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Showing off cool gear
By DAVE GUSSOW LAS VEGAS -- From the big (Samsung's 54-inch LCD video screen) to the small (Creative Lab's 6-millimeter-thin CardCam camera), this year's Consumer Electronics Show was a feast for the gadget-crazy. DVD dominated. New TVs and displays dazzled. Audio blared. And veteran industry executives gushed about their offerings. "It is cool, right?" asked Andy Takani, president of Panasonic Consumer Electronics. The object of his affection was a combo digital camera, camcorder and music player with a flipup screen -- that fit in the palm of his hand. It's expected to cost around $400 when it goes on the market in April. The consumer electronics industry had a modest 2002, with sales rising only 3.7 percent to $96.2-billion, according to the Consumer Electronics Association, a trade group and sponsor of the massive show that ended Sunday in Las Vegas. This year is expected to be similar, with the association projecting an increase of about 3.5 percent. But at this show, it's not the numbers that everyone gets caught up in. It's the gadgets, and there was no shortage of those. Here are some of the highlights: DVD: The hottest category for the past two years shows no signs of slowing. Companies showed off everything from entry-level models with added features to combination DVD players and personal video recorders. New home theater-in-a-box setups will include DVD players. The big push will come with more DVD recorders. Panasonic has a new model coming out at $599.95, less than 20 percent of what the first recorders cost just a few years ago. "2003 shows all the signs of being the breakout year for recordable DVD," said Mike Aguilar, Panasonic's senior vice president of marketing. Panasonic and Sony also showed new camcorders that record directly to a DVD disk. Digital TV: A recent deal with the cable industry boosted the industry's hopes that more digital-quality programming, such as HDTV, will be available to more viewers. That, along with lower prices, should spark more interest in and sales of digital sets, the companies say. Zenith said it would have cable-ready digital sets this year. Several manufacturers noted that upcoming models would have tuners built in, eliminating some of the confusion and complexity that plagued the market in its first years. Even after adding tuners to some models, Panasonic said, its 37- and 42-inch plasma screens would be only 4 inches deep. The keyless keyboard: Only about 60 of the 2,000 exhibitors at the show were from Florida, yet Keybowl Inc. (www.keybowl.com) of Winter Park managed to make its mark. Its orbiTouch keyboard won an innovation award. The $695 device has no keys. Instead, it has two domes, each shaped like a computer mouse. A user turns the domes to different positions in a circle to choose different numbers and letters. Walt Wilson, Keybowl's executive vice president, says the software includes a 15-minute tutorial for the basics. After three hours, a user should be able to manage it without guidance. After about five hours, a professional typist would be able to achieve 50 to 60 percent of regular speed. While its main market is for people with disabilities, the orbiTouch also would be useful for anyone with hand or wrist problems, Wilson says. One of the subcontractors working with Keybowl in producing the device is Genesis Electronics Manufacturing of Oldsmar. A musical journey: For your next road trip, how about taking along about 300 hours of your favorite music? The Omnifi from Rockford Fosgate has a 20-gigabyte hard drive. It can download music from your PC, either wirelessly within 150 feet or by taking out its portable hard drive and plugging it into your computer. The device, which is expected to be available this spring, will cost $599 for the car. A home unit, which simply streams music from a PC, will be $299. Speaking of music, the satellite radio war seems to be a mismatch. Market leader XM claims about 360,000 subscribers and projects 1-million by the end of the year. Rival Sirius lags far behind with 30,000 subscribers and hopes for 300,000 by the end of the year. Both announced new products for the home and portability to add to their car radios. Sirius also tried to generate some excitement by revamping its lineup with eight new music channels (such as international rap and jam bands), promising no ads on any of its 60 music channels and showing how it might add video offerings to its service. MP3 players continue to get smaller in size and bigger in capacity. IRiver showed the new iFP-190T. About the size of a Bic lighter, it can store up to eight hours of music, has an FM tuner and costs $199.99. Philips has an upcoming line of MP3 players and digital cameras small enough for key rings. Expected this summer, the devices will cost from $99 to $149. Digital photography: Adobe added another entry to the increasingly crowded market for digital photo editing software. In addition to basic editing tools such as cropping and red-eye removal, Photoshop Album has an intriguing archive system that makes it easy to find and organize photos. Adobe says Photoshop Album is good for beginners, but even more experienced users will find it complements its higher-end Elements and highest-end Photoshop. It's expected to go on sale in February for $49.95. In the kitchen: The living room isn't the only battleground for tech and entertainment devices. The iCEBOX from Salton is a combo TV, radio, DVD/CD player, home video monitor and Internet appliance intended for the kitchen counter. A touch screen model goes for $2,299; without a touch screen, it's $1,800. Coming soon: the Beyond Microwave Oven, which reads the bar code on a food package and automatically sets the oven. -- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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