Windows Phone Thoughts: Checking Out This Fall's Gadgets: Pepcom's Holiday Spectacular Press Event

Figure 19: Logitech's MediaPlay mouse

Logitech was showing off several new input devices. Unfortunately, they did not show their new MX1000 laser mouse nor the new LX700 multimedia keyboard (which is not a split-key keyboard). However they had a new mouse on display called the MediaPlay mouse. A very sleek device, with media controls built on the mouse itself, thus saving a user valuable seconds in a music changing emergency. ;-)


Figure 20: Side view of the Logitech MediaPlay

The mouse is light and seemed very comfortable to use. Logitech was also showing off several controllers for the X-Box as well as the PC. They also displayed version 3 of their Digital Pen input technology. It seems to have come a long way since the bulky, awkward pen they used to always display at such events. Their new pen is light and quite sleek, given what it does.


Figure 21: Lexmark P915 printer

We breezed past the Lexmark booth, though we caught a glimpse of the new Small & Medium Business-targeted printers. The first printer is the P915 which is a nice, inexpensive photo printer capable of 15ppm at 4800 dpi. Looks like a very clean cut design.


Figure 22: Lexmark P6250 printer

The P6250 is their new all-in-one printer which can print up to 22ppm, has a 4800dpi flatbed scanner and is PictBridge compatible.


Figure 23: Nikon D2X camera with Fisheye lens

We were seriously hoping for the big name camera vendors to be present and were not disappointed. Nikon brought their new professional D2X digital SLR and Suhit, ever the camera geek, was amazed. It has a 9 point AF and is super fast. You see it here with a 15mm fisheye lens (costs about $1K). DMT has already posted more details on the camera; it will be retailing in the $4-$4.5K range.


Figure 24: Nikon D2X camera body

So as much as Suhit was impressed by the wicked speed of the camera and the really large buffer, he did not like the design of the camera; in reducing the camera body size, they made the unit thin, and as such he's uncomfortable holding the unit. This is a minor nit, though, and other than that it is awesome. Suhit wishes he could have played with it longer but in the brief time that he spent with it, it seemed very customizable and the large LCD screen in the back was of very high resolution and quality.


Figure 25: Nikon F6 camera body

Suhit was so enamored by the D2X that he almost forgot about the other cameras they had on display. But here's a quick shot of Nikon's flagship film SLR, the F6 (yes, believe it or not, film SLRs still sell :)).


Figure 26: Sony Ericsson P910

The Sony booth had a lot of little gadgets that interested us. The Sony P910 has a fantastic screen and feels extremely good in the hand. It's extremely similar to the P900, but has one addition: the thumbboard.


Figure 27: Using the Sony Ericsson P910 with its integrated thumbboard

Since the P910 is so small, the thumbboard is very tiny -- noticeably smaller even than the one on the Treo 600. It is definitely usable, however, Suhit found it hard to operate the tiny keys with his massive thumbs. ;-) Janak's thumbs, as pictured, can operate it, although you're not going to peck that fast at a unit like this. The keypad/thumbboard is securely attached and the flip feels very secure. Too bad the P910 has a Memory Stick slot and no Wi-Fi.


Figure 28: Ultra small Sony East Asia cell phone

As always, Sony had an amazing cell phone that's not available in North America. Here's an ultra-tiny cell phone that is to be released in East Asia (Suhit recollects that the rep said Korea, but Janak's convinced it was to be released in Japan). Let's hope we see it in the US -- it was truly a featherweight device. The phone is less than half the size of Suhit's Ericsson T68.