Another reason this choice is surprising is that SanDisk has never been an out-on-the-edge creator of insanely great consumer products. But very quietly, this flash memory vendor has become the second-place media player vendor behind Apple. Sure, it lags far behind Apple, but it also is well ahead of more visible competitors such as Creative.

SanDisk'a e200 series of devices released earlier this year were sweet. Reminiscent of, but not as sexy as the iPod nano, it was fun and easy to use and very nice to hold in the hand. The Connect, which will be available in March, is a big step forward from there. A bit shorter than the e200, it sports a new interface with cute touches, such as animated icons and is extremely self-obvious to use. And it will connect directly to at least one music subscription service - for now, SanDisk is mum about which one -- so you can directly download music using Wi-Fi.

Bottom line: The Sansa Connect from SanDisk is a device that raises the bar even for Apple.

Most intriguing possibility

The Autonet in-car access system uses EV-DO cellular data access and Wi-Fi to deliver simple, fast in-car connectivity. The company said the impetus for this product, which will be released in March, was the success of in-car DVDs. They want to bring the home Internet experience to passengers in the car.