So, you’ve got yourself a shiny new Apple iPod nano and you’re in the market for something to keep your musical investment protected from the elements. You’re wondering if you should stick to the name brands or if just any old protective case will do. That’s where I come in.

The good people at Griffin were nice enough to supply me with a FlexScreen protective skin for the iPod nano. It retails for $14.99 and offers all-over protection for your third-generation iPod nano. Seems like a decent deal, right?

Well, you can get almost the same thing but in generic form through a variety of sellers on eBay. Some time before Griffin sent me the FlexScreen, I hopped online and bought a pack of five skins for my iPod through eBay. The total cost including shipping for these five silicone skins? Ten bucks. That works out to two dollars each, or about 13% of the price of the Griffin FlexScreen.

What is it, exactly, that warrants such a difference in price? It’s just a silicone skin, after all, so there isn’t all that much there in terms of design or build quality. Well, I can’t say that the Griffin FlexScreen for the iPod nano doesn’t come with some differences. First off, included in the package is a clear polycarbonate protector that goes on the front face. This is meant to protect the screen; the generic skin does not offer this kind of protection.

The back side of the Griffin FlexScreen is also different than the generic version. The Griffin has a bumpy texture on the back that is meant to provide added grip, whereas the generic iPod skin is smooth with a couple of slots where you can thread an armband. I actually prefer the latter design, because the bumps on the Griffin just aren’t pleasant. I’m not a fan of a miniature acupressure on my fingers.

Another advantage that the generic skin has over the Griffin FlexScreen is that it protects the click wheel with a thin layer of silicone. The FlexScreen leaves the click wheel portion exposed to the elements, giving it yet another area to accumulate debris and other nasty things. The ideal solution for me, in this way, would combine the click wheel protection of the generic silicone skin with the polycarbonate cover of the Griffin FlexScreen.

So, who’s the big winner of this Apple iPod skin shootout? Unfortunately for the brand whores in the audience, the victory has to go to the generic skin. It’s hard to justify paying more than seven times as much for a near identical product. That clear polycarbonate cover is not worth $13 to me.

On the first official day of the COMPUTEX trade show here in Taipei, I attended a launch event for the Asus Eee PC 901 and 1000 with Ed Lau. The event itself wasn’t all that exciting, but we did get to see the new Atom-powered subnotebooks for the first time and they were pretty nice.

As we were sitting around waiting for the launch event to start, Asus had a promotional video playing on the projector screen. The idea was it would showcase some of the main features, like the shockproof design and extended battery life, but the net result is something is remarkably cheesy and out of sync. I’ve embedded the video below for your enjoyment.

If you’re interested in fuller coverage of the Eee PC 901 and 1000 launch event, check out my article at Futurelooks.

Prior to my adventure in Las Vegas earlier this year, the only real trade shows that I have attended have been small ones in and around the Vancouver area. Needless to say, a major event like the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is a heck of a lot larger than the rinky-dink shows that usually take place in Vancouver.

Heading into Taipei for this week’s Computex Computer Expo, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. They say that Computex is the world’s second largest technology trade show, being outdone only by CeBIT in Germany. Yes, it’s pretty massive.

Now that I have been to two of the biggest technology trade shows on the planet, I thought that it would be apt to compare them. Some of the experience has been much the same, while other parts have been completely different.

Who Are These Guys?

Although CES in Las Vegas was absolutely massive, I was familiar with a lot of the brands that I saw on the trade show floor. Booths were set up by companies that are visible to the end user, like D-Link, Belkin, and SanDisk. While some of these firms also set up booths for Computex, a good portion of the trade show floor — which spans several floors of two exhibition halls — is occupied by OEM manufacturers that you probably don’t know about and, unless you’re in their target niche, will never hear about.

Taiwan is home to a lot of these OEM and ODM manufacturers. They build products that are later branded by other companies. Apple MacBooks are not actually “made” by Apple. Furthermore, each of the individual components of a computer or some other electronic device are actually sourced from a number of different companies. There are booths here that highlight nothing the tips of an iPod dock connector for instance. Computex is largely attended by buyers. They’re shopping for manufacturers where they can source these individual components.

Somewhat related to this phenomenon is the language barrier. Some product reps are able to speak English, but a lot of them can communicate only in Mandarin Chinese. Needless to say, this makes asking questions a lot harder than CES in Las Vegas.

Taking Care of the Press

Both Computex and CES have press centers where members of the media can set up camp, uploading pictures and articles for public consumption. These press centers are filled with computers and Wi-Fi access, so there’s really no reason why you can’t stay connected while at one of the giant tech trade shows.

Unlike CES, however, the Computex press centres do not provide meals for the press. While at CES, I was given a series of lunch tickets upon checking in for the first time. At around noon of each day, I could go to the press room and grab a plate of pasta or something. With Computex, this simply does not exist. Instead, they just leave small pastries and a pot of coffee. If you’re lucky, you might find a sandwich.

It’s Time to Party

Checking out all the latest technology is fun and all, but the real fun begins when the trade show floor closes for the day. We get invited to a bunch of parties hosted by these technology companies and most provide us with free food and an open bar. It just wouldn’t be right to turn down free booze.

The quality of the parties seem to vary considerably. We had a lot of lame parties in Las Vegas, but we also had some great ones. The same can be said about Computex in Taipei. The strange thing is that the vast majority of Taiwan parties seem to end by 10pm or so at the latest. After that, it’s time to go back to your hotel room.

Las Vegas being what it is, it’s a lot easier to stay out until past 3 or 4am. I know that when I was there for CES 2008, there were several nights were the parties were followed by hours of poker. That’s the nature of a 24-hour town, I guess, and not necessarily reflective of CES itself.

