The 15-gigabyte iPod introduced April 28 with a couple of cousins,
one bigger and one smaller, is impressive. It can hold and play back
thousands of songs, can perform somewhat like my Palm Pilot, is
formattable for either PCs or Macs, and is impossibly sleek and light.

I would probably want to run out and get myself one, if not for one
thing: I have a 10-gigabyte model from the line's first generation, and
it's better. After 10 days testing an Apple Corp. loaner, I can only
vouch for the first half of that American ideal, "new and improved."

The last time I bought a TV, it was the late '80s, and one of its
most appealing features was that it played audio in stereo. I was young
and didn't realize that the TV would soon lead to a new VCR, and then
to a new stereo receiver with enough inputs to coordinate everything.

You probably know a family that has established a network at home to connect all its computers. Each person in the house probably uses the network to share broadband internet access, the printer maybe, or a few files.

What's far less likely is that you have friends who are
using their networks to share entertainment: music, photographs, shows
recorded from television, games, movies, and more.

LAS VEGAS - The plastic and silicon mountains of gear at the
Consumer Electronics Show last week seemed impossibly high and wide at
times, but they yielded more than a few products and services worth
talking about.

If DVD screening while careering down the highway sounds cool to
you, then check out the rear-view mirror: Satellite TV is coming up
fast. A Rhode Island company, KVH Industries, put its version on the
road in September, and competitors aren't far behind.