LAS VEGAS -- The big-budget, high-profile Comdex trade shows of the 1990s are clearly no more. This year's show was a much smaller, deliberately scaled-down affair. How much smaller? Consider this: No traffic cops were needed at the main intersection in front of the convention center. Or this: Parking was easily available in the convention center's main lot--for only $5.
Still, our editors hit the show floor this week, making their way through the extra-narrow aisles (we hear the organizers designed them that way to give the illusion of a crowd). The show was more business-focused than in the past, but plenty of consumer goodies could still be found. Here's a sampling of what PC World's editors have to say about Comdex 2003.
Does Size Really Matter?
Same Time Next Year? When I told friends I was headed to my 13th consecutive Fall Comdex, some were startled to hear the show still exists; one insisted it had been held last week in Atlanta. The show did go on, of course: Attendance was dramatically off from Comdex's glory days, but exhibitors seemed happy with conventioneers, and the panels were well attended. Still, many openly wonder if this is the last Comdex, even though Bill Gates has already agreed to keynote next year's event. --Harry McCracken
There's a Show Here Somewhere: Rumor has it that fewer than 40,000 people registered for Comdex. Still, few vendors complained, many simply meeting in hotel suites and other venues away from the Las Vegas Convention Center. It seems that many Comdex dropouts attended only for the freebies (which also were relatively low profile), so this year's attendees were more likely to buy products. --Yardena Arar
Sign of the Times? In the old days, high-tech behemoths like Hewlett-Packard and Sony occupied Comdex's prime real estate. This year, space right inside the main entrance was devoted to demonstrations of an electronic dartboard game from China; an Armenian technology booth was mere steps away. --Harry McCracken
Crosstown Competition: As if Comdex didn't have enough problems, it had a rival show to contend with: The Mandalay Bay-hosted cdXpo, another business computing event--despite having a name that sounds like it has something to do with music or adult entertainment. Mobile signs promoting it cruised the convention-center area, but apparently few attendees made the trek. --Harry McCracken
Easy on the Eyes
Hot Rod: In its suite, Acer showed the Ferrari 3000, a notebook designed by Ferrari that has a Mobile AMD Athlon XP-M processor 2500+ under the hood. This power system has four coats of Ferrari red paint and comes with a matching red mouse. The notebook, which has been selling like a hot rod in other countries, will ship in the United States in a few weeks for $1899. --Rebecca Freed
Big Screens, Smaller Prices: Now that LCDs are becoming commonplace, they're starting to get bigger. HP, NEC-Mitsubishi, Samsung, and ViewSonic all unveiled models in the 19-inch-plus range, and some of those debuted at under $900. Not so long ago, that price was unheard-of for such a large screen. --Yardena Arar
Hey, Good Lookin': Samsung's new 17-inch SyncMaster 172X LCD boasts a 12-millisecond response time, faster than any LCD we've tested. The 172X even looks fast, with its thin silver bezel: 0.5 inch at the top and bottom, and 0.4 inch on the sides. Its estimated street price is $649. --Eric Butterfield
Cool Gear
Hit the Road: Microsoft showed its .NET Connected Car outside the convention center. Drivers can issue verbal commands to make telephone calls, hear e-mail messages read, plot their route via GPS, and even play music. The prototype is mounted in the dashboard. No details on a final product release, but it is expected to cost between $300 and $500. --Ramon G. McLeod
That's Entertainment: ATI's new Multimedia Center 8.8 promises to supply streaming video throughout a networked home. It lets you use PCs you already own as TV sets. For example, a bedroom PC can do double duty as an entertainment appliance, playing shows recorded on another PC that's hooked up to your cable or antenna. The PC with the TV hookup needs an ATI All-in-Wonder board (ATI's TV tuner-equipped line), and the remote PC requires an ATI Radeon graphics card, but the software to make it happen is free. --Yardena Arar
Feel the Beat: Zalman USA Theatre Six claims its headphones produce real 5.1 surround sound--mimicking a true multichannel speaker system. No, you won't get the same kind of bass that comes from a system with a subwoofer, but the $70 headphones do produce impressive results. They connect to a PC with a sound card that has front, rear, and center outputs. Coming soon: an amplifier that lets the headphones work with DVD players, home theater receivers, and game consoles. --Ramon G. McLeod
Back to Business
Rev It Up: Iomega's new product wins the storage device we really, really want award. The Rev, shipping in March, is an internal or external USB drive with a removable 35GB disk. Backing up's a blast, as you can boot from the external REV drive. The external drive will cost $499; the internal drive should be cheaper. --Steve Bass and Harry McCracken
Goodbye, UPS Man? Don't waste time and money mailing important documents. Authentidate, from the U.S. Postal Service, affixes a digital signature block and a time stamp to Microsoft Word XP or 2003 documents. The service, installed via a free Word plug-in, confirms your identity through a series of questions. You can then e-mail the document to your business partner. You might never see the man in the brown shorts again. --Edward N. Albro
Lost Cause: Recovering important data from damaged discs isn't hopeless. CD/DVD Diagnostic from Arrowkey, now in version 2.1, recovers information from scratched or corrupted discs in all the common CD and DVD formats. The $50 software runs on Windows, but also recovers Mac and Linux files, as well as video burned on new DVD recorders that connect directly to TV sets. --Eric Butterfield
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