The brave souls who made it to last week's Comdex computer trade show in Las Vegas were met by men with guns, sniffer dogs and metal detectors. The appalling events of what Americans call 911 ("nine-eleven") overshadowed the whole affair, and many prominent companies failed to show. Nonetheless, trends did emerge. The most important ones were the move to high-speed wireless networking, and the convergence of the mobile phone and handheld computer markets, reported last week. But, as usual, the most fun was to be had trawling the halls for neat gadgets never seen before, and perhaps never to be seen again.
The hit of the show was undoubtedly Handspring's Treo, a small smartphone based on the Palm operating system. Already announced but unavailable, it attracted huge crowds. Of course, this did not stop the overall Best of Show award going to Fujitsu for its very slim notebook PC, the Lifebook P.
Comdex's other hits included Microsoft's Windows XP and Xbox games console. XP seemed to be everywhere, that being partly the effect of its distinctive hills-and-clouds desktop backgrounds. The Xbox was launched in the US, not at, but during the show, and the main hall foyer had a large display where visitors could try out the latest games.
The biggest miss was Linux, which has been encouraged by the show organisers and used to occupy its own hall. This year, the so-called Linux Hatchery was about the same size as the Egyptian Technology Pavilion and a lot less interesting. To save time answering what every visitor asked, the Hatchery quickly produced a two-page handout headed Where Has All The Linux Gone? One sentence would have been enough: "How can you afford Comdex if you are losing money and have no viable business plan?"
The Koreans, however, looked terrific. The Korean Pavilion of 67 small stands plus another dozen or so more substantial companies would usually have been buried in another part of town, at the Sands Conference Centre. That wasn't used, so Korea was promoted to the main convention area, where it benefited from the absence of giants such as Dell, Gateway, IBM and Sharp, and the shrunken efforts of other suppliers, such as Iomega.
One thing in particular that caught my eye in the Korean Pavilion was a "universal" 10-key system suitable for mobile phones and other handheld devices. The Neopad keys don't carry letters but simple shapes: a diagonal, a dash, four half-circles etc. You can enter text in a wide variety of languages including Arabic and Chinese by entering the elements of the character you want.
Other Korean efforts included Edumedia's Speaking Partner, a handheld with built-in speech recognition for language learning; wireless personal organisers from Milletech and Commuworks; SimTech's Tony Buzan-style MindMapper software; Wisebox's Voice Ville voice-control home automation system; and Aiia's Virtual Diet Consultant. This looks like a hi-tech weighing machine and is intended for health clubs. It measures your weight and body fat and prints out meal plans and an exercise schedule.
Korea's industrial giants, Samsung and LG Electronics, showed a wide range of consumer electronics and computing products. These included Samsung's neat Palm-based colour screen SPH-1300 mobile phone, which was launched in the US a month ago at $499. Unlike Handspring's Treo, however, it does not work with the Euro-global GSM system.
Samsung also showed a prototype Scurry "virtual keyboard" that lets you touch-type in thin air. It is more hi-tech than the Swedish Senseboard (Online, November 15) that was given the show's Best New Technology award - or will be when it is finished. Finger movements are detected by microelectronics stashed inside rings and while these are wired at the moment, the aim is to use Bluetooth radio links in the final version, due in October 2002.
Sony Corporation is also using Bluetooth in a cam corder that is now on sale in Japan, and will reach the US in three months. The Network Handycam connects to a Bluetooth adaptor up to 10m away, which means you can use the camcorder's colour LCD screen to browse the web and send or receive email. Why you would want to do this remains a mystery.
But most of the wireless talk at the show was about Wi-Fi wireless Ethernet networking, commonly known by its Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards number, 802.11b. I found this particularly useful because, at long last, Comdex (or, to be specific, HereUare Communications Inc) provided wireless internet access via a hub in the press tent. Every home should have one, and as the number of broadband users grows, an increasing number do.
In the halls, however, many companies concentrated on a different version, 802.11a, which is just entering the US market. This is about five times faster than 802.11b, with a theoretical throughput of 54 megabits per second and a real-world speed of about half that. It also supports eight simultaneous channels where 802.11b only supports three.
There are problems with 802.11a. It is incompatible with 802.11b, and it is illegal in the UK, because it uses 5GHz frequencies instead of the unlicensed 2.4GHz band used by microwave ovens, remote controlled models and 802.11b. However, you may never care, because yet another standard is on the horizon. During Comdex, the IEEE tentatively agreed a new version, 802.11g, which should achieve the same speed while staying compatible with the current standard. And that is what we want.
