Cebit 2004 Coverage

Koen writes "March the 18th, Teamhardware.com visited Cebit 2004, the largest IT fair in Europe. We made tons of pictures and gathered a lot of information. Topics of discussion: Intel, nVidia, ATI, XFX, Abit, Epox, Shuttle, DFI and more." Espectr0 writes "BBC News has an article with pictures of the new gadgets being shown at Cebit 2004. Some of them are: 3D screens, heads-up displays, all-in-one USB memory sticks and portable video players!"

Comments

New Technologies?

[jg21]

I wonder if it's true that we've reached a technology plateau or were there fundamental new technologies on show. Anyone?

Re:New Technologies?

[NeoThermic]

Remember, one can never say that we've made everything as its the unexpected inventions that change our world.
Remember the quote from the patent office in 1899, something along the lines of 'Everything that can be invented has been invented'?

Look at what we have now, 105 years after that quote. Also to those who never thought SMS would take over.

There is only such thing as a percivable technology plateau. Everything that we see around us seems to be the end all. We can't see why we would realistly need 32 TB of ram for instance. But just leave it a good 5 years, and I'm sure that someone out there will say 'I need more than 32TB for running this'.

Fundamental new technologies are being invented as we type and read this, we just don't know about them yet. Once its released, it has the oppertunity to change it all. Think about the AT -> ATX standerd.. and the new one [PTX?]. Once released, it should change everything.

Who knows... mabey in 15 years time, rather than watch our character on the screen run around the UT world with a gun shooting at the other people, we will be immersed in this game, made so real its impossible to tell the diffrence.

Who knows... that just might require 32 TB of ram...

NeoThermic

Re:New Technologies?

[jg21]

Well there's an intriguing technology timeline that BT in the UK released for example, which for 2004 alone comes up with some pretty imaginative possibilities - it continues through to 2040 btw. Just wondered what at CeBIT comes close to any of these hypothetical inflection points that's all.

Re:New Technologies?

[Froggert]

As someone who works with portable technology all day, the next great technological leap in this area that I see is going to be making devices and technologies work together with better software.

This, of course, has been promised for many years, but we've finally got a lot of the technology base required to make it seamless. On the way to a soccer game with two coworkers, I can now receive my office email on my smartphone, check the traffic conditions and decide which route to take.

In a year or two (or three), I'd expect that new cars would automatically detect that I've got a bluetooth phone, and use a standardized api to communicate back and forth. If a phone call comes in, the radio will turn itself down, and if I pull over to answer it, the radio will function as a speakerphone. What about if I have location services on my phone (and these are coming), and a GPRS net connection? I should be able to use voice command to tell the phone to download directions from here to X, and then playback those directions over the radio.

My cellphone already tracks my location, what if that also functioned like instant messaging apps, and let me know when one of my friends was online and somewhere nearby? I'm headed to the gym, and so are Bob and Sue. Open a quick push to talk session, and ask them if they want to meet up by the weight bench?

I head home, and now my cellphone functions as a remote control for all the bluetooth enabled components in my stereo and it also recognizes that I'm home, and automatically sets up call forwarding to my home number, which is voice over ip based. I want to watch a movie stored on my pc, but that should be transparent to me, because it's all wirelessly connected.

It's pretty easy to go on forever with scenarios like these, all of which are possible today, but only with custom written software. In a few years, this should all be happening automatically, or with a few clicks and button presses.

Nicest thing for me is the nanode

[Space cowboy]

a gorgeous box using the nano-itx layout referred to earlier on /. I think a set-top box is coming my way :-)

Simon

Re:Nicest thing for me is the nanode

[Space cowboy]

[shudder] Thanks! You've just reminded me what it was like to share a 1-mips machine with 70 other people, running an abortion of an operating system, and with a C compiler that made up code for you when you had syntax errors.

God, I'm going for a lie down!

Simon.

Re:Wonderful

[MisanthropicProgram]

Unfortunately, a disaster has to occur for the majority of people to take notice. For example, until the environmental issues start to cause disasters, like sea levels rising and flooding NY City, nobody will really take the threat seriously. Yes, there are some S. Pacific islands starting to feel the effects, but until it becomes worse, very few people will care. By then, I'm afraid, it'll be too late. :(

But are there any...

[Anonymous Coward]

...booth babes as hot as Ceren?

Re:No evidence of manmade global warming

[canajin56]

It doesn't matter that we'll all benifit, that doesn't excuse fraud. Humans have raised the amount of CO2 and hydrocarbons by a miniscule amount, 0.6%. A single volcano erruption unleashes more char, ash, sulphur, CO2, CO, and hydrocarbons, than all of human history. Also, the sun has been getting hotter for the past decade...perhaps that has something to do with the rising surface temperatures. Further more, we already know that Earth's climate has dramatic cycles. We are still coming out of the last ice age, so a consistent rise in temperature is to be expected.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with reducing pollution. I don't want to breath smog. Coal power contributes to acid rain and mercury poisoning. But those very problems should be the issue.