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In pictures: CeBIT 2013

Gadgets galore.

By William Maher on May 31 2013, 8:00AM

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You feel a bit like a rabbit in headlights walking into the CeBIT expo in Sydney's Darling Harbour this week. You're literally surrounded by technology on all sides - from waterproof tablet computers to hotel WiFi systems, programmers you can hire, tax, marketing, computerised door locks... It's a jumble of gadgets and ideas for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Think of it like an all-night (or in this case, 3-day) cramming session for an exam - if you're short on time, it's a handy way to give yourself a crash course in all sorts of important technologies.

What you're looking at here is a fraction of one show floor - there are six main areas like this. So what did we find? Click the next photo to see...

This is the stand for the NBN - lots of maps and dates about when and where the NBN is coming next. Inside the truck there is something interesting...

If you haven't seen it before, these are the bits that will be installed in your home or business when you are connected to the NBN. The hardware here is for when you're connected by optic fibre. The box at the top of the photo is attached to the outside of your building. The box at the bottom right takes the place of your router. And the box on the bottom left is the battery backup unit.

Here is a photo showing the battery backup unit with the door open. The purpose is to let you continue to make telephone calls in the case of a blackout. If you are not signing up for a voice service from the NBN, then we are told it won't be compulsory to have this box.

Here is an NBN configuration you won't see as often. As the title says, this hardware is for people who will be connected to the NBN via fixed wireless, not optic fibre. We are told you will need a line of sight to the wireless facility and it works up to a radius of 10km. Incidentally, that box at the top of the photo is actually the antenna. As with optic fibre, the hardware and installation will be free (unless you request a non-standard installation).

Here is the hardware you'll get if you connect via satellite.

Ever wondered what the NBN fibre cable looks like? This is one. We were shown several, each a different size. We were told this one has 864 fibres - two are used for each premises, according to the NBN demo-person showing us the cable.

If you work outdoors you might have already seen a gadget like this - it's a waterproof portable computer. Gadgets like these are used by shops, courier and trucking companies and even collecting tickets on public transport.

There are pros and cons to these "rugged" computers. For example, here is a tablet version. As you can see it's running Windows and has a 128GB SSD and 4GB RAM, which should be fine for basic computing. Like the handheld in the previous photo it's also tough enough to cope with being dropped, dust and "extreme temperatures". We spotted two big difference between this and some of the new Windows tablets on the market though. For one thing, this device doesn't seem to be running Windows 8 (and we really hope that's not Vista on the screen). Also, it's an Intel Atom machine, so it's not going to be the fastest handheld on the planet.

Just about everyone still carries cash around, but technology companies are still working on creating a cashless society. This little black gizmo is a card reader. You insert the card in one end, your other end plugs into the shopkeeper's iPhone to process the payment.

Here's a similar model, but this one doesn't even need to plug into your phone - it transfers the transaction to your phone via an encrypted Bluetooth signal.

We saw a couple of gadgets that veered closer to the realm of Star Trek than others - this is one of them. What you're looking at is a very fancy intercom that lets you see who's at your door, via your phone. And yes, that's even if you're not actually at home. For example, let's say you're out of the house and a plumber arrives at your front door and rings the intercom. The idea here is that you'll get the intercom call on your phone, even if you're down the street. Not only that, we're told you can command the system to unlock the door and let the plumber in, if you want. The calls come over IP, so in theory the system won't add to your telephone bill.

Do you archive your email? You've probably got a "pst" file on your computer somewhere which stores your old emails, but if your computer goes down you could lose the lot. There are various systems like this one that specialise in different ways of storing your email on an external storage box, like a NAS, or on a server. The idea is to have a central backup of the entire email history of your business. Certainly important if you're using email to do important things like negotiate contracts. The selling point of this system is that it lets you put in pst files in batches.

Do you know those little "signatures" at the bottom of every one of the emails you send? This company also has a system that lets you control all the email signatures every person in your company uses. The idea is you can "deploy" new signatures when you have a new sales message, and make sure everyone's using the right one.

