Picks and Pans of Fall Comdex

Amid the Vegas glitter, we spot a lot of shiny trinkets and some gems.

LAS VEGAS--It ain't over 'til the last chad is accounted for--or, in the case of Comdex, until PC World posts its annual list of winners and losers. Our small squadron of editors trained their eagle eyes (OK, some with the help of bifocals) on the entire pageant. We sought out the sublime--gadgets to die for, technologies to look forward to--to the ridiculous (silly showgirls, what-were-they-thinking products). It's the next best thing to being there--and there's no need for recounts. (See PCWorld.com's Comdex Coverage.)

That's Entertainment?

Lamest use of lamé award goes to Hitachi for a stage show featuring three smiling women in bone-tight leather-and-lamé outfits, parading around with the company's products. OK, so DVD drives aren't all that exciting, but didn't this go out with the Rat Pack? --Ramon G. McLeod

I'd rather see Cirque du Soleil, thanks: Chip manufacturer National Semiconductor takes the worst entertainment prize for the second year in a row with its live show, featuring a lady singer who desperately tried to inject a little soul into lyrics such as "Internet appliances are front page news/and National is making them easier to use." On the plus side, she was less irritating than the faux Spice Girls at the company's booth last year. --Harry McCracken

Most dangerous booth presentation: The trapeze artists at the Olympus booth. Women spinning on bouncing bungee cords, men dangling from poles, and people dancing below. Who knows what it has to do with digital imaging, but it sure drew a crowd.-- Tom Mainelli

Best rendition of "Devil Went Down to Georgia": Blues Traveler at the Ask Jeeves party at the Hard Rock Café. --Tom Mainelli

The Floor Show

Biggest trend: Biometric security, which seems to be the mission of dozens of exhibitors. Fingerprints, voice, typing style, retina patterns--every conceivable human trait appears in one or more products intended to protect PCs from intruders. --Harry McCracken

Biggest trend left over from last year's show: Internet appliances. Just like last year, companies such as Intel, Be, and National Semiconductor tout software and hardware for non-PC Internet access devices for the home. How many of these devices will hit the market remains unclear, but Be's prototypes are surprisingly impressive, thanks to support for Java and other technologies that make so many sites more entertaining and interactive. --Harry McCracken

Dumbest booth: Against conventional trade show wisdom, visitors had to step up to get to His Highness Sheikh Mohammed's booth. Most fun was watching people videotaping the others tripping on the riser. --Steve Bass

Absolutely most mesmerizing booth: The 3D displays from Dimensional Media Associates and the Digital Animation Group, which designed the sexy video newscaster for Ananova.com. Comdex attendees stood in lines to gawk at kiosks that projected--15 inches out--glistening 3D holograms of canned drinks, silver cell phones, and other products. The spinning images looked so real, viewers kept trying to grab them. Also popular: the 3D image of the disco mirror ball floating above its display case, and the 3D Rubik's cube that turns when you "touch" it. Unfortunately, these products, aimed at the retail display market, start at around $6000. Coming soon to a Tiffany's near you? --Anne B. McDonald

Coolest future tech display: If you go to Comdex to see high tech of the future as well as the present, then Toshiba's collection of prototypes that may or may not make it to market was a must-visit. Its electronic book uses a high-resolution, nonreflective screen to produce type so clear I thought it was printed on paper and pasted on the device. Also cool: tiny secure digital disk-based global positioning system, digital camera, and other devices about the size of a CompactFlash card. --Yardena Arar

Most unavoidable booth attention-grabber: Cars, which seemed to be parked everywhere. Enough PT Cruisers filled the show floor to stock a medium-size Chrysler dealership. This, combined with Mercedes's prominent role as a Comdex sponsor, and the fact that Las Vegas simultaneously hosted a convention of Suzuki SUV dealers, leaves me feeling I'd stumbled into the National Auto Show by mistake. --Harry McCracken

