New gadgets to go at CeBit

Collevo 65-inch LCD

This 65-inch LCD monitor from Taipei-based Collevo is believed to be one of the largest LCD touchscreens available. Sales manager Sylvia Tang demonstrates the display, which is sold to schools in the Far East. The company is now looking to expand sales of the screen into Europe, but could not provide pricing information.

Asus for gamers

This Asus motherboard/graphics combination is meant mainly for serious — and seriously well-heeled — games players, but is also likely to find its way into industrial and high-performance computing applications in future, where eight small displays can be a cheap alternative to a single high-resolution display.

Eee 900

By Andy Smith

CeBit, always one of the largest tech trade shows in the world, kicked off Tuesday from Hannover, Germany. On display is the technology and gadgets that you'll be using tomorrow.
Check out the ZDNet UK coverage.

The first eye opener is the Asus Eee PC which gets an upgrade to the Eee 900 model. It will come with Windows XP as an option--at an extra cost of course, due to the license. The operating system will benefit from the enhanced resolution of the upgrade Eee, at 1,024x600 pixels rather than 800x480 pixels. The older Eee 701 will also be made available in Europe with Windows XP. Both will go on sale in April.

The Eee 900 will also come in a Linux flavor, at 399 euros, which equates to around $600 US. The Windows version will be pricier, although it is not yet known by how much.

Jerry Shen

Asus chief executive Jerry Shen unveiled the Eee 900 on Tuesday at the CeBIT technology fair in Germany. He said the device would help Asus enter the top six of laptop manufacturers within the next three years--it currently resides at the number-seven spot.

Shen showed journalists at the Eee 900's unveiling some sketches drawn up by the designers of the original Eee PC.

Shen also outlined the various aspects of the Eee philosophy, ranging from "compact and light" to "stylish". It remains to be seen how "short boot time" will be affected by the addition of Windows XP.

The Asus/Microsoft press conference drew a large crowd of journalists, pictured here waiting to get in after the event was delayed by a Wi-Fi failure. The connectivity issue was allegedly solved through the use of a T-Mobile HSDPA dongle.

Flybook V5

The Flybook V5 from Tennessee-based Dialogue Technology Corp is one of the smallest Vista-capable laptops available (its manufacturers claim it is the smallest). The laptop weighs about 1,200g and is slightly larger than a sheet of A5 paper at 235mm x163mm.

Within its 30mm-thick case it packs an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV (Ultra Low Voltage) processor running at 1.2GHz, 2GB of Ram that can be expanded to 4GB, and an 80GB hard drive. It has built-in Bluetooth and 802.11 a/b/g wireless networking, together with an HSDPA datacard and a 1.3 megapixel camera.

The one feature it lacks is a mouse-pointer: that's because the 8.9-inch WXGA screen is touch-sensitive. Dialogue claims up to five hours battery life for the notebook. Prices range from $1,700 to $2,000.

Flybook VM

The Flybook VM is, according to manufacturer Dialogue Technology Corp, the first laptop designed specifically for using on a plane.

Dialogue chief executive Roland Pinto said the company designed the screen's hinge to allow the whole display to move forward when the person in front tips their seat back. The slender of wrist can type with their hands below the screen, he explained.

Skype USB pen

Axxen's Skype USB pen has a standard USB connector at one end and a mini jack at the other for plugging in a headset. When plugged into a PC, the pre-installed Skype client fires up.

WowPen Memo

The WowPen Memo from Wow Technology is a device for recording notes you make on pads of paper. It clips to the top of a pad and records movements from the special pen that is included in the package. A mini USB port means you can then plug it into your PC where the software will download your scribblings either to be stored in a graphical format, or run through the OCR software so it can be turned into text.

Wow Technology founder Anders Bergstrom said he expects it to be available for about £130 ($260). A wired version, the WowPad Digi, will cost a little less.

MyStor's solid state hard drives have a 32GB capacity and are available in IDE or SCSI format for €400 euros ($600) and €500 ($760) euros respectively.

Foxconn

This PC built by Foxconn for CeBit 2008 is driving eight displays through four graphics cards--seen here with Foxconn's Lucy Elaine showing it running a flight simulator.