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…
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I'm amazed you found the G1 a bit 'laggy'! I used it for 4 months approx and it's good! Better than the iPhone! :(
*yay* I finally attended the Infotech 2009... despite the fact that the fair is over :P
@P.T
Compared to the iPod Touch which I had just used, yes it was. Browsing speed was slower. I didn't check if it was running an older version of Android. That would explain its 'laggyness.' :)
EPIC FAIL!!!
Nice review! The first time I went to Infotech, it was amazing. There was a hardware which could send different odours depending to what you choose from the computer. It was marvellous and this was around five years ago. Even the N900 or iPhone was not so interesting compared to this thing. Last year, when I went to Infotech again, it was a perfect boring place. So, this year I didn't go to waste time.
LOL! In fact Nomad did not have a stand koz the rabbit ran away :P
Seriously, they would have been overloaded with complaints.
In 2006 (if am not mistaken), there were some equipment that truly showed advances in computer science, for example, you could play a virtual football match just by standing in a kind of box. Or even, the MBC Meteo team was there to show how they superposed different layers for the final display on your tv, things like that.
As I said, its only a mere trade fair.
Thanks for the linkback Carrot.
Rs115k a laptop... pff...
@Chaya
At least, my visit has been useful to you. :P
@Sailesh
Duly noted & rectified... ;)
@Yadhav & @Yashvin
Yes, I remember the earlier years when it was being held at Mer Rouge. Really fascinating stuff were being displayed at that time. :)
Unfortunately, now ,it's a only a mere trade fair (thanks to a certain company). :|
yeah nomad was not present but there was another company opposite COURTS which had some WIMAX logo here and there on their stand. ; )
I took the right decision to not go there this year then :P
the asus lamborghini like u said is a beast but at such price..is it really worth it?
well its high time acer bring out its ferrari versions then ;) it will be hell of a battle ;)
cheers :) and like u said, it wasn't worth it ;) and despite it being so close to me ( just on the side of the mountain lol ) i didn't attend :)
985M3rvin
i'm getting the Asus Lamborghini for Xmas.....I wish haha..
did you not see the kungfu panda? lol
p.s. such a coincidence! we saw Up on the same day ^_^
but i guess being a ghibli convert, i'm a little bit biased against pixar
i think the comment i left didnt go through??
p.s such a coincidence! we saw Up on the same day ^_^
p.p.s lolll why are emos not allowed to comment?haha
@Manju
The panda? Nope, didn't see it.
The comment will take a while to appear because I have to manually accept it, because of the comment moderation.
& yeah, emos are definitely allowed to comment! xD
ahhh okay ^_^
ohh converse shoes are EVERYWHERE these days. just look around you'll see!
anyway thanks for entering the giveaway :D
That laptop is sold 3 times what it should actually be...DONT BUY IT!!!!!
Every computer part is over-priced,fooling you people..
People who like buying stuff which are expensive and they think that Expensive articles means Good articles then go for it.
But as for me i will go for it for RS50 000. Thats all. And ya well said Fooling People
so sorry for those 20 idiots who bought the Rs 115 k laptop, the thing is only £2,000 in uk they paid an extra RS 25,0000 FOR NOTHING just dont buy anything expensive with the so called expert or importer or whatever go for yourself and find out how much it is on the real market dont be fool by these sharks
yep always buy wisely since we are not rich
Laptops are getting cheaper (rather read 'less pricier') in Mauritius but they are currently only relatively affordable compared to three years back.
The only ones we have here are Acer and Dell because the world leader Toshiba has very poor visibility on the local market.
So cool ;)
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