Steve,
ClearStation signaled an uptrend... Timing looks good with Comdex coming up... Speaking of COMDEX;) a little of the pre-confrence hype...
COMDEX gathering to offer look at high-tech future
But many items to go on sale in time for holiday season
By Steve Fidel
Deseret News staff writer
Ideas to greet the new "technomillennium": digital identities, an Internet separate from the PC and a home environment George Jetson could relate to.
All of those technology themes will be on display at the 20th anniversary COMDEX as the largest technology show-and-tell on the planet consumes Las Vegas Nov. 15-19. Exhibitors hoping to corner some attention for their computer, Internet or other technology innovation will fill every square inch of two convention centers plus exhibit space at several major hotels. The crowd of 200,000 expected to attend the event has made COMDEX so irresistible that the unknowing who stumble into town expecting slots and a cheap buffet find it costs more than $100 a night during the weeklong show just to get Motel 6 to leave the light on.
What started in 1979 as an industry-only geekfest now forecasts the myriad technology tools people use both at home and at work.
The annual show's killer timing at the onset of the Christmas buying season is watered down only by the fact that many of the products on display are so futuristic they are still months away from production. For products that are available for sale, this is the season the cash registers start to ring.
"People don't often remember technology for new e-commerce is heavy on things like printers and computer speakers," said Bill Sell, COMDEX vice president and general manager. "We may think we're moving to a paperless society, but all of those people browsing the Web still end up clicking the 'print' button. And with more and more sounds being added to the Internet, there is a big demand for simple things like computer speakers."
Specifics of many of the new offerings are kept secret until the show opens and the Deseret News will feature new releases in coverage during the show but trends are obvious even in the show's name, which this year is "Beyond the PC."
The name represents the explosion of microprocessor-based devices that do not resemble a personal computer, such as personal digital assistants such as the latest incarnation of the Palm Pilot, the Palm VII. Handheld computers bridge the gap between PDAs and more traditional PCs. Two-way pagers and wireless phones capable of carrying e-mail traffic and browsing Internet content promise to account for an increasing percentage of the technology tools people use to access the Internet.
Sell said exhibitors will be demonstrating new non-PC devices and competing software platforms that make them work. Whether the newer classes of devices, and especially the software, will engage in a beta-vs.-VHS type battle with an eventual dominant configuration emerging remains to be seen.
A follow-on from one year ago, PCs that can be worn like a vest or on a belt also show computing is shedding its traditional box format. The wearable ViA II PC, for example, runs Windows 98, has a 180MHz processor, 3.2 gigabyte hard drive, 64 meg RAM, two expansion slots and a serial port. The user accesses computer functions using a stylus on a color LCD tablet. Its maker is promoting mobile PC gear among field medical services, insurance claims adjusters, building inspectors and other mobile occupations.
Microsoft has developed boiled-down versions of its Windows operating systems for the PDA and handheld computer market. Trends show the software giant will be less dominant with non-PC computers than it is with laptop and desktop PCs. Strong and growing interest in the Linux operating system signals Microsoft is also losing its grip on stand-alone and networked PCs. Linux is distributed free over the Internet and is also repackaged and sold commercially by companies such asRed Hat and Orem-based Caldera. Linux's "arrival" was evident at a separate Linux pavilion at COMDEX last year and is reinforced this fall with the architect of the operating system, Linus Torvalds, invited to join an elite group of keynote speakers that includes Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and chief executive officers from companies such asSony, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, Sun Microsystems and Utah's Novell.
The increasing adaptability of microprocessor devices is also promising to further automate the home, with exhibitors planning to show smarter home appliances that can respond to voice commands and interact with the Internet.
LCD projectors that until recently focused on home theater applications are now being used to turn walls into Web screens. Home computer networks are also gaining in popularity. Bell Labs spin-off Lucent offers its HomeStar Wiring System that provides master control of a home's telephone, Internet, entertainment, security and other automation systems. Some of the automation systems are wireless to make them easier to retrofit into an existing home.
Many of the home automation systems send their human masters e-mail reminders of routine tasks, such as changing furnace filters, and can be accessed remotely via the Internet allowing systems to be monitored or changed from the office or while out of town.
Another major niche at the show involves personal and business security in the Internet age focusing on the use of biometrics.
Biometric devices authenticate a person's identity by mapping a hard-to-forge physical characteristic such as a fingerprint or retinal scan. Biometric devices digest huge amounts of data to make their matches and comparisons, which has limited their use to security systems in large government buildings and in techno-oriented Hollywood productions.
Processor speed and data storage capabilities have advanced to the point biometric devices are now likely to be used on PCs to allow users an option to myriad passwords used for personal security and to access Internet services that handle private banking, medical or personal information.
The maker of the U-Match Biolink Mouse isn't saying specifically what it will show at COMDEX, but the name gives the impression fingerprint authentication will be part of the same device used to point-and-click through Internet space.
Other security and encryption technologies are being used to authenticate documents transferred electronically over the Internet, which is a key factor in expanding the growth of Internet commerce and government services.
The 20th anniversary show will also be heavy on entertainment. Unique this year is a New Year's celebration, complete with parties, music and fireworks. "A lot of people who work with computers won't have the holiday off and are going to be staring at their computer screens on New Year's Eve" because of Y2K concerns, Sell said. "So we decided to have the party here early."
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