Infotech 2010 - Intelligent Mauritius

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It’s time again to visit our annual tech trade fair organised by the NCB – Infotech.

 

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Orange Expo?

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Before entering SVCC, one thing you’ll notice is this Great Wall being built.

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Actually, it’s the Port Louis Ring Road.

 

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At the entrance of the Conference Centre, there were two donation boxes to collect money for the Pakistan flood victims.

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Going in, there’s the Career area on the right.

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Avatar area on the left. :p

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12 screens joined together at the reception.

 

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Finally we enter the big bazaar. Here, the eShop stand & the huge Cash & Carry stand.

 

Cash & Carry

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With every Infotech, Cash & Carry seizes the opportunity to offer discounts on a huge variety of gadgets, including laptops.

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Taking a self-portrait. :)

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More laptops & LCD monitors.

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Nokia N97, X6, 5800… all class-B smartphones.

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Nikon S8000, L21 & L22. No DSLRs. :D

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Aha! 3D on a Samsung LED TV. After trying out the glasses (Rs 9k a pair), I’m still unconvinced. 3D lacks the depth of real-world objects. & when you focus on one point of the screen, the other areas lose the 3D effect. To conclude, it’s a marketing gimmick & a head-ache.

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Coming to back to TVs, it seems Cash & Carry have pulled out all the stops to promote their HDTVs.

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The public was definitely wooed.

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Cash & Carry’s “iMax” lineup. :p

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40” Samsung LED TV. These LED-backlit TVs provide better contrast, greater viewing angles & incredible thinness… at not-so-affordable price.

 

HM Rawat

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At the Rawat stand, I saw this.

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Magnification via a microscope of the internal circuit of a phone.

 

Galaxy

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The Rs 80k Asus 3D laptop. Another gimmick.

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The Rs 110k 46” Samsung LED TV. :)

 

eShop

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More self-portraits… this time with a touchscreen MSI Wind Top.

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Macbooks.

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Magic Mouse, an ergonomic nightmare.

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& the iPad, an over-sized iPod Touch. No hands-on, no demo. At least, it’s turned on, better than Courts’ Rs 40k "64MB" dead iPad.

 

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….

 

Courts

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The Super AMOLEDs Samsung Wave & Jet.

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The Motorola Droid Milestone.

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Canon EOS 450D, which has been succeeded by the 500D, which has been succeeded by the 550D. Oh well…

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Nintendo Wii & XBOX 360. This reminds me that I’ve never played with a console… :|

 

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MBC stand with Sam Amigan & co.

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Radioplus stand with Guillaume.

 

Interactive Whiteboard

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Basically, it’s a finger tracker which then allows interactivity with the OS – like a huge touchscreen.

 

Orange

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This is the Tabbee, a crablet (short for crap tablet).

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The Samsung Wave. The Super AMOLED screen is awesome, but Bada OS is a joke, a copycat.

 

Emtel

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As always, Emtel have the most innovative stand. I wish their products were the same.

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& the over-hyped Emtel girls…

 

To conclude, zero innovation, zero new technologies, gadgets that are 6 months (or years) old & very few product demos & hands-on. That said, if you are looking to buy something, Infotech might be the perfect place to get bargains (assuming that you haven’t already found it cheaper online). Otherwise, Infotech is just a place for window shopping. Duh!

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