CES 2005: Photos From Day Four

It's a flash-based MP3 player. It's a speaker system. It's a radio alarm clock. The versatile Philips Personal Sound System (PSS110) is all of the above in a device that looks very much like an itty bitty boom box you can hold in your hand. The PSS110 is due in April at a suggested retail price of $160.

Tired of QWERTY? ABKey's Premium 1 keyboard aims to place the most commonly used vowels and consonants where your fingers naturally rest to minimize movement.

The Audiovox Shuttle System is a modular collection of mix-and-match LCD/DVD players and docking stations intended for use in cars or other space-challenged environments. The tablet-like displays top out at 10.2 inches; they can be used by themselves, or placed in one of several docking stations, including one for a car, a tabletop station with build-in speakers, and a station designed to be mounted under a kitchen cabinet. The products are due in March.

The D-Link personal media player can store music and video on its 20GB hard drive or stream music from a PC on your network or from the Internet. It's due out later this year.

JVC announced the $165 XA-A50CL MP3 player here at CES. This portable player features 128MB of storage and is literally as big as slip-on-your-ear L/R earphones because JVC builds the controls for the player and its battery onto the right earphone.

Optoma's MovieTime Player was a major buzz-generator at CES. This Instant Home Theatre projector has an integrated DVD player, built-in 5-watt speakers, and 840-by-480p resolution, perfect for 16-by-9 movie viewing. But what sets this product apart from competitors in the new Home Theatre category is its "short throw" lens, which allows owners to get a 64-inch wide screen from just five feet away, and it's extremely quiet fan, which is rated at 28 decibels. The box also offers S-video and VGA connections for upgraders and has an optical output if you want to connect it to a 5.1 surround sound system. Expected to ship in the next six months, the MovieTime Player should retail for under $1500.

PC World co-hosted a "Rock the House" party at the MGM Grand Friday night, and one of the highlights was an appearance by Dweezil Zappa, son of the celebrated Frank Zappa, the iconoclastic musician of the '60s, '70s, and '80s. Dweezil claimed, tongue in cheek, that computers have made musicians "worse than they've ever been," yet at the same time they've also made amateur or first-time musicians better than they've ever been before.

The Tao WiFiMP3 player has a 20GB hard drive for local storage of music. It also has a Wi-Fi connection you can use to wirelessly download music from your own network or off the Internet from a public hotspot.

You can access XM Radio content nearly anywhere with the Tao XM2Go. The device will also record up to five hours of XM programming.

This Instant Home Theatre projector from Cinego, which is marketed by Radio Shack, comes with a built-in DVD player and speakers, making it a snap to get started in big screen movie viewing without fussing around with cables and costly peripherals. Boasting 854-by-480 resolution and a 1500:1 contrast ratio, the DLP-based product ships later this quarter and is expected to be priced under $1500.

The Garmin Street Pilot C320 is a dedicated after-market car navigation kit for non-techie users. It's a geeky-looking 3.5-inch touchscreen display you can attach to a windshield using included suction cups; and includes a battery charger that connects to your car's cigarette lighter. Garmin plans to offer two versions: A $700 unit that lets you load maps as needed from an included CD onto an included 128MB SD card, or a $900 model that will have all North American maps preloaded.

The Garmin ForeRunner 301 is the next-generation version of the company's wrist display for runners. It shows you exactly how fast you're going and whether you're on track to meet your speed goals. Due later this month, the $300 Forerunner 301 takes the virtual gym scenario a step further by integrating a heart rate monitor and bundling training software for your PC.

The Samsung SPH-A800 is a CDMA phone, featuring a 2-megapixel camera with built-in flash. It also can scan in business cards via an optical reader.

The Samsung SCH-i730 features an innovative design: the underside of this Windows Mobile Smartphone slides down to reveal a hardware QWERTY keyboard. The phone supports the super-fast EVDO network that Verizon has begun to roll out in major markets nationwide.

The Samsung P777 is a slider phone that supports Cingular/AT&T's high-speed EDGE network and should be available within the month.

Targus introduced two mice geared for travel. The $25 optical mouse has five buttons, including back and forward buttons for a Web browser, and has a retractable USB cable.

The optical Stow And Go mouse is wireless, costs $50, and runs on batteries that you can recharge via the included USB cable.

Who says you need Windows for a PC that records TV and handles other media? The Lafayette MediaReady 5000 is based on Linux and handles PVR functions, along with playing music, video from the Internet and showing your digital photos.