CeBIT Sneak Peek

The CeBIT America trade show is being held this week in New York City with the best in systems, applications, communications and networking. Here is a sneak peek of some of the products on the show floor:

Great Starter PC
Looking for a good entry-level PC that won't cost you an arm and a leg, a PC that will do those tasks that you want to do (email, internet, word processing), then check out the Compaq Presario S4000j, this PC represents great value, performance and ease of use all for only $399. This is a great starter PC that features the latest AMD Athlon XP processors and comes with a 40X CD-writer. Whether you are completing work, school or college projects the Presario is the right PC and the right price. www.compaq.com

Lexmark X6170 All-in-One Printer
Lexmark’s new X6170 All-in-One features excellent speed and quality for presentations and business documents. Up to 4800 x 1200 dpi on all paper types. Prints up to 19 ppm black; up to 15 ppm color .

With CCD flatbed scanning technology, the Lexmark X6170 can handle books of varied thickness, brochures and more. It offers a scan area of 8.5” x 11.7”. The scanner features up to 1200 x 4800 dpi optical resolution (up to 19,200 enhanced) and 48-bit color scan/16-bit grayscale.

The copying feature allows up to 99 copies at one time. Reduction/enlargement capability from 25% to 400%. The X6170 produces up to 16 cpm black and up to 11 cpm color.

The fax allows you to send and receive color and b/w documents. 33.6 Kbps fax capability. Automatic document feeder lets you fax multiple page documents which virtually eliminates paper jams.

The Lexmark X6170 also comes with Lexmark Photo Editor Software to easily scan, edit, print and manage your images. No need for additional software. $249. www.lexmark.com

Panasonic DMR-E60 DVD Recorder
Panasonic just introduced a new DVD recorder. Model DMR-E60 features an SD Memory Card slot, a PCMCIA slot and a DV input terminal. The DMR-E60 supports DVD-RAM and DVD-R, and will also play back DVD Video, music CDs, video CDs, and CD-R/CD-RW2 MP3 formatted discs. The new model is dubbed "DIGA," a name derived from the words "Digital" and "Giga". "Digital" calls attention to the fact that these new recorders truly offer the best of digital technology, while "Giga" emphasizes the enormous storage capacity (4.7 and 9.4 gigabytes) that DVD discs allow. $600. www.panasonic.com

Panasonic VDR-M30 DVD Camcorder
Panasonic’s new VDR-M30 DVD camcorder records high-quality digital video and still images onto removable 8cm DVD-RAM and DVD-R1 discs, for non-linear editing of home videos right in the camcorder. The VDR-M30 also features an SD Memory Card slot, combines all the technological benefits of the re-writable DVD RAM format with the compatibility of write-once DVD-R media.

The DVD-R format offers users the ability to record onto affordable DVD-R discs for sharing with friends and family, and archiving video memories for everyone to enjoy. Recorded video and still images captured by the VDR-M30 can be played back on DVD-RAM and the majority of DVD-R compatible MPEG2-conforming devices. All you need to do s slide the disc out of the new disc cartridge and place it into the DVD recorder or player, or into a PC or laptop computer equipped with DVD playback.

The camcorder features a USB port for easy direct connection to a PC. Recorded video and still images can be saved onto 8cm 1.46GB DVD media. Also, still images can be recorded onto an SD Memory Card. The VDR-M30 is designed to make non-linear editing easy; thanks to the DVD-RAM format, users can access recorded scenes without the hassle of searching, fast-forwarding or rewinding. Indexed thumbnails are displayed on the unit’s 2.5” color LCD. The camcorder will automatically find blank space on the DVD-RAM disc whenever a recording begins, eliminating the possibility of recording over precious memories. Camcorder editing features include delete, rearrange, fade in/out, wipe, divide and splice. Other features include a color viewfinder, 10x optical/240x digital zoom and digital electronic image stabilization. $900. www.panasonic.com

Canon Powershot G5 Digital Camera
Canon’s new five megapixel PowerShot G5 digital camera features a 1/1.8" five megapixel CCD sensor that captures 2592 x 1944 pixel images and a DIGIC processor which increases image-processing speeds compared to general purpose CPUs found in other comparable digital cameras.

The 4x all-glass optical zoom lens provides a 35mm equivalent range of 35 –140mm, a fast maximum aperture of f/2.0-3.0 and macro focusing down to 2 inches. The additional 4x digital zoom extends the camera's telephoto capabilities to provide photographers with 16x zoom functionality.

The PowerShot G5 camera also has a Direct Connect print function that allows printing without a computer via Canon's line of dye-sublimation and Bubble Jet printers.

Other features included a 3-mode built-in flash with red-eye reduction, first or second curtain sync, ZoomBrowser EX (Win) and ImageBrowser (Mac) software. $899. www.usa.canon.com

NETGEAR Networking Solutions
NETGEAR’s WGR614 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless Router and the WG602 802.11g 54Mbps Wireless Access Point lead the industry by becoming the first 802.11g standard products.

The 802.11g standard specifies link rates of up to 54Mbps, about 5x as fast as its predecessor 802.11b 11Mbps standard. This improved bandwidth allows users several benefits. Users can now transfer larger files in far less time. New applications such as streaming video and music can be accomplished in half the time. Effective data rates on 802.11b were below the desired level for effectively streaming content.

Also, the improved bandwidth nearly doubles the range at which users can take advantage of some (data intensive) applications.

Both wireless deployments work on the 2.4GHz spectrum. So, users who install an 802.11g network at home or in the workplace can take advantage of the 54 megabits per second (Mbps) data rate while remaining 100% backwards compatible to the existing installed base of over 40 million 802.11b systems worldwide. 802.11b networks will still talk to 802.11g networks at speeds up to 11Mbps.

NETGEAR’s products include a Smart Wizard that automatically detects and connects to a user’s Internet connection. They also include UPnP (Universal Plug & Play) to ease and often eliminate configuration of common applications including gaming, and instant messaging.

NETGEAR also offers a “Trusted User” feature that allows control of Web site activity, along with email alerts and logs of activity and remote management of the network via web browser.

NETGEAR has lead in security as well offering a “Double Firewall” including NAT (Network Address Translation) and SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) as well as many wireless security features. NAT and SPI work together to protect resources (computers & files) on the network as well as monitoring hack attempts and requests for personal information. www.netgear.com