Observations from CeBIT 2006
by Volker Weber
- Sensible mobile phones are back. Check out the Benq Siemens S68.
- Blackberry Connect is a nice idea. But the process is broken. The software is done for the Nokia E61 (I want one!), the Nokia 9300i or the Palm Treo 650. But you can't get it. The operators are "testing" and there is no timeline. Update: BB Connect for the 9300i is out. I also updated the software for my 9300 to 5.249 from 5.23.4.
- CeBIT was one week early. Next year it starts on March 15th. From past year's experience winter should finally be over on the next weekend. Keeping my fingers crossed.
- You want pushmail and cannot afford a Blackberry? Finally there is an affordable product in Germany. 1&1 has a 10 Euro flatrate with a nice device that does the job. Not pretty, but seems to work well. Sidenote: The guy who closed the deal between 1&1 and IXI lives a few blocks from here. He offered to give me one but I did not bite.
- Korean vendors give away 512 MB USB sticks at press conferences (LG). Some play music files (Samsung). American vendors give away 64 MB USB sticks (Garmin). Sounds cheap? Maybe, but they contain the press kit in german and english. Smart! Best giveaway for a reporter: Moleskine look-alike notebook (1&1).
- Heise can throw a party. Like last year's party, the CeBIT event at GOP was a huge success. By invitation only. Consider yourself lucky if you are on the list.
- The Origami or Ultramobile PC was way overhyped. It turned out to be a 7" tablet PC with no battery life, a bunch of new buttons and a complicated operating system. If it wants to live up to its potential as a mobile device, it needs a screen you can view outside (read: a transflective panel) and a decent battery life. Currently we are looking at yet another Newton: Too big for your pocket and way too expensive. It's not a (insert your favorite device) killer. It is a killee.
- Good luck trying to find an engineer at a CeBIT booth. Big exception: Blackberry. Had some good conversations there. And received a roll-away backpack to make up for the Lotusphere bag I gave away in the morning at the IBM booth.
- Thursday turns out to be the best CeBIT day. Everybody is fresh and motivated. Attendance is low since more people choose to come in on Friday. Packrats are at their lowest, and you have a good chance to hop on a bus to go from hall to hall.
- Skip "Digital Living" in hall #27. Period.
- Garmin may have the best mobile navigation systems out there. Boy, are they expensive though. And even if you call a device nüvi, it still cannot accept "München". The new TomTom 510/710/910 devices look great. I want the 910 with maps of Europe and the US.
- Completely unrelated to CeBIT I learned that there is a SiRF III cradle for the Treo 650 to attach to your windshield. This would make the Treo a much better navigation system than having to charge both the Treo and a GPS mouse from one cigarette lighter outlet.
- Shuttle has a very clean looking 17" screen which won an iF award.
- Did I mention you can send me as many navigation systems as you want? I will try them all. And I will only keep the best. :-)
Comments
The BB connect client for the 9300i is available for download since a few weeks at Nokia.de. I did not test the client as I do not own a 9300i.
What did you like on the E61? I played around with the device and did not really like the keyboard. IMHO the keyboard is in its qualtiy far away from the keyboards of BBs. But anyway, I asked Nokia to send me one for testing as soon as the BB Connect client is usable :D
Btw, did you yet try the new BlackBerry 8700g?
If you don't like the Nokia E61 (which I can understand after playing with it and making the same observations about the keyboard) you might want to have a look at the BenQ Siemens P51. I played with that one quite a bit and found it to be "not that bad". Still, the keyboard on the Treo 650 is better.
Stefan, thank you for the link to the P51. But I do not really like the Windows Mobile devices due to the fact that usually the battery does not last more than one day. For the moment I will stay with my BlackBerry 8700g.
Abdelkader, I looked at the 8700 and I am quite impressed. But the 7290 is way to young to be dumped so quickly. :-)
Origami was not just overhyped, in my opinion, it was just a poor copy of something much more promising, that unfortunately never came to the market:
Maybe we can expect a response from Lenovo ... maybe not.
I don´t understand that "origami hype" at all - but its interesting to read they made the hype happen....
Was nice finally meeting you in person.
There were some engineers at the IBM booth(s) as well, but I agree it was the minority.
I was absolutely disappointed by the Origami-things. Well, the corner-keyboards were nice, but the battery life inacceptable. I hope Apple will bring something similar in the next 6 months with a long battery life. I don't think Lenovo will response, for them the next step may be releasing their PDAs etc. outside China.
im very happy with the BB Connect on my SE P910i and was very impressed from the upcomming P990i (June 2006).
@Volker: The BB8700 is a great device!!! Trust me ;-) We made a demo with that (for a customer) at the CeBIT ;-)
It's realy great... much better than the BB 7290!!!
Volker,
I'll send you a Tomtom 910 for review/test if you would like. Let me know by email...
Cheers, Stuart
Are there any bicycle-capable navigation systems out there?
And by this I mean that it should not only be mountable on a bicycle. It should as well do the navigation optimized for the medium of transport...
Mike, TomTom kann das.
