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Time：第 40次例會，2006年1月27日（週五）晚上7~9點
Place：
viewtopic.php?t=15
19:00~20:00 Gossip and chatting
20:00~21:00 Topic discussion
Host: Annie Chung
Source :
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-01-10-voa58.cfm
20,000 Electronic Gadgets Unveiled at Consumer Electronics Show
By Kathie Scarrah Washington, DC10 January 2006
The world's largest consumer technology trade show has just wrapped up in the United States. The annual event has pitted traditional electronic leaders against each other and served as a launch pad for new electronic gadgets.
Twenty thousand new products were unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show. Held in a space large enough for 28 football fields, the show is really a giant electronics toy store for adults.
Brian Cooley is with CNet, an Internet-based media company. "This is where you come to see what's going to change the way we're entertained, communicate and stay organized in the year ahead."
New video gadgets unveiled at the show included a 261-centimeter plasma TV -- the largest screen ever, as well as a much smaller screen that fits on the visor of your car.
Electronic manufacturers are betting that 2006 is the year consumers switch from analog television to high definition TVs, three years before analog broadcasts are to be phased out in the U.S.
The new high definition monitors have already led to a competition for the multi billion-dollar digital videodisc market. HD-DVD and Blu Ray unveiled new and competing technologies. Victor Matsuda of Blu Ray says consumers will determine which company succeeds.
"It's going to be up to the consumers to decide, obviously. But we see such an advantage of us in industry support, we're very confident in our chances," he says.
New audio gadgets included a cordless telephone that lets you make free long distance calls over the Internet.
And from Pioneer, Chris Kehring unveiled a device which combines satellite radio with an MP3 player. "It's revolutionary in size. It's very small. It fits in your hand. You can carry it anywhere. But it gives you everything. "
In the Best of Show awards, the Samsung ZX20 was named the best new mobile phone. It will be the fastest mobile phone on the market with data speeds up to several megabytes says Larry Haag of Samsung. "We're getting faster and faster. This will allow you to download movies, download songs. We're into the heavy movie, heavy song business with this phone."
Internet giants Google and Yahoo are now also trying to become media companies.
Google announced it would sell CBS television programs and NBA basketball games for consumers to play on their computers.
And the new Yahoo! Go system allows users to access e-mail, photos and search for Internet content from their TV or mobile phone. Convergence was the big trend this year as traditional electronic companies offered a wide array of new multi-functional gadgets that merged content with technology.
Questions:
1. There were nearly 20,000 new and innovative electronic gadgets in CES. Do you have any consumer electronics such as cell phones, MP3 players, digital cameras, PDA, PMP, and so on? If do, please share it with us, such as the brand, the function, the price, etc. Which electronic is your favorite? Why would you like to buy it?
2. How has the consumer electronics changed the way you live?
3. What invention of consumer electronics do you think has had the greatest impact on society? Why?
4. In what ways has consumer electronics improved our lives? In what ways has it made life worse? Are there some consumer electronics that never should have been invented? What are they and why?
5. Imagine that you could only use ONE consumer electronics of the following: a MP3 player, a digital camera, a PMP, a PDA, a plasma TV. Which one would you use and why?
6. What do you think the world will be like a hundred years from now?
Note:
1. Consumer electronics is electronic equipment intended for use by everyday people. Consumer electronics usually find applications in entertainment, communications and office productivity.
Some categories of consumer electronics include telephones, audio equipment, televisions, calculators, playback and recording devices such as VCRs, DVD players, MP3 players and digital clocks.
-adapted from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_electronics
2. PMP-portable/personal media player
•Store and play various types of audio, video and digital image.
•Easily carry around your favorite music, movies, TV shows and pictures and enjoy them wherever you go.
•Connect it to a TV, and view your videos or pictures on a large screen
Words:
1. wrap something ↔ up
informal, to finish a job, meeting etc:
2. pit somebody/something against somebody/something phrasal verb
to test someone's strength, ability, power etc in a competition or fight against someone or something else
3. pad n.
a piece of flat ground where small aircraft can land
4. visor n.
a flat object fixed above the front window inside a car that can be moved down to keep the sun out of your eyes
5. phase something ↔ out phrasal verb
to gradually stop using or providing something:
6. cordless adj.
a piece of equipment that is cordless is not connected to its power supply by wires
7. convergence n.
The act, condition, quality, or fact of converging
8. converge v.
if groups of people converge in a particular place, they come there from many different places and meet together to form a large crowd
9. array n. (of)
a group of people or things, especially one that is large or impressive
The words above are looked up in the dictionary-LDOCE: http://pewebdic2.cw.idm.fr/
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台北，每週六 (2005年6月起)
Taipei, Saturday, Weekly
from June, 2005
Place：
viewtopic.php?t=15
高雄，每月最後一個週日 (2007年4月起)
Kaohsiung, Final Sunday, Monthly
from April, 2007
Place：
viewtopic.php?t=15