Booth Babes

There are booth babes at both major computer expos, but the styling is just different. It makes sense, because they have to cater to the target market. Booth babes in Las Vegas are generally Caucasian and more voluptuous, whereas the babes in Taiwan are generally Asian and more petite.

Computex also seems to have more “wandering” booth babes, whereas the girls tend to stick to their booths in Las Vegas. Computex does seem to be more of a spectacle too, because they’ll have dancing booth babe shows and cheerleader demonstrations. They work a lot harder to get your attention.

No Better, No Worse, Just Different

Massive technology trade shows are fun, no matter where you are in the world. The Consumer Electronics Show and Computex Taipei both have their strengths and weaknesses. If you have the opportunity to attend either, particularly as press, I highly recommend it.

Computex Taipei 2008 is the second major technology trade show that I have ever attended. I went to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January and now I find myself in Taiwan for the world’s second largest computer expo. Fumbling my way through the city with a very minimal understanding of Mandarin has been quite the challenge, but we’ve managed to survive thus far.

While I have been here since last Saturday, Computex didn’t officially start until Tuesday. I fully expect to get flooded with lots of Chingrish and funny knockoff products. Heck, there are even companies like MicroNet above that try to copycat entire organizations. I wonder if MicroNet’s president is named Gill Bates or something.

While on a shuttle bus between locations, I managed to get a good look at the Taipei 101. As of this writing, it is still the tallest building in the world, but it will be usurped next month by some tower in Shanghai and then that will be beat by yet another tower in Dubai. The Taipei landscape is awfully strange, because all the buildings around the Taipei 101, which has 101 floors, are relatively short.

That’s Asus accepting one of the inaugural Computex Design and Innovation Awards. The selection of the winners was conducted by iF, an organization that also hands out design awards at other trade shows like CES.

Although the trade show floor was not officially open yet, Stephen Fung and I decided to give ourselves a bit of a sneak peak. We saw them working on the Asus Eee PC booth, for example, but Stephen couldn’t help himself when he saw a booth set up with Guitar Hero. Too bad he sucked really bad.

A big part of the fun of attending shows like Computex is gawking at the booth babes. Here’s the lovely lady from Choiix, a brand off-shoot from Cooler Master. They’re going to specialize in laptop accessories that are both fashionable and functional.

Unfortunately, not all booth babes are created equal. At the official Asus Eee PC 901 and Eee PC 1000 launch event, they hired one model that probably should have kept her mouth shut. Someone needs to call her an orthodontist.

To conference is glorious. I’m still in the process of trying to accumulate more free swag. Ed Lau, Stephen Fung, and I already have a great idea for a contest giveaway when we come back. Let’s just say that some creativity is needed to win. Stay tuned!

Those great people at Common Craft are back to their paper explaining ways. We had previously seen their work with Twitter in Plain English and now they are explaining Social Media in Plain English.

While those well ensconced in the blogosphere may understand the appeal and the mechanisms behind such social media as blogs, podcasts, and video sharing services, the mass populace may not be quite as familiar. To help explain the phenomenon of social media, Common Craft uses the analogy of selling ice cream.

In the beginning, we came to rely on big ice cream stores (traditional media like the New York Times) for all of our information and entertainment. As the ice cream industry (Internet) matures and becomes more personal, smaller stores (individual web users) have the opportunity to sell their own unique flavor of ice cream. Some flavors are more unique that others, some will be more popular than others. Some people like panda-flavored ice cream, whereas others may disagree. And that’s the beauty of ice cream social media. There is a flavor (and a voice) for everyone.

In any case, check out the video below from Common Craft. No longer are you restricted to vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. There’s pickle-flavored ice cream too.

[Flash/Javascript needed. If you can't see the video, go to Beyond the Rhetoric.]

If the video isn’t working for you, it has also been uploaded to Youtube.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I’m on my way to Taiwan to attend the Computex Technology Trade Show. This is the first time that I have ever visited Taipei, so it should prove to be a pretty interesting experience. We will likely be relying heavily on Sarah (John Chow’s wife) for interpretation purposes, because I don’t speak much Mandarin beyond “I don’t know” and “I don’t understand.”

Researching a bit about Computex before my trip, I discovered that it is the second largest computer expo in the world. It’s even bigger than the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and that was already pretty massive. To outdo Computex, you’d have to head over to Germany for CeBIT.

Although this is not a vacation in the strictest sense, I still have to prepare for the trip to Taiwan in much the same way. Because there will be no shortage of Internet access, I should still be able to find time to write blog posts here and maintain a certain level of continuity with most of my freelance clients. I intend on doing some Computex coverage for Mobile Magazine, for example.

In terms of what I’m bringing along, the list is pretty much identical to what I brought to CES. I’m still lugging my trusty Canon S3 IS digital camera, Dell Inspiron 640m laptop, HTC Wizard smartphone, and a travel mouse. I’m also bringing a Microsoft webcam, though I don’t think I’ll be using it very much (if at all).

Taiwan’s relationship with Mainland China is always up for debate, but the long and short of it is that I do not need a Chinese Visa to visit the island. Also, although I wasn’t able to skip the lineup at the airport last night (I’m on the red eye to Taiwan), I will be able to take advantage of my NEXUS pass coming back. The NEXUS pass is so worth the $50 fee (it lasts five years).

The weather forecast in Taipei calls for rain and 30 degree days. Hot and wet. That doesn’t sound pleasant at all. Hopefully, the free swag will make up for it.