By RYAN KIM, San Francisco Chronicle

Imagine for a moment seeing the world through the eyes of a Terminator cyborg. Information on objects, locations and people automatically pop up in real time as you encounter them.

Need directions to the nearest transit line? Virtual signposts instantly appear, guiding the way. Curious about the historic building you're looking at? A description floats into your view.

The way things are going, the video game industry might not show any growth this year.

Sales were down 16 percent in August, continuing a string of down months that charts back to March, according to NPD data.

Revenue clocked in at $908.7 million for August, compared with $1.09 billion for the same month last year.

The iPod Nano has been Apple's bestseller, moving 110 million units with its promise of easy music listening in a slim package.

But Apple believes the era of dedicated devices is waning, and the Nano is a good example of how Apple is evolving its market-leading media players into much more.

The recession has caught up with the video game industry, but it's done little to stop the growth of one sector: social gaming, where tens of millions of users play games such as Mafia Wars, Farm Town and Restaurant City on social networks.

Netbooks, the diminutive, low-cost laptops, took the PC market by storm last year, selling wildly in a tight economy.

But the devices had their detractors, from users unhappy with their lightweight performance to the netbook manufacturers and chip vendors, who had to settle for even tighter margins on the $300 to $500 computers.

Digital television giveth -- and taketh away.
Many who already have made the switch from analog to digital TV enjoy a better picture and more viewing options. But for others, the change has left them with worse reception, missing channels or useless portable TVs.

In the ranking of teenage pursuits, cell phones and social networking usually rate higher than protecting the environment.
But a new pilot project in San Francisco is incorporating GPS-equipped cell phones and Facebook to help students learn about their impact on the environment.

Nintendo has already sold 100 million DS and DS Lites.
Is there really much of a market out there for more of these handheld wonders? The new DSi, which went on sale Sunday for $170, is about to find out.
I spent some time with the new handheld and think Nintendo won't have much trouble peddling the latest DS iteration to existing owners and newcomers.

The latest wave of smart phones -- with their big screens, intuitive interfaces and application storefronts -- are providing book fans a convenient way to catch up on their reading without a dedicated device.
In the story of the e-book, the main characters have been portable reading devices like the Kindle and its rival, the Reader from Sony.

Hyun Gu Lee, a 26-year-old software engineer from Belmont, Calif., discontinued his cable TV service after doing a little math and exploring his options.