Comdex Fall 2000 Summary
by Matthew Witheiler on November 19, 2000 4:14 AM EST- Posted in
- Trade Shows
Wireless
Another area of technology that was proudly demonstrated by many on the show floor was various implementations of wireless technology. We were able to catch a glimpse at products that took advantage of not only the current 802.11b wireless spec but also Bluetooth and HomeRF products.
802.11b products came out with a strong showing, as many mobile computers and internet appliances used this mode of wirelss transport to offer Internet access. Not much has changed on the 802.11b front, and the technology remains targeted at large-scale corporate wireless networks.
Bluetooth, on the other hand, aims at getting rid of those pesky wires that are constantly between you and your computer. As we discussed in our Wireless Future article, Bluetooth currently has quite a large following. On the show floor, we were able to see quite a few Bluetooth products. We were finally able to see a Bluetooth printer adapter produced by AXIS, which allows for wireless printing over a Bluetooth network, as well as Bluetooth cellular phone adapter that allows for the use of wireless headsets as well as wireless connectivity to any Bluetooth network. Also displayed was a Bluetooth adapter for use in the Handspring Visor PDAs.
On the HomeRF front, Simple Devices had quite an interesting demonstration underway. So far, they have created three products that utilize HomeRF to allow for wireless streaming anywhere in the house.
For example, one product they have is a box which plugs into any home stereo system. What this device does is receive an mp3 stream from a computer located anywhere in the house and pipes the output into the stereo system. This technology would finally allow for wireless mp3 playback essentially anywhere in the house, no matter how far away the stereo system is to the computer. The device includes a simple playlist as well as a display for id3 tags.
The product becomes even more powerful when coupled with their Palm Pilot product. When used together, one can actually view all songs on a playlist, see detailed information about the song, and select specific songs to play, all through the mp3 set-top box. One can imagine sitting on the couch, browsing an mp3 playlist, and selecting songs to play from your computer, all without leaving your seat. We were quite impressed, especially with the relatively low price quoted on these products, of about $100 for the Palm attachment and about $150 to $200 for the stereo box. Of course, both of these items require you to have a HomeRF transmitter in your computer.
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