We winced a bit when we discovered what this software is for - it's from SMSGlobal and it's for sending text messages to phones. We learnt that texts are not all about spam though. For example, you can set this up so your customers can SMS a special number to check their account balance. If you have a problem with a lot of customers with outstanding debts, you could also use this to quickly and easily send them all a reminder. The prices start from 5 cents a text. Click the photo to enlarge.

This is what the screen looks like when you're sending a text. It's all done through your web browser. You log-in, upload the phone numbers you want to your message to go to, type in your message and press send.

Amid all the software, there are plenty of gadgets on show. This is probably one of the standout phones on the market right now - Samsung's new Galaxy S4. Like various new smartphones on the market, this 5 inch screen is much larger than the iPhone.

An interactive whiteboard. No projector needed for PowerPoint presentations and you can draw on the screen or call up programs or web sites.

That's some sort of wakeboard he's standing on (we think), and that's Google Earth on the screen. Not really relevant to this photo gallery, but it's an example of the other side of CeBIT - ideas and concepts that may some day find their way into business applications.

Need a programmer? These days there are a myriad of overseas programmers you can hire. Say you need to track all the items in your warehouse, or all the laptops in your business, or keep an inventory of all the stock on your shelves in your shop - these two gentleman represent a company (OMR Solutions) which can help.

A sign of the times - a poster selling the idea of "virtual teams"

"We do everything", is the message we're getting here.

We're not suggesting you need this at your work, but it's interesting to see that eye-scanners are actually being marketed.

This web site operates on the idea that freight companies probably charge you an arm and a leg because they know you don't have time to shop around. Instead, you post a freight job here and freight companies bid for the job. The system encourages the use of empty space in freight trucks, which can be cheaper (according to the web site). The site is called LoadMax.

Here's an interesting gadget we spotted for photographers and independent movie-makers - it's an audio system for phones and DSLR cameras. The idea is to get better sound quality if you're shooting video or recording interviews (for example, if you're a journalist), or shooting a film on a DSLR. There's also an iPhone app, which we're told can be used to record for "hours".

Here is the audio system, along with a windsock-protected mike, attached to a DSLR camera. One of the selling points is the twin-mike inputs - so a shotgun mike can be used, as well as a lapel mike. The system also has a feature to limit the impact of noise generated by the camera. Another use for this is to make company videos - in the right hands DSLR-quality footage could be used on company blogs and training videos. The mike itself is US$249, while the mixing and monitoring connector that connects it to the camera is US$349. The products are from an Australian company called MyMyk.

Free IT staff! If only it were that easy. As well as programmers, you can also hire temporary IT experts. The "free" offer here is for interns with no experience. For workers with experience, you pay. The company say that their prices are "so low" because they use students "willing to work at lower rates" to gain experience. How much does it cost? Click for the next photo...

... want to see just how much cheaper it can be to go to India for IT assistance? Well, here you have it. No doubt there are pros and cons to both approaches. This company claims to have supplied workers to the likes of Telstra and IBM. To do what, we don't know.

Pick a programmer, any programmer.

3D printers are still something of a novelty act, but they're being used by various people from jewelers to boat builders as a cheaper way of creating prototypes before the finished product is manufactured.

As you can see, there's an array of colours and shapes possible, though you're still limited by the size of the printer.

Technology is giving shop owners some clever tricks too. This is a Point of Sale (POS) terminal customised for tourist parks. Click the next photo to see something special it can do...

Here is a screen where the park operator can sort the visitors by nationality. If the Chinese spend more than the Americans, then that could have a bearing on the way you spend your marketing budget, the person showing off this system told us. The system is called Meridian and it's available in Australia from GunPos.

Here's another clever trick - say your sales office is in the city, but you wish you could hire technical support or admin staff from the country... there are phone menu ("call centre") systems that your customers can ring, press 1 for sales, 2 for administration, and so on... which then direct the calls to the appropriate office. This one is called the C9 Contact Centre.

