The top half of the Plant Sensor Plus—the portion that looks like the stem and flower—records the amount of sunlight and temperature from your plant’s vantage point. The bottom half records moisture and nutrient levels.

“Plant” the sensor where seedlings are growing for 24 hours. Then plug the sensors into your computer’s USB port and enter your zip code on the EasyBloom website, EasyBloom will