Mirror, mirror on the wall

LAS VEGAS—The annual Consumer Electronics Show is all about product. Beyond the speeches, the parties and endless lines, it's the products that the 130,000 attendees come to see.

The gadgets and devices, many of which are to go on sale this year, run the gamut from useful to wacky, sleek to befuddling, promising to ... whatever.

Here's a handful that grabbed our attention:

Philips MiraVision

Televisions look great when they're on, but when turned off they just take up space.

Philips is trying to remedy that with its upcoming MiraVision line of flat-screen televisions. Turn them off and they become mirrors.

The television isn't very deep — say about 6 inches or so — so it can be installed on a wall so that it looks like a framed mirror.

Now Philips just has to figure out what to do with all the wires that connect the TV with cable boxes, TiVos and stereo systems. The television will come in 32-inch and 42-inch models.

Price: Not announced

Sony Reader

Amid huge televisions, tiny phones and booming car audio systems, Sony made a splash with a silent little black-and-white device for reading books.

The Sony Reader is the latest of many attempts by different companies to develop the perfect electronic device for displaying and reading printed material. The Reader is about the size of a paperback book, a half-inch thick and stores around 80 books at a time. It's expected to go on sale in the spring in the U.S.

Sony is partnering with major publishers to sell their books via the Sony Connect online store. The reader has a slot for memory cards and a headphone jack for listening to digital music that can be stored on the device. It also displays PDF files and digital photos, but not in color.

Price: Estimated $300 to $400

Skype and Netgear phone

This wireless phone, developed by Netgear and Skype, works when in range of an open wireless Internet access point. And it doesn't need to be connected to a personal computer to work. That's different from the usual Skype call, which requires you make the call through the PC while using a headset.

Users can call other Skype users — even international ones — free, and they can also call non-Skype users for about 2 cents a minute.

It's not going to be the most reliable phone, but as the number and strength of Wi-Fi networks increase the opportunities to use it will, as well.

The phone is due out in the next three months.

Price: Not announced

H-rom storage

Blu-ray and HD-DVD — the DVD storage formats Microsoft, Sony and others are haggling over — may be eclipsed by an entirely new format that debuted at CES: holographic storage discs, or H-rom.

InPhase, a Longmont, Colo., company, announced it's shipping holographic discs, years ahead of when they were expected. The discs use the same red laser as CDs and DVDs and have a capacity of 300 gigabytes — five times that of Blu-ray discs, and 10 times that of HD-DVD.

InPhase is shipping the discs to companies developing consumer devices that will use the format; it expects professional systems using H-Rom to go on sale later this year.

The discs transfer data at 20 megabits per second.

iBible

Among the thousands of iPod competitors on display, one stood out: The iBible, a "talking" handheld device that comes preloaded with the Old and New Testaments of the King James version.

Passages can be read on the large touch screen LCD, or the device can read the Bible to users. It comes packaged in sleek, black Apple-like boxes with "iBook" printed in white letters.

Chinese manufacturer KingNeed Digital also produces a talking Quran device.

Price: $90 for iBible; $300 for the Quran device (it has a more expensive color screen, a representative said)

Acoustic Research Home Decor

In a time when style is paramount in electronics, Acoustic Research has the ultimate solution. Its "Home Décor" line almost makes audio speakers invisible.

The speakers are well hidden inside everyday home items — books, vases, and clocks — to blend in with the rest of the living room.

The speaker covers are expected to debut in March.

Price: $30 to $60

Panasonic home networking

Consumer electronics giant Panasonic is the latest of several companies to introduce a product using home electrical wiring systems to provide Internet access throughout the house.

What's different about Panasonic's HD-PLC system is that it's superfast — fast enough to carry high-definition video content that's starting to be distributed via the Internet by some phone companies — and doesn't require a PC.

The basic system consists of cigarette-pack-size boxes that plug into electrical outlets. One connects a broadband modem to the house wiring, and others are used wherever an Internet connection is needed. Wireless routers can also be plugged into the boxes, so a house could have both wired and wireless access. Mike Roshandel, Panasonic new business development manager, said the system should be on sale by March.

Price: Two-box starter set expected to be less than $200

Honhai player/refrigerator

For those short on space, or who like to be entertained when they reach for a cold one, a portable fridge with a DVD player and flash memory card reader may be just the thing.

The device, from Taiwan's Honhai, can cool or warm food and operates on AC or DC power in the home, car or great outdoors. It comes with a remote control.

Built into the door are a 7-inch LCD screen, flash card reader and USB jack. Honhai may need to come up with a new name for the device, however. It's now called the TDV-8108C All in one Thermoelectric Cooler & Warmer with DV & Flash Card Reader.

Price: About $200

Philips Shoqbox

The Philips ShoqBox packs a powerful sound into a small size.

The MP3 player can easily be tucked into a travel bag, and it comes with its own travel case. It has an FM tuner, and users can wake up to the radio or their own music with the built-in alarm clock.

The device includes a rechargeable battery that can play for 10 hours. The big drawback: It only has 512 megabytes of storage, enough to hold only about 120 MP3 tracks or 240 Windows Media files, Philips says.

Another drawback: It plays only those two formats. It's available now.

Price: $149.

Brier Dudley: 206-515-5687 or bdudley@seattletimes.com.

Kim Peterson: 206-464-2360 or kpeterson@seattletimes.com