Goodies Galore for the Techie in Us All

The fall edition of Comdex is the tech industry’s largest trade show in North America, with more than 2,100 exhibitors trying to sell all manner of hardware, software and vaporware to a slack-jawed throng of more than 200,000.

Although it’s aimed mainly at corporate buyers, there’s plenty of stuff on hand for consumers--particularly those who don’t have the good sense to wait a few years for more reliable, cheaper versions of the same technology.

Perhaps the biggest development in computers this year wasn’t at the show, at least not officially. That’s the new generation of Intel microprocessors, dubbed the Pentium 4.

Although Intel had a large booth showing off plenty of software customized for the Pentium 4, there were no computers with the new chip because Intel wasn’t ready to release it. The first Pentium 4-based machines won’t be announced until shortly after Comdex.

Comdex hasn’t been a big show for new PCs since the major computer manufacturers pulled out a few years ago. Instead, it’s been a forum for potential new approaches to personal computing, many of which never turn into products.

This year’s hot items: entry-level computers and tablets that you can write on. No, those aren’t new ideas. Yes, they’ve failed before. But hey, this is Comdex, and hope springs eternal.

Intel, for example, gave a brief showing of its Dot.Station, a computer designed for people who don’t already have one. Emphasizing simplicity over power, the box won’t do much besides browse the Internet, read and send e-mail and help with some personal organizing.

But if all goes according to plan, it will do those things in a way that even a technophobe can understand. The box sports a Celeron chip--Intel’s lowest-level microprocessor--and 64 megabytes of memory. Intel has yet to set a price on the device.

One of Intel’s competitors, National Semiconductor, showed off its Geode WebPAD Metro prototype, a fully functional, 2.5-pound computer the size of an Etch-A-Sketch. The tablet is designed to roam, connecting to the Internet through a wireless service provided by Ricochet.

The Ricochet service is available in nine cities today, offering about twice the speed of a dial-up modem, without the wires.

Instead of a physical keyboard, the Metro boasts an 8.4-inch touch-screen that operates with the stroke of a pen. National Semi is still lining up manufacturers for the device, which is expected to be available in the middle of next year for about $1,000.

Great Cities Inc. showed off a new version of its Qbe Personal Computing Tablet, the Vivo. It’s bigger than many of its tablet brethren and a little heavier, providing users with a full-size touch-screen and snappy handwriting-recognition software. It also can connect wirelessly to a local network at high speed.

Available with varying degrees of computing muscle, the Vivo has a built-in camera and video editing software for creating multimedia presentations away from your desk. Due in January, the Vivo models will range from $1,799 to $2,500.

At the very, very high end of computers with screens you can write on is Sony’s out-sized Vaio LX tablet, which sells for about $12,000 in Japan.

Slated for the U.S. sometime late next year, the tablet lies on the desktop, screen facing up. Users choose programs and enter data through a pen that senses the radio waves emanating from the screen. Cool.

Now here’s an intriguing idea: How about boiling the core of a computer down into a module that can plug in and out of a desktop, laptop, wireless tablet or even a personal digital assistant?

IBM has been showing analysts this kind of thing recently, although it’s still very early in the development process.

Acqis Technology of Mountain View, Calif., showed off its Interputer module, a 1-pound box the size of a note pad with an Intel mobile chip. The device holds as much as 256 MB of memory, as much as 20 gigabytes of storage, a sound card, a graphics accelerator and an Ethernet port. The module works with a variety of shells that provide the keyboard, monitor and external connectors.

Expected to be available early next year, the module will sell for about $930. Acqis also plans a desktop shell for less than $400, a laptop shell for less than $800 and a satellite station for less than $400 that will connect to any conventional PC.

Going Mobile

The main news on the palm-size computer front was a host of new ways to connect to wireless networks on the ground and in the air.

For example, Novatel Wireless of San Diego announced new wireless modems for the Hewlett-Packard Jornada 540 series, the Handspring Visor and the Compaq iPaq Pocket PC.

The first two, available now for $369, use a relatively slow-speed packet data network. The iPaq modem, however, uses Ricochet’s network, which is about six times faster.

At the Handspring booth, several new plug-in modules were on display for connecting to wireless or satellite networks. Among them was the Geode by GeoDiscovery, a $289 module that links to Global Positioning System satellites.

The module and accompanying software can steer you to nearby stores, theaters, restaurants and tourist information.

Palm Inc. didn’t offer any new versions of its popular line of hand-held organizers, but it did announce a $40 mobile Internet kit that can bring the Web to the Palm III and higher models.

