As the computer industry begins to move away from the PC and more towards gadgets, the International Consumer Electronics Show now eclipses COMDEX as the show to watch. This year’s show, which opened today in Las Vegas, features more than 2000 vendors and expects to draw 100,000 attendees. As CBS reports, Microsoft is betting that its future lies in slick consumer gadgets. Bill Gates delivered a speech last night, in which he showed off a smart wristwatch with a tiny LCD screen that can receive a constant, low bandwidth stream of data over the FM radio spectrum, allowing it to keep exact atomic time, and automatically update when crossing time zones. Users will be able to configure the watches’ data subscriptions on a Microsoft Web site, choosing from news, sports, weather, traffic, stocks and other information. Other upcoming products that Gates demonstrated included a conceptual “smart” refrigerator magnets that can receive traffic data, a child’s school lunch menu or ads from local restaurants via the same FM subcarrier transmissions, the XP Media Center that aims to be the nerve center of a home entertainment system, serving up both audio and video from a PC to the home’s stereo, TV or PC screen, a Bernina Artista sewing machine that can download stitch and embroidery patterns from the Internet, and an exercise bike with an Internet-connected game panel. Microsoft also announced a new video compression format, which Panasonic will adopt on a forthcoming DVD player, that allows PC files to be played on TV via the DVD player, which is loaded with Microsoft’s software. Gates said a forthcoming DVD player from Polaroid will also be compatible with Windows Media PC files.