PC Power Products Debut at E3

Gaming conference also sees easy home nets, app-specific keyboards.

Frank Thorsberg, special to PCWorld.com

LOS ANGELES-- Video games naturally occupy center stage, but the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) here is also seeing the debut of novel implementations of familiar PC technology.

On display are an innovative home networking system from Coaxsys and new versions of Ideazon's application-specific keyboards designed to make popular consumer, business, and gaming software easier to use.

Easy Network

The Coaxsys Pure Speed promises a fast home network--100 Mbps--delivered by Ethernet from existing coaxial cable connections or cable modem hook-ups in the home.

The basic Pure Speed system, scheduled to ship in July, promises plug-and-play operation and carries a suggested retail price of $350. It consists of two network adapters and one network hub. The hub can support a home network with a maximum of eight separate adaptors, which will cost between $120 and $130 apiece, according to Coaxsys.

Researchers estimate more than 100 million non-PC consumer electronic products--including video game consoles, MP3 jukeboxes, personal video recorders, home entertainment systems, and even refrigerators, stoves, and toasters--will be equipped with Ethernet connections by 2006.

"These are all consumer-driven applications that can be networked together in the home," said Adam Powers, Coaxsys chief technology officer. "We think our technology offers the fastest throughput, the easiest installation and most scalable system for home networking."

Custom Keyboards

The $40 Zboard from Ideazon is a customized, two-piece keyboard system built to enhance some of the world's big-name video games. It's also designed to make it easier to use mainstream and specialty PC programs that have nothing to do with shooting, fighting, flying, or driving in cyberspace.

The basic Zboard system, introduced earlier this year, comes with a standard-style QWERTY keyboard that sits on top of a specially designed base. Replacement keyboards include multiple features designed to enhance specific games and other programs, and prices range from $20 to $30 each. An embedded chip stores the keyboard shortcuts and automatically launches games like Medal of Honor and applications that include Microsoft Word and Adobe Photoshop.

The new game keyboards, introduced here at E3, feature butterfly specialty key layouts custom-designed for a variety of entertainment programs. Supported games include Madden NFL 2003 by EA Sports, and America's Army, Delta Force--Black Hawk Down, by novaLogic, which comes with a camouflage color scheme.

The keyboards for non-gaming applications offer shortcut and other specialty keys for use with Macromedia Flash MX, Macromedia Dreamweaver, and the animation program 3Ds max 5 by Discreet. Each program gets its own special keyboard.

"The Macromedia Flash keyboard, like the others, has built-in hot keys, shortcuts, and special function keys, in addition to a full standard keyboard set-up," says Steve Mahlstedt, Ideazon spokesperson.

The fold-up keyboards offer a much higher level of guidance for novice and experienced users than the paper templates and overlays that were used years ago to point out function and specialty key locations on computer keyboards.

"This gives users the flexibility to learn shortcuts and gain efficiency in using complicated Web design applications like Dreamweaver, or cool gaming applications like Delta Force," Mahlstedt says. "With some programs, users can gain a 30 percent increase in efficiency with the shortcuts that are built in."