Thursday saw Moscone Center West packed as the exhibit hall opened its doors for Macworld 2011. It will be interesting to see what sort of crowds attend today and Saturday (the last day of the show).
One mini-trend I noticed was Asian companies looking for US distributors for their products. One was the MacTiVia (http://www.awindinc.com/mctivia/). It’s an US$199 device that that can show all the content of your Mac — as well as Windows computers, if you care — on your TV wirelessly. You can control up to eight computers with your mouse and/or keyboard. You can share any content from your computers with your friends and family in your living room.
The MacTiVia also works as a home wireless access point. You can use it to, for example, use your big screen TV to play Mac games, surf the web from your couch, access TV shows/movies online, and more. You can also use your iPhone as a mouse/keyboard to control your Mac.
Another product looking for an US distributor was the TV Plug (http://www.tvplug.co.kr) — also called the WiFi Plug. It’s a hybrid wire/wireless router with a built-in DTV tuner. It purportedly receives and records (on an external hard drive) terrestrial ATSC TV broadcasts and provides the streaming of TV programs in real time. It also functions as a wired/wireless router.
Some other interesting notes:
° Want to “wear” your iPad or smartphone? Check out the products from http://www.alphynind.com .
° A company called BlueTrek (http://www.bluetrek.com) has some interesting earphone and noise cancellation products.
° A “New York Times” rep told me that the company is preparing for the possibility (probability) that the publication will be all digital within 10 years.
° I didn’t see as many of my friends in the press — especially the foreign press — as in year’s past.
— Dennis Sellers
dsellers@applecentral.com