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Techno Gizmos Ready To Wow

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The Associated Press

Published: January 6, 2009

The recession figures to tone down the flashiness of this week's International Consumer Electronics Show, but the lineup of innovative products likely will measure up to those of past years.

For instance, Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. will introduce new 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.

Other things to expect:

•Ever fantasize about moving things around with your mind? Mattel Inc. is going to make that fantasy come true with the Mind Flex. This toy comes with a brain-scanning head set. Concentrate, and a fan spins up 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 Corp., a leading maker of graphics chips for computers, will be touting $199 glasses that turn compatible monitors into three-dimensional displays, spicing up games like "Far Cry 2," "Spore" and "Left 4 Dead."

•At last year's show, 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.

•Stereo maker Blaupunkt will show what it says is "the first Internet car radio." It's a potential competitor to satellite radio, but needs to be connected to an Internet-enabled phone to receive audio streams.

•Small, cheap laptops known as "netbooks" are the hot new category in computers. Last year, Asustek Computer Inc., the pioneer in the field, was nearly alone in showing netbooks, but this year it will be joined by practically every other computer manufacturer.

•Palm Inc., the maker of smart phones that have been overshadowed by BlackBerrys and iPhones, has promised a big announcement. It's widely expected to reveal a replacement for the dated software that drives Palm's Centros and most of its Treos.

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