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Tech toys for tots, adults
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January 10, 1997: 9:06 p.m. ET
Electronics firms unveil newest gizmos at mammoth trade show
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LAS VEGAS (CNNfn) -- Leading electronics giants premiered their hottest new products this week at the 1997 Winter Consumer Electronics Show, offering everything from computers that act like telephones to telephones that act like computers.
The semi-annual electronics show, now in its 30th year, has in the past served as a launching pad for products that went on to dominate the industry, like the video camcorder.
This year's hopefuls include the IPC-1000, a sort of combination cellular phone, mobile fax machine, pager, personal organizer and mini-computer from South Korea's LG Electronics Co., which makes the Gold Star consumer-product line.
Weighting just 11 ounces and fitting into the user's palm, the IPC-1000 can make wireless phone calls, send and receive faxes and store up to 5,000 phone numbers and 60 pager messages.
The device also includes a pen-like stylus for jotting notes, as well as a built-in calculator, calendar, dictionary and other features.
LG expects the IPC-1000 to premiere in stores around August, carrying a retail price of about $500 to $1,000.
For photo buffs, Japanese giant Canon is unveiling the ELPH 490Z compact camera, which lists for $499.
About as big as a cigarette pack, the 490Z offers standard and zoom lenses, a built-in flash, as well as technology to reduce "red eye" in pictures.
The 490Z uses Advanced Photo System film pioneered last year by photography giants Kodak and Fuji.
APS cartridges, which retail for about $5 to $8, feature built-in data strips that tell film-developing equipment such things as what aspect ratios a user has chosen for each photo.
The APS system also allows film processors to give customers color contact sheets with their photos instead of traditional negatives.
Canon's Tim Smith said the 490Z offers APS advances in an easy-to-use camera that's so small consumers can carry it in a pouch clipped to their belt.
"The key thing about this camera is that you can have it with you whenever you need it," Smith said. "It's no heavier than a pager; you just clip it on your belt and you're ready to roll."
Finally, Farmingdale, N.Y.-based Long Hall Technologies LLC has teamed up with the Nickelodeon children's' TV network to offer the Nickelodeon Talk Blaster telephone.
Listing for $49.95, the Talk Blaster is a fully-functional phone with a blue-plastic body, purple dial plate and "Green Slime Power Rod" that lights up like something out of a mad scientists' lab every time the phone rings.
The Talk Blaster, set for release around April, offers a choice of four sounds -- a mooing cow, old-fashioned car horn and others -- to replace a standard telephone ring.
Long Hall co-founder Marc Segan said his company designed Talk Blaster not just for kids, but for the family as a whole.
"We've seen a wonderful response in our research from parents who would like to see the Talk Blaster in their family rooms," Segan said. "Families watch Nickelodeon together, so adults and kids both have a lot of identification with the network." 
-- Jerry Kronenberg
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'97 Winter CES
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