In Brief

By Lev Grossman

PLAYSTATION NATION There'll be some unhappy kids--and more than a few grumpy grownups--when Sony releases the much ballyhooed PlayStation2 on Oct. 26. Sony expects that only 500,000 units will be available, which sounds like a lot, but demand is expected to run into the millions. Retailers may have trouble filling even their preorders, so don't wait. Reserve yours now. Or buy a Dreamcast.

DOTCOM DOLDRUMS How many times can one industry boom, then bust? September saw yet another round of layoffs, bankruptcies and general gloom for the Internet industry. Analysts say there were more dotcom layoffs last month than in any month since last December. The NASDAQ plummeted more than 700 points, and websites from MTV.com to OfficeMax slashed their staffs. Even mighty Walmart.com shut its virtual doors to remodel for the holiday rush. The final irony, however, may have come when Dotcomfailures.com a website devoted to bankrupt Internet companies, went out of business. Now that's a downturn.

COMBO CAMERA Do you love the convenience of digital cameras but miss that unforgettable instant-photo smell? Now you can have the best of both worlds with the C-211 Zoom, a new digital camera developed jointly by Olympus and Polaroid. It features a built-right-in printer that churns out copies of your digital snapshots on the spot, just like a conventional Polaroid. Its 2.1-megapixel images and 8MB memory card aren't too shabby, either. At $799 the C-211 is definitely a "prosumer" item, but it hints at better (and cheaper) things to come.

--By Lev Grossman