As you might imagine, Handspring was the buzz of the conference this year. Their debut caught the imaginations of everyone. For those of you living under rocks, Handspring Springboards are the modules that plug into the back of the Visor unit (the clone of the Palm IIIe device). These Springboard devices give the Visor pager and modem capabilities, the ability to play MP3 files, and more. Lots of companies are coming out with different products that use the Springboard. There are very few limits to what you can do with this add-on slot, although Pop Tarts don't really fit into the Springboard slot.

I got to the conference the first day with the intention of getting registered, tracking down my buddies, and schmoozing a bit with the geeks. I ran into Michael Shawver from Revolve Design (of UniMount fame) and said a quick hello as he was dashing off to a breakout session. Then I trundled upstairs and saw David Pogue interviewing people with a camera guy and sound dude huddled around him. I stood back and watched the antics until he was done and caught his eye to say hi. We chatted for a few minutes then he said "Hey Fredlet, do an interview for me!"

Fredlet TV
On camera? Sure. I can be goofy on camera as well as the next guy. So after the prerequisite goofiness of "What's my motivation? Where's my mark? Where's the make up guy with my touch up?" and pretending to be a diva (pretending?), we finally got down to the business of the interview. I explained who I was and why I was qualified to talk about the backpacks we received with our conference materials. He asked me questions like what I thought of the backpack giveaways we got at the conference (very nice, nothing that is specifically for a Palm device, but that's ok, it has other redeeming qualities) and why I went to the conference (geeks and gadgets, of course). Essentially I was my usually silly self. Hopefully, the video editors will be kind to my little segment.

Many of the exhibits were geared toward enterprise solutions, such as Oracle with their databases and wireless solutions for communicating between Palm units and cell phones and beepers and alien spacecraft and...well, you get the idea.

Bluetooth, a small form factor, low-cost, short range, wireless standard finally made it out of the secret underground laboratory. It was announced that Bluetooth technology would be incorporated into such items as Visor Springboard modules and JP Systems' wireless paging products.