Comdex 2003: Picks and Pans

Comdex-Goers Go Mobile and Party On

Cut the Cord: Electrovaya claims its new, lightweight Tablet PC has a battery life of nine hours. If so, that's a remarkable amount of unplugged time for the $2299 Scribbler Tablet PC SC 2000, which weighs only 3.1 pounds and has a 12.1-inch display. --Ramon G. McLeod

When Is a Tablet Not a Tablet? Microsoft's Tablet PC premiered at Comdex 2002; a year later, it doesn't seem to have revolutionized mobile computing as we know it. Maybe that's why tablet vendors seemed to be pushing new models as traditional notebooks with tablet capability as an added feature. For instance, Gateway's new model resembles an existing Gateway laptop, but its screen can be rotated for pen input. The extra cost is a not-too-intimidating $150. --Harry McCracken

Best-Kept Secret: AT&T announced the nationwide launch of its next-generation wireless EDGE network, a move that caught many wireless industry followers (including this one) completely by surprise. EDGE technology promises data speeds at 100 to 130 kilobits per second, compared to GPRS' 40 to 60 kbps. --Yardena Arar

Time (and Tune) Savers

Hard Drive Help: Want multiple hard drives in a RAID arrangement? You're no longer forced to choose between speed and data protection. Netcell's new RAID controller cards bring speed and a safety net to the masses. A $150 three-disk arrangement stripes data across two disks, while the third disk contains a formula that summarizes the data on both disks. If either of the first two disks fails, the third can step in without losing data or speed. --Edward N. Albro

Best Resurrection: Is it just us, or does it seem strange that Google can search trillions of Web pages in less than a second but Windows takes minutes on end to search our puny hard drives? Consider X1, formerly Magellan: The DOS hard drive search, cum-viewer, cum-file manager from the 1990s has been reborn and priced at just $99. In addition to images, videos, and PDFs, the Windows-based X1 views e-mail from Outlook, Outlook Express, Lotus Notes, and Eudora. we'll never waste time with Windows search again. --Steve Bass and Edward N. Albro

Easy on the Ears: Octiv's Volume Logic plug-in for ITunes solves one problem of amassing a digital music collection: Some MP3s are too loud, while others are too quiet. This $20 plug-in evens out the volume of your songs as they play. A public beta is available for Mac OS X only; a Windows beta is expected at year end. --Eric Butterfield

That's Entertainment

How Geeks Party: At one late-night soiree off the Strip, revelers filled a beer mug by pouring brew through a specially rigged LapLink cable. You can't do that with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. --Harry McCracken

Who Needs Caffeine? Comdex attendees in search of a high-tech pick-me-up found it at the Oxygen Bar. For as little as $1 a whiff you could choose from more than a dozen or so scents of 85 percent-pure oxygen, ranging from Hottie (cinnamon) to Raspberry Rush. It gives new meaning to the term "natural high." --Yardena Arar

Bring Back the Pirates: The venerable pirate show at Treasure Island is no more. Instead of a swashbuckling display complete with life-size galleons, canon fire, and pirates jumping into a fake ocean fronting Las Vegas Boulevard, we now have the "Sirens of TI." The new show features scantily clad showgirls who strut their stuff to the ear-splitting sounds of canned pop music. What a waste: Babes are a dime a dozen in Las Vegas, but conflict on the high seas is scarce in the Nevada desert. --Yardena Arar

What We Aren't Bringing Home

Most Impractical: On display at the Majestron booth was a knobby, flying-saucer-shaped, USB-powered personal massager. Sure, it could ease the crick in your neck on a long flight, but the person sitting next to you would probably request a seat change. --Rebecca Freed

Mooouuuuse Input: I've heard of stretch limos, but this is something else: Benq's off-site suite featured a "concept mouse" with an extendible shell that adjusts to different lengths. No word on whether the company plans to market such a product. --Harry McCracken

Is That Really Necessary? VICU's v360 Degree camera, as you might have guessed by its name, captures 360-degree images. You can stick it in your fish tank and keep track of your pets as they swim around the bend. How's that for a way to spend $1500 to $4500? --Steve Bass

Now That's a Party: Do you long for the days of party-line phones? Messenger Call Box, a hardware/software package from BAFO Technologies, does the trick. Due out early next year, the technology lets you route voice chats on all major IM clients to and from conventional wired and wireless phones. You can also let a friend across the country call someone in your area code for free. The catch? The call is routed through your local phone line, so pick up the phone and you'll hear their conversation. You've got to be a really good friend to put up with that. --Edward N. Albro

Product That Most Resembles a Bread Maker: Trying to ignore your overflowing in-box? The 912, a robot from White Box Robotics, won't let you get away with that--it will follow you into the kitchen and nag until you pay attention. The $1500 prototype robot is a fully functioning PC with an MP3 player, monitor, and wireless keyboard. It includes sunglasses that double as a monitor while also giving you that suave Men in Black look. --Steve Bass

See You in January?

Making Other Plans: Weirdly, the most-discussed trade show at Comdex may not have been Comdex. Everywhere, vendors who opted out of an official presence at this show are talking up their ambitious plans for the Consumer Electronics Show, back in Las Vegas in January. It's small wonder that CES is now the country's largest trade show, even as Comdex dwindles into irrelevance. --Harry McCracken

For more Comdex news, check PCWorld.com's ongoing coverage of the trade show.