The best products of Macworld Expo 2010

I'd been wavering on whether I think Macworld Expo can continue to be a success without Apple on board.  The products on the show floor by and large aren't anything you haven't already seen on the Internet.  You could probably visit for less than two hours and see everything you'd want.

But that doesn't mean that it wasn't absolutely packed.  The show floor was fairly full of exhibitors and at noon when the doors opened to the general public, it was so packed that it was hard to walk around.  David Pogue's un-Keynote was also packed and entertaining, if not technology focused.  The Mac Geek Gab also had a great and packed show.

Like I said, the products overall weren't outstanding, with Microsoft and IBM "showing off" their old products and handing out sad schwag.  HP demoed their printers which were the same printers you'd see at Best Buy and companies that sell Mac accessories like Dr. Bott and OWC had a large presence that were a bit more interesting.

The big guys didn't impress me, but there were some little guys that did.

The highlights for me were:

CarMD, a device that you connect to your car when one of those engine lights come on.  It tells you what errors the car is getting without having to take it into the shop.  I haven't tested it yet but I'm actually looking forward to seeing what it can do.

I visited the Buffalo station, expecting to see some of their new (first to market) USB 3 demo equipment.  They didn't have anything like that on hand but I did like what they were doing with their Dualie iPhone/Hard drive dock with two extra USB ports. 

TouchTec's gloves that allow your to use capacitive touch screens without holes or metal implants in the gloves.  They work because of a patented leather treatment.

I've always liked what EyeFi was doing with their SD cards.  They upload your pictures and videos to your Flickr, Picasa, etc. photo albums automatically and also geotag those images based on Wifi access points.

The most important product that I saw at the show, however, wasn't at a booth.  I actually got to meet with Redpark's Mike Ridenhour.  Redpark are the engineers that created Keyspan (who made the popular USB-Serial adapters for Macs).  They've just released a iPod touch/iPhone/iPad serial adapter/reference design that will allow developers to build apps that will interface a number of other machines including: excercise machines (excergaming?), hospital equipment, PIC microcontrollers, Lego Mindstorms, Cisco routers, home automation, Uninteruptable Power Supplies or even Apple's Xserves and anything else that uses a serial interface.

While they don't have any products yet, their little adapters (pictured above in DB-9 and RJ45) could finally allow Apple's iPods and iPhones control many other devices, a promise that has largely gone unfulfilled since the unveiling of the iPhone OS 3.0 was released with the ability to control other devices.

Seeing this product and its possibilities made my day and I probably wouldn't have been able to see it had Macworld been canceled (nor would I have picked up an excellent pair of iFrogz Earpollution CS40 headphones). 

So, for this kind of experience alone, I hope IDG (Computerworld's parent company) continues to host Macworld events.