Working with an upgraded version of the Palm operating system, the kit enables users to dial in to the Internet through a mobile phone or Palm-compatible wireless modem.

If the phone has an infrared port, the Palm will link to it wirelessly. Otherwise, users will need a special cable from the phone manufacturer.

Pint-Size Computing

One new PDA on display was the VR3 from Agenda Computing Inc. of Irvine. It’s the first PDA with a Linux operating system, which Agenda is counting on to draw hordes of developers with cool new applications.

The company is selling a stripped-down unit to developers today for $179, but it expects to sell a consumer-oriented model early next year for less than that.

Comdex is filled with nifty ideas that might become products someday. In that category is the digital paper and wireless pen being developed by Anoto of Sweden and several other companies, including mobile-phone giant Ericsson.

The paper is encoded with thousands of tiny dots, too small to be seen without a magnifying glass. As the pen writes on the paper, it also stores an electronic duplicate of the writing in its memory. It can then send the handwritten image to a nearby computer or, via an Internet-connected cell phone, upload it to a viewer continents away.

If the companies can line up support from wireless carriers, they plan to introduce the pen and paper late next year. The target cost is less than $100.

Sony, ever faithful to its Memory Stick format for removable storage, announced a new version of its Memory Stick Walkman digital music player--this one called the Network Walkman.

It’s a puzzling name since the new Walkman isn’t all that different from the old Walkman and certainly has no new networking capabilities.

Sony explained that you can take a Memory Stick out of one device and put it in another, thus creating a network. Oh, I get it. . .

Like its predecessor, it’s the size and weight of a pack of gum and can hold about an hour of near-CD-quality music on the included 64-MB Memory Stick. The main improvement is in the software, which can handle more types of digital music files than before. The new player is due in February for $350.

Sony also showed off an array of colorful and often puzzling designs for products that could be built around the Memory Stick.

The two ideas likely to be translated into products next year: a tiny digital music player attached to a belt-length plastic battery and a rubberized digital camera designed as a necklace.

Sight and Sound

Samsung is already building some limited video functions into its MP3 players.

The Visual MP3 Player, available this month for $299, can display digital pictures on a 2-inch color screen in addition to playing music.

The next version of the player, due in January, will also be able to play short movies. The player has 64 MB of memory built in and supports an additional 64 MB of memory on a plug-in card.

One of the drawbacks of today’s MP3 players is their limited capacity. In most cases, it’s 32 MB or 64 MB, enough for only 30 minutes to one hour of near-CD-quality music. And those flash memory cards are painfully expensive, costing about $2 per minute of storage.

A number of manufacturers are attacking that problem with gusto, incorporating a variety of miniaturized storage solutions.

One new entry is the Archos Jukebox 6000, which has a built-in 6-GB hard drive. That’s enough for about 2,000 near-CD-quality songs.

At 12 ounces, the Jukebox isn’t the kind of thing you’d want to clip on your belt and go jogging. And at $349, there won’t be a lot of kids popping them into their backpacks.

“It’ll be your Walkman-slash-file cabinet,” said Saeed Khoshnevis of Archos.

The Jukebox runs on rechargeable batteries and has a USB interface to connect to your Windows PC or Mac. It’s expected to be available this week at computer discount stores.

Comdex is filled with items from the I-never-considered-this-but-now-that-I’ve-seen-it-I-want-one category.

One example this year is the Olympus Eye-Trek series of video goggles. Shaped like something out of an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, the Eye-Trek consists of headphones and two high-quality monitors--one for each eye--that can simulate the experience of watching a big-screen TV.

There’s also a cable to connect the Eye-Trek to your chosen source of video, be it a DVD player, game console, camcorder, VCR or TV tuner.

Naturally, these things are hideously expensive.

In fact, they cost almost as much as the portable DVD players they’re ideally suited for.

The base model is the $499 FMD-200, which simulates a 52-inch TV. But as long as you’re spending wastefully, why not go for the deluxe package? That would be the $799 FMD-150W, which simulates a 62-inch wide-screen TV with surround sound and crisp S-video input.

Keeping It All Safe

Security was another major theme at this year’s Comdex.

A large selection of gear was on display to keep safe the secrets on your computer or network, mainly by ensuring that only authorized users get access to your information.

One example was the BioID software from German company DCS. Working with any computer-mounted camera and microphone, it grants or denies access to a computer or program by reading lip movements, face measurements and vocal frequencies of the would-be user. Traveling CEOs can buy the one-user version for $100, which might come in handy the next time they lose their laptop at a trade show.

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Dave Wilson contributed to this report.