For technology-loving business travellers, there can be few more exciting
times of the year than this week, when the annual CeBIT geekfest takes place
in Hannover, Germany.
Every year at this event, computer and accessory manufacturers reveal the
products that business travellers will be drooling over in the months to
come. This year’s CeBIT has been no exception, with a crop of exciting new
launches that will fly off the duty-free shelves when they finally make it
into the shops.
Goodies that have caught my eye this year include the Asus Eco Book laptop, a
gizmo for backing up all of your laptop files without you having to think
about it, a new version of the Eee kneetop with a bigger screen and a gold
Mac Book Air worth about 18 grand.
First that Asus Eco Book.
This is a real head-turner. After all, you don’t see many laptops with
casings made out of bamboo. The company has been touting this around for
several months but now feels comfortable enough to launch it formally.
Asus has also unveiled a new version of its ultraportable and ultracheap Eee.
The barebones laptop has proven a real hit in recent months thanks to its
low price tag and the new version, with a 9 inch as opposed to 7 inch screen
and a larger keyboard, will appeal to fatter fingered users. No price or
launch date announced yet though.
At the other end of the scale is a laptop codenamed “Golden Age”, a Mac
Book Air that’s been pimped up with 12,000 gold-leaf covered
Swarovski crystals. Only a handful have been made but one will go on sale in
Selfridge’s in London later this month with a price tag of around £18,000.
SanDisk, the company behind the SD flash memory card format, has launched the FlashBack
adapter at CeBIT. This is aimed at all those people who find backing up
their data a real pain. It slides into your laptop’s ExpressCard slot and
you slide an SD card into that. After initially telling the system what
files you want to back up, you leave it to its own devices. Any changes to
the selected files are automatically backed up. It costs a remarkably good
value US$29.99.
Drooling yet?
Interesting but the links are wrong. The FlashBack adapter link open up the Macbook Air!!! again.
Nigel David Short, Epsom, Surrey