Smoking allowed in Vegas - use a Via based humidor PC

VIA had an area to showcase its products and their partners products at CES, and like Comdex, that was full of goodies. You should know about the Ape Xtreme by now. While that was the biggest announcement, there were a lot of others.

The first one I ran into was the Valence N-Charge. This is another flat battery that sits under your notebook and provides it with extra juice. Unlike the others I have seen, this one has a modular system for the DC adapters. The battery pack is the same for everyone, pick an adapter and you are set. Get a new notebook, you can buy another adaptor at a much lower price than a new battery.

Hush, the maker of silent PCs, was showing off the AVX Music Server. This appliance like device makes sits in your stereo cabinet and is controlled through a PocketPC remote control unit. Hush will let you provide your own PPC and hub, or can supply everything as a turnkey package. The brushed aluminium finish looks extremely nice, and it is of course, very quiet.

Next up is NeoMagic. It is working on the MiMagic family of Application Processors. These massively parallel PDA CPUs were said to accelerate programs, games and 3D. How well does it work? The demo board here is running a skinned version of Quake, on a PDA, that is not bad at all.

Getting a bit more retro, we move on to Jeffery Stephenson, who brings us his Humidor CL server. This incredibly well crafted fine wood humidor has a Via PC, a wireless router, and dual ethernet built in. It can provide firewalling, connectivity, and class to almost any living room. The woodwork has to be seen to be believed.

Last in the alphabet, ZyXEL showed off its ZyAIR B-220 Wireless LAN USB Stick. This little $50 or so device is a USB 802.11 adapter with a twist. The blue led on the side will light up whenever there is access. Unlike many others, it will only light up when there is a true 802.11 signal that is strong enough to use, not just if someone turns on a microwave two blocks away. Since blue LEDs are the truest sign of high tech, look for good things from this product. War drivers rejoice. µ