Sights and Sounds of Multimedia
By George Harding
APCUG …
APCUG stands for Association of Personal Computer User Groups and is a global organization which provides various services to computer user groups. Each of the user groups which publish my articles is a member of APCUG, so there may be some interest in one of the services which was provided by APCUG in early January.
Each year, APCUG holds a meeting for its member user groups just prior to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The meeting includes vendor presentations held at meal times and education sessions at other times. There is also a Vendor Fair. This year, about 220 user group members attended.
The meal presentations include a very good meal and an informative presentation by a vendor such as AMD, Corel, Microsoft, Panda Software and Grisoft. The programs usually tell us about their products and what is new about them. Microsoft, for example, told us about their new operating system, Vista. AMD talked about their silicon chips and the dual core products available.
Grisoft is the maker of several security products, notable the free Zone Alarm firewall. Panda Software, also a maker of security products, told about their activity in trying to protect us against attacks of various types with their software.
Corel talked about their graphics products and their WordPerfect Office suite. These presentations are all very interesting and often include giving each of us a product or some token to remind us of the company.
The education sessions are held between mealtimes and are presented by company representatives sometimes, or by individuals other times, depending on the subject. One of the most interesting sessions was put on by Acoustica, which has a product that makes converting your LP records (and 45’s, too, I suppose) to digital format so that those precious songs can be archived on hard disks, CD-ROMs or DVDs. The software is constructed so that you need not know anything – each step is fully described in an easy-to-understand format.
Another interesting session was about ways to put programs on a USB drive, so that you have access to them wherever you may be. The method would be helpful for travelers and for service people.
Another interesting session dealt with how to get involved with podcasts. These voice and video files can be made available on the Internet from several sites (or you own, if you wish). It was suggested that the podcast method be used to save monthly meeting presentations or to interview presenters for the enjoyment and edification of ones group.
There were several sessions dealing with subjects valuable to officers and directors of a user group, such as how to retain members, finding volunteers, vendor relations and so on.
The session by David Perry of Trend Micro was especially interesting. He went through quite a bit of background on the state of security for computers today and the risks that currently exist. He described the protections included in Trend Micro’s current product.
The Vendor Fair is held in a large room with the many vendors situated around the periphery. Each vendor’s table is staffed by one or two people from the company who can explain the products available and provide literature about them. They often also have small give-aways and trial software available. Food and drink is available and a drawing is held to give away the many products donated by the vendors. This year, about 60% of the attendees received something in the drawing.
APCUG is a valuable membership and the yearly meeting is particularly worthwhile.
CES …
CES stands for Consumer Electronics Show. It is the premier event of its type in the US and is held annually in Las Vegas in early January. This year it drew some 2,700 vendors and about 150,000 attendees from around the world.
Each vendor has a booth; some are quite large and others small. The purpose is to show and demonstrate their product line, especially new and improved products.
The product lines are dominated by TVs, cameras, video cameras, DVD players, MP3 players and software of all types for computers. Electronic products for cars are a big subject and take up most of one large hall.
The Las Vegas Convention Center is the primary showcase for vendors. LVCC has six large halls for booths and product display. That wasn’t enough, though; The Sands Convention Center and the Hilton Hotel Convention Hall were also part of CES.
Each year there is continuing competition to the biggest and best, or the smallest and best, depending on the type of product. For example, high definition TV sets have grown to immense sizes; the largest shown this year is 108 inches! It’s so large that you have to stand quite a ways back in order to see it properly. It worked well in LVCC, but no one is likely to ever buy one for a home environment!
The MP3 player market is getting ever smaller and combines multiple functions. Samsung has their Sansa player, which is an MP3 player, an FM radio, a voice recorder and is about the size of a pack of gum! You can even load some of your pictures, although I can’t imagine how they might look on the ¾” X 2” screen!
JCV has introduced a set of noise-cancelling headphones, to make your listening more enjoyable, whether you travel by airplane or train/car. I’m pretty familiar with the concept, since noise-cancellation is important for a pilot in a small plane.
GPS is being included in many devices, in some cases to enable destination directions by computer or special devices like Magellans’. One of the new uses is to allow you to keep closer track of your kids through their cell phone or wrist band device.
One fast-developing area of electronics is weather-forecasting. Oregon Scientific has a broad range of devices that tell you not only the temperature inside and outside, but also the forecast weather, cloud cover and more.
Digital cameras are probably the fastest growing market and net yet mature by any measure. Prices have dropped dramatically and feature sets have broadened remarkable. My $300 3 megapixel camera from 3 years ago is simply not available now – it’s too primitive! 5 and 6 megapixel cameras are commonplace, although the storage requirements are much higher for such large files. But the flash memory industry is keeping up with demand by creating ever larger disks to use in these cameras.
CES is quite a show. It lasts four days and requires a dedicated attendee to properly cover it. Plan for next year!