Hey, Santa! A Wish List Assembled at Comdex

Fastest PCs in the West (or East, North, or South): Both AMD and Intel showed off systems running at 1.5 GHz. Stay tuned for the shoot-outs at the PCWorld.com corral. --Tom Mainelli

Better than Mir: Hughes Network DirecDuo broadband Internet and TV access released an update. This version doesn't need a phone line--your PC uploads through the dish on your roof right to the satellite. --Steve Bass

Put me down for one: NVidia announced its first graphics processing unit for laptops; we got a sneak peak at the GeForce2 Go on a Toshiba Satellite notebook. As Keanu Reeves might say: "Whoa." More about this product soon. --Ramon G. McLeod

Big pictures for fat wallets: This show finally convinced me I need one of these sweet displays. Everyone was either showing off a wide screen LCD or using someone else's to run their demos. Never mind that they cost upwards of $4000: I want my 24-inch monitor. --Eric Dahl

Bigger pictures for fatter wallets: Why stop at 24 inches? Plasma displays of 3 to 4 feet now go for under $10,000. --Yardena Arar

Coolest Visor Springboard module: The SoundsGood Audio Player from Good Technology. It inserts flush onto your Visor, has 64MB of storage (about an hour of music), and syncs that data in about 4 minutes. At $249 (after rebate) it's not cheap, but for an extra $40 you get an Energy Clip slightly larger than the module, has a single battery, and lets you listen without your Visor. --Tom Mainelli

Most promising computer audio components: Gateway's Connected Music Player. You stream music to it from your hard drive via home phone-line networking, and it sounds pretty good. Unlike other vendors' offerings, this one is thin, black, and long: It looks like an audio component you'd add to your stereo system. Meanwhile, SimpleDevices previewed its platform for Simple FI, HomeRF wireless technology that streams digital audio from your PC to any home stereo equipment in your home. --Tom Mainelli and Melissa Perenson

Energizer Bunny, eat your heart out: Electric Fuel's new disposable cell phone batteries ($12 to $16) promise a whopping 16 hours of talk time, or 25 days of life in stand-by mode. The battery snaps on to the back of popular model cell phones from Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung. It hits WalMart aisles over the holidays branded as an EverActive battery. --Tom Spring

Picture-pretty, and music too: LG Electronics' Digital Music Eye may be a year from release, but its cool all-in-one design and snappy silver and blue colors made this Universal Serial Bus video camera, digital still camera, and MP3 player an eye-catching draw. The unit uses a tiny Multimedia Card to store media files. --Melissa Perenson

Weird, but Potentially Useful

Tower of Babel award: Ectaco's Pocket Voice Translator converts spoken words between any of six languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Russian (more available at the Web site). The device gives a whole new meaning to the expression, "Talk to the hand." --Dennis O'Reilly

Now that's multitasking: How about the Trapezia from UMDigital? This 933-MHz PIII system, due next year, lets you run different applications on two to five monitors at once from the same keyboard and mouse. Watch a DVD while designing a Web page, writing a letter to mom, crunching numbers, and looking up airline fares! --Anne B. McDonald

Most promising Transmeta notebook for the United States: Casio's Cassiopeia FIVA. Weighing just over 2 pounds, this little guy is a dream to carry, has a very bright display, and looks great. But can Casio actually deliver the 10-hour run time Transmeta quotes? And at what cost to performance? --Tom Mainelli

Do-it-yourself digital video recorder: Hauppauge is developing an external USB version of its WinTV-PV, which turns your PC into a ReplayTV or TiVo-style digital TV recording device. While you can't export recorded video to videocassette for VCR viewing, you can export shows for recording to Video CDs. --Melissa Perenson

PC, phone home: Sprint and WorldCom might want to keep an eye the VoIPBlaster from Creative Labs. For less than 20 bucks you get a small device you connect to a telephone or headset. A Digital Signal Processor digitizes your voice and sends it through a USB port to your PC, which sends it to another VoIPBlaster anywhere in the world. Result: unlimited free long distance calls for $19.99. --Andrew Eisner

Hold Those Thoughts--Permanently

Dumb product someone will try: Have an extra $200? Stick the Cyclopx on your head, fire up Quake, and steer by turning your head. Works with your mouse, keyboard, or joystick. --Steve Bass

Even dumber product someone will try: Shopping for online groceries and want to smell the bananas? Want a whiff of a virtual coworker's perfume (or worse)? A gadget from DigiScents attaches to your PC and transmits scents to your desktop. Achoo! --Steve Bass

Product trying to do waaay too much: CMC Magnetics hedges all its bets with its new CyberBoy. This PDA is also an MP3 player, Web camera, digital still camera, FM receiver, and a voice recorder. What, it doesn't vacuum? --Anne B. McDonald

PC Chic

Really, it's not a toaster, it's a PC: Taiwanese PC manufacturer Tsann Kuen looks to the animal kingdom and beyond for design inspiration. The Home has a dolphin-blue case that resembles a fish. The Bunny, intended for children, rests on two small feet and has a vertically mounted CD-ROM drive with a plastic cover that lifts to resemble ears. The Classic's smooth, polished aluminum-magnesium alloy case really does look like a toaster. --Kalpana Narayanamurthi

A sweater for your monitor? Felt monitor covers from C-wraps come in a range of colors and fabrics, from army fatigue brown-and-green, to leopard skin. While these covers won't break the bank--all cost about $20--they don't really seem to have a point, except to make your display look goofy. --Kalpana Narayanamurthi

Mouse Tales

Don't have to pet this mouse: Cordless mice have been around, but Gyration offers a new spin with GyroMouse Pro, which lets you do your mousing with a wave of your hand. The $99 device uses gyroscopes to track hand movements and send them to the cursor, and provides a traditional mouse ball for use on desks and tabletops. --Dennis O'Reilly

"What were they thinking?" award: Apparently a messy mouse cord is an insurmountable problem. But the Plug-in Mouse has--you guessed it--a fully retractable cord and USB plug. Yank the cable from the mouse's door and attach it to your notebook. The cord retracts into the mouse when you're done. --Steve Bass and Tom Spring

They Said What?

Sheer lack of perspective award goes to the "industry leader" who remarked, during a panel on digital imaging and the Web: "There is nothing worse in this world than a shoebox full of photo CDs." An audience member immediately rejoined, "How about that little thing over in the Middle East?" --Ramon G. McLeod and Harry McCracken

Misplaced fashion statement: You can't blame Microsoft Chair Bill Gates for recruiting help from product managers to show off the Tablet PC prototype, Office 10, and VisualStudio.net during a keynote address that ran well over schedule. But I was stupefied by the rambling presentation he allowed Ralph Lauren's son, David, to make about the Polo.com Web site. Lauren's best line, pointing to business casual clothes for high-techies: "This is what we think you should wear." --Yardena Arar

Not for Sale, but We Like It

Technology most worth watching: Kodak's organic light-emitting diodes. A potential LCD killer, OLEDs produce vivid colors that don't look like computer displays. Since they don't need backlighting, they're thinner and more power-efficient than today's LCD screens. Now used in certain cell phones and car radios, OLEDs may appear in PDAs, notebooks, and other technology devices. --Harry McCracken

Thank God someone has a conscience: A heartfelt thanks to the nonprofit folks from The Cristina Foundation, Tech Corps, and Computers for Schools--all were Comdex exhibitors and lone holdouts in a sea of crass commercialism. The Cristina Foundation provides computer training for the disabled and disadvantaged. Tech Corps puts volunteers into schools to upgrade the schools' expertise and equipment. Computers for Schools accepts obsolete stuff you bought at earlier Comdex gatherings, refurbishes it, and donates it to schools. Keep these URLs! --Anne B. McDonald