Tablet PCs, smarter cell phones and home movie-making tools were among the most innovative upcoming products shown at TECHXNY, a recent trade show that drew hundreds of companies to New York City recently to show off products that will go on sale during the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons.

TECHXNY, which previously was known as PC Expo, adopted a new name this year because it incorporated several smaller trade shows, including the Mobile Connections wireless and handheld exposition and DV Expo, which focuses on digital video. In fact, most of the action at this year's show took place at these smaller events.

At Mobile Connections, Microsoft demonstrated its Tablet PC, a new type of computing device that the company and its hardware partners — Acer, Fujitsu and Toshiba — will introduce this fall. The wireless carry-around, not much bigger than a spiral notebook, runs a special edition of the Windows XP operating system with enhancements for taking digital notes, converting handwriting into text and recognizing speech.

The Tablet PC is initially targeted at both road warriors and "corridor warriors," those folks who spend an inordinate amount of time wandering from meeting to meeting. Eventually, the company is hoping the Tablet will appeal to the masses.

Pricing hasn't been set, but it is expected the first tablets will cost $2,000 to $2,500, or what a decent ultra-portable fetches.

According to Microsoft gospel, any Tablet PC starts out as an ordinary XP-compliant notebook, complete with keyboard (in some cases detachable) and capable of running all full-fledged editions of Windows programs, not just the feature-stripped versions found on personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Like a handheld, Tablet PCs sport a battery-free digital pen, which doubles as a mouse and allows you to write or draw on the screen, as you would with pen and paper. Handwritten text — both printed and cursive — is automatically converted to text the tablet understands using handwriting recognition software.

Tablet PCs weren't the only innovative mobile products that made a splash.

Other products ranged from Rast Associates' stretchable rubber-like keyboard (it folds to the size of a postcard) for PDAs, cell phones and laptops to a Fingerprint TouchPad from Synaptics (www.synaptics.com) that uses biometrics to restrict access to your notebook PC. (If your fingertips don't pass muster, you can't boot up.)

Japanese mobile phone maker Kyocera (www.kyocera.com) introduced the 7135 Smartphone, which is a Palm PDA and cell phone combination. This next-generation version is less bulky and lighter than its predecessor (6.6 vs. 7.4 ounces) and boasts a vibrant color screen (the earlier Kyocera was monochrome). There's more memory (16 vs. 8 MB), plus a slot for a tiny Secure Digital memory card. The phone is expected to cost around $499 when it appears later this year.

Available in July from the newly combined Hewlett-Packard and Compaq (www.hp.com), the H3900 series iPAQ Pocket PCs ($649 to $749) boast a clever integrated universal remote called Nevo (from Universal Electronics) that lets folks customize and control A/V gear in different rooms and for different family members.

New home video solutions

Consumers also were treated to several new innovative digital video products at DV Expo.

MedioStream (www.mediostream.com), which sells NeoDVD, a $49 program that lets home computer users create DVDs, introduced Video Recording (VR) support for rewritable drives that use the DVD+RW format. VR support allows users to create a DVD, add or delete clips and reburn the video onto the same disc, without having to recreate or burn another disc. MedioStream officials say consumers can use Medio-Stream's VR support to turn their DVD burner into a VCR with editing features.

Pinnacle Systems also introduced Studio 8, a new version of its popular video-editing software. The new release includes the ability to create DVDs and video CDs using simple tools designed for novice users. The company says users can create "Hollywood-style" DVDs that include menus with animated backgrounds and navigation buttons that include video. The software, which goes on sale in August, will cost $99.

Instead of focusing on creating DVDs, Roxio announcedVideoWave Movie Creator, an $80 program that automates the movie-creation process for consumers.

Beginners can use the program's CineMagic mode to automatically turn video clips and a favorite background song into a polished production. CineMagic automatically edits the clips, synchronizes them with the music, and adds visual effects and transitions based on predetermined styles, such as music video or family vacation.

Movie Creator users can gain more control over their productions with the StoryBuilder option that guides them step by step through the movie-making process using a variety of templates that include preset titles, background music, credits, transitions and special effects.

Power users can use the sophisticated StoryLine editor for advanced control over their video projects. They can edit and enhance all the elements that make up their movies through storyboard and timeline interfaces that manage advanced features such as transitions, text and graphics overlays, and more than 100 special effects.