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Assorted CEATEC Photos
An anonymous reader writes: "The folks over at Techdirt got their hands on a bunch of very cool pictures from the CEATEC show for advanced technologies in Japan." It's an odd smorgasboard of stuff, and several of the toys actually look extremely interesting: course there isn't a lot of data. Tons of color handhelds integrated with phones, remote controls, farm animals, etc.
Anybody notice that green thing on page 6? What is that, some sort of digital bottle opener? Weird.
I'm really disappointed that we didn't see any pictures of the SEATEC Astronomy project. I've heard they're to die for.
Wait - I'm sorry. CEATEC? My bad.
once again, there's a gap in the tech curve.
We're still obsessing about trivial crap (your laptop looks like a toy, wah wah wah), and the Japanese are trying to figure out how to plug a video phone directly into my optic nerve, as illustrated below --
J Tech : I've completed testing on the new brain transmission device!!
J Manager : Fantastic, now to create prototypes for design!
J Tech : I would like the prototype to look like a small, red puppy, which, when not on, will appear to be sleeping. When activated, it will transform into a cat, holding a cherry blossom and a pail of milk, while singing brain transmission theme song in kitty kat voice. Shutting down will make the cat say "No more brain transmission makes kitty sad, nya nya!" and will transform back to dog.
J Manager : But it reads brain waves and transmits?
J Tech : Yes, of course.
J Manager : Fine.
USians would get upset over any ergonomic feature at all, preferring a 4x8x12 block of beige (or to be hip, silver or black) plastic with no redeeming ergonomic features so that people know 'it's a serious device!'
Remember when people said that the Japanese are only good at copying?? This March, when I was in Turkey, I ate breakfast with a German woman (a fabric buyer) who insisted that the Turkish people are only good at copying.
Hehe.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
- Large screen size
- Color screens
- Oval screens
- Touch screen
- Motion video
- Cameras the size of a phone button
It's the type of features that everyone wants but nobody wants to pay the prices for because the technology just isn't there yet. (there are a few commercial phones with some of these features, but not in any significant volume)Links to other concept phone galleries:
ZDNet - Road to 3G
FutureZone - Telecom 99 Photo Gallery
CeBIT 1999
Wireless Review - Future Phone
WSJ - Staying in Touch
BW - The Latest Web-Phone Wonders Are...Still Out of Reach "Clearly, somewhere between the trade fairs and the marketplace, Ericsson runs into troubles"
If you look hard enough, you can find references to all sorts of fantastic phones that won't exist for quite a while.
--
And look, there's a shiny red button....
/. is a bastion of gadgetry, but doesn't it eventually all start to look the same?
Really, I understand that
Do all of our electronics now have to look like some 13 year-old's WinAmp skin?
Comm'on! These devices aren't for real! Don't you think we'd have already seen or heard of ANY of these things ? My speculation is that these gadgets are good-quality mock-ups from a college student hi-tech industrial design competition... a contest/exhibit specifically on the topic of "future tech hand held devices". All of this stuff is likely just empty-shell mock-ups... the true purpose here is the form, not the function. So if you're a REAL tech company, you can pick & choose among these talented student designers with a touch for the greatest eye-candy appeal. Right ?