Sharon Cuppett, VP of Marketing with Wi-Ex, caught up with the “Into Tomorrow” with Dave Graveline crew at IFA to talk about the new zBoost International product line! Grab a Friday cup of coffee and enjoy 
http://www.graveline.com/pastshows/090409.html
Make sure to check back next week to hear John Davis, director of operations, and Sharon discuss the zBoost Professional products from CEDIA!
Posted in Deanna Anderson, IFA
Tagged CEDIA, IFA, Into Tomorrow, Into Tomorrow with Dave Graveline, zBoost International, zBoost-ONE UMTS
Over the last week, Wi-Ex entered the European market by introducing the zBoost-ONE UMTS and the zBoost for Home and Office at IFA in Berlin. Today is the final day of IFA, the largest tradeshow for consumer electronics and home appliances.
We saw many amazing new products everything from giant flat screens to the tiniest TV mobile phones. Today we are featuring Top 10 Gadgets from IFA by Eric Lundquist. Eric is the Editor in Chief of eWeek and oversees a staff of nearly 40 editors, reporters and lab analysts covering product, services and companies in the high technology community.
Take a special look at #4. Wi-Ex is proud to have made this coveted list!
By: Eric Lundquist
2009-09-04
eWEEK’s Eric Lundquist recently attended the IFA conference in Germany and offers his personal list of the 10 most interesting gadgets, gizmos and PCs that emerged from this year’s show.
This is my list, not based on anything more than my guess:
1. Samsung Ultra-thin Notebook X420. This is the shape (and weight) of Windows 7 notebooks to come. Here’s the Crave report.
2. LG Borderless TVs. Pretty cool, Think of a big screen, flat panel with no border. It looks like a single pane of glass you can hang on your wall. Here’s the Reg coverage which includes a debate on exactly what borderless means.
3. Dyson handheld super sucker vacuum cleaner. IFA has appliance gadgets as well as techno toys. Dyson, which continues in its goal to suck up the world’s dirt, had a handheld model on display and lots of talk about its new motor. Here is the Telegraph story from earlier this year:. Here’s Miss IFA (Yes, there is one with the Dyson gizmo).
4. Showstoppers had their second IFA event at the show this year. Good turnout, good food and a couple of interesting products including the Wi-Ex, which is selling its cell signal booster in Europe after selling 100K units in the United States.
5. 3-D. Sony, Panasonic and nearly everyone else was talking 3-D. Sony brought over its boss for the rollout. Here is the Twice story.
6. The Amici Good News coffee machine was only one of what seemed hundreds of new ways to brew coffee. This one has a radio and smile for grumpy mornings.
7. Lots of digital cameras were shown for the first or nearly the first time. The panorama modes are cool. Here is a Gadgetell article on the new Sony.
8. Toshiba JournE touch. Another try at a tablet PC with touch. I’m thinking most people will continue to diss the tablet until Apple enters the game and then it will be the coolest thing ever. Here’s the U.K. Mirror story.
9. Optimism. Can optimism really be a gadget? Well, if you aren’t optimistic, you will never spend the money to build a new gadget. The IFA was an upbeat show in a downbeat year.
10. Philips’ (very) personal products. Yikes, can a big company CEO really get up in front of a keynote crowd and talk about a very personal — dare I say sensual — line of electronic products? Yes. Here’s the lineup from Philips.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/The-Top-10-Gizmos-and-Gadgets-at-IFA-121185/
Posted in IFA, Roni Pridemore, zBoost-ONE UMTS
Tagged consumer electronics, eWeek, gadgets, IFA, Showstoppers, Wi-Ex, zBoost, zBoost-ONE UMTS
Guten Tag” (German for “Good Day!”)
A part of the Wi-Ex Marketing team is in Germany for IFA, one of the largest consumer electronics trade shows in the world.
Today’s post is about Germany’s energy efficiency. It’s everywhere and certainly has made us realize how far behind the USA is in this regard. Let me start at the beginning of our trip, “a very good place to start”. First of all we are paying $5.03 Euros a gallon, which if translated into dollars would be $7.19 per gallon. If prices ever get that high in the USA, we will certainly be getting serious about alternative ways of producing energy and creative ways to conserve energy.
While speeding along the Autobahn (never faster than traffic of course) there were fields of corn, fields of windmills and then small towns with solar panels covering the houses and farm buildings. Now these aren’t the windmills from Dutch storybooks, these look more like jet propellers on long white poles. There are fields of them stretching for miles. Not sure how I would have felt if I lived in the area before windmills and then after the addition of windmills because it definitely changed the landscape, but on the other hand there were no billboards anywhere along the Autobahn in the countryside.
After arriving at our hotel in Berlin we went up to our room to find the hallway completely dark. Taking another step, suddenly the lights illuminated the hallway. Actually, motion detectors for lighting can be seen throughout the USA, we even have them in the restrooms at Wi-Ex, but the next gadget in the hotel room really had me fooled.
Entering the room, I switched on the light and nothing happened, went to the next light, the same thing. HMMM, did the room have a blown fuse? I went back down to reception and they told me that the card attached to my key needed to be inserted in the small white box, located in the room next to the door to turn the power on in my room. It turns out this was a power regulator, to insure that when you left the room with your key, you couldn’t waste energy by leaving the lights or TV on in your room. I wish I had this at home for my kids, who are constantly leaving on the lights. Very clever!
You would think I would be getting used to these energy devices, but when encountering the “broken” escalators at the trade show I began to bypass them for the working ones across the hall. Thankfully our guide stopped me and showed me that they also worked on motion detectors.
There also seems to be less packaging and I am sure the toilet paper is “green” because it’s definitely not “Charmin soft”. Additionally, the soap/shampoo at this hotel comes in large dispensers attached to the wall by the sink and in the shower.
No more wasted little bottles of half used shampoo or partially used bars of soap.
After doing a bit of research on the internet I found the following: “Germany has taken a leading position in energy efficiency amongst the international competition. According to the International Energy Agency, Germany and Japan are the two leaders in maintaining a wide-ranging economy at relatively low energy consumption. Germany’s broad expertise in energy efficiency has made this possible; indeed, Germany has actually decreased its consumption of primary energy resources in absolute terms since 1990, despite its increasing national product. Even so, ensuring a sustainable energy supply in the future will require a complete action strategy in favor of sustainable and efficient energy utilization with final consumers in companies, public sector, trade and services, and especially amongst private consumers, which is why the Federal Government has set a course to double the country’s economic energy productivity by 2020 compared to 1990.” To read more go to www.german-renewable-energy.com/Renewables/Navigation/Englisch/energy-efficiency.html
None of these measures were inconvenient and the idea of solar panels is especially appealing to me. There is so much to be learned when traveling to other countries and energy efficiency is certainly one of particular interest.
auf Wiedersehen from Berlin