There are various systems that do this - take your scanned paperwork and extract the written and typed words and numbers and put them in a database. A way to reduce paper and keep a digital record.

Here's another way to get rid of paper - a scanner. This one is a dedicated Fujitsu scanner. It can scan 90 pages a minute, which is a lot more than you'll get done loading pages one by one into a small multifunction printer/scanner.

Handy if you're caught in the rain - this Fujitsu Stylistic QH582 can handle a dunking. We were also impressed by the fact it weighs 574 grams, which is lighter than a full size iPad. It runs Windows.

There are some impressive phone protectors on the market these days - we've seen videos of some phones being hit with a hammer and the screen not cracking. We spotted this one, advertising "real tempered glass". We haven't tried it, so we can't vouch for it.

Here's an even more intriguing idea for protecting your phone. Instead of paying through the roof for a special waterproof model (often more expensive, and you're very limited in your choice) there's a technology that can coat your favourite phone in an invisible "liquid repellent". This phone in the photo has had the treatment, and as you can see, you can now dunk it under water. The catch? To get your phone treated, you'll need to take it to a shop where it must be placed in a machine, which covers your phone with a gas, coating it with the special substance. The local representatives tell us they're working on making Liquipel available in Australia.

It's hard to ignore the iPad if you're buying a tablet, but the truth is, there are some other very interesting options like the HP ElitePad 900. We've actually had one of these HPs for a little while - one of the handy features is you can buy a protective "jacket" for it, which has a second battery hidden inside.

This is a Ruckus WiFi access point, with the lid off to show the insides. On top you can see the antenna on top - unlike some other WiFi routers, this one "steers" the signal to improve performance. We're told Ruckus boxes are being used in a lot of hotels.

Another trick is the ability to "mesh" two WiFi access points. If the signal doesn't reach the other side of your building, you can plug one of these into the wall and it will "mesh" with the other. Performance won't be ideal this way, but it can be better than a faint signal from a single access point.

This is a "networked" locking system. The idea is that you can lock all the doors in your building remotely, as well as control who can get in or out of each door. The mechanism needs to be installed to each door, but in this case the system works wirelessly, so there's no need to actually lay network cable to the doors. The system is from Salto and is meant for big hotels and airports, but we've seen similar products for small offices.

Many businesses haven't bothered with a phone or tablet app yet. They're not for everyone, but with a clever idea you might find they help your bottom line - phone apps make it much easier for people to see what you're selling and they can even encourage customers to spend more (think of the Dominnos pizza app, or the various cafe coffee card loyalty apps). Here is an app developer's stand we spotted.

Remember the paperless office? It never really happened, although if you're really, really tech-savvy you can get pretty close. This is a poster for a company called formitize - instead of giving your clients paper forms to fill in, this company takes your paper forms and converts them into digital forms. Now, your customers can fill in your forms online on your phone.

It's coming up to tax time - instead of using a tax agent to submit your BAS and company tax returns, your in-house accountant can actually do it themselves using a tax submission product like this one (it's called GovReports). You get rid of paper forms, there's no need to burn CDs and the system has pre-filled forms to help you reduce errors.

Didn't know about this? It's called "number porting" and it's been around for a while. We spotted it being advertised here by MyNetFone (who is an advertiser on this site, but we decided to mention this anyway, as we think it's interesting).

One of the big trends you can't escape at events like this is "the cloud". In absolutely simple terms, it means accessing applications and services over the Internet, instead of software you install on your computer. The cloud has its detractors, but it's clearly much more than a passing fad. Here is the stand for Salesforce, which is a product used by businesses that place a big priority on their database of customers, and making sales to those people. As Anthony Caurana explained here, when you're a one-person business it's easier to keep all this in your head. When you get bigger, you might need to need somewhere to store all this information.

Liked this gallery? Come back soon, we'll be posting lots more photos from this week's expo...

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In pictures: CeBIT 2013

Gadgets galore.

Related articles

Microsoft tests Windows Update with third-party apps included

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