Gadgets big and small on your way

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Gadgets have been getting smaller and smaller for years as technology companies shrink more circuitry into tiny electronic devices.

But now some of the hottest electronic consumer products are getting really big. On display at the Consumer Electronics Show this week are plasma TVs as wide as a living-room wall.

Small gadgets haven't gone away, either, with "mini" products hitting the runway that include an MP3 player with a color screen no bigger than a couple packs of gum.

Scores of the industry's most-hyped products were on display at annual show in America's gambling mecca Las Vegas. It's anybody's bet which will be under Christmas trees at the end of the year. But here are some of the ones drawing attention at this year's glitzy show:

102-INCH PLASMA TELEVISION: Samsung introduced a prototype plasma television that is about as long as a car and and about as thick as a tire. It's also expected to have price tag that matches a brand new BMW.

PORTABLE MEDIA AND E-MAIL: French manufacturer Archos took the wraps off the PMA430, a portable music and video player smaller than a paperback book, with a wireless Internet connection for Web surfing and e-mail.

The touch-screen device can also record live television and runs on the open-source Linux operating system, meaning developers can write new applications for it. It ships this month for about $800.

APPOINTMENTS ON YOUR WRIST: Last year Microsoft had a technology for Intenet-enabled data wrist watches. This year Fossil has the Wrist PDA, a $199 watch with a touchscreen running the Palm operating system. It features handwriting recognition and a stylus in the wrist band.

DIGITAL MUSIC ANYWHERE: Each year it seems technology puts more distance between today's sophisticated music machines and the groundbreaking, but simple, cassette and CD players of the 1990's.

This year, iriver's H10 digital music player, which is smaller and slimmer than a wallet, features a 5-gigabyte hard drive and a bright color screen that displays photos. There is a removable battery and a "touch strip" that runs vertically over the face of the device. The $380 unit also lets users record FM radio.

DRIVING YOUR CAR: Movies and TV for decades have trumpeted a future with cars that pilot themselves. Technology hasn't quite gotten there yet, but car navigation systems are becoming more and more advanced.

At CES, Alpine is offering an in-dash DVD navigation system that not only reports real-time traffic updates, but also offers rerouting around an accident before your car arrives at the incident. Pricing and shipping dates were not available.

SLING-ING MOVIES: Another popular theme at the show was the notion that movies, video and music are not static in a single machine, like a television.

San Mateo, California-based Sling Media is debuting is a device called a "Slingbox Personal Broadcaster," which looks like a candy-bar, that will let consumers watch live TV programming from wherever they are by turning virtually any laptop or Internet-connected device into a personal TV. It's priced at $259.

TAKE YOUR SATELLITE WITH YOU: Satellite TV broadcaster EchoStar Communications Corp. showed off a Thin Audio Client that will let users play satellite television's audio anywhere they have an electrical socket (using home powerline networking to get the audio in the first place).

Satellite radio company XM went portable too, showing new models, including on from Atlanta-based Giant International Ltd.'s Tao brand, that will let subscribers take their satellite radio with them wherever they want "" and record a few hours of audio too.

LONG-LIFE POWER: One older technology - perhaps the most essential "" that becomes all the more important with all these portable devices is power.

At the show, Energizer promoted its Lithium E2 batteries, which boasts that it lasts 7 times longer than alkaline batteries and has a shelf life of about 15 years. A four-pack of the batteries is selling at about $10.

WEARABLE WIRELESS DEVICES Motorola Inc last on Friday announced a joint venture with eyewear maker Oakley Inc. to develop new Bluetooth-enabled wearable wireless communications devices.

The technology allows devices to communicate with each other without a physical wire connection, with Oakley's eyewear concepts. Details and designs will be unveiled by the middle of the year.