The future of video games, mobile communications and home electronics was on view last week at the yearly Consumer Electronics Show, a four-day showcase for tech journalists, retailers and industry executives. About 20,000 products from 3,000 global exhibitors were demonstrated in Las Vegas. Rachel Zarrell of The Boston Globe was there and concludes: "All of our gadgets can only get bigger -- much bigger -- and better."

Attention-getting debuts include super-size smart phones with HD screens up to six inches diagonally. Another eye-catcher is a "table PC" with a 27-inch screen that can lay flat for multi-player games. It's big enough to fit four people around it, and the screen can respond to the touch of 10 fingers at the same time. Gamers also may be interested in a console controller called Shield, which can stream games from a PC to a big-screen TV. It has joysticks and buttons for playing Android, Tegra, and PC games, as well as games streamed from the cloud. Another gaming advance is the Razer Edge, a 10-inch tablet designed exclusively for high-end gaming.

Lego made a splash by previewing a $350 Mindstorms EV3 kit that can communicate to iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches through Bluetooth wireless connections. That lets the popular Apple devices become remote controllers for Lego robots. And rich show-offs can consider "ultra high-definition" TVs with four times the picture quality of current HD sets. The new models have 80-inch or 85-inch screens that allow theater-style viewing at home – homes where someone can spring for a $20,000 TV, that is.

"Gen M": "We're all part of what we're calling 'Gen M' now, the born-mobile generation. We've all really come to expect and demand devices . . . in the palm of our hands." – Paul Jacobs, chief executive of Qualcomm, wireless telecommunications firm based in San Diego

Ultra-HD TVs: "This is the most buzz-worthy thing TV guys will be talking about. It has some potential in the future, but it’ll remain a niche, high-end business for a while." – Paul Gagnon, industry specialist in Santa Clara, Calif.

Microsoft impact: "Mixed reviews of Windows 8 systems have led some companies to go back to the drawing board and retool whatever it was they had in the pipeline." -- Becky Worley, Yahoo! News tech reporter