Technology companies promise a gadget-heavy holiday season with amusements ranging from a dancing iPod boombox DJ to a screeching animatronic chimpanzee.

Manufacturers showed off some of their wares Tuesday evening at a preview of October’s DigitalLife show, an annual trade show in New York that showcases gift ideas. The lineup reflected the interest in some of today’s most innovative products, although not all the gizmos are likely to appeal to a mass audience.

KNG America plans to release the FUNKit DJ, an unusual iPod accessory that looks like a robotic DJ mounted on top of a boombox. The DJ holds the iPod, dances along to the music, and scratches a turntable, while lights flash and the music streams out of both speakers. The $99 gadget will hit the market in October, said Marissa Heller, marketing manager for the Deer Park, New York, company.

WowWee Robotics, a company with more-sophisticated robots, showed off its newest models, including the Robosapien, Roboraptor, Robopet, and its animatronic chimp, the Alive Chimpanzee.

The chimp debuted at $150 with an infrared viewing system and touch sensors in its chin, head, and ears that allow it to react when it’s patted. Alas, the chimp consists only of its head at this point. But users can control its facial expressions.

The Hong Kong-based company also introduced RS Media, a programmable robot that will be available in the fall for about $350. The robot comes with a color LCD screen, tweeters, and woofers that allow it to hear, see, and speak. Users can program different personalities into the robot, such as Service Bot 2000 and Billy Joe Sapien, with their own expressions and animations.

Superman Lands on Alienware

Gaming PC maker Alienware, recently acquired by Dell, was on hand to show off a Superman-branded desktop system. The desktop PC has a painting showing the Man of Steel’s journey to earth from the planet Krypton as he saves the city of Metropolis.

The Miami-based company also has a notebook system emblazoned with Superman’s iconic “S” shield design. The two systems include customized icons, wallpaper, and media players with the Superman brand. Alienware is releasing the systems in conjunction with the premiere this month of the movie Superman Returns.

Also in the gaming market, Novint Technologies showed off its gaming controller, the Novint Falcon. The controller includes technology that the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based company calls 3D Touch. It enables game players to feel contours, resistance, and impact as they play a game.

Novint CEO Tom Anderson provided a convincing demonstration of the technology with actions such as catching a baseball and drawing back a bow and arrow. He plans to retail the device for under $100.

Spy Car

Another tech gadget, the Spy Video Car, from San Francisco-based Wild Planet, enables users to steer a toy car even when it’s not in the same room. The car comes with a tiny video camera equipped with infrared night vision.

The user wears a set of special eyeglasses equipped with a headset that allows him or her to view where the car is going, even in the dark, and to steer it with a controller. The Spy Video Car is scheduled for release during the holiday season for between $99 to $159.

Wild Planet also plans to introduce a set of sunglasses with a built-in digital camera called the Digital Spy Camera that secretly takes pictures.

Another video surveillance product, WiLife’s LukWerks Digital Video Surveillance Camera, began to show up at RadioShack stores in April. The system allows users to set up a wireless video network in their homes and see what’s happening all over the house via the Internet.

Digital Media Centers on TapDigital media centers are soaring in popularity this year. Universal Electronics showed off its digital media center organizing system, SimpleCenter. The system enables users to organize, play, and share their digital music, pictures, and movies and synchronize media from their PCs with a Nokia N80 cell phone.

Streamload spokesperson Xenia Moore featured the San Diego-based company’s MediaMax online media center. Users can store and organize their digital media collections online with the system and access the files from any web browser. The system supports videos, music, movies, and podcasts.

Some other tech products at the preview were more mainstream.

·          Kodak displayed its slim EasyShare V610 digital camera, a 6.1-megapixel camera with two lenses, Bluetooth wireless technology, and 10X optical zoom.

·          Portable navigation devices were also on display, including the Pharos Traveler GPS 525, which incorporates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Windows Mobile with GPS maps. The device allows users to make VoIP phone calls.

·          Mio showed off the DigiWalker C710, a combination device that combines GPS, Bluetooth, and media player capabilities for playing videos and music.

·          Starz Entertainment Group said it had concluded the beta testing phase of its Vongo service for downloading movies and other video content over the Internet. The gold version of Vongo offers content from more than 1,600 movies and videos.

·          Zone Labs, a division of Check Point Software Technologies, launched its ZoneAlarm 6.5 line of Internet security products. The San Francisco-based company’s ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite 6.5 addresses identity theft concerns by sending users an alert if their credit card number appears on black market sites on the Internet or on other black lists.

·          SunRocket discussed its budget-priced VoIP system, starting at $9.95 per month for 200 minutes.

·          Anthology Solutions displayed its Yellow Machine FailSafe Media Storage device for backing up large volumes of digital content.

·          TZero Technologies exhibited an ultrawideband chip set, the TZero TZ110/TZ7210, for delivering broadcast video over wireless networks. Dan Karr, senior vice president of TZero, said his Sunnyvale, California-based company is in talks with consumer electronics companies about building the chip set into their products.

Contact the writer:MCohn@RedHerring.com