I definitely spent more time on the wireless side of things at the show, trying to get a feel for the reality and timing of 802.11a products, and looking for 802.11b PDA solutions.  I'll cover the PDA news first.

The bustling WECA/WiFi area yielded a lot of useful info.  The folks at the Xircom stand couldn't tell me when they'd be coming out with a Compact Flash (CF) card for PDAs, since the Intel acquisition means that they now need to re-draw their product road maps. In the meantime, Handspring users will be able to tap into 802.11b wireless LANs using the new SpringPort Wireless Ethernet module, which has its own battery so that you won't drain the Handspring's main battery.  Should be shipping in a month or so with web pricing in the $250 price range.

Symbol traditionally doesn't sell to the "retail" crowd, but when I asked the rep manning their stand whether their new LA4137 802.11b CF Adapter would change that, he said that although you won't find Symbol in your local electronics retailer any time soon, that you would be able to buy it from on-line retailers.  Not until August though, and it'll cost you between $200-$250. PalmOS users will need to wait longer, since the initial product will support WinCE and PocketPC OSes only, with PalmOS support "coming later".

I'd expect to see Z-Com's XI-800 802.11b CF module appear under one of their OEM partner's names (ZyXEL, Proxim, Farallon, Toshiba) sometime this summer, since they said they'd be sampling in June with volume production in July.  BroMax was also showing an 802.11b CF card, but they're strictly OEM and I don't know who their customers are.

By the way, did you know that CF HomeRF adapters have been shipping since the beginning of this year?  Proxim has been supplying their OEM partners with their HomeRF Compact Flash product and said they'd they would probably be shipping a consumer version as part of their Symphony line later this year.

Since both Buffalo Technologies and SMC announced new 802.11b Bridges, you'll be able to set up a wireless link between Ethernet LANs less expensively than you have been able to until now.  I suspect the preferred solution will be SMC's 2582W 802.11b bridge over Buffalo's AirStation Pro, since web pricing is about $450 for the SMC and it simultaneously supports both AP to AP and AP to client modes.  The AirStation Pro's pricing is around $600 and it supports AP to AP bridging only.  Both of these products are being positioned for "enterprise" users and require the purchase of external antennas, cabling, and mounting brackets, which can add hundreds of dollars to the price of the Bridge alone (and don't forget you need two of everything...).

If you're looking for something in a wireless router, you'll see new wireless routers from MultiTech (RF802EW) and Netgear (MR314) in the coming months (in addition to the previously mentioned Asante FriendlyNET).  Pricing will be in the $250-$300 range.

The new wireless Barricade (SMC7004AWBR) was also in SMC's booth.  It's a repackage of the existing box, with the only new feature being the addition of 128 bit WEP encryption.  SMC says there's no difference in either range or routing speed, but with all the inquiries I'm getting on this product, I'll probably have to get one and check it out myself.

Compaq was showing a line of 802.11b products in their small space in the WECA area,  but it's all rebranded Lucent/ORiNOCO/Agere stuff.  By the way, I wouldn't be surprised to see their HomeRF based iPaq Connection Point soon disappear from their product lineup.

Had a few requests awhile back for an 802.11b client adapter that connected via an Ethernet jack vs. a PC or PCI card slot, or USB connector.  Symbol has their CB1000 Client bridge that will handle both serial and 10BaseT connections, but it's about $1000.  However, I ran into OTC Telecom who was showing their new AirEZY-2411-BT Client Radio.  It's just been announced and won't be available until Q3 this year, but will sell for about $250 when it does come out.  OTC sells mainly to the ISP/BSP crowd, but will make the 2411-BT available directly from them.

As I mentioned in last Wednesday's show update, most of the 802.11a activity was at chip-maker Atheros' booth.  They had the usual streaming video demos going (I think they actually had three raw DVD streams going) and had adapter card samples under glass domes.  The Atheros booth was actually the first place in the show that I hit and they were still setting up, so I didn't get the whole dog and pony show and forgot to go back later to get more details.  

Although they may just have done a good PR job on me, I did get the sense that they were really going to have product out in the Fall.  Conversations with 802.11b wireless gear makers at the show echoed the "later this year" message, but no firm plans or products were shown or talked about outside Atheros' booth.

The answer for the question of who the target market is for this wondrous 54Mbps wireless stuff was not as consistent.  Some folks said "enterprise" to better handle the bandwidth requirements of multiple wireless users.  Others said "consumer" to wirelessly deliver multimedia delights to all corners of your home.  The answer is probably more like "whoever will buy" and that, friends, will depend on pricing, which Atheros says should be in line with current 802.11b prices.  Huh? No price premium for a 5X bandwidth boost on a brand-new technology?  Stay tuned...

The HomeRF group didn't have a booth or "pavilion" at the show, but encamped at the Proxim booth instead, with areas where a few HomeRF product vendors were demonstrating their products.  Proxim was showing their entire product line, but I was there to see the HomeRF2.0 demo.  The demo itself was two laptops side-by-side simultaneously streaming movies to each other, and I only looked at it for about a minute as I was wrapping up to go.  Most of my time with the Proxim PR folks was spent listening to a general HomeRF pitch, most of which I'd heard before.  

The key differentiators of HomeRF, according to the pitch, are better resistance to interference, better security, and support for simultaneous data, multimedia (streaming) and now (via the 2.0 spec) voice transmissions. However, the lack of decent bandwidth has prevented anyone from shipping products that take advantage of the multimedia features until now, and that's one of the places where 2.0's 10Mbps data rate is intended to help.  These all sound like some good features, but with all the momentum that 802.11b has, the HomeRF crowd is going to have to get their products to market ASAP, keep their prices low, and market the hell out of them to catch up!

What else ya got?