PC Expo Rides Wireless Wave
USA TODAY
Edward C. Baig
June 28, 2001
NEW YORK — It's not that you
can't spot personal computers at the annual PC Expo trade show
being held this week in Manhattan.
Tiny and powerful: Targus
introduces a tiny PDA keyboard.
But the industry gabfest, now
in its 19th year and part of a new venture called TechXNY
(Technology Exchange Week, New York), is as much these days
about handheld gizmos, digital cameras, flat-screen monitors,
set-top boxes and all things wireless.
Some 500 companies put a
variety of products on display, from servers and other wares
targeted at businesses to offerings with more of a consumer
bent. Despite "official" show estimates of 50,000 registrants,
the usually bustling Jacob K. Javits Convention Center seemed
far less busy than in the past.
But not all was doom and
gloom. A slew of new notebooks, for example, are banking on
the appeal of wireless networking, incorporating the Wi-Fi
(802.11b) scheme. Sony introduced two new Clié personal
digital assistants using Palm's operating system. Compaq
showed a keyboard with a built-in smart card reader, so you
can slip in the new breed of credit cards to purchase securely
via the Net.
Here's a sampling of other
intriguing products showcased on the convention floor and at
events around town.
• Panasonic raised the stakes
in the nascent market for stand-alone recordable DVD boxes.
Its new DMR-E20 arrives in October at around $1,000, less than
half what the year-old, first-generation DVD recorder
commanded.
Among new features is the
ability to record up to 12 hours of video on new two-sided
9.4-gigabyte DVD-RAM disks, plus "Time Slip" playback that
lets you watch a recorded portion of a program from the start
while continuing to record the show in progress.
The device also allows you to
digitally record in the DVD-R format. But confusion abounds.
Hewlett-Packard, Philips, Pioneer, Sony and others back
competing and incompatible recordable DVD formats.
• Ultra-light notebook
computers exact a series of compromises, not the least of
which is rather paltry battery life. But the sub-$2,000,
under-three-pound Compaq Evo N200, due this fall, promises to
last up to eight hours, thanks to a low-voltage Intel Pentium
III processor and a pair of lithium ion batteries. But the
second battery is an option (no price yet), and other
trade-offs remain — heavy-duty typists will have to manage
with a slightly undersized keyboard.
• Speaking of typing, you may
know Targus for its Stowaway full-size foldaway keyboard for
handheld PDAs. Now Targus has introduced a tiny PDA keyboard
for those who don't need to do a lot of touch-typing. The
first $40 Targus ThumbPad is compatible with the Palm V and is
due in late July or early August.
• If you already require a
crowbar to pry your kid away from PlayStation 2, imagine how
difficult it will be when Junior literally gets his head in
the game. A new technology called PictureParadise from Sony,
to be built into several new games, makes it possible.
You snap the child's picture
with any Sony digital camera or camcorder, transfer the image
via USB to the console, and his mug is mapped onto the face of
characters in games that adhere to the new scheme. The first
compatible title in the USA, Monster Rancher 3 from Tecmo, is
scheduled to appear this summer.
• Think of it as for
your laptop. A service called zTrace Technologies can help you
recover a stolen notebook. Its software sits invisibly on your
computer. When a thief uses the machine to dial out over the
Net, the laptop secretly calls zTrace servers, sending a
silent SOS. The company relies on caller ID and the machine's
IP address to determine the computer's whereabouts; zTrace
works closely with the police.
Through an add-on service,
you'll soon be able to surreptitiously recover files from the
lifted machine or delete those you don't want others to see,
without the crook ever knowing. Basic monitoring: $49.95 a
year.
• MP3 music files are not
just for your computer anymore. Hewlett-Packard unveiled a
working prototype of the HP Digital Entertainment Center, a
set-top box. Designed for living rooms, it will let you store
and catalog up to 750 discs or about 9,000 tracks — on a
40-gigabyte hard drive, and view the titles and artists on
your TV screen.
After turning your tunes into
MP3 files, you can easily transfer music to portable digital
music players. Due out for the holiday season at less than
$1,000, the device also delivers Net radio stations and is
similar to a box that Compaq recently started selling.
• Electric Fuel made its mark
by introducing a device that lets you charge your cell phone
without having to connect to an electrical outlet. Now the
company is extending its pocket-size Instant Power Charger
line for PDAs.
The $20 charger, which weighs
less than three ounces, snaps into your PDA's usual power
connections — and you can continue to use the handheld
computer even as the thing is charging. Cartridges are good
for three charges; replacements cost $10 each.
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