Holiday Gadget Steam Picks Up

Among the functions on Sony's hard-drive-based players is an Artist Link. Clicking the Link button while a song is playing highlights stored music from similar musicians and genres. There are also several shuffle modes in all the players, including a Time Shuffle that plays all the stored songs from a selected year, and a mode that randomly plays songs from the top 100 most listened-to tracks. Also new is the Connect Player jukebox software, which has an interface that bears more than a passing resemblance to Apple's ITunes software and has many of the same functions.

The new Walkman players will be available in Japan beginning in October. International launch plans have not yet been set.

> For all the specifications and technical details rattled off, one number is usually more important than the others: the price. That's why Matsushita Electric's (better known as Panasonic) new plasma TV is so impressive. It's the first big-screen set with a price under $9000. For comparison, Panasonic's current 65-inch plasma TV sells for between $11,720 and $14,400 depending on the retailer, and a 61-inch set from Sony costs around $14,400.

The icing on the cake is that's Panasonic's new plasma TV also has more impressive specs than the company's current model: It's a full HDTV panel, and it consumes 26 percent less power. It will cost $8925 in Japan. Panasonic plans to sell it overseas, but there's no launch schedule or pricing yet worked out.

I like the idea of getting my home-country news when I'm traveling, so Sony's Location Free TV system has always interested me, but its $1000-plus price tag has been a turnoff.

Now it's getting much cheaper, with a Location Free TV Base Station that will stream entertainment from your living room directly to your PC screen. For people with laptops, this makes much more sense than having to take Sony's portable display along on trips. With a broadband connection at home and Sony's Windows-compatible software on your laptop, you can watch local TV or other content streamed across the Internet to you wherever you are, as long as you have a decent connection.

Sony says its Location Free TV Base Station will even work with the Connexion by Boeing onboard airline broadband system. The base station will be launched in Japan in October and will cost $300. U.S. launch plans haven't been announced.

Nintendo has added a new member to its GameBoy family with the launch of the GameBoy Micro . The Micro is easily the smallest member of Nintendo's hit GameBoy family, as its name suggests. At 3.94 inches long by 1.97 inches deep by 0.67 inch thick, the device is smaller than a deck of cards.

Nintendo says that despite its diminutive size, it has about the same power of previous GameBoy models. It includes a 2-inch color LCD and buttons for both game control and menu selection. You can use face plates to change the look of the device.

The Micro's launch was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of Nintendo's Mario Bros. game. Audio and video files can also be played through an adapter. The GameBoy Micro hit U.S. shelves on September 19 and costs $100.

A stroke of design genius, or perhaps desperation? Decide for yourself after seeing Sony's Network Walkman digital music players, which were inspired by jellybean candy .

The bean-shaped players, which will go on sale later this year, have colors to match various jellybean flavors: tropical ice is blue; cotton candy is pink; licorice is black; and coconut is white. They play MP3 and ATRAC3plus files and have a one-line organic light emitting diode display. The battery lasts 50 hours. A 512MB model will cost $130, and a 1GB model will be $180. Both will be available in the U.S. in October. Sony will also launch versions of the player in Europe.