Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Molto Bene! The best way to describe yesterday’s Pepcom event at the Manhattan Studio Center on west 34th street in NYC. With a wonderful sample of Italian food, Italian wine, and all the new toys and gadgets from around the tech world; today’s event filled my belly all the while filling my bag with business cards and press releases.

It took a matter of seconds from walking into the 7th floor banquet room until I encountered my first 3 tables and magnificent bar built entirely from ice. Knowing me...I had to check it out, five minutes later my tongue was still stuck on the bar (embarrassing but delicious).

It didn’t surprise me that many companies such as Belkin and Brookstone were showing off their new MP3 speakers; both wireless, indoor, and outdoor. We had your usual companies; Semantic, Nokia, Nikon—as well as some newcomers such as Twango, a multimedia sharing company who made their company public today and Peerflix a dvd trading website where individuals can post what movies they want and what they are willing to trade for them.

Another newcomer, a San Jose, California based company called Cellfire is single handily doing away with coupons you might get in the mail. I had the opportunity so speak with Brent Dusting, CEO of Cellfire and he told me that this new and FREE - might I add - service allows you to simply get your coupons texted to you via their online website. At Cellfire you can text the service to your phone and get coupons for free movie rentals to Hollywood Video, Bath and Body Works, and in the near future Papa Johns Pizza.

I know that I look forward to these events and Pepcom does a great job showing their appreciation by giving a nice gift to those who show up early. At the Texas BBQ event those early-birds received an autographed Bobby Flay BBQ cookbook. Tonight...a beautiful bottle of Dalle Terre Di Leonardo extra virgin olive oil from Tuscany.

Tonight’s event was a definite success. Ask any Italian and they will stress the importance of pairing great food with great wine...ask any techie and they will stress the importance pairing any great new product with...well ask me and I’ll say food. From NY to Tuscany and back in just a short couple hours I am exhausted, buona notte to all. 

Back at Pepcom Digital Experience, we got a good hands on with Shure’s new E Series Sound Isolating Earphones.  They look like any old pair of earbuds, but oh, they’re so much more.  The E500PTH has “Triple Hi-Definition Drivers,” meaning 1 tweeter and 2 woofers, and what the company is calling “Push-To-Hear Control,” which allows you to adjust the level of outside noise you hear.  It utilizes the VoicePort which is essentially a microphone that lets you hear things around you while you’re enjoying the isolation of the headphones.  If you’re familiar with Shure’s premium products, you already know that these are quite expensive.  They’re now available at your favorite electronics store for $549.

Read [Shure]

On June 28th Adam and I had the opportunity to attend Pepcom’s 2006 trade show in Manhattan New York it was properly themed Big City BBQ. It was a great time filled with free food open bar and a mechanical bull. The size of the room was decent, reminiscent of a college job fair with tables set up in every location; each booth showcasing their newest gadgets and enticing you to their table with freebies. I was in it for the freebies, but after about twelve different pens and a tape measurer it got monotonous.

So onto the tech: 44 companies, some big names and some I would say did their best to strike up some noise for the coming year. One of those companies was “Bites, Smile Box,” a cute new spin on the very popular online picture sharing sites. Smile box allows you to customize your new pictures with fun music and an array of graphics, just set it, create and email to your friends. As usual, Adam was more excited about the new phones coming out from Sony Ericsson; my friends just wait for them, you will not be disappointed. Belkin’s new line of wireless gadgets were great to see, while some companies such as Memorex did not have much to show and their table was bland, but how interesting can a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc actually be. Out of all the companies we saw and all the new gadgets my personal favorite was Symantec’s new antivirus which is still in beta phase. We have a lot to look forward in terms of protection both in the business world and for the regular consumer. Loaded with more protection then Fort Knox and tighter security then Guantanmo Bay, Symantec’s new anti-virus seems promising. Garmin and TomTom are still working hard to make sure we don’t get lost on the city streets or in the woods, while HP and Lenovo (ThinkPad) were showing off some lightweight, ultra-portable laptops that you can take camping with you. Camera were covered by Nikon, Pentax, and Panasonic: it was nice to hear nothing about megapixel but now about some new advanced features that stabilize the image and let you peep in closer (from farther) offering great spy pictures.

With so many companies to see and so much liquor to drink, I don’t know if it was the beer or the mojitos but time passed quicker then Adam’s ride on the mechanical bull. We look forward to hearing from the contacts we made as well as the products we are so eager to review for all of you.

Click on for a complete list of the companies in attendance:

• Akimbo


• Altiris


• Belkin


• Citrix


• DataViz


• Diskeeper


• Fujitsu


• Garmin


• GuardID Systems


• HP


• Iomega


• Itiva


• JVC


• Kingston


• Kodak Mobile


• Lexar Media


• Memorex


• MobiTV


• Motorola


• Napster


• NeatReceipts


• Nikon


• Nokia


• Panasonic


• Pentax


• PriceGrabber.com


• ReplayTV


• Samsung


• ScreenTek


• ShoZu


• Shure


• Smilebox


• Sony Ericsson


• Sprint


• Symantec


• Texas Instruments


• ThinkPad


• TomTom


• vMix


• Western Digital


• Westinghouse Digital Electronics


• Xandros