Glam gadgets

Plenty of promise on display at Vegas electronics show

LAS VEGAS - At first glance, it seems that the big news coming out of technology trade shows this year involves all the people who aren't showing up. Apple Inc. chief executive Steve Jobs didn't attend this year's MacWorld gathering in San Francisco, and Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates is nowhere to be seen at the Consumer Electronics Show here in Las Vegas this week. It's the first time he's missed CES in 11 years, and he's not the only one. Thousands of regular attendees are giving the show a pass, scared off by the collapsed economy.

Fine by me; I get easier access to the heaps of shrimp cocktail, as well as a closer look at some promising new gadgets and software.

Microsoft's providing a preview of its Windows 7, the latest in a series of massive, feature-laden operating systems. But millions of users may not need it, or its predecessors, Vista and XP.

Phoenix Technologies has come up with a clever chunk of software called HyperSpace. Installed on a Windows PC, this $60 program takes control of a computer as it boots up. It lets the user opt for good old Windows, or launch a sort of mini-operating system. Instead of the two- or three-minute boot times we've come to expect from Windows, HyperSpace fires up in 20 sec onds or less. It allows instant connections to a set of vital tools - Internet access, a Web browser, and an instant messaging program. Users can then connect to a host of online services, like e-mail, Web-based productivity programs such as Google Apps, and social networking sites like Facebook.

When installed on newer, more powerful machines, HyperSpace and Windows can run simultaneously, and the user can hop from one to the other. Yet for many people, there's no reason to bother with Windows. If you're just e-mailing, Web surfing, and watching YouTube, HyperSpace is all the operating system you need. And a machine running HyperSpace is far less susceptible to viruses and spyware that target Windows computers.

Internet-based applications don't care which operating system you use. So as we move more work into the online cloud, Windows will fade in importance. Especially when products like HyperSpace let us bypass them altogether and get some real work done.

At least Windows has enjoyed two decades of dominance. In contrast, satellite radio has been with us for less than 10 years, losing money all the while. Now comes further evidence that the industry is doomed. Car-audio maker Blaupunkt USA is showing off a prototype in-dash radio at CES that plays Internet audio streams. Due out by midyear for less than $500, the Blaupunkt radio requires that users own a cellphone with 3G access and Bluetooth capability. The radio uses Bluetooth to connect to the phone, and from there to the Internet. Users can go onto an Internet site to set up a list of their favorite Internet audio streams, then feed them into their cars.

This first-generation device seems fairly clunky, but Blaupunkt and its Internet partner, Torian Wireless Ltd. of Australia, expect to build 3G chips directly into future versions of the radio.

While satellite radio delivers dozens of channels, Internet audio offers hundreds of thousands - news, music, sports, and entertainment - from every corner of the world. It will take a few years for in-car Internet audio to enter the mainstream, but that will you just give you more time to sell your satellite radio stock.

I'm no big fan of those Bluetooth cellphone headsets. People with glowing buds in their ears, chattering to the empty air, seem like lunatics from outer space. Indeed, one company at CES, Joby Inc., has created a Bluetooth earpiece with an extendable, visible microphone. Joby's press release says it's for "letting the world know you're on the phone, not off your rocker."

But another headset company, TriSpecs Inc., is headed in the opposite direction, by building a Bluetooth device into a $200 pair of sunglasses. Button earphones extend from arms of the glasses and snuggle in your ear canal. Twin microphones mounted near the lenses pick up the sound of the user's voice. They also support a noise-canceling system that deadens nearby distractions. The TriSpecs glasses also serve as music headphones, if your MP3 player supports Bluetooth.

I tried a pair in a busy meeting hall, thronged with thousands of shrimp-devouring media folk, and was pleasantly surprised. A phone conversation came across loud and clear, and background noise, while audible, fell away to an unobtrusive drone. And the glasses themselves are sleek and stylish. If you must look like a babbling fool, you might as well be a fashionable one.

Your cellphone can also keep tabs on the security of your home or business, with help from Archerfish, a $1,500 security system from Cernium Corp. that'll ping you with news of uninvited guests. You won't have to wait until someone actually breaks in. Archerfish, which requires a $20 monthly fee, analyzes the images from up to four security cameras, using software to spot people or objects that shouldn't be there. You can program it to ignore a person showing up at your front door - might be the mailman. But if a person appears at your back door, for instance, Archerfish recognizes the shape of a human, and knows he's not supposed to be there. Your cellphone buzzes, and you can view a video of the potential intruder.

Big retailers already use video analysis software to spot shoplifters. Cernium says Archerfish is the first such product aimed at consumers.

On the other hand, millions of us play games using force-feedback devices, like game controllers that vibrate when a spaceship gets blown up. Novint Technologies Inc. has carried it to a delightful extreme with the Falcon, a $200 device that transmits a variety of physical sensations through the player's fingers. The device comes with a tennis-ball-sized grip for manipulating a game's digital objects. But I had fun with the Falcon's optional $20 pistol grip attachment, designed for shoot-em-up games.

In the new zombie horror game Left 4 Dead, I went to war against legions of the restless dead - hardly a realistic experience. But I've fired a few real guns, and found the Falcon's simulated recoil the most lifelike thing about the game. It wasn't perfect - sometimes the recoil came a split-second before the on-screen muzzle flash. Still, the Falcon comes close enough to thrill any hardcore action gamer.

At least, any gamer with $200 to spend. It's hard times, as the diminished headcount at CES attests. Still, the lean days won't last forever, and when Americans rediscover the joys of disposable income, there will be plenty of appealing tech products at their disposal.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.