LAS VEGAS — The product list at this week’s International Consumer Electronics Show looks intriguing partly because startups haven’t yet been hit as hard by this economic downturn as they were when the Internet boom collapsed in 2000. And bigger companies haven’t yet had time to adjust to consumers’ belt-tightening.
Sony, Samsung and LG will introduce flat-panel TV sets that provide smoother-looking action scenes, 3-D capabilities and Internet connections that can download movies, weather data and screen savers. With high-definition TVs in many homes, Ross Rubin, an analyst with NPD Group, also expects to see more high-definition camcorders and new players for high-def Blu-ray discs.
Other things to expect out of the show, which starts Thursday:
• Ever fantasize about moving things with your mind? Mattel will make that fantasy come true with the Mind Flex. This toy comes with a brain-scanning headset. Concentrate, and a fan spins to levitate a ball. Relax your thoughts, and the ball descends. For a challenge, guide the ball through an obstacle course of hoops. May the Force be with you when the Mind Flex hits stores in the fall for $80.
• Nvidia, a leading maker of graphics chips for computers, will tout $199 glasses that turn compatible monitors into three-dimensional displays, spicing up games such as “Far Cry 2,” “Spore” and “Left 4 Dead.” The wireless glasses come with an adapter that plugs into a USB slot. Gaming in 3-D, with and without glasses, has been possible for years but has never caught on. The support of a big name like Nvidia might make a difference.
• Companies have promised for the better part of the decade to rid us of the cables snaking around the entertainment center. At last year’s CES, there were a few TV sets, mostly prototypes, that could receive high-definition video signals wirelessly from a transmitter in the same room. There will be more this year, but this will be a feature only in the most expensive sets.
• TV stations will be at the show to present details of their plans to broadcast signals for cellphones, in-car sets and other portable gadgets. Transmissions could start this year, but it is unclear whether there will be any compatible receiving products, particularly because the cellular carriers have their own solutions for mobile TV.
• Small, cheap laptops known as “netbooks” are the hot category in computers. Last year at CES, Asustek Computer was nearly alone in showing netbooks, but this year it will have company from practically every other computer manufacturer. Intel will be showing a new version of its Classmate PC, a netbook for children that has a touch-sensitive screen that can be folded over the keyboard in a “tablet” configuration.
• Palm, the maker of smart phones that has been overshadowed by BlackBerry and iPhone, has promised a big announcement. It is widely expected to reveal a replacement for the dated software that drives Palm’s Centros and most of its Treos.
