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Once again, it's all about wireless at this year's Consumer Electronics Show.
Last year's CES, one of the world's oldest and largest trade shows, witnessed the birth of a pocket PC that made phone calls and took pictures, along with a digital camera that operated on a wireless local area network. Wireless technology was also the focus of headliner Bill Gates' keynote address.
This year, manufacturers have a new round of wireless products to unveil. Hitachi and Samsung will release combination pocket PC and cell phones that can send picture messages as well as make phone calls.
Motorola will release its first line of 802.11b, or Wi-Fi, products and 802.11g products that are faster -- 54 megabits per second versus only 11 Mbps for 802.11b gear -- but backwards compatible with 802.11b products already on the market.
And Microsoft's chairman and chief architect Bill Gates will talk about wireless tech in his keynote address -- again.
So many gadgets on display will have Wi-Fi wireless chips in them that CES spokesman Brad Jones joked he wouldn't be surprised to see a Web-enabled toothbrush there.
"It's getting crazy how these things are working together, whether it be your cell phone and PDA with multi-functionality or wireless printers and wireless keyboards," Jones said.
But even with wireless toothbrushes and all the rest, don't expect this show to be CES' busiest.
The attendance at major trade shows like Comdex is not growing thanks to factors such as the depressed economy, and CES is no exception. Organizers say this year's crowd at the Las Vegas Convention Center will likely total no more than 100,000, the same as last year.
Many veteran companies such as OnStar, a leader in enabling cars with voice-activated services like the ability to push a button and call for help, decided not to purchase a booth at the show. OnStar spokesman Terry Sullivan said the company plans to make an appearance, but it will not display anything on its own on the show floor.
"While we have improved our services, the technology itself hasn't changed," said Sullivan. "I think you would like to be displaying a technology that might be significantly newer than the last time you were there. At the automotive show, you don't show the same car that you showed before. You show a new one."
Still, some companies won't be deterred from showing off last year's model at this year's show.
Microsoft chairman Gates will devote a portion of his keynote to touting the availability of Windows-powered smart displays, or wireless computer monitors, in CompUSA and Fry's Electronics, said Megan Kidd, a product manager at Microsoft
But, wait a minute, that's what Bill talked about last year.
"At CES last year, Bill announced we were working on a new product category, which we called 'Mira,'" Kidd said. "Now we are calling them smart displays.... They will be available in stores, starting on Wednesday morning."
CES spokesman Jones expects Wi-Fi and Bluetooth -- a radio that lets gadgets within 30 feet of each other interact wirelessly -- to become household names this year.
But this technology, which allows homeowners to surf the Web wirelessly and send information to any handheld device without using cables, is already in the hands of early adopters and some businesses.
The products at CES 2003 may not differ much from last year's offerings, but the presentation should be a bit snazzier. Jones expects many of the companies that are returning to the show to make their already lavish displays even flashier.
Last year, Microsoft devoted a portion of its sprawling booth to several rooms designed to look like a networked family home. A single computer server controlled all appliances, from the bedroom lamps to the refrigerator.
This year, Microsoft has upped the ante by building an actual wired home on the Las Vegas Convention Center parking lot.
In the home entertainment arena, Sony, Motorola and Scientific-Atlanta plan to display the Moxi Media Center, an all-in-one, plug-and-play home entertainment center. The device, a small box that looks like a VCR, allows users to access high-definition television, digital video recording, video on demand and interactive programming in one unit.
Moxi, now merged with Digeo, made headlines last year when it displayed a prototype of the unit at CES. This year, the technology will be distributed to cable operators.
But one shadow looming over the debut of any new digital video recorder, including the Moxi Media Center, is copyright protection.
Ever since the first pirated movie ended up on the Internet, Hollywood has resisted the release of films and television programming in digital format out of concern they will be copied and distributed over the Web. The major studios have fought relentlessly with lawmakers and electronics makers to devise a technical standard that will protect their content from piracy.
CEA and the National Cable & Telecommunications Association reached an agreement last month that new cable-ready HDTVs introduced in the next few years won't require a separate set-top box to receive digital broadcasts. This is good news for the 70 percent of U.S. households that receive their programming through cable television and want to view digital content in their homes.
However, some significant drawbacks exist. To record a digital program in digital format, users will also need a so-called IEEE 1394, or FireWire plug, to connect the TV and the recorder. This connection lets program providers restrict the number of times that a program can be recorded.
Under the agreement, users of digital video recorders like TiVo would be allowed to record and then watch the programs up to 90 minutes later. Anything older than 90 minutes would be off limits.
Joe Kraus, co-founder of DigitalConsumer.org, a group that promotes fair use rights, said that having a time limit on the amount of content consumers can record defeats the purpose of owning a digital recorder.
"Consumers are going to be increasingly surprised," Kraus said. "It's going to be a huge wake-up call for consumers to recognize that they pay the same amount (for a digital video recorder) and they find fewer and fewer capabilities."
Members of the consumer electronics industry, however, contend that such a restriction is necessary to get Hollywood to agree to release its content in digital format.
"I want to be able to at least see the content," said Steve Tirado, chief operations officer for silicon maker Silicon Image.
At the show, Silicon Image plans to release a product that connects set-top boxes and DVD players with digital televisions. The connector, too, allows program providers to limit the recording of pay-per-view content.
The CES show kicks off with Bill Gates' keynote address on Wednesday night. The show, which takes place at the Las Vegas Convention Center, will run until Sunday, Jan. 12.
