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Get the scoop on upcoming technology from the recent Consumer Electronics Show.

BY MIKE ANTONIAK

For “technophiles,” one of the highlights of the year comes when the collective forces of the consumer electronics industry gather for the International Consumer Electronics Show. In Las Vegas in early January, makers of anything that might be considered a consumer electronics product—from audio and video to computers and telecommunications—showed off their respective wares.

Although a few of the products were shown as prototypes, all are scheduled for release within the next few months, making theme items to consider as you ponder how to spend your tech budget in coming months.

Laser Printers Get Affordable

A color laser printer is now realistically within reach for anyone with a home or small office, thanks to Konica Minolta. The company just released two new versions of its magicolor 2400 printer series for less than $500. Both models offer print speeds of 20 pages per minute (ppm) for black and 5 ppm for color, with a maximum print resolution of 2400 X 600 dpi.

The $399 magicolor 2400W, a Windows-compatible unit, includes 32MB RAM, a USB 2.0 port, and 200-sheet input tray. For $100 more, the magicolor 2340DL is compatible with Macintosh and Linux operating systems, has built-in Ethernet, expandable RAM up to 512MB, and direct printing of digital images from cameras that support the PictBridge format.

Sharing Images, Swapping Files Get Easier

What do you want to do with your digital images? Odds are Kodak’s new EASYSHARE-ONE camera has the answer. You can organize, preview, or determine a destination for images on the camera’s touch-sensitive monitor. The camera features a 4-megapixel (MP) image sensor, 3X optical zoom lens, large 3-inch LCD screen, and still-image and video-record capability.

An optional Wi-Fi card lets you connect to the Web at any hotspot to send e-mail with pictures, or upload image files for printing or archiving at Kodak’s EASYSHARE Gallery Web site. In addition to storing images on SecureDigital (SD) Flash media cards, the camera has 256MB of internal memory, enough to store up to 1,500 pictures, according to Kodak. The EASYSHARE-ONE is scheduled to reach stores in June at a suggested retail price of $599. Pricing or availability of the Wi-Fi card hasn’t yet been set.

For owners of digital cameras, or any mobile hardware that supports the SD Flash media format, SanDisk Corp. unveiled a design innovation that will simplify the process of moving files from one device to another, using the same Flash media solution in both SD card slots and USB ports. Sometime during the first quarter, the company expects to start delivering its hybrid SD Flash memory card/USB Flash drive.

As a standard-sized card, it slips into the SD slot of compatible devices for data storage. Unfolding the card reveals its hidden USB connector, which can be used to connect the card to any USB-compatible device. Pricing on this Flash card/drive hasn’t yet been set, but the company has indicated the product will be offered in several versions with storage capacity up to 1 gigabyte (GB).

In December, Lexar Media Inc. announced a new ultra-compact Flash media format, the USB card, which was shown at CES. Slightly larger than a standard USB connector, it also will be available with storage capacity up to 1GB sometime this year.

More Than Phones

CES was again witness to the continuing evolution of the telephone, on several fronts.

• Samsung (model information won’t be on the company’s Web site until release date sometime in the first quarter) unveiled the A300 camera phone, a 2MP camera phone with built-in business scanner, to be offered through Sprint during the first quarter. Another new Samsung model, the P207 tri-band phone, can convert spoken audio into text and then transmit it as a text message from the phone. Pricing and carrier haven’t yet been determined. In Korea, the company already offers a 5MP camera phone and may bring that model to the United States before year’s end, according to reports.
  
• Motorola’scellular introductions include the E815, a handset that supports mobile video-on-demand, and the V635 1MP camera phone with a TransFlash memory card slot for capturing images to removable media. Pricing and carriers haven’t yet been announced.
  
  For those looking for hands-free operation for their car, Motorola expands its line of BLNC Bluetooth Car Kit solutions. When installed in a car and connected to a Bluetooth-enabled cellular handset, the kits provide voice-activated dialing and can announce incoming calls and text messages.
  
  Motorola also may have a practical version of something long promised but never fully realized: the video phone. The company’s $799 Ojo Personal Video Phone will be available this spring. It uses a broadband DSL or cable modem connection to send and receive audio and video over the Internet. This approach may circumvent the bandwidth challenges that made previous stabs at picture phones seem primitive and little more than a novelty.
  

Wireless Networking Made Easy

• In a joint announcement, Broadcom Corp., Hewlett-Packard, and Linksys have demonstrated a simplified approach to creating a wireless network for the home or small office. SecureEasySetup reduces the steps involved in configuring the network, adding devices, and setting security features to the touch of a single button. Typically, anyone building a Wi-Fi network has to manually identify and set security preferences for every piece of equipment. The three companies believe SecureEasySetup will encourage more users to enable Wi-Fi security features since the process will be less time consuming.
  
• Linksys also unveiled its next generation of Wi-Fi G products (802.11g, or "Wireless-G"), incorporating the company’s Speed and Range eXpansion (SRX) technology. SRX is based on the new MIMO (multiple in/multiple out) standard, which uses multiple radios and antennas on wireless routers and adapters to boost the range and throughput of a wireless network operating on the 802.11g Wi-Fi standard. Both the Wireless-G broadband router with SRX, $199, and the Wirless-G Notebook adapter with SRX, $129, are already available.
  

The products that merit the most attention at CES may not necessarily be the products you’ll end up buying right away, but they are a preview of the technology you can expect will play role in the industry—and perhaps your business—in the near future. In an industry as reliant on technology as real estate, staying abreast of the latest technology can make a tremendous difference in your ability to work efficiently and effectively.

Suggest a Topic

Do you have technology you’d like to learn more about or a new user twist that you’d like to share with your peers? Let me know about it by e-mailing antoniak@dtccom.net, and I’ll do my best to give it the coverage it deserves.