“What’s that Dave?” My friend Will Hines, 33, asked as I was checking out a small, sexy black device that was pretty much all screen. “Portable media center? GPS unit?” he asked.

“Nope,” I responded. “It’s both.” After we had a quick laugh at how ridiculous all these things were getting, we realized that that seemed to be the answer with everything this year.

I honestly don’t believe I saw a single phone that was just a phone. I’m not sure when “bare-bones” started meaning that it also has a scheduler, camera, Mp3 player and internet access, but that really did seem to be the bare minimum. Some of the stronger showings like Palm’s Treo 750, the Samsung Blackjack, and the T-Mobile Dash have processors that run faster than my first couple computers.

Aside from the phones being so multi-purpose, the current high-definition DVD war was in full effect, but attempts to bring it to an end were really the big highlights. The question for the past year has been Blu-Ray or HD-DVD, two competing high definition formats threatening to make consumers accidentally pick the one that could end up being the next Beta-Max. In an effort to end this war before it really starts, many companies began showing dual-players such as LG’s BH-100, which will play both formats. On the other end is Warner’s new TotalHD format, which may end up falling victim to high pricing, but offers a disc that’s playable on any machine.

Also while talking about movies, one of the best things I saw was a new line of TVs from Samsung that natively plays streaming content from your PC, wirelessly. Currently, you need a set-top box of some sort to stream movies, music, pictures and your favorite YouTube clips to your big screen, but with these new TVs (surely the first of what will eventually be standard in all TVs), you can set up a wireless network in your home, and select media from your PC just like you would a television station.

It wasn’t all about multipurpose, however, in the TV area, as one of the coolest, most innovative things I saw during the whole show really only served one purpose. LG showed off a prototype 3d TV. You’re first reaction is probably, “big deal, I’m not going to sit there wearing those stupid glasses.” Well with this TV, you don’t need glasses. I’m sure it would take an entire article to explain how exactly it works, but put simply, sitting directly in front of the TV, you see an image with full depth. Of course it has to be original content that was made to be viewed in 3d, but in one example, an ad for a McDonalds-like fast food chain showed the burger sitting closer to you, the fries behind it, and the drink further in the back. All of this was coming from a flat screen. The effect was somewhat holographic looking, but very cool, and something I’m really looking forward to.

Of course if three dimensions isn’t your thing, there’s also a 108-inch LCD HDTV from Sharp (the base alone looked big enough to sleep on… I bet it would be nice and warm too) and a 102-inch plasma HDTV from Samsung. Again if size isn’t your thing, perhaps picture quality is. Samsung and LG were both showing new, regular-sized TVs with the highest contrast-ratio I’ve ever seen. They were just simply displaying still images of paintings, and they truly looked like real paintings sitting on the wall.

Another great example of the focus this year being multi-purpose devices was Microsoft’s Xbox 360. It was the clear winner during this past holiday’s big video game system battle, with the Nintendo Wii and Sony Playstation 3 coming up short, but Microsoft wasn’t satisfied with just winning the videogame war. They unveiled their plan for IPTV, a service that, in short, turns your Xbox 360 into a cable box and a Tivo-like DVR service. The service will be available shortly after all of the cable companies are required to open up their services to outside cable boxes at the end of 2007.

Also on display from Microsoft was their new Windows Vista operating system which launches this year. Almost every computer screen on the show floor was running Vista, which is surely a sign of things to come. Just as we all moved from Windows 95 to 98 and then onto XP, we’ll be buying right into Microsoft’s plans for further PC-domination. Those of us that aren’t using Mac’s anyway.

Speaking of Apple, they actually had their own MacWorld show in San Francisco at the same time where they stole a lot of CES’ thunder by unveiling the much-rumored iPhone. After Steve Jobs unveiled the phone, little else mattered to most of the tech world. It’s a beautiful piece of equipment that plays music and movies, accesses the internet, sends and receives email, and is a full-fledged phone on the Cingular network. As quick as the buzz is building, though, it’s going to be a lot of hype to live up to when they officially launch the iPhone in June of this year. They also showed off the iTV, a device that will offer functionality similar to the Microsoft Xbox 360’s IPTV service.

Still, with all the cool stuff I saw at CES, the jaded critic that I’ve become was almost more impressed by the couches in the videogame tent where I was able to finally stop walking, sit down, and stare into space for a little while. After all, who needs LCDs and plasmas and multi-purpose digital-media-center-internet-phone-PC combinations when you can just relax and zone out? If only my phone could have made me a snack, I’d have been set.