Showbiz meets hi-tech

Another was aimed at US consumer activist Ralph Nader, who recently hosted an anti-Microsoft conference: “I can use Microsoft CarPoint to show Ralph Nader my Corvair collection,” he said.

Portable computers were the stars of the show, with Casio, Compaq, Philips, Hewlett-Packard, LG, NEC and Sharp showing new hand-held machines running Microsoft Windows CE2, and Texas Instruments entering the market for pocket organisers with the Avigo 10, which is only a little larger than 3Com’s best-selling Palm Pilot.

But not everyone thinks ultra-portables need a different operating system from their bigger brothers, and several companies were offering “mini-notebooks” running Microsoft Windows 95. So far, Toshiba’s Libretto has led the battle for this sector, and Toshiba duly unveiled an enhanced version, the Libretto 70CT, with a 120MHz Intel Pentium processor compared with the original’s slow 75MHz chip.

Mitsubishi responded with the Amity CN and Hitachi with the VisionBook Traveller, both fitted with even faster 133MHz chips, but both also heavier than the Libretto.

Ricoh did not enter the mini-notebook market, but its products division showed an Innovative Mobile PC — that’s apparently its name, as well as its description. The IMPC looked just like the Hitachi machine, which acting manager Kiyotaka Yokoo said was made by Ricoh and supplied to three other companies. Mitsubishi also showed the Pedion, an “ultra cool” model that is large at 11.7 by 8.6 inches but less than three-quarters of an inch thick. It also sports a 233MHz Pentium and 64Mb of memory, so if you want to know the price you can’t afford it. (Mitsubishi reckons it will be “under $6,000” when it reaches the US next year.)

Dave Baker of VIA Inc from Northfield, Minnesota, says: “We’re the only guys with a computer that bends.” That’s because the electronics — including a Cyrix 686 Intel-compatible processor and up to 64Mb of memory — are mounted on a flexible strip about the size of a ruler. A demonstration version of this wearable computer was built into a belt, with a bulge indicating the battery pack. “With voice input and a modem connected to a cellphone, I can walk the Web,” he said. However, it’s unlikely to be in production until 1999.

Thresh spent Comdex thrashing people, or — since his preferred weapons are rocket launchers and thunderbolts — worse. In fact, the mild-looking, 20-year-old games player, born in Hong Kong, is making a career of it: he’s the world champion at id Software’s Quake, a previous Doom II Deathmatch champion and the star player in the new Professional Gamers League sponsored by American chip manufacturer AMD.

Garth Choteau from TEN (Total Entertainment Network) reckons that Thresh has won about $100,000 in the past two years. According to Choteau, the PGL’s prize fund is $250,000, about half of it in cash, and it’s expected to grow. With matches being played in front of live audiences and weekly highlights promised for cable TV, computer gaming could be on a par with other professional sports.

While Comdex had its amusing moments, most of it was hell. The halls at the Las Vegas Convention Centre were packed with people, and as usual, various essential facilities and exhibitors overspilled into tents and nearby hotels. Worst of all, the number of visitors has grown much faster than Las Vegas has been able to build hotels, even though it has 14 of the 20 biggest in the world.

Cornering Douglas Lein — the Las Vegas development officer who was at the show trying to attract hi-tech companies to the city’s new science park — I asked: “Comdex is expecting around 225,000 visitors this year and Las Vegas only has 110,000 hotel rooms. How do you fit them all in?”

“There’s a lot of very friendly people here,” he smiled.