My Favorite Demo Fall 08 Products

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My Favorite Demo Fall 08 Products

At a show like Demo, it's always hard to pick a few favorites, because so many of the demos are very well done. You know that most of the products won't end up being important by themselves - that's just the way entrepreneurial businesses go. In many cases, the best technologies will be bought by bigger players and become part of bigger products or services - and that's just fine. But this year's Demo Fall had a number of very interesting products, and here's my list of the ones that most interested me.

Even though most of the demos were of software or web services, the few hardware products stood out. Plastic Logic's electronic reader was one of the first demos, and it was the standout of the show. The product itself is an 8.5-in by 11-in. device with a slightly smaller screen designed to replace paper for carrying around a large number of documents. Like most of the other ebook readers I've seen recently, it uses the E Ink technology, but what Plastic Logic has really done differently is combine this with a new approach to the electronics - using electronics on lightweight plastics. The company says it used technology first developed at Cambridge University to use high-resolution transistor arrays on a flexible plastic substrate. The result is a display that looks lighter and more durable than competing products...