Apple’s iPod again ruled beneath the Christmas tree in 2005 after the latest model of the iconic music player was outfitted with a video screen. And as the new year begins a long-anticipated era of convergence in consumer technology products draws closer according to Wharton faculty and technology analysts. Meanwhile cell phones that play video e-mail delivered to handheld computers telephone conversations over the PC -- and hundreds of other glimpses into Christmas future -- were on display at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week where the stepped-up presence of digital giants including Microsoft Google Yahoo and Intel signaled their ever-increasing interest in expanding from the office into consumers’ living rooms.