Editors Pick the Top Products
CNET and ZDNet Staff
(11/16/00)
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Our hardworking editors scoured the show floor for the best products at Comdex. The result? A few special selections that we think deserve Best of Show awards. |
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Winner:Tablet PC
Beginning with Bill Gates's Sunday night keynote, it was clear that tablet computing was going to be one of the prime buzz generators of the show. Tablet computing products have come a long way, and Comdex featured an assortment of shapes and sizes, including new models and prototypes from Aqcess, Ericsson, Hitachi, Honeywell, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba. While the jury is still out on whether consumers will flock to tablet PCs, the possibilities are exciting.
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Finalist: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
We must admit that we've been growing weary of the buzz around Bluetooth. We thought that maybe the fact that it's finally dying down a bit would mean that we're actually getting close to seeing some products on the market. But when we stumbled upon the Anoto booth, we remembered what excited us about Bluetooth technology way back when. Anoto has developed a Bluetooth-equipped pen that allows users to send information from paper directly to devices such as PCs and fax machines. The company has struck deals with stationery companies including Filofax, Franklin Covey, 3M, and Mead, all of which are expected to release products that contain an imperceptible pattern that is picked up by the Anoto pen.
Winner: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
In an attempt to close the gap between desktop and notebook graphics performance, Nvidia has packaged its highly acclaimed GeForce chipset for users on the go. As more and more people are using notebooks as their everyday systems, the new chipset will help eliminate the need to choose between portability and performance.
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Finalist: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
Though it's not the first combination PDA-cell phone, the Cybird is the best we've seen to date. A Windows CE handheld melded with a CDMA phone, it supports wireless Web surfing at up to 64 kbps, sports a 640-by-480-pixel resolution color screen, and provides a browser that supports HTML 4.0 and JavaScript. The Cybird flies high with a 190-MHz Intel StrongARM processor and 16MB of RAM.
Winner: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
While Ricochet hasn't introduced any new functionality to its high-speed wireless service, which delivers speeds of 128 kbps, the company has struck a number of deals that will make wireless Internet access a viable option for PDA users. Ricochet's deal with OmniSky will only serve to make the best wireless handheld service even better, and their joint development with National Semiconductor should provide yet another boost to the tablet PC market.
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Finalist: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
It seems just about everyone has a portal, and now that list includes Palm, which has announced the public beta of its MyPalm for handheld users. The MyPalm portal will make it easier to manage all of the information--contacts, appointments, and tasks--that you keep on your Palm. Using MyPalm, you'll be able to schedule meetings over the Internet with other Palm users, access personal email and Yodlee accounts, download movie listings and sporting events via AnyDay, and refresh your calendar.
Winner: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
Up until now, we haven't seen an Internet appliance that we could recommend without hesitation, but Gateway's new AOL-based appliance changes all that. Based on Transmeta's Crusoe processor, the Connected Touch Pad is the first Internet appliance to offer Instant AOL, providing access to AOL's content, email, instant messaging, and other services. Other features that help to set it apart include a touch screen (it has a stylus and wireless keyboard as well) and keyboard shortcuts to popular AOL destinations and services. And, best of all, the $599 device works with both dial-up and broadband connections.
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Finalist: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
Olympus's E-10 is the first mainstream digital camera to break the 3-megapixel barrier. This 4.1-megapixel marvel is designed for semipro who wants both a filmless camera and the features and performance of an SLR. Highlights of the E-10 include a high-quality lens designed especially for the high-resolution CCD, a 4X optical zoom, and hardware controls for many of the functions typically found only in LCD menus on other digital cameras. The $1,999 E-10 has a rugged, well-designed body and includes a 32MB SmartMedia card.
Winner: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
At 3 pounds and just 118 cubic inches, the Compaq MP2800 Microportable Projector is the most compact LCD projector we've seen so far. Pair it with an ultraportable notebook, and the total travel weight is still right around 6 pounds. Nevertheless, this XGA resolution projector offers solid performance. The MP2800 has a rated brightness of 900 lumens, an impressive 8-watt speaker, an innovative quick-change bulb, HDTV support, and a multimedia adapter for VCRs and DVD players. With its rugged magnesium case, the $5,000 MP2800 is also one of the coolest-looking projectors around.
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Finalist: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
The Xerox Phaser 1235 breaks new ground for color laser printing. Starting at around $3,600, depending on the configuration, the Phaser 1235 is a 1,200-dpi, single-pass printer--most four-color laser printers in this class require four passes. The print engine is rated at 12 pages per minute (20 pages per minute for monochrome), and print quality is excellent. Add in affordable print prices and you've got a great workgroup color laser printer.
Winner: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
Enterprises face the never-ending battle of upgrading users' PCs as new versions of operating systems and applications arrive. Migrating users' settings when applications change or are upgraded costs businesses in time, resources, and money. There are few products and services out there that help businesses reduce the cost and complexity of planning and executing migration projects. That's why we're very happy to see Virtual Access Networks' The Van addressing this critical business issue. With support for upgrading to a new operating system and boxed or customized applications, disaster recovery, and data encryption for remote users, Virtual Access Networks is helping to make migration projects a little less painful, and we're glad to award them Best of Show in the Enterprise category.
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Finalist: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
Storage Area Networks (SANs) have exploded in popularity in the past few years as users' needs for storage have grown exponentially. As companies install multiple SANs and integrate them into their organizations, understanding the connections between devices, how they function, how they perform, when they malfunction, and how to manage them is becoming critical. Prisa Networks VisualSAN products address these issues with both Performance Manager and Network Manager modules that allow IT managers to develop visual maps of multiple SANs and to monitor performance and functionality of individual SAN components. By providing a scalable and centralized solution to SAN management, Prisa Networks is making SAN management easier.
Finalist: Anoto (subsidiary of C Technologies)
As companies' data repositories increase in size, gaining business intelligence from corporate data becomes increasingly difficult. Performing fast analyses and making critical business decisions requires powerful tools for data mining and visualization. These tools must address both different industries and functions within those industries such as marketing, supply chain, and finance. Cygron's DataScope is the latest tool for data visualization and data mining that can address industries that range from banking and insurance to telecommunications and retail sales. Employing predictive decision-modeling techniques, companies can model customer value and find cross-selling opportunities. Cygron makes tapping into your corporate data stores easier than ever.
