ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100088
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LAS VEGAS
SOURCE: DAVID E. KALISH ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stolen car? No problem. A new device pages you when it's stolen, pinpoints the car's location and tells the thief the police are tracking the vehicle.
Sick of getting rained on? A nifty travel clock not only tells the current temperature, it forecasts whether the next day will bring sun, clouds or precipitation.
Executives of the world's largest electronics companies gushed in technical jargon Thursday about such lofty subjects as the future ``convergence'' of computers and entertainment. But it was the nifty gadgets and gizmos - many of them made by small upstarts - that stole the show on the first day of the nation's largest gathering of consumer electronics makers.
The futuristic innovations should appear on store shelves near you this year, assuming they pass this week's test: Captivating enough of the estimated 80,000 retailers attending the vast Consumer Electronics Show.
Santa Ana, Calif.-based PageStar Inc. showed off its brainy StarTrak car-tracking system, which employs a small device installed in the trunk of a car. Minutes after a break-in, the device sends out a signal that is picked up by satellite that relays the car's location to a control center, which in turn notifies police.
The control center pages the owner with the news. At that point, the owner can call a toll-free number and punch in a security code that, within five minutes, tells the car to cut the ignition. At the same time, a warning is announced in the car that tells the thief the vehicle will soon stop and police will be notified.
The product is available this year on upscale, high-theft cars such as Lexus and Acura. It is installed for $595 to $995, and requires a monthly fee of about $12.
Quality Source Inc., based in Dallas, was spotlighting its Weather Genius, which retails for $70. The sleek, black travel clock displays the time as well as the temperature both inside and outside - the latter read by a sensor attached to a small cord that can be dangled out a window or door.
But the most fascinating feature is its ability to read the surrounding area's barometric pressure and use that information to predict the weather over the next 12 to 24 hours. The forecast is shown with small pictures on the screen of sun, clouds, or clouds and rain.
Kitty Liy, the company's vice president, said the clock's weather forecasts are 70 percent accurate, but a user may need to wait a day after putting in the batteries to get good results, as the machine adjusts to the environment. Two clocks on display Thursday showed clouds and rain in the future for sunny Las Vegas.
Hitachi unveiled a $799 television that doubles as a monitor for your home computer. A user presses a button to tell the set whether he wants to watch TV or turn on the computer.
Keynote speaker Michael Bloomberg, head of the giant Bloomberg Financial Markets, predicted that the newspaper, far from becoming obsolete, will be transformed into a cloth device embedded with electronics that can capture the day's news after it is beamed to subscribers. ``Electronic delivery will make newspapers even more valuable,'' said Bloomberg, whose company also supplies news stories to newspapers.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. An exhibit booth at the electronics show in Lasby CNBVegas shows off a super-phone.