Sidebar: The Newest Tech Toys

Samsung YM-P1 - $399
You might say the Samsung YM-P1 Portable Multimedia Player hears voices from space. The device captured the Consumer Electronics Show Innovation Award for portable audio, and is the first pocket-sized, satellite TV reception-enabled video player.

Capable of receiving and recording from space or an AV connection, the YM-P1 displays in 16 million colors on a 16:9, four-inch screen. Up to six hours of video can be played for each charge. As Samsung suggests, this little beast is essentially a portable DVR. Makes you wonder what's coming next.
[online: www.samsung.com]

Creative Zen Vision:M - $329.99
Consumer electronics e-mag CNET named the Creative Zen Vision:M Best in Show at the CES. A little bigger than an iPod, the Zen has a vibrant 2.5-inch screen that displays in four times as many colors as the Nano. Plus it's a voice recorder, music and video player and FM tuner.

The Vision:M holds about 120 hours of footage, though you can only pull about four hours of video from a single charge. Remarkably, this little workhorse will output to an external tv, or even speakers.
[online: www.creative.com]

HandHeld ZVUE - under $300
One of the coolest things about HandHeld Entertainment's newest ZUE is that it comes with its own vod service of over 4,000 titles, including docs. Dubbed ZTV Beta, the service launched in time for CES, and features videos for $1 to $2. Look for HandHeld to expand into a full-blown subscription service for its users.

This third generation of ZVUEs has wireless connectivity, a horizontal 3.5-inch screen and removable storage. Beyond being an MP3 player and photo viewer, it also works with Windows Media Player, among other formats. For less than $300, this mini machine can pull videos from the Web, and doesn't even have to be plugged in.
[online: www.zvue.com]