Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/412

Comdex 99 Coverage Part 2

by Jason Clark on November 19, 1999 9:06 PM EST


Introduction
Another year, another Comdex. After putting more miles on my shoes than the average radial tire does, I think Dr. Sholls should set a booth up at the show. Compared to last year, attendance seems to be down; some companies that had booths last year didn't this year. Why? Well for one thing, the cost in getting a booth is not cheap - you are looking in around the six-figure range. Besides the cost, companies don't seem to get the return necessary to justify spending that kind of cash.

AnandTech had a good presence there with me, Sam Mayes, Mike Andrawes, and of course, Anand in attendance. Surprisingly, we rarely saw each other as we were quite busy walking around, checking out the goods, and establishing some contacts so we can keep bringing you more variety in product reviews. I personally focused on the multimedia area, as well as a "show 'n tell" with Videologic, where we talked about their speakers, and about the Neon 250 (which we will be reviewing soon). Aureal will also have some new speakers coming out early next year. The Aureal XL series will put out around 210 Watts RMS and feature a head phone connector. We tried to speak with someone to get a little more indepth information, but no one was available.

Creative Labs
The first interview I had was with Creative Labs. We spoke to Jim Carlton, the Senior Brand Manager at Creative. Creative showed off three of their new products at the show - the WebCam Go and their new broadband technology modems. The Webcam Go is quite neat actually. It is essentially a WebCam 3, but mobile. So what you end up with is a webcam that sits on top of your monitor, like the conventional web cams; and, you can unhook the USB cable, fold it up, and it will take stills :) Very good idea. Now, it's not a digital camera - it really wasn't intended to be anyway. It does not have a flash, nor does it support additional memory storage. But for those of you in the market for a webcam, I would take a look at this unit. We will of course be reviewing this unit soon. At the show, Creative had it and the SoundBlaster Live Platinum on special: $69 for the WebCam Go, and $99 for the SoundBlaster Live Platinum. Very good deals, if you ask me. Creative, of course, has other product ideas up their sleeves, but we will just have to wait and see what they are.

WebCam Go

WebCam Go Specifications: (Courtesy Creative Labs)

When used as a desktop PC camera:

* Capable of 16.7 million colors, live video capture at up to 30 frames per second at a resolution of 352x288, and up to 15 frames per second at 640x480
* Supports still image capture at 160x120, 176x144, 320x240, 352x288, and 640x480
* Focusable lens with a range of 6 inches to infinity
* Snapshot button on top of the camera captures an image and automatically displays it on your screen
* Connects to your PC's USB port. 6' USB cable included.
* Includes drivers for Video for Windows, WDM, and TWAIN

When used on the go:

* Capture still images in 16.7 million colors at 320x240 or 640x480
* Four image capture modes: standard, multi-frame, time delay, and time delay multi-exposure
* 4MB of internal memory stores approximately 200 images at 320x240 resolution or 90 images at 640x480 resolution - no diskettes or memory cards to lose
* Two AAA alkaline batteries (included) last for approximately 300 snapshots
* Three-position fixed focus lens with settings for 10 feet to infinity, 3 to 5 feet, and 6-8 inches
* Optical viewfinder
* Configurable auto shut-off saves battery life
* Black and white LCD displays number of frames left, mode indicator and low-battery warning
* Audio confirmation of image capture


Linksys
Linksys was showing off their two new products. The EtherFast Cable/DSL Router, and their 10/100 4 port switch, which includes a print server. The EtherFast Cable/DSL Router includes a 4 port 10/100 switch. The router also includes a DHCP server, and has IP blocking. The product comes in a rugged plastic enclosure with a slick blue front face. A full LED read out is on the face of the router, including read-outs for link and activity for the WAN and LAN ports along with Partition and Collision for the LAN ports. We will have a full review on this product soon.

EtherFast Cable/DSL Router

EtherFast 4 Port 10/100
Switch & Print Server

VideoLogic
On Wednesday, I trucked on up to the Riviera to meet up with the VideoLogic fellas, and checked out their goods. VideoLogic is just starting to enter the U.S. market after a success in Europe. We took a look at their various speaker lines, and their Neon 250 video card, and finally their DVD card. They have a few different lines of speakers coming into the U.S. from 2 channels right up to 5.1, which includes a Dolby Digital decoder with a remote control unit. We did a bit of testing on the PowerVR Neon 250. It did 32 FPS at 1024 in Quake3 (normal settings), at 32bit color, and 40 FPS at 16bit color. The clock on the Neon 250, according to their PR guy, is 125/125 core/memory. They also have the PowerVR3 up their sleeves; more details will follow on this soon.


Sirocco Crossfire

DigiTheatre Receiver

DigiThretre 5.1

Neon 250

Sirocco Spirit

Sirocco PRO

Altec Lansing
Altec Lansing had some nifty new products at the show as well, including their slimline 3 channel system named "ATP3", which sounds quite nice. The unit puts out 25 watts, and features a solid wood cabinet, more than likely made from MDF (medium density fiberboard). They also had a new microphone called the "Intellimic". The selling feature of this mic is its special noise reduction technology. What this does is allow the user to speak into the mic, and only what the user is saying will be heard. So all background noise is filtered out, and it works VERY well. This technology is going to be most beneficial for internet telephony and anything where feedback and background noise is a problem. The mic's construction quality seemed awesome, very solid, and sturdy, which is hard to find in a PC mic. It will retail at or around $99.00.


ATP3 Satellites

ATP3 Complete System

IntelliMic

Conclusion
In terms of multimedia, as you can see, there really wasn't all that much to see this year. The biggest announcement, of course, was the 3Dfx V4/V5 technology. The new year will probably bring a few new products, along with the much anticipated Windows 2000. Well, that's a wrap on my short summary of Comdex '99.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now