by
Ethan
Zuckerman
Geeks Only: The Nitty Gritty Comdex Highlights
Small is big. And while the big companies build smaller machines, some of
the small companies are making it big. Via, not a giant of a company,
turned a lot of heads with a two-pound, wearable computer. Then again, it
might have been the models wearing skin-tight body suits, cropped sweatshirts
and Pentiums. The folks from Via had a 486 outfitted with a microphone and
1" eyepiece monitor, for hands-free use on an assembly line, via voice
operation. Personally, I was thinking of a Pentium running Linux, a wrist-mounted keyboard, a Connectix video camera mounted on my glasses, and a
modem attached to a cellular phone. For about eight thousand dollars, you
too could be a walking Web server -- sure beats the hell out of most of the
Webcams out there. I just find it extremely cool that the "gargoyles"
of Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash are possible today.
For another approach to the wearable computer, Rach Incorporated introduced
a neat little toy called the Podium. It's a laptop case that cinches around
your upper thigh, allowing you to balance the computer on your leg as a
portable desk. Or, as the president of the company demonstrated, you can
strap your computer on your dog's back for even more portability. (Large
dog recommended.)
What I want, though, is one of the new palmtops running Windows CE. LG
showed off a cute little device with handwriting recognition, 4 megs of
memory, a vaguely usable keyboard, and a PCMCIA slot. While I ogled this, a
Phillips representative tried to persuade me that they had an even more
impressive device. He was right -- the Phillips product lacked handwriting
recognition but included a 19.2 modem, allowing you to use the palmtop as
an Internet terminal. Windows CE even supports a limited version of
Internet Explorer -- no images, but pretty cool nevertheless. I want one,
and I may even get one since the list price is only $600. (Bruce,
beancounter, please? I promise I won't lose it the way Bo loses his laptop...)
Not everything is getting smaller -- panel displays are getting bigger,
brighter and clearer. We're still a long way from an affordable
wall-mounted display, but it's clear that the technology is on its way.
Anyone who's ever had to move a 21" monitor, begin rejoicing now -- without
a picture tube, these units are also incredibly lightweight. I'd expect to
see them packaged with desktop systems within two years.
Another major hardware trend on show was the Internet appliance. By now,
almost everyone's heard of WebTV, the new set-top Net box being built by
both Sony and Phillips. But the race for TV-based Net access isn't over.
Phillips was also showing a CDI-based Net product, largely for use in
commercial training settings, but with possible consumer implications.
Lucent Technologies was talking big talk about Inferno, their effort to
create a standard for Net appliances. And there were a handful of Net
phones, which allow you to check your e-mail and download some basic data
(sports scores, horoscopes, lottery numbers) through a desktop telephone.
But the surest sign that the Net appliance has arrived? There were half a
dozen no name manufacturers producing cheap knockoffs of WebTVs...
There wasn't a lot of exciting Web software on display -- the programs I
found exciting were new server products designed to let content providers
"push" information to readers rather than waiting for them to "pull" it
down. Backweb, Arrive and others had servers to sell, and it looks like
there will be many more options than Pointcast for folks wanting to
passively surf in '97.
Coolest thing at the show? A cobalt blue and orange cube called "Trinity."
Developed by Play, Inc., Trinity is an amazingly cool video switcher and
effects generator. Remember the Amiga-based Video Toaster, the early
'80s toy that let you do things on your desktop that folks couldn't do
in professional TV stations? Well, Trinity is the Toaster of the late '90s.
It requires a Pentium PC to interface with the system, and it would take a
little time to learn to use. But you can do things with it that are simply
ludicrous -- like wrap live video around three-dimensional objects and get
accurate displacements, shadows and reflections. Okay, so it doesn't sound
that impressive when I try to explain it, but let me put it this way: a
major TV network ordered 100 of the $10,000 devices when they discovered
you could use it to wrap video around a computer-generated football helmet.
Don't listen to me -- check it out at http://www.play.com, and don't be
surprised if the quality of TV special effects improves dramatically in the
next few months.
Back to Geeks go to Vegas
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