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As the year draws to a close and the year-end buying season draws near, Japan's gadget makers have been winding down and December saw few products launched.

Most of the season's new products were previewed in the last two months at the Ceatec or World PC Expo shows, and still other new products are waiting for their unveiling at CES in Las Vegas in January. Despite the lull, Sony still managed to impress with a new Walkman, Clarion came up with a new concept in in-car entertainment, and cell phone makers continued to claim firsts with new products.

A Network Walkman

Just when we thought portable music couldn't get any cooler, Sony comes along and impresses us once again with another miniature wonder. The NW-MS70D Network Walkman is not only small and light--measuring 1.4 inches by 1.9 inches by .7 inches and weighing 1.9 ounces--but exceedingly well-equipped.

It has 256MB of internal memory, which is enough for 11 hour-long CDs encoded using Sony's new Atrac 3 plus digital music format. A cradle connects the device to your PC where you can encode music into Atrac 3 plus--something that is required as the player does not support the MP3 format. The battery will last for around 30 hours before it needs recharging. Pricing will be announced with the NW-MS70D is released in Japan in February.

In-Car Computer

Japan's Clarion has launched a PC for cars. If you are wondering why drivers need a PC in their dashboard, remember that this is Japan--a country where dashboard navigation, television, and DVD Video functions can be found in many cars.

The Cadias car PC is based on Windows CE and supports those functions plus an AM/FM radio, a CD player, MP3 and WMA digital audio players, and both e-mail and Web access. The device slots into the dashboard and when in use is controlled via a 7-inch TFT LCD touch panel. The screen can be folded inside the device when not in use but, hey, if you have such a cool toy in your car would you want to hide it? It costs $2800 and there are no plans for overseas sales.

Cool and Spicy

Cool and spicy ... surely it's hot and spicy? Well, normally yes, but we're talking about Casio's Exilim digital cameras. The company launched these hot little gadgets in May and has since updated them.

They instantly became popular because of their small size and thinness, which makes them easy to fit in a pocket and carry around all the time just in case that Kodak moment (or should that be Casio moment?) presents itself. Well, now the 2-megapixel versions of the Exilim are available in two colors beyond the standard silver: Ice Blue and Pepper Red .... making them and their owner very cool and spicy! They cost around $250.

Remote Control Cell Phone

Is there something about cellular telephones that inspires stupidity? A couple of months ago we crowned Pioneer's Happy Aqua Phone as the nuttiest product of the month and, without doubt, the silliest of the last four weeks is NEC's N504iS cell phone for NTT DoCoMo.

At first it sounds cool--a cell phone that can double as a remote control for your TV or VCR--but think about it, when would you want to use your cell phone to control your TV? You're gonna have to remember which button is which, because there are no TV-specific labels, and the small keypad is going to be much harder to use.

Other features are decidedly cool--a 310,000-pixel camera with built-in 3X zoom and clip-on macro lens, the capability to take 20 shots in quick succession, and a 2.2-inch color TFT LCD. The phone is compatible with Japan's PDC cellular system only and prices vary depending on retailer discounts.

High-Tech TV

Away from home for a few weeks and worried about missing your favorite TV shows? Toshiba's RD-X3 hard drive and DVD video recorder means running out of recording space is no longer a problem. With a 120GB hard disk drive and the ability to accommodate DVD-RAM discs up to 9.4GB in capacity, the company says the new machine can store up to 208 hours of programming.

To match the monster memory, the machine's timer can handle up to 32 programs up to two months ahead of time and, thanks to an Ethernet terminal, you can even program via the Internet while away on vacation in the South Pacific. It is expected to cost around $1670 when it goes on sale in Japan in January. There are no overseas launch plans at present.

DVD Recorders

Sharp's latest DVD video recorder supports both DVD-RW and DVD-R and can store up to six hours of video on a 4.7GB disc in its most efficient mode. The machine comes with an iLink interface, which is Sony's version of IEEE1394, so digital video camera users can hook right-up and the engineers at Sharp outfitted the machine with a PC Card slot that allows users to insert digital camera memory cards and burn images on a DVD-RW disc without using a computer.

The use of a PC Card slot rather than proprietary memory card slot mirrors that of a similar product recently put on sale by Matsushita Electric Industrial and will be welcomed by users because it allows them to insert whatever memory card their digital camera uses. It costs around $625 and there are no plans to sell it overseas at present.

Good-Looking Audio

The latest addition to Sharp's Auvi range of audio products looks as good as it sounds. Its very cool black case almost gives away that this is an audio system for people who love their music and are prepared to pay to enjoy it. The system samples audio at 128 times the resolution of CDs, which leads to a better, more realistic sound, according to Sharp.

The main unit contains a CD player, MiniDisc player, and radio, all of which are controlled from buttons on the top of the unit, while a companion amplifier delivers up to 40 watts of power to each of two channels. The SD-SG40-B is now on sale in Japan and costs $1250.

Digital Theater

JVC has everything you need for a home theater with its TH-W1 system and at a price that is within the reach of many consumers.

At the center of everything is a player that crams an S-VHS and DVD deck with a Dolby 5.1 channel decoder with support for DTS and MPEG2 audio. The 115-watt subwoofer contains an amplifier that drives the other 5 speakers, each with a 24-watt channel. The whole package costs around $625.

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