Electronics

Ge Wang blows softly, his fingers move lightly, and "Auld Lang Syne" comes floating out in ethereal electronic notes. Then his instrument rings, so he answers it and starts chattering away. It's an iPhone, transformed through Wang's software genius into an ocarina -- a computerized version of an ancient Aztec flute. Wang, an associate professor of computer music at Stanford University, is the co-founder of SonicMule Inc.

When the new iPhone goes on sale Friday, Apple Inc. will also launch an online software store peddling a potpourri of programs such as games, pedometers, tip calculators and language translators for the device. The company hopes that by enabling buyers to transform the phone into a personalized electronic Swiss Army knife of sorts, it can boost sales. "We live in a post-modern world of fragmented preferences," said Shiv Bakhshi, an analyst at research firm IDC.

Within days of buying his iPhone, John Furrier discovered that his 13-year-old son, Alec, was sneaking off with the device and downloading games. To reclaim his phone, Furrier had to buy his son an iPod Touch, which Alec quickly filled up with Pac-Man, Magic 8 Ball and dozens of other games. "When he's not playing on his Xbox 360, he's playing on the iPod," said Furrier, a 43-year-old entrepreneur and blogger in Palo Alto. Apple Inc.'

"A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust and a hearty 'Hi-yo, Silver, away!' " The Lone Ranger rides again. In honor of the masked man's 75th anniversary, a 13-disc DVD collector's edition was released earlier this week that features the first two seasons of "The Lone Ranger" television series that ran from 1949 to 1957 and starred Clayton Moore as the title character and Jay Silverheels as Tonto.

GPS gives guys something they've always wanted -- freedom from asking directions. This malady seems to plague many males regardless of race, age or sexual orientation, but global positioning system navigation units, which have gotten increasingly sophisticated over the years, haven't been a cheap cure, usually costing hundreds of dollars. This is not a normal year, however.

The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas -- known in years past for its outsized booths, wall-to-wall crowds and lobster dinners -- is going to be a lot tamer next month. The show's producers are expecting an 8% drop in attendance to about 130,000 people, down from 141,000 in January 2008. Companies such as Cisco Systems Inc., Panasonic Corp., Belkin International Inc. and Sony Corp.

TELEVISIONS in recent years have taken over living rooms. Now, they're almost as big as one. At the annual Consumer Electronics Show here this week, manufacturers showed off ever-bigger TVs in a size race that showed no signs of slowing. Panasonic this year bragged that billionaire Mark Cuban owns one of its wall-filling, 103-inch plasma displays, which retail for about $70,000.

Enough with the dillydallying. It's time to get the lead out. That seemed to be the rallying cry Wednesday when nearly 10,000 space-age engineers gathered in Los Angeles to talk motherboards, modules and meltdowns as the computer circuit world faces its biggest challenge in its 70-year existence. The experts are attending the Printed Circuits Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center.

You might own a GPS navigator and not even know it. Several cellphones now on the market come packed with technology that, once activated, can transform this mainstay of modern life into a handy GPS system, complete with color maps and voice directions, all for about $10 a month. Just download the appropriate software directly to your phone and you're ready to navigate the most unfamiliar territory.

Palm Inc. reported a 61% drop in its third-quarter profit as speculation of a buyout continued to swirl. Sales of the company's Treo smart phones reached record levels, but Palm's bottom line was hurt by increased costs, $5.7 million in stock-based compensation and $3.7 million in acquisition-related charges. For the three months that ended March 2, the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company said it earned $11.8 million, or 11 cents a share, on revenue of $410.5 million. A year earlier Palm earned $29.