A look into the 'digital lifestyle'

LAS VEGAS --In his seventh keynote speech at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates promoted what he called the "digital lifestyle."

In his Wednesday night address, Gates explained that the proliferation of broadband Internet access and the falling price of data storage are compelling people to put music, photos, movies, and other aspects of their life into a digital format.

"We predicted at the beginning of this decade that this would be a decade where the digital approach would be taken for granted," Gates said. "It's going even faster than we expected."

Here is a look at some of the products and initiatives being featured at the show:

Digital music: It was impossible to walk more than a few feet in the 1.5-million-square feet of exhibition space without stumbling over a digital audio equipment display.

New products included a music system from upstart Sonos Inc., which lets you play your music everywhere in your home, even different songs in different rooms, and control it wirelessly from a handheld device.

The growing satellite radio audience got a new crop of digital receivers to sample, and digital audio veterans such as Creative Labs Inc. and iRiver America Inc. also debuted portable players.

Newcomers also climbed on the digital audio bandwagon, including camera maker Olympus, which unveiled a media player that can take photos and play slideshows and digital music.

Digital audio isn't limited to music. Many MP3-enabled gadgets can also play audio versions of books, such as those from Audible.com.

And with Internet radio stations rising in popularity, iRiver introduced a portable player that can access content from AudioFeast, an Internet radio provider.

TV innovations: Satellite TV provider DirecTV said it has developed a system for sending video, music, and pictures to multiple televisions in the house.

The DirecTV Home Media Center, which consists of a receiver and smaller boxes that connect to each TV, also will let each TV control the digital video recorder. And multiple sets can access different channels simultaneously. The devices, which will be available by year-end and will run Microsoft software, will compete with Media Center computers and Media Center Extenders available from PC vendors like Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Sony Corp. DirecTV did not release pricing details.

And today, Verizon Wireless will detail a new service for mobile phones, one that promises better-quality audio and video -- albeit custom-designed for the constraints of a handheld device. The new Verizon offering, along with other multimedia wireless services unveiled at the show, including one by Orb Networks, marks a big step in the industry's push to generate revenue from more than just phone calls.

Tech recycling: EBay Inc. and Intel Corp. launched a recycling program to motivate Americans to safely dispose of mounting piles of used computers and other electronic gadgets.

US consumers retire or replace 133,000 personal computers a day, according to Gartner Inc. If improperly dumped, PCs can leak toxins into the environment, including lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury.

The effort is centered around a website, at http://ebay.com/rethink, where Americans with unused gadgets can get information on how to get rid of them safely. The site includes a downloadable program that will erase data from hard drives, ensuring that the owners' financial and other data can't be shared.