THE GIZMOS: Touch-screen PCs and 3-D TVs.

COOL COPY CATS: While competition is king in the consumer electronics industry, cooperation is also part of the game. Rivals often work jointly to establish standards for new technology. And, quite often , a significant slew of companies "spontaneously" jump on a bandwagon in sync.

A couple of hot buttons:

TOUCH-SCREEN PCS: Hewlett-Packard introduced an appliancelike, all-in-one desktop PC with intuitive touch-screen operation a couple of years ago. Its wall-mountable TouchSmart computers are designed for the computerphobic, as a family communications center (with write-on-the-screen "post-its" and audible message storage), and as the PC you'd most want in the kitchen. A TouchSmart RecipeBox finds recipes and recites them. Microsoft has built touch-screen skills into the Windows 7 operating system, debuting formally Oct. 22. And several computer makers - including HP, Sony and Gateway - will be ready at launch date with spiffy new desktops (and some laptops) that build on this touch-'n'-go technology. Windows 7's new skills include launching applications with a touch, making handwritten notes, or pinching and spreading two fingers on the screen to zoom in and out of photos. Sony's Vaio L Touch HD PC/TV (base price $1,300) with Windows 7 Home Premium also offers entertainment you can summon up with a flick, pinch, twist and tap.

A built-in TV tuner receives HDTV signals for recording on the DVR-functioning hard drive and display on a 24-inch, "Full HD" screen. An HDMI input lets users connect a set-top box or game system. Drives to play and write Blu-ray discs are optional.

HP's new, third-generation TouchSmart PC 300 ($899) and 600 ($1,049) models build on 20-inch and 23-inch LCD widescreens. More than 20 third-party firms have collaborated with HP to develop customized, touch-access versions of their software to work with TouchSmart. Among them, Hulu, Netflix, Rhapsody, Pandora and Twitter.

Upgrades over prior models include a swivel mount, a more flexible webcam and, for the 600, an HDMI input and optional Blu-ray drive. Both versions boast Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with touch computer standbys like a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Gateway will offer the lowest cost of entry ($720) with its 20-inch ZX4800 series Touchscreen Desktop. The line tops off with the ZX6810, "starting" at $1,400 with a 23-inch, high-def wide-screen, game-ready quad core processor, TV tuner with remote control and 1 TB hard drive, plus 64 GB solid state drive.

The all-in-one ZX models have TV-like black cosmetics and Gateway's custom TouchPortal interface that offers one- or two-finger access to content, social networks and more before you "peel back" the portal to get to the Windows 7 world.

THE IN-YOUR-FACE TREND: The 2009 Japanese Electronics Show CEATEC, held earlier this month outside Tokyo, went down as "the 3-D Show." Quite likely, the same will be said about the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, with even more 3-D news likely to drop there. Five major CE companies - Mitsubishi, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony and Toshiba - previewed 3-D TVs (only Mitsubishi now sells them, along with Korea's Samsung) that require special LCD shutter glasses to enjoy depth-defying visuals from 3-D encoded movies (spinning on next-generation Blu-ray players), video games (initially from PCs) and sports events (on pending, 3-D cable and satellite TV channels). Panasonic showed a prototype 50-inch plasma model that will be priced in the "middle" of its line, come fall 2010. The company also introduced 3-D shutter glasses that sit lower on the nose if you wear specs. The company aims to make 3-D screens that don't require glasses at all.Sony demonstrated LCD-based 3-D Bravia screens likewise coming next fall. The brand also showed a professional video camera that miraculously captures stereoscopic images with a single lens. Consumer 3-D camcorders can't be far behind.

Toshiba introduced both 2-D and 3-D versions of its Cell Regza sets, built around the same super processor (co-developed with IBM) that's found in the PlayStation 3. The chip is so powerful that a Cell Regza TV can simultaneously record (and display) up to eight channels of digital terrestrial broadcasts on a built-in hard-disc recorder. The 3-D version was shown in 46- and 37-inch prototype screen versions.

David Lynch, an executive with chip maker Sigma Designs, said at CEATEC that the Blu-ray Disc Association has been holding "regular, multiday meetings" this fall to establish a standard for encoding 3-D on Blu-ray discs. The goal is to resolve differences by year's end to ensure player shipments in the second half of 2010. While a Sony exec had previously hinted that a Blu-ray drive-equipped PlayStation 3 would be software upgradable to show 3-D versions of video games and possibly movies, Lynch said he believes only new players will be able to handle the technology. We shall see.

E-mail: takiffj@phillynews. com.