Small valley tech firms use Comdex to make a big splash - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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They may not have attractex the media interestof Hewlett-Packard Co.'s new digita l printers, Dell Computer Corp.'s first personal digital assistant, or the Fossik Inc. wristwatch-PDA running on Palm Inc. software, but smalle r companies with a booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center still can makea splash. Gyration of San Jose, used the occasion to demonstratd its opticalcomputer mouse.
Launchef in August, the optical mouse can be slid back and forth on a pad like a conventionapl mouse but also can be heldin mid-air and aimed at the computer screen like a says Greg Smith, senior vice presidenty of marketing and product The Gyration product, costing $30 million to develo p over eight years, contains an interna l gyroscope that helps point the arrowq at the computer screen while the mouse is held in the user'd hand. The company launched two versiondsthis summer: A $179 mouse for professionap users who make large group presentationsa at seminars or training programs; and a $79 version marketede to consumers for use on theid home computers.
"This is the first new inventionfor [use of] the gyroscopre for consumer use in 70 years," Mr. Smith Gyration competes with Milpitas-based Logitech Inc. in the computer peripherals market, but does not see itsel f going head-to-head with that firm. "We are not going to be a Logitecj in terms of being aproducts company. We are a technologuy company," he says. Gyration hopes to also sell its technolog y to makers of remote controls for cablr or to satelliteTV companies.
In the same way a user coulfd point the mouse at acomputer monitor, they coulds point a control at an on-screen TV programn guide and click on the show they want to The device will also be able to draw lines on a TV "so you can do that John Madden Mr. Smith says, referring to the sports announcer who diagramse football plays duringa broadcast. , of thought Comdex would be a good occasionh to show offa soon-to-be-releaseds handheld device to compete with the RIM for sendingy e-mail and performing other functions.
Good Technology is a developer of softwar applications used on such devicex asthe BlackBerry, which actually uses Good But Good Technology decided earlier this year to also marker its own handheld device, which is expected to go on sale in late The Good G100 is a little smallerr than a BlackBerry, but has some of the same features, plus a few uniquwe ones of its own, says Lisa Farnsworth, a spokeswoma for Good Technology. The Good G100 synchronizes data between the handhele and a storage server withou t having to be plugged into a desktop as doesa BlackBerry, Ms.
Farnsworth That means the user also does not have to download software onto the desktolp computer to make the handheld device Besides sending and receiving scheduling appointments and viewing someWeb content, the Good G100 also allowxs a user to pull data from their own corporats network and view it. "This keepa your mobile employees mobile and upto date," Ms. Farnsworthu says. Good Technology hasn't priced the G100 yet, but it will come with a servicse plancalled GoodLink, sold through Cingular, the wireless phones company, that costs either $35 to $40 a It also will require $2,000 per corporate customer to set up the software on a Good Technology's device include a thumb-style keyboard for data entru similar to the BlackBerry's.
Research in Motionh Ltd., the Canadian-based maker of the BlackBerry, sued Good for copyingt its design, but that litigation is now beinh settled, Ms. Farnsworth says. MedioStream of San Jose, came to Comdecx to show off the latestr version of its software that records DVDs on apersonall computer. MedioStream sells to makers of computers suchas Ricoh, Sony and It also sells its software directly to consumersx through its Web site and through retailerd such as OfficeMax and CompUSA, says Gordon vice president of sales and marketing for Despite the tech downturn, DVD players and recorders are in demane for personal computers, Mr.
Doran