Coverage of Infotech 2009, organised by the NCB at Swami Vivekananda International Conference Centre.
In our “cyberisland,” each year, there is only such one event that attracts the likes of geeks, nerds, techies, gadget-lovers & technology enthusiasts – Infotech. Sure, there was also Orange Expo this year, but it was nowhere near the tech trade show that was Infotech.
The only reason why you’d want to go to Infotech is for the bargains. If you were looking for innovative technology or new gadgets, then as always Infotech disappoints – there is no Project Natal demo, no Microsoft Surface, no Nokia N900, no CoD MW2-playing PS3…
Seen at the Courts stand - waterproof goldfishes. Wow! :)
I’m sure apart from the stunning models in red (who disappeared while I was there), you saw two of the most recent Nokia Symbian^1 devices. The older N97 above.
& the N97 mini.
The HTC Dream or G1. Having played around with Android, I can confirm the UI hardly deserves all that hype. Probably it’s the slow CPU, but I found Android to be quite laggy & non-intuitive.
The HTC Tattoo.
The majority of PCs on display at Infotech were laptops & netbooks. Because they are cheaper to manufacture & have a higher profit margin.
The Dell Inspiron Mini
Samsung NC10
Asus eeePC 1101HA SeaShell running Windows 7!
The MSI Wind Top AE1900. The Windows XP made me run away…
The HP TouchSmart 2. Why Vista, why not Windows 7, which has better touch support? I couldn’t access the HP touch UI either.
I always thought of touchscreen desktop all-in-ones to be gimmicks… That was until I tried out the second HP TouchSmart 2 at the Microsoft stand. A sales representative came over & launched Virtual Earth. Using multi-touch to navigate maps has never been more pleasing. The multi-touch technology used by the TouchSmart is optical touch, which is IR.
There were other Surface apps on the TouchSmart, including this simple but hugely entertaining paper boat pond game!
Macbook Pro. That multi-touch trackpad works fine as a normal trackpad until I tried to scroll. After trying out quite a few different combinations, I finally figured out that you needed to scroll both fingers up & down.
Gorgeous LCD display on the 20-inch iMac. Glossy screens suck though.
Having tried OS X for the first time, my conclusion is that it’s hardly different from Windows. Both are equally fast & the UI is pretty similar to what’s on Windows 7 (I tried both on the same iMac). In the OS X dock vs Superbar battle, the Superbar is definitely better with features like Jumplists, Aero Peek, loading animations, in-thumbnail controls (check out this prototype app - Fishbowl).
Overheard at Cash & Carry stand:
Customer – Is this the latest iPod Touch?
C&C sales representative – Yes, the one with an S…
An explanation of their forthcoming Wimax broadband? No, a home surveillance system.
Despite having the biggest stand, I didn’t see any actual demo of Windows 7. & that looped pixelised video didn’t really help in promoting Windows 7…
No BSODs on any of the PCs. However, I caught this on 2 netbooks. I think that many of the hardware exhibitors received a copy of Windows 7, which explains why most of the computers were running Windows 7, while this one was still being installed.
Seriously C&C, do your homework at home.
I saw this screensaver on one monitor – Windows XP Dark Edition V3… which is a custom warez version of Windows XP.
& the Microsoft stand was just a few meters away with the large anti-piracy banners… :P
Can you guess which movie that is? Btw, awesome Samsung LED TV.
Yes - no, not The Dark Knight - but Batman Begins. Also seen – The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Ice Age 3, Up, Wanted…
Kudos to MTML! This POS (piece of statue) symbolises the very essence of MTML…
Oh, yes! The best Worst ISP in Mauritius - Nomad! I didn’t see those guys anywhere. I guess they couldn’t afford a stand… :P
According to the NCB, around 85,000 visitors attended Infotech 2009, a huge success for them (& for the exhibitors' sales department). Indeed, those looking for discounts were pleasantly surprised while most people were disappointed by the lack of new technology. Apparently, the NCB is looking into making this a biannual trade show. My advice – please, stop using those effing UBS buses!
Related:
blog.fadil.fr - Infotech 2009 – Mauritius
yashvinblogs.com - Why you should go to Infotech 2009?
lexpress.mu gallery - 16e édition d’Infotech, le salon de l’informatique
PS. Thanks to the friend who was kind enough to lend me his camera. :)
Update:
I have to be honest… my visit to Infotech was an EPIC FAIL. Why? Because I missed the most powerful gadget on display there. Thanks to Sailesh, here’s a pic of the beast…
- 16-inch screen, 1366x768, 2.0MP webcam
- Core 2 Quad Q9000 2.0Ghz
- 4GB DDR3
- 1GB GeForce GT 130M
- 1TB SSD
- Blu-ray drive
- TwinTurbo Mode – overclocks FSB by 100MHz & GPU by 25MHz
Price – Rs 115,000
Around 20 units were sold…