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Birmingham or Munich - a difficult choice?


Steve Rogerson’s round-up of last month’s news and events, including some that may have slipped under the radar


I


t is an even numbered year, so that means Electronica and I along with a good chunk of the European


electronics industry will be heading next month to Munich for what at least one company claims is "the world's leading trade fair." They could be right; it is huge. The people I feel sorry for though are the organisers of the Advanced Engineering Show in Birmingham on the same days. Come on, it is hard enough anyway in the UK to get engineers out of the labs to go to a UK show, but to do it at the same time when those that can get out are probably heading for Germany seems a little optimistic to say the least.


One thing is certain about Electronica is that I will come back with a pile of USB memory sticks containing press packs, which is a lot better than the mountain of paper that journalists once had to


collect at these events. Even better than the CDs, which still do happen with some companies. I remember at a press conference in the early 1990s being handed a CD that contained the relevant images. Printed on it were the dreaded words "Windows compatible". Do you have a Mac version, I asked to which the response was: "Still hanging on, eh?" I was annoyed at this attitude as I chose Apple because it was better and easier to use than a Windows PC, plus I enjoyed swimming against the tide. And what a tide it was because what that man said reflected the world in those days, where the mighty march of Windows looked unstoppable. Apple users had to put up with titchy trade shows with a smattering of stalls and a bit of a hobbyist feel. How things have changed. Now it is Apple that grabs the headlines as it continues a journey that started when


the IPod transformed the way people viewed the company. I am writing this just after the much publicised launch of the IPhone 6, which sadly I won't be able to get my hands on for another year until my current IPhone 5 contract runs out, and the Apple watch, which I am going to ignore because wearing one seems to be the equivalent of having a sign round your neck that says: "Mug me." While I am glad that the rest of the world now seems to agree with me on how good Apple is, I sort of miss swimming against the tide, but somehow I can't see Microsoft ever being relegated to the cult status that Apple once had. Going back even further than the birth of Apple, or even the personal computer, the iconic Volkswagen Beetle has been around for ever. A more modern German company – Limo Lissotschenko Mikrooptik – is trying to jump on this long-running bandwagon. The company sent out a press release talking about the old VW advertising slogan that it just keeps going and going and mentioned a guy who had clocked up 300,000km in one driving for a total of about 10,000 hours. With a swagger, the company


boasted how much better its laser modules were being able to last 150,000 hours, or about 17 years. The company based this claim on endurance tests that started early in 2009. The difference here is obvious, to all apart apparently from the guys at Limo, in that the VW Beetle has actually done those miles. The Limo bods are just guessing it will last based on tests that started less than six years ago. OK, everyone does this but everyone doesn't then compare themselves to one of the great small cars. Listen Limo, even if you share a name with one of the great large cars, you've a long way to go before your products can even be mentioned in the same breath as a VW Beetle.


VW meanwhile looks set to move into new markets if the headline on a recent press release is anything to go by claiming that its American branch was launching a dating site for car buyers. Careful reading though led me to discover that it is to match the buyers with a car and not a partner for life, but as the guy I just mentioned proves a Beetle will probably last longer than most relationships.


Knight Rider will never be the same again after I watched a promotional video for Renault's latest Trafic van. In it, the iconic all- black intelligent car Kitt has been replaced with this monstrosity and Michael Knight has regenerated into Michael Craftsman. Sacrilege, but very funny. It can be found on Youtube under the title Trafic Rider.


42 October 2014 Components in Electronics


This is a fairly common sight, someone taking a quick break to check their emails or catch up on some work. But the story here is not the woman or her laptop but the brightly coloured bag at her feet. This is what its manufacturer Phorce claims is "the world's first interactive smart bag". Not convinced, if it was really smart it would fetch her a cup of coffee while she got on with whatever she is doing. Or even do her work for her while she went for a coffee.


www.cieonline.co.uk


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