Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

The buzz at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair came with the judging for the 10th HKEIA Award for Outstanding Innovation and Technology.  Some of the entrees that won have been kept so secret, there is no information on the Internet about them yet, not even on the manufacturers’ sites.  I am sure that will change as soon as the fair ends and the real marketing starts.  In such cases, links to manufacturers’ websites have been provided for future reference.

Each winner received a trophy and a year’s worth of bragging rights.  Come back tomorrow for my thoughts on these winners.

The winners for this year, according to a HKEIA Press Release, are:

Grand Award

Shinco Electronic Appliance Co., Ltd., Shinco CBHD-9100 China Blue High-Definition (CBHD) Player

Consumer Electronics

Gold Award

Shinco Electronic Appliance Co., Ltd., Shinco CBHD-9100 China Blue High-Definition (CBHD) Player
The CBHD player is the first blue laser media player put out in the Chinese market with Chinese technology for the Chinese market.  Now that we all know about it, I guess now we all know about it.  See Shinco

Silver Award

Aztech Systems (HK) Ltd., Aztech 200Mbps Homeplug AV 802.11n Router/Extender (HL109RN)
This is a plug in and go home network solution that uses power lines to transfer data, increases your transfer speed and comes with WEP and WPA security options.  I would be interested to see if it really is that easy.  In my experience, it is never as easy as they claim.

Bronze Award

Vtech Telecommunications Ltd., LS5145 cordless phone system
A comprehensive cordless phone system that allows you to have up to 12 handsets with just one base station.  The handsets can be used as an intercom system, which means the call for dinner time would no longer entail a yell through the house.  The system has a built-in phone book, answering machine, caller ID and color screen.  If you still have need for an in-home telephone, this one sounds like it can do almost anything.  You certainly won’t have to look far to find a handset.

Portable Electronics

Gold Award

Suga Digital Technology Ltd., Video Pico Projector
I do not know too much about this projector other than it is one of the in vogue portable projectors showing its face on the market recently.  The Suga projector apparently has the capability to be used in conjunction with the multimedia devices you already have.  If true, how convenient to be able to connect two devices to project your desired images instead of transferring data onto memory cards.  Visit Himax’s website.

Silver Award

FreeTek International Co., Ltd., 2-in-1 Bluetooth Watch Mobile Phone
This little gadget has enough features to keep you busy reading the manual for quite a while.  This mobile phone watch comes with FM radio, camera, video/audio player, USB port with Web-cam capability, Bluetooth compatible and a range of internal storage.  Visit FreeTek’s website.

Bronze Award

Fujikon Industrial Co., Ltd., Hi-Tex TB-1 Noise Reduction Headset
I have not found any product specific information on this headset yet, but I am all for further advancement of noise reduction headsets.  I guess my expectations for this kind of technology are too high.  All the ones I have used so far, or been on the receiving end of the noise, do not work as well as I desire.  Hopefully, as an award winner, this one is the one.  See Fujikon’s website.

Industrial Electronics (Parts & Components)

Gold Award

Extech Instruments HK Ltd., EX623 5 in1 Combination Clamp Meter with Built-in Infrared Thermometer

If you are a contractor, this combo tool will lessen your load on the job, with true RMS measurements, non-contact Voltage detector, DC ìA multimeter, 1.4” jaw opening, and IR Thermometer with a laser for finding hot spots.  Save on batteries with and automatic off power function.  Here’s one for the blue-collar techie (look out for the white collar price).  Knowing that it is American made (Boston) makes the price a little easier to accept.  You can check it out on this Podcast.  See Extech 

Silver Award

SCT (Hong Kong) Ltd., The World Smallest Pico Projection Module for Mobile Phone

The second Pico Projector to win an award, SCT is apparently innovative because of its size, bragging to be the smallest in the world.  If this is true, it can go wherever you go.  The only thing you would have to worry about is losing it.  Visit SCT

Bronze Award

John Manufacturing Ltd., 5 in 1 Auto Safety Tool (JML8762)
This tool contains a LED flashlight, tire gauge, hand-crank dynamo, hammer and razor. It sounds like a pretty handy tool to keep in the glove box. Christmas gift anyone?