As Galaxy screen grows, Surface may shrink

Prepare to be assimilated into the Glass Collective. I'm Bridget Carey and this is your CNET Update. How big is too big for a smartphone? Well, Samsung is pushing pocket limits with a new line of phones called the Galaxy Mega and the high-end model measures in at 6.3 inches for the screen. To compare that's a bigger screen than the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, is larger than the awkwardly large Galaxy Notes which are called phablets for being part phone and part tablet. But for now America is safe from this monster of a phone. It's always scheduled to come out in Europe and Russia next month. If you watch this show, you shouldn't be too surprised. There were clues in an update last month about a new Samsung Game Pad controller that works with a mysterious 6.3-inch device. It seems getting their 7 inches is the trendy sweet spot. Samsung continues to grow its phones but Microsoft is shrinking the Surface. We've seen the signs that Microsoft might want to make a mini version of the Surface, and the Wall Street Journal is adding to that, with a report that it's working on a 7-inch model to compete with the iPad mini and Google's Nexus 7. And while we get giddy about new smartphones and tablets, the market for desktop and laptop computers is in the pits. This is nearing the worst it's ever been for the PC market as research firms report that shipments are at a sharp decline. Some are putting blame on Windows 8 because the new touchscreen devices are expensive and are facing shortages. Customers may now be thinking it's more worth it to just get a snazzy new tablet and throw on a keyboard accessory. As for the category of computers with that go on your face, Google is sending out the first Google Glass units to developers within the next month. Developers paid $1500 for each Glass unit just so they could be among the first to tinker with it. Along with this news, a group of investment firms have joined forces to fund companies that want to invent products that work with Google Glass. The group is called the Glass Collective. Isn't the board referred to as the board collective? Well, it's not like Google wants to put tech on our faces and know our location. I mean-- oh, right. So when that time comes, when you no longer need your Google account like when you die, you can now tell Google exactly what you want to do with your data. There's a new option in settings for inactivity, and if you want you can pass on an account to another person if it's been inactive for too long, or Google can just delete that account on your behalf. Before it times out and thinks you're dead, it will send you an email or text message just to check in and make sure you're still alive. That's your tech news Update. You could find more details on these stories at CNET.com/update from our studios in New York. I'm Bridget Carey.