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Computex 2014: CVision's Glasses-Free 3D

Computex 2014: CVision’s Glasses-Free 3D

One of the most interesting things I saw at this year’s Computex was CVision’s glasses-free 3D technology. You likely have not heard of the company before because they are currently not spending any money on B2C marketing or PR as they are focusing on selling/licensing the technology to OEMs to bring it to the mainstream market. 

The way their technology works is unique. Instead of requiring a special panel or hardware, all that is needed is a custom film, or convergence of thin-film barrier as it’s officially called, that is applied on top of the panel. That film along with CVision’s software is able to produce a 3D experience that doesn’t require glasses and to be honest, the quality was just awesome. CVision showed me a couple of short videos to highlight the 3D experience and I didn’t notice that it was 3D unless I specifically looked for it. I mean, that’s how smooth it was. There was no ghosting or bleeding, just sharp picture in 3D. The viewing angles were also as good as you would expect from an IPS panel — the 3D effect didn’t suffer at all even when viewed from an angle. Of course, if I moved the device or my eyes/head while playbacking the video, the smoothness was lost but as long as I held the device steady and focused on the screen there were no significant drawbacks compared to 2D. 

CVision’s software even supports 2D to 3D conversion on the fly, so playing Angry Birds in 3D wasn’t a problem at all and it was actually very cool as the game itself suits well for 3D. Photos can also be converted to 3D and CVision showed me a couple of photos they had taken on the show floor with the phone. The camera itself was similar to what you can find inside any smartphone, so the conversion was done purely in software and the result was decent. I’m not sure if an exhibition hall is the best target for 3D photos as obviously it works the best when you are just focusing on one object but it was still clearly 3D but not as impressive as the videos or Angry Birds.

The main advantage of CVision’s technology is that it can be applied to any device without the need for major re-engineering. The film itself is very thin and it is the only thing that is needed in terms of hardware and the prototype devices CVision had at their booth were as slim as any other high-end smartphone in the market. Currently the cost is about $3 per inch but CVision believes that they can cut this to half with higher volumes. The technology can scale to any size but as CVision is more of a technology company than a real manufacturer, they don’t have the equipment to manufacture the films for TV size screens at this moment. However, their roadmap does include a 42″ 1080p TV but it might be more of a concept at this point. 

All in all, this is the first time I’m truly excited about 3D. I’ve never been a fan of the glasses and all the glasses-free 3D technologies I’ve seen so far have had too many limitations to make them better than 2D in my opinion. CVision is currently in talks with several smartphone and tablet OEMs to bring the technology to the mainstream market and I sure hope the OEMs see the potential. I mean, either I got totally fooled by their (non-existing) marketing or their technology “just works”.

Computex 2014: The ASUS Booth Tour

After two jam-packed press conferences this year, the ASUS booth was brimming with visitors all week every time I walked past.  We were given the full tour of the product range, which covered ASUS’ major segments such as motherboards, not…

ZyXEL Updates UTM Firewalls for SMB Market

ZyXEL Updates UTM Firewalls for SMB Market

ZyXEL’s Unified Threat Management (UTM) systems have been quite popular in the SMB market, thanks to their attractive pricing and excellent customer support (as evidenced in reviews on various e-tailer sites). By providing firewall, VPN and security services in a single product, the UTM lineup gives SMB IT administrators an integrated security solution that can even span distributed office locations.

ZyXEL is introducing 7 new products in this market segment today under the USG lineup. These are classified under the Advanced Series and Performance Series. While the former targets SMBs with up to 100 users, the latter is meant to support up to 5 – 10 users. UTM devices have generally suffered from greatly reduced throughput when security services are enabled, and the new models seem to have addressed them. In addition to a unified management interface for the firewall, intrusion detection features, anti-virus (Kaspersky), content filtering and application control, the USG units also include a built-in WLAN controller (some of the USG units also come with Wi-Fi radios).

In the Advanced Series, we have the USG310, USG210 and USG110. While the 310’s eight RJ-45 ports are configurable, the 210 and 110 have 4x LAN, 2x WAN and 1x OPT ports. The 310 can support up to 5 Gbps of SPI firewall throughput, while the 210 and 110 come in at 1.9 and 1.6 Gbps respectively. Other system capacity and performance aspects follow a similar trend. ZyXEL has a very helpful table comparing the various models in the advanced series here.

In the Performance series, we have the USG40 and USG60 along with their Wi-Fi-enabled cousins, the USG40W and the USG60W. The USG60 model comes with 4x LAN and 2x WAN ports, with a 1 Gbps SPI firewall throughput while the USG40 has 3x LAN and 1x WAN along with a 1x OPT port. SPI firewall throughput also goes down to 400 Mbps. The USG60W has a dual band 802.11n radio with support for up to 16 SSIDs while the USG40W is a 2.4 GHz-only 802.11n device with support for up to 8 SSIDs. Both are 2T2R devices. Comparison of various models is available here.

ZyXEL’s suggested MSRPs for the various models are provided in the table below.

ZyXEL USG Lineup Pricing
Model Hardware +
1 Year Security Services License (USD)
Unbundled Hardware (USD)
USG40 $420 $320
USG40W $520 $420
USG60 $700 $550
USG60W $800 $650
USG110 $900
USG210 $1250
USG310 $2350

These new UTM devices come along with options for extended warranty / technical support. They seem to offer an attractive economical alternative to high end specialty vendor offerings for SMBs short on resources.

 

Computex 2014: G.Skill Demos PCIe SSDs

Computex 2014: G.Skill Demos PCIe SSDs

In the initial days of SSDs, G.Skill, the DRAM manufacturer, used to sell 2.5-inch SSDs.  These were SATA 3 Gbps devices mostly, with the latest ones utilising SandForce controllers under the G.Skill Phoenix branding to hit 550 MBps sequential…