USATODAY.com - Outlandish gadgets in short supply at show

USATODAY.com - Outlandish gadgets in short supply at show: "But manufacturers at this year's gadgetfest generally took a more modest approach: They eschewed the flamboyant and futuristic in favor of relatively affordable devices that will debut within weeks or months, not years.

Many of the 2,400 exhibitors at the International Consumer Electronics Show this week hawked simple, elegant, sub-$1,000 items meant to enhance consumers' 'digital lifestyles.'

Universal remote controls, hand-held computers, digital camcorders, MP3 players and TVs that can be programmed from cell phones help users stay plugged into a world of digital music, video, games, television and Internet.

'We're encouraged by the real-world products at affordable price points this year,' said Mike George, chief marketing officer at Dell. 'We're finally moving from hype to reality.'

Although the 2005 show is light on breathless enthusiasm, the realism thrills skeptics who have been hearing technologists' gush about the 'wired home' since the mid-1980s.

• An embedded microdrive from Hitachi Global Storage Technologies. The 1-inch, half-ounce innovation is 20% smaller than the smallest microdrive now on the market, but it holds double the data — between 8 and 10 gigabytes.
  Dubbed "Mikey" for its diminutive size, the drive will debut in the second half of 2005. Consumers can't buy the drive directly; Hitachi is in discussions with cell phone and MP3 manufacturers. (CNET: Hitachi sues maker of tiny drives)

Although realism was the theme of the 2005 show, CES wouldn't be complete without fanciful gizmos, such as the 30-inch "intelligent oven" that can defrost, dehydrate, refrigerate, bake, broil or warm food based on prompts from any Internet-enabled computer or cell phone. TMIO Inc. is taking pre-orders online, but hasn't set prices.

But the newest prototype may never see the light of Best Buy: Like many of the more outrageous products at CES, it was built in part for bragging rights. "

By Joe Cavaretta, AP