries away. But it's plenty big. Big enough -- plus, given Vegas's sprawling, make-you-walk-past-as-many-shops-and-other-spending-things-as-possible architecture -- that we spend a lot of time walking, waiting in lines, taking taxis, shuttles and busses (the monorail here is five bucks a ride, doesn't go to or stop near a lot of places, and may be public transit but isn't "mass" transit by any stretch of the imagination). And although the city overall has, over the past five or ten years, gone non-smoking in restaurants, lobbies and many other places, the casino/gaming areas are still smokey, and it spills over.
I.e., if you think I or others are here having fun, think twice. Yeah, we're having some fun, and seeing colleagues who we're friends with. But attending this show is tiring, grueling work. And so far, it's grey and chilly here. We'd all rather be home or at the office.
Like the name suggests, CES is primarily about consumer electronics, including entertainment and other widgits for your house, car, and boat, as well as for mobile (walk, bicycle, travel) consumers, wireless, video (lots of HDTV!), gaming, content, high-end audio and some professional/business stuff. Plus odd-lot stuff like home security, electric toothbrushes, and -- well, we'll see. (For what it's worth, according to one person I chatted with at Logan Airport while waiting for our flight, CES is no longer the premier show for home audio/theater, CEDIA is.) Products that have debuted at past CES shows include the VCR (1970), the laserdisk player (1974) (I still own one :-), CD player (1981), DVD (1996), HDTV (1998), Xbox (2001), and plasma TV (2001).
There is, however, a lot of "prosumer" (professional consumer), business and office technology on display -- not surprising, given that a lot of today's tech can serve both groups. What there isn't much of (so far) is IT in the classic sense -- technology for companies also concerned with managing things and integrating them into their computing and network environments. I saw some IT-oriented exhibitors so far, at the Storage Visions Expo, like the Trusted Computing Group, and backup arrays and services, but I expect these will be in the minority.
Sensibly and fortunately, exhibitors are grouped by type into halls, as much as possible, e.g. automotive in one, home stuff in another. Some people might never leave a given hall; I could easily not go to half the halls, and not miss too much (although there's always something quirky or otherwise interesting there).
Once again, I'm sending myself, on my own kilo-dollar. With the Comdex and PC Expo shows no longer around, CES, including the associated press events, is the closest thing there is to a general computer show with professional/business and borderline-IT stuff. My main goals -- although, of course I'd be happy to sell some soon-after coverage -- are research and networking -- to see interesting stuff to write about, and schmooze with editors and reporters and PR folks to write for over the ear to come.
The CES show floor doesn't open until Monday morning, January 7. But things started early Saturday morning, with, among other things, Storage Visions 2008. And although Sunday is "Press Day," at least one CES partner event, Storage Visions, runs all day Saturday and Sunday with sessions and a few dozen exhibitor tables, and 4PM Saturday is "CES Unveiled," CES's press kick-off event with several dozen exhibitors.
Sunday morning is PRmeister Marty Winston's Cherry Picks event for the press, where press sits in chairs while vendors come up on stage one by one and do a one-minute overview spiel about their product (which has to be new since July 1). Sunday evening is Pepcom's Digital Experience, the first big press-and-analyst-place-to-be multi-vendor event -- scores of vendor tables, plus food and schmoozing.
Monday and Tuesday there's Pat Meier-Johnson's Lunch@Pieros, where invited journalists can get a decent lunch and chat with a dozen or two vendors inside Piero's Restaurant, an easy one-block walk from the Las Vegas Convention Center... and Monday night, ShowStoppers, the other big evening multi-vendor press see-schmooze-and-eat event.
Plus daytime strolling the exhibits at the show floors, of course, traffic and crowds permitting.
]]>One happy result (and part of my motivation for pursuing the change) was I got to work with lots of editors and reporters, mostly in the technology press. (And also with sundry PR people in agencies and in BBN network customers.)
This included schmoozing on the phone (this was the cusp of the transition to email; most press releases still went out by FedEx, ditto most marketing manuscripts), office visits to or by where possible, and handshakes at trade shows.
Many-to-most of these magazines are no longer in existence, e.g. CMP's Communications Week (which turned into Internet Week before going web-only and then even web-dark), Data Communications and LAN Times (bought by CMP and then killed), Datamation, MIS Week (sigh), and TP+T, to name a few. (Some, like ComputerWorld, Network World and Telecommunications are still actually around in hardcopy, albeit smaller and thinner shadows of their heyday selves.)
With yesterday's postal mail, I learn that another one has gone, after 37 years. The December 2007 issue of Business Communications Review (BCR) that arrived is its last, as a paper entity.
BCR has been an interesting, thoughtful magazine covering the telephony, data and other networking arena, largely through columnists and feature articles by knowledgeable, informative experts (and some by yours truly).
BCR had been its own entity; if memory serves accurately, they started up some seminars/conferences including working with John McQuillan on the Next Generation Networks (NGN) events, and ultimately were purchased by CMP.
Thankfully, BCR's not simply turned off. BCR's magazines's main editorial staff, main contributor columnists, web site, and other aspects, will continue under the new name www.NoJitter.com.
One reason I care is that every info-outlet we lose is a loss of history, continuity, and of a "known place to go."
I also have a writer's personal interest -- while at BBN, I was responsible for causing a number of articles to be contributed to BCR, some by freelancers I assigned, some that I ghost-wrote myself. And post-BBN, I actually wrote half a dozen or so articles with my own byline, mostly on early-commercial-stage Internet topics like the CIX, IS-IS versus OSPF routing, and other things I'd have to pull open my file cabinet to itemize, as they're too old to be online and search-found by BCR.
And lastly, but far from least, I care because the editorial folks at BCR are nice people. Over the years, I got to be friends with a bunch of editors, reporters and fellow freelancers, including BCR editor Fred Knight. Fred's one of the nicest guys I know -- not just because he bought articles from me -- and is also a fellow men's neckware (tie) aficionado.
So, Fred: Best of luck with the new site-only! And keep wearing those elegantly tasteful ties!
]]>My favorite hardware is the Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth phone headset, which I tried as part of a three headset review for Information Week. I can easily use this several times a day, particularly when I forward my home office number to my cell phone while walking my dog.
Trying the Jawbone, and other headsets (mostly in "what am I calling from now" chats with fellow techno-tryer Ernest Lilley), yielded one interesting fact: I couldn't directly test the most important aspect, namely, how I sounded. Leaving messages on my answering machine isn't the same as replicating the callee's experience.
The Jawbone suffers from one common design flaw -- unnecessary use of a proprietary -- non-standard -- port, for the charging cable. It's especially annoying as the Jawbone charger cable has easily-bendible wires in it; I managed to gronk the cable and make it unusable. Fortunately, I'd already ordered two spares -- one for my travel kit, and one extra to make the most of the shipping fee. Competitors like Gemma and Plantronics manage to use mini-USB, which would be harder to damage, and easily replaced in any drug or convenience store (or my stash of spare cables).
Favorite Web-based service: Data Deposit Box online backup/restoral serviceI've been doing daily data backups pretty regularly, most of the time, to an external hard drive... but have never felt this was sufficient. What if something happens to that drive (which is in my home office, after all)? Not to mention being at risk for up to a day's work.
I recently wrote an article about online data backup services, which save data from one or more of your computers to off-site, and let you retrieve some or all data, including, ideally, to other computers, via a web browser.
More recently, I tried one out, Data Deposit Box... and liked it so much I've stayed on as a user.
Unlike most, possibly all, of the competition, DDB has a simple pricing model -- two dollars per gigabyte per month... for no matter how many (Windows) computers you're saving from. For example, at the moment, I've got two desktops, and one or two notebooks all saving to this account -- of which one machine is very active, the others only sporadically so. With other services, it would be costing some multiple of five to seven bucks per month.
I haven't yet had to rescue any files I lost or deleted -- but I use my Data Deposit Box a lot, as a "USB drive in the sky" -- an easy way to grab a file or two that I'd been editing on my notebook, which might be turned off; grabbing it from the web site is quicker and easier. Or getting a file while at I'm the library (at one of their computers). And I have, come to think of it, used their "versioning" feature, to retrieve a paragraph or three from an earlier version of a file several hours previous. Nifty, recommended. (Tell them I sent you.) (Note, be sure you understand what Data Deposit Box is -- and isn't -- doing, and that while I recommend it highly for work and personal data files, it's not your cheapest bet for saving copies of music, pictures or video.)
Knave: Least-Liked Software This YearI do my own taxes, Schedule C and all. I've been very unhigh tech about it; I journal my entries in pen, in categorized notebook pages, sum up with a calculator. It's far from efficient; discovering that federal forms (but not Massachusetts ones) were available in fill-in-able PDFs a few years made a big difference...but not big enough, the checking, recalculating and correcting is still a royal PITA (pain in the fundament).
This past year, I tried tax software. After due research, I tried H&R Block Tax Cut Pro.
It was cheap enough, by argh, did it suck--incomprehensibly so, for a program that could easily be the one non-Office app many of its users would employ. For example, on the install, it failed to complete, saying "You need to be administrator" -- which I was. Turning off the anti-virus and firewall (ZoneAlarm) -- first disconnecting from the Internet, of course -- resolved this, but this is IMHO an unacceptable and unnecessary complication. (Note, the documentation did mention needing to turn off Microsoft firewalls -- but the error messages didn't suggest alternative reasons.)
TaxCut Pro was such a royally hard to use, down right bad program I was ready to return it and ask for my twenty five bucks back. (I never got around to that, of course.)
Then I ordered a copy of Intuit TurboTax. The Home and Business version cost more than TaxCut Pro, but was much, much better. It's still far from perfect--for example, there's no obvious way to up the font size, short of changing my screen resolution (do they think all their customers have perfect vision), and it's incredibly hard to zoom into a form--in-progress and force a change on a line entry. But it did the trick, so I'm happy enough. Perhaps, now that I'm using automatic online backup, I'll also go to electronic record-keeping.
]]>See my Dern Near Everything Else blog for all the stuff that doesn't belong in Trying Technology, i.e. and e.g., stuff I'm reading, listening to, watching, or doing, and other trying and non-trying aspects of life. (There will be some inevitable overlap into and from the tech arena.)
As the double-entendre (or double-parsable) name indicates, Trying Technology is about:
As a freelance technology and business writer, I write about a lot of these products, topics and technologies, including in Tech How-To's and feature articles
However, not everything finds a (paid) home.
There's information that doesn't make it into articles that do get run (not enough space, drifting off-topic, too opinionated, etc.). And there's things I'd like to write that I can't find assignments to write -- or are being assigned and written by other technology writers (many of whom are far more knowledgeable than I am).
The intent of Trying Technology is to provide a home for stuff I haven't (yet) gotten assignments to do from other sites/publications, follow-up musings to things I've already written, and other what-not. (If you're an editor, and want to buy something from me, don't hesitate to contact me, of course!)
And now... on to Trying Technology!
Daniel Dern
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