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Macworld Features Galaxy of Gizmos: Exhibit Showcases Devices That Use iPods

Posted on: Thursday, 12 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Patrick Giblin, The Modesto Bee, Calif.

Jan. 12--SAN FRANCISCO -- Expect to see a lot more computer gadgets in the next year that are designed to easily store, share and move computer data.

This week's Macworld Conference and Expo, sponsored by Apple Computers Inc., is jam packed with those gadgets.

The devices include items that record live music, transform vinyl LPs into MP3s, store television shows on small hand-held video players and help Windows and Macintosh users easily trade documents.

Most of the devices do it with just the push of a button.

"It has to be simple or else it just won't sell," said Richard Wright, one of the founders of ATO Inc. "Many of these devices have to be one-button or else they won't be successful."

His company makes the iSee, a device that uses an iPod to record and store live television shows, DVD movies and home videos. Those programs can then be viewed on a 3.6-inch color screen on the device while running off battery power. The idea is to allow people on planes, on trains or in automobiles to watch their programs, Wright said.

Many other devices use iPods as the basis for their products.

Speaker manufacturer JBL introduced three different speaker systems that use an iPod as the source of the music.

Bag manufacturer Lifepod showed off several backpacks, messenger bags and carry-on suitcases that have built-in speakers and a docking station for the iPod.

Solio showed off its portable solar charger for iPods. And two booths down, Xtreme Mac showed off its huge array of iPod protective cases with sports team logos and pictures of Homer Simpson.

"There is a huge diversity of iPod accessories here," said Utah resident Sara Snider, 25. "But I'm also seeing a lot of other hardware that's aimed at the mainstream computer user."

ADS Tech had several devices that are designed to protect and move data, from its do-it-yourself portable hard drive kits to its new ME(2) device.

Plug any music source into the ME(2) -- including old record players or cassette decks -- press a button and the device records and converts the music to MP3 files.

Three rows over, Sonos demonstrated its ZonePlayer device. It's a wireless music system that transmits music from any computer in the house to the ZonePlayer amplifier. The device is controlled by a remote. Multiple ZonePlayers can be set up in a house and either can by synced to play the same music in multiple rooms or a different song on every device, company representatives said.

Hard drive manufacturer Maxtor had a line of people to its booth early Tuesday. That's because the company unveiled it's new portable hard drive that holds one terabyte of data. A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes -- the average home computer has about 40 gigabytes of storage on its hard drive.

The portable hard drive just plugs into a port on the computer and is instantly recognized, thus allowing anyone to use it.

The company even had a slogan for its new hard drive -- "Don't be a loser," a reminder that external drives are a popular way to back up data or move it between home and office.

Microsoft -- long seen as the enemy by Macintosh fanatics -- also made a splash at the show with its new Office:Mac software. Besides the typical word processing, e-mail and spreadsheet programs, the latest version includes a program called "Virtual PC 7," which allows Macintosh users to remotely look at the desktop of a Windows XP computer and trade files. It only requires a double-click of a computer icon.

Apple Computers showed off its suite of programs called iLife '06. That program lets Apple computer users share photos with family members, copy videos to DVD and put blogs and podcasts online -- all with the touch of a button.

Many items for consumers The Apple demonstration for iLife included the explanation that digital photos could be arranged as a slide show, have music added to them and then easily shared with relatives over the Internet. Again, all these functions were done with a few touches of a button on an Apple remote control.

Seattle resident Curtis Snow said he was surprised at how many consumer items were at the show, but he said all the gadgets made sense.

"The fact is, our computer data is being spread all over the place, from our iPods to our hard drives and the multiple computers that we all have," Snow said. "All these devices make it a lot easier for us to move, track and protect our data.

"Everything is getting simpler."

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Modesto Bee, Calif.

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Source: The Modesto Bee

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