While Sony has still failed to restore its reputation, other companies are sensing a massive opportunity, and stepping forward to introduce safer, heat-insulated, spark-resistant batteries, including Panasonic. And the IEEE Standards Association has convened a task force to develop and promote a new Li-Ion battery standard. The group, which is co-chaired by representatives from Sony and Dell, should publish its recommendations by the end of 2007.

Companies are likely to implement its findings well before the official publication of the new standards. Also look for notebook vendors to heavily promote the safety of their batteries as selling points this year.

The year of high-def

Huge high-definition (HD) plasma and LCD TVs were sold in unprecedented numbers during the 2006 holiday season, but what about HD media? Now that the dust is settling and viewers are getting used to their new and massive HD-capable TVs, they're starting to look around for content. And they don't like what they see.

TV networks, movie studios and rental stores are all dragging their feet and failing to keep up with consumer demand. HD-DVD and Blu-ray players are still way too expensive (right now the cheapest Blu-ray device is a Sony PlayStation 3 game console).