The iPodization of the nation

LAS VEGAS — Making sense of the wildly shifting sands in personal technology seems to take daily attention these days, as iPods become TVs, TVs become phones, phones become dating services and dating services buy ads on your iPods. We all know we want the latest toys, but there are so many, which ones are really the most indispensable?

The recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas featured a lot of doodads, each more expensive than the other, but few definitive answers.

In fact, it was as if Hollywood had finally discovered the digital version of the Holy Grail. After years of delivering empty promises, the studios — notably Disney (which owns ABC) and Warner Bros. — had found a way to deliver video-on-demand to consumers via highly portable gadgets, most no larger than a cigarette lighter.

Many on board

Through Apple's iTunes online music shop, consumers will be able to access the entire first seasons — at $1.99 per commercial-free episode — of "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."

More than 2,000 music videos, six Pixar short films and Disney Channel shows "That's So Raven" and "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody" will also be made available. Under the Disney-Apple deal, the menu is quickly growing to include the ABC drama "Night Stalker," highlights from "Saturday Night Live," condensed versions of four BCS football games and a slate of titles from ESPN.

Clear Channel, which owns some 1,200 radio stations, has followed suit by offering free downloads of music videos from Universal and Warner. It hopes to add an ad-supported video-on-demand service and podcasting.

Google, which uses Microsoft Media Center, announced that it would offer programs from CBS, NBA games, "The Charlie Rose Show," vintage episodes of "I Love Lucy," "The Twilight Zone," "The Brady Bunch" and music videos from Sony BMG. Competitor Yahoo is expected to employ its own free software, which, when connected to TV sets, will allow users to record and view its video content on both platforms.

At the vast Microsoft booth at CES, Starz Entertainment Group demonstrated its new subscription-based Internet movie/video download service, Vongo. Patterned after the Netflix model, Vongo will provide on-demand access to more than 1,000 movies, as well as sports, music and TV content, for a $9.99 monthly fee.

Microsoft and DirecTV will work together, as well, on technology that allows content to flow between Windows-based PCs, satellite receivers, PlaysForSure-based portable media devices and Xbox360. EchoStar Satellite's Dish Network will facilitate podcasting through portable devices of its own.

It remains to be seen which of these platforms and content consumers actually will use, and pay for. How fun could it really be to watch an episode of "I Love Lucy" on a 1-inch screen? Yet someone must think there's potential there.

Hollywood is betting big money that busy consumers will download their favorite shows onto their PCs, then transfer the content to their iPods, MPEG-4s or gaming platforms. The podcasts can be watched during daily commutes, on lunch and bathroom breaks and during business and vacation trips.

There is a catch, however, and it could mean all the difference between success and failure. Compared with the iPod and MPEG-3 audio experience, which has allowed owners to create their own dream jukeboxes, the visual presentation on these teensy screens leaves plenty to be desired.

Think your cute little iPod nano is all that? It'll be old-hat and clunky by summer. Hundreds of exhibitors presented lighter, brighter, smaller and funkier iPod and MPEG-4 appliances, which came in sizes ranging from tiny to "nearly invisible."

Meanwhile, consumers finally have begun to warm to big-screen high-definition television (at CES, Samsung and Panasonic both debuted 100-inch-plus plasma screens). For them, the novelty of watching shows on a 2.5-inch LCD screen — smaller than most battery-driven Watchman-type devices — could wear thin.

Redundant systems

It also remains to be seen how many times the average consumer will be willing to pay extra for content they've ostensibly purchased already via cable or satellite services, and through an investment in a recorder such as TiVo.

The extraordinary success of iPod and MPEG-3 can be attributed directly to computer-savvy teens and college-age consumers, many of whom have abandoned mainstream media sources. Staring at a minute screen, watching "The O.C." — while the rest of the world passes them by — may not register as a particularly cool way to make use of their time.

Gary Dretzka covers entertainment issues: gdretzka@aol.com