Zany items on display at Vegas Consumer Electronics Show

• Computer monitors with mechanical arms, wristwatches and binoculars that play music and phones disguised as cameras are just some of the technological innovations propelling the digital electronics revolution forward.
• This week's Consumer Electronics Show, the biggest annual gadget showcase in the United States, featured scores of devices that ignore the classical distinctions separating consumer electronic from computer and communications products.
• Some hybrids start out as accessories or peripherals --- niche products meant to complement a popular computer, television or phone.
• The trade-off which product designers must weigh is whether additional features bring unnecessary complexity for the user, Baker said.
• "Some of this is convergence because they can," Danielle Levitas, an analyst with IDC, said of gadgets that may go one feature too far.
• Taiwan's BenQ --- an acronym that stands for Bring Enjoyment and Quality to Life --- plans to make a big splash in the U.S. consumer market in 2005 with TV displays, computers and cell phones.
• Conglomerates, not just niche accessory makers, can play the hybrid game too.
• Korea's LG Electronics, one of the world's biggest TV and appliance makers, showed high-definition 50- or 60-inch flat-panel screens normally sold separately that throw in a TV tuner and a digital video recorder as well.
• Panasonic has added secure-digital memory card slots that allow consumers to view photos from digital cameras straight on their TVs, without a computer, while Panasonic TVs boast new video recorders and improved audio.
• SanDisk Corp. a leading maker of microelectronic memories used in digital cameras and other gadgets, is offering a cigarette-lighter sized digital audio player that plays up to 240 songs in MP3 audio compression format and allows the user to listen to 20 preset FM radio stations.