Computex 2003 Finally!

If you’ve noticed, this is actually quite a hectic month for us. Last week, we covered the Intel Developer Forum Fall 2003 event and we’re now in Taipei for one of the world’s largest IT trade shows. Computex 2003 was slated for the June period this year but due to the recent SARS outbreak, Computex was suspended and rescheduled for September.

This year, Computex 2003 boasts a total of 1,248 exhibitors (an increase of about 5%) jam packed in three separate halls. We’ll see a new hall this year, newly opened and located between the Grand Hyatt Hotel and New York New York mall. Exhibitors usually located at TICC will occupy this new area, which is now known as Hall 3.

Now, let’s get right on to what caught our attention today.


Gigabyte’s Surprising Announcement

Gigabyte today announced the availability of a new health device which will be made available together with their upcoming motherboard products. One thing for sure, this device is not your typical PC hardware, but an add-on which lets you monitor your health. Our health? Yup, and we can assure you that we did not get the announcement wrong as they even had a prototype which they demonstrated during their press conference held at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Much like monitoring your PC’s health, this device monitors your pulse and blood pressure. It plugs into a proprietary header available only in Gigabyte motherboards. Through a software interface, it lets you take your blood pressure, monitor it real-time and store these information in a database so that you can track your health status over time.

We think this is a really odd bundle for motherboards as it has totally nothing to do with the PC. Sure it’s a value added device which we're sure most gamers would need, but one just could not help asking if this made any sense. Well, we’ll have to wait and see if others would copy this ‘healthy’ idea. After all, it does go well with Gigabyte’s “Upgrade Your Life” motto.

Mr. Rockson Chiang, one of Gigabyte's product manager, demonstrates how the blood pressure monitor works.

Here's monitoring your blood pressure real-time!

The blood pressure machine works through a specially designed software. Eat your heart out, OSIM!

The software lets you save your blood pressure readings so that you can monitor your health over time.