Cool gizmos at the Digital Experience in New York

Consumer Electronics and Computer vendors showed off some of their latest gear at the Digital Experience in New York last night in Manhattan and our ZDNet crew was there to cover the event.  David Berlind has already posted some video footage of the new Helio and other interesting things from Belkin such as a submersible mouse that can be washed.  I walked the floor and found some other interesting things to share.

High color gamut DELL LCD: Dell will be releasing a new 24" LCD 1920x1200 display to replace its current 24" LCD which is the largest monitor from Dell that can be rotated sideways 90 degrees.  The price will remain the same at $670 which is one of the cheapest 24" LCDs on the market with these specifications but what's interesting about the newer model is that it will support a much larger color gamut.  The current 24" LCD has a color gamut rating of 72 while the newer model is rated at 92.  When I asked if the 27" and 30" LCDs from Dell will receive similar treatment, Dell explained that those models are already high color.  The new model will contain the letters "HC" within the model number designating high color and will be available to order next week.  As time goes on, it's interesting to see features that were considered very high-end work its way in to high-volume consumer products.  Eventually we'll even see this in smaller cheaper consumer displays.

IPTV fault-tolerant streaming technology: A company called Digital Fountain showed off some interesting technology that would permit real-time buffer-free transmission of IPTV (Internet Protocol TV) that could tolerate packet loss or jitter (out-of-order packets).  Video buffers would solve the problem of packet loss or jitter but it isn't user friendly since the consumer is forced to way several seconds any time he/she flips the channel.  Not using any buffers puts the video stream at the mercy of the network and any packet loss or out-of-order packets will cause significant degradation in the signal.  Digital Fountain implements an error correcting algorithm on the sending and receiving end that can correct these errors so that the video comes through fine even when there is significant packet loss.  Of course there is a small price to pay in the form of some additional bandwidth for on-the-fly error correction.

Swaptree shows free swapping service: An interesting new service called Swaptree is now in beta and near completion.  Users basically go to this free advertising supported website and swap their CDs, DVDs, and Books with other members.  You simply go on the website and offer up one of your CDs, DVDs, or Books and the service shows you a list of items that other people are willing to swap for.  The more popular your item is with the other users of Swaptree the more items become available to you.  Swaptree will take your credit card number so that it can automatically print shipping labels though you have the option of handling that yourself manually.  Swaptree will basically charge a small Credit Card processing fee that they have to pay to the Credit Card companies but not mark it up any more than that.  Most of us have a lot of CDs, DVDs, and Books that we may never use again and this is a free way to get fresh stuff.