LAS VEGAS -- AMID the distractions - flashy fashion shows on a multimedia stage, mini- rock concerts, a full- fledged Mercedes-Benz test track in a parking lot, violin quartets, people dressed up as peanuts - there were electronics at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Tens of products, hundreds, probably thousands, blinked and shone and sung and beeped: from runners' watches that used satellite signals to measure pace to alarm clocks that actually reported amounts of body fat; from tiny discs holding hundreds of digitized songs to a drop-dead-gorgeous loudspeaker tower finished in bird's-eye maple lacquer. And quite nifty was the oven equipped with refrigerant (to keep the uncooked chicken cold all day) that can be turned on remotely with a call from a cell phone.
The annual Las Vegas show is a celebration of all things pluggable, so never mind that the most impressive gear to emerge during the four-day run last week actually debuted several hundred miles away, when Apple's Steve Jobs took the wraps off the stunning new iMac at the Macworld convention in San Francisco. The Consumer Electronics Show countered with Bill Gates demonstrating fancy new Microsoft software to control the electronic home and previewing new Xbox games, and Hewlett-Packard's chief executive Carly Fiorina reiterating the benefits of a merger with Compaq.
Revolutionary electronics at the 2002 Consumer Electronics Show? Not exactly. The big guns came with plenty of bullets, though: Philips and Panasonic explained why, despite three dueling formats, their recordable DVD machines are the wave of the future. Sony delivered a camcorder about the size of a Walkman. Pioneer flogged an audio/ video network to deliver music and images throughout the house, and Zenith showed off a widescreen LCD television that was positively brilliant. There were new tweaks to Dolby Digital and DTS and THX and SACD and DLP technologies, and more acronyms than you could count.
Fact is, despite the lack of serious sizzle at the subdued show and a drop in manufacturers' revenues for 2001, the industry is basking in the latest electronics revolution, the DVD phenomenon. Movie lovers spent $4.6 billion on DVDs in 2001, an increase that put the silvery disc ahead of VHS purchases for the first time. More than 31 million DVD players are in American homes; no other consumer electronics product has achieved this level of market penetration in such a short time (five years).
But one could spot other trends on the electronics horizon. Wireless products, which have been concepts at previous trade shows, bubbled up as real products, items such as Motorola's Bluetooth-enabled headset and the Plantronics M1500, a nifty, less-than-an-ounce earpiece/microphone with a separate receiver that plugs into any cell phone. The M1500 is also powered by Bluetooth, a wireless link that provides clear audio reception over short distances.
Flash memory cards - the digital storage systems used in cameras, portable audio devices and handheld computers - were ubiquitous in applications, with prices coming down and capacities going up: SanDisk announced availability soon of a 1-gigabyte card.
Thin and flat, as in TVs and monitors, were the buzz in video. Prices of giant plasma sets are dropping - but not much below $6,000. And satellite radio continues its rollout, with Sirius battling rival XM for media attention at the show.
Sirius begins broadcasting next month, but the nabobs there don't seem overly concerned that XM, with about 30,000 subscribers in hand, has a head start. Said Sirius chief executive Joe Clayton, "It didn't hurt RCA being behind Sony in launching the VCR, so I'm in pretty good company."
That's an overview of the goodies. Here's a closer look at some of them:
1. Sony's MicroMV Camcorders. The description "world's smallest" has been thrown about umpteen times, but Sony might honestly have claim to the title of world's smallest digital camera- camcorder with its DCR-IP5. MicroMV is built around a new tape-cassette format that's 70 percent smaller than current MiniDV tapes.
Each can record up to 60 minutes of video, using MPEG-2 compression, the same formula used for DVD video and satellite TV, and has a built-in 64-kilobyte memory chip that stores title and date information and an index of thumbnail images to quickly search the tape's content.
The DCR-IP5 will be available next month at $1,299 with a 10-power Zeiss zoom lens. A big brother, the DCR-IP7BT, adds Bluetooth connectivity to wirelessly upload video clips and still images to a PC. It's priced at $1,699.
2. Moxi Media Center. Convergence is the place where information, entertainment and telecommunications intersect. It's not only a technological grail, but a cultural destination as well. Moxi portends the electronic home by offering a box that combines hardware, software, and a big fat hard drive to funnel digital music, video, even Internet functionality to up to four entertainment centers - as in TVs and stereo systems - throughout the house.
Steve Perlman, former chief of WebTV, had an idea that became Moxi Digital, and its potential is enormous. Perlman, in fact, may succeed where Gates so far has only blustered. Moxi does it all with wires - via Ethernet connections - or without, employing convenient receivers using radio signals.
Even without the built-in hard drive (for recording hours of audio and video) and DVD player, the Moxi Media Center would be a formidable box. With its capabilities as a digital satellite/cable receiver, broadband modem and clearinghouse for a bunch of entertainment programming, it's a home run.
3. DVD Recorders From Philips and Panasonic. With Panasonic adding the consumer- friendly DVD-R format to its top-of-the- line recording deck - and dropping the price to $1,000 - Philips countered with its DVDR985, on the market for less than $1,000. Also falling are the prices of blank DVD media, to $5 to $10 for a rewritable disc.
Philips claims the DVD+RW discs put together on this handsome, silver machine will work with more conventional DVD players than discs recorded in other formats. It's available next month.
Even so, with claims and counterclaims of compatibility rattling this segment of the home market, our advice is to sit tight and wait for the single emerging standard before investing in a DVD recorder. The smoke should clear later this year.
4. ViewSonic VX3600 High-Resolution Monitor. While the big guys (Sony, Panasonic, Sharp, Zenith, et al.) continue to fiddle with display technology and the promise of high-definition television, along comes a niche player called ViewSonic with a knockout screen.
Attribute the clarity and detail of this wide-screen, high-definition-ready 36-inch monitor to its LCoS (liquid crystal on silicon) imager, a technology that effectively eliminates "pixel gaps" and produces a seamless image with exceptional brightness and clarity. With connectors galore (VGA, USB, FireWire, even DVI), a flat screen and containable dimensions (the set is only 18 inches deep, and about 93 pounds), the VX3600 is truly multitasking: Use it as a PC monitor or as the center of a home-theater setup. Just under $7,000.
5. Oregon Scientific Alarm Clock/Body Fat Meter. When the model PFA112 rings, it's either time to get out of bed, or time to lay down that chili dog.
From the company that excels in innovative applications such as home weather monitors, sport watches and radio- controlled clocks (I especially like the clock that projects the time in giant digits on a ceiling), this $100 device is full of little chrome buttons. Hold it with the two finger-holds on the top corners, and the meter zaps you with a small electric charge that measures your body-fat percentage, in increments, from 5 percent to 60 percent.
Feeling more ambitious? There's Oregon's Altimeter Watch, $300, with a constantly updating heart-rate monitor that is transmitted to the display screen on the wristwatch from a wireless chest strap. Other features of the watch measure altitude from 1,312 feet below sea level to more than 30,000 feet, vertical speed, and elapsed workout time, along with constant temperature and barometric pressure readings. Special PC software and a docking station allow for uploading data. Phew.
6. Sharp Zaurus SL-5500. Dubbed the Personal Mobile Tool - clever, no? - this variation on the PDA theme has bunches of power and a nice color screen, much like its Pocket PC rivals. The Zaurus one-ups the competition with a cute keyboard built in under a sliding cover. It's due to be shipped in the spring, for about $550.
While we're on the handheld PC segment here, a tip of the cap to Danger's inventive Hiptop, a wireless PDA communicator with a screen that flips up to reveal a keyboard that's actually usable. Very neat.
7. RCA Lyra Personal Jukebox. Take that, iPod! Here's a portable MP3 audio player with a 10-gigabyte hard drive (iPod has 5gigabytes) that works with Macs and PCs (iPod is only Mac-compatible) and costs $299 (a hundred smackers less than iPod).
So what's the tradeoff? Well, style mostly, and the Lyra is bulkier. Also, the Lyra is fed files off the computer via a USB port, which is significantly slower in data transfer than the Apple's FireWire connection.
In a vacuum, though, the Lyra is a fine performer with terrific capacity for tunes: about 300 hours in the improved MP3- PRO format, RCA says. The Lyra is also quite happy transporting any digital files too fat for a floppy.
8. DataPlay/MTV/Evolution/e.Digital Portable Music Player. It's not particularly attractive, and we couldn't accurately judge the sound quality, but the arrival of this product - in the making for a couple of years - will have a significant impact on both the digital music segment and the future of digital storage. The device probably will have a real name when it arrives, too.
DataPlay discs, about the size of a quarter, hold up to 500 megabytes each and will sell for about $10. The discs are write-once, which means they're not erasable or rerecordable. Even so, compared to the price of CompactFlash or Smart Media memory, DataPlay's a bargain. One of the few disadvantages: a slower data transfer rate than with most flash memory.
DataPlay says to expect the player to arrive in March at about $350, with a more palatable name. The company is also planning to release prerecorded "albums" on the medium.
9. Timex Ironman Speed & Distance System. The watch straps to the wrist; the GPS receiver straps to the arm. As you run, the global positioning system receiver picks up satellite signals to measure precise readings of speed and elapsed distance. Timex says the receiver is immune to interference from overhead power lines, too, thank goodness. Due in April for about $225.
10. Sony MDX-5DI In-Dash Color-Screen Mobile CD Receiver. Say you're driving past the Grand Canyon, seeking that spectacular sunset, and it starts to rain. Simply transfer the stock Grand Canyon sunset photo - via a Memory Stick file - to the Sony color-screen CD receiver in the dashboard, sit back and enjoy. But stop the car while you look.
The sleek faceplate features a 4.5-inch, 32,000-color TFT (thin-film transistor) screen that looks good, even in daylight. There's even a full-motion mode for replaying video clips. The thing plays CDs, too. Available in April for about $1,000.
Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.