E3 2008: The wrap-up

This year's smaller, quieter E3 video game tradeshow may well mark the end of an era, with no solid plans announced for next year's show, and many participants lamenting the stripped-down vibe. Despite powering a multi-billion-dollar industry, the big game companies collectively decided that the massive shows of previous years were too expensive to put on anymore--but the pared-down version of E3 that started last year failed to inspire the industry or generate much significant media coverage.

Despite the melancholy feel, the big stories driving the gaming business were clearly visible (even if almost all of the games themselves were demonstrated from behind the closed doors of meeting rooms, rather than on the small showfloor.) We see the major trends coming out of E3 2008 as threefold:
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eSATA comes to a pocket-size external hard drive

I asked for it a few blogs ago and now I've got it: The first pocket-size external hard drive that features an eSATA connection, the eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go. eSATA is the external interface for SATA, currently the most popular interface for internal hard drives.

A while ago, OWC introduced the world's largest small external hard drive and has now become the first vendor to put eSATA on a compact external hard drive. The eSATA OWC Mercury On-The-Go also supports USB 2.0 and features a 320GB internal hard drive from Hitachi that spins at 7,200rpm (as opposed to the 5,400rpms in most external hard drives of this physical size). It is also the largest in capacity among high-speed, compact external hard drives.
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TransferJet: Plug and play, minus the plug

Obviously, it's been convenient to operate plug-and-play bus-powered peripheral devices that use USB and FireWire connections, since all you need is the device itself and one data cable that, once plugged in, also draws juice from the computer to feed the device. However, admittedly, that definitely is less convenient than no cable or plugging at all.

A consortium was established on July 17 in Tokyo to promote a radically new and exciting close-proximity wireless technology, called "TransferJet". This new technology enables a high-speed data transmission rate of 560Mbps (by comparison, USB 2.0 has a rate of 480Mbps), while eliminating the need for complex setup and operation. The idea is that just by holding two TransferJet-compliant products closely together (approximately an inch apart) you can transfer data automatically from one device to the other. For example, touching a TV with a digital camera enables photos to be instantaneously displayed on the TV screen.

Alternatively, multimedia content can be easily shared and enjoyed by touching a mobile phone to a portable player. TransferJet can be used as a universal interface across all consumer electronics devices.
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The pointless USB paper clip dispenser

No sooner did we post an item about an ill-advised promotional tchotchke that another one has popped up on the radar. But unlike the previous gadget, this one isn't of dubious value because of anachronistic timing; rather, it would be questionable no matter when it came out.

The reason: It's a paper clip dispenser. Not that we have anything against paper clips, mind you, but we can't exactly see the point of a dispenser that's also a pen holder with USB ports.

Hong Kong-based Earth Trek is trying to cast this in the best possible light, referring to it as a "3-in-1 stationery item" available in five colors. But if it's going to take this tack, the least it can do is provide a place to keep one's beer.

Via CNET Crave

USB Web "Button" takes a step back in time

It's hard to imagine someone using an item like this more than once, but the Push Button USB Webkey apparently isn't intended for everyday use. It's basically a keychain-giveaway type of promotional tchotchke that has just one purpose, to open up a specific Web page when pressed.

The button does include a couple of USB ports, according to Red Ferret, perhaps to encourage its presence on the desktop, rather than being tossed after the first click. The competition has gotten tougher, however, with more useful freebies like USB flash drives and even card-sized MP3 players becoming more common.

Something like the Web button might have been a bit more popular in, say, 1998.

Via CNET Crave

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