It used to be that separating the wheat from the chaff at a show like Comdex was like looking for needle in a haystack the size of Siberia. While the square footage of the show changed for the worse, one thing didn't change: the best new technology was hiding in the smallest booths.

My personal vote for the best of Comdex goes to ScreenCam-esque tool provider Qarbon (see story), IDE-based RAID on the cheap maker NetCell (see story), and retractable cable maker Cables Unlimited.

Bluetooth!? Who needs Bluetooth when you've got Zip-Linq?
Proving that it's sometimes the low-tech solutions to the hi-tech problems that work best, Cables Unlimited was here at Comdex demonstrating what I think is this year's best stocking stuffer. The company's tagline is "The 'reel' solution cable clutter." Normally, such a tagline conjures up images of wireless cable replacement technologies such as Bluetooth. But, in Cables Unlimited's case, cable clutter is reduced by a patented spring-loaded reel-like retractable cable mechanism that's nothing short of ingenious.

		Related Coverage  Qarbon will knock your socks off  NetCell makes desktop RAID affordable  Comdex 2003 Special Report

Pick any two devices that normally connect to each other via a cable, and the probability that Cables Unlimited has a Zip-Linq to bridge the gap is very good. The company offers everything from straight USB or Firewire cables to Category 5 Ethernet cables and RJ11-based modem wires to hands-free headsets (with retractable wires) for cell phones and earbuds for your MP3 player. The cleverest of the company's offerings are its USB-based charging and synch cables for PDAs and cell phones. On one end of the retractable cable is a USB connector and on the other is the proprietary connector to match your phone or PDA. Not only can the handheld devices draw power from the USB port on your notebook, but the company also provides a separate charging block (with one USB port) that simply plugs into the wall. The MSRP for most cables is about $30 and the wall adapter is $20. Check out the companies offerings at http://www.ziplinq.com.

This Fall's fall guy: The hard drive in IBM's T41p survives a spill, but...
Although the company's ThinkPad T40 with built-in Bluetooth and choice of wireless LAN technologies (802.11a, b, or g) is a tough act to follow, IBM tried anyway and came up with the T41p. From the outside the T40 and the T41p look exactly the same, but the T41p is equipped with a hard drive that, in a heartbeat, detects whether or not the notebook computer is heading for a crash landing on the floor and parks the drive's heads before it gets there. When hard drive heads are parked, they can't make component-damaging, data-destroying contact with the media.

With the production crew for CNET's series of Webcasts in tow, I asked IBM officials if we could see the technology in action. With the cameras rolling and without giving it a second thought, IBM's ThinkPad T Series marketing manager Laura Seay subjected the $3,300 T41p to a five-foot drop onto a scantily carpeted floor. Sure enough, the hard drive appeared to function just fine after a slight pause to catch its breath.

But after the cameras stopped rolling and as we were on our way to find the next cool mobile technology (it was a one-handed keyboard, it became clear that while the hard drive managed the impact with aplomb, the T41p's case did not. Seay was seen holding several small pieces that appeared to have broken off the case. At least one of the ports on the back of the T41p appeared a little worse for the wear as well.

Later during Comdex, I asked HP's Alex Gruzen if his company had a notebook that could top that. Gruzen replied, "How many people do you know that walk around with their notebook computers in the on position [about the only time the hard drive's heads aren't parked] waiting to be dropped?" Gruzen has a point. Most of the time, when you're carrying a regular notebook, the computer is either off, hibernating, or in standby mode--ll of which equate to already-parked hard drive heads. "But what about for tablet computers?" I wondered. Oh yeah, IBM doesn't have a tablet. Yet.

CellCo's throw down a pair of gauntlets at Comdex
Although it's not the sort of event where you'd expect any of the wireless carriers to unleash some new technologies, that's exactly what AT&T Wireless and SprintPCS did. Apparently not happy with the bad rap it was getting for the pathetically slow 40 kbps data rates of its General Packet Radio Service (GPRS, the data buddy to GSM for voice), AT&T Wireless seized the show to announce the nationwide rollout of its EDGE network. Existing GSM/GPRS phone and PC Card users will have to upgrade to new equipment, which is backward compatible with the old standard--something that should come in handy if you have to roam out of AT&T Wireless' footprint onto an older GSM/GPRS network.

With expected actual throughput rates of 100-130 kbps, EDGE is the next evolutionary step for AT&T Wireless' GPRS network; other GPRS-providers such as T-Mobile and Cingular are likely to follow. The move puts pressure on providers such as SprintPCS and Verizon, whose networks are based on the prevailing GSM/GPRS alternative CDMA 1xRTT which, at a tolerable 70-80 kbps of actual throughput, was the faster of the two technologies.

But don't expect the CDMA Cellco's to sit idly by. Verizon is already conducting a two-city (San Diego and Washington, D.C.) trial of CDMA 1xEVDO, a 1xRTT follow-on that's expected to deliver an average throughput of 400 kbps thereby rivaling most cable and DSL modems. As I've said before, my expectation is that many of you Wi-Fi hotspot lovers and seekers will ditch those 802.11 cards when you figure out that, with CDMA (and now GPRS EDGE), you don't have to go looking for a hotspot and the performance is actually acceptable for most applications.

Meanwhile, with AT&T Wireless attacking SprintPCS on its left flank, SprintPCS went after Nextel with the introduction of its own Push To Talk (PTT) walkie-talkie service. Last week, I took a wild guess that Nextel's loss of its stranglehold on the PTT market could force it to ditch the iDEN network in favor of GSM/GPRS or CDMA 1xRTT (my bet is on the latter). Nextel officials argued that the other PTT implementations aren't that good and that catching up to Nextel would be difficult. But, while at Comdex, I tried SprintPCS' PTT service and I thought it worked just fine.

Goons will be goons
As with every Fall Comdex (including next year's according to Comdex officials), this year's opening ceremonies began with a Sunday evening pre-show keynote delivered by Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates. Perhaps as a harbinger of event management difficulties to come, the security guards at the turnstiles were denying entry to everyone but the press in possession of any recording devices, including still image and video cameras. Aside from the fact that any real enforcement of such a policy would require pat-downs and scanning wands (given the size of such devices today), that didn't stop hundreds of phone-cam toting showgoers from sneaking their "equipment" past the goons, snapping away at the richest man in the world, and sending their photos in real time to Lord-knows-who. Bill's event managers should have known better.

And finally, the most important news from Las Vegas
During previous Comdexes, one need only follow the television cameras and network news celebrities to find the cool news. But, if media presence was any gauge of where the news was to be had, then the place to be was on the perimeter road surrounding the executive terminal at Las Vegas' McCarran Airport. While in transit from a meeting at the Mandalay Bay Hotel to the Las Vegas Convention Center, I passed a cavalcade of television trucks, circling helicopters, tripods, camera people, and newscasters that had every inch of the airport's tarmac staked out in the event that Michael Jackson showed up for an unplanned flight back to Santa Barbara. As Comdex was transpiring, an arrest warrant was issued for the pop star sensation, who was in Las Vegas filming a video. OK, so there are more important things going in Las Vegas than technology shows.

You can write to me at david.berlind@cnet.com. If you're looking for my commentaries on other IT topics, check the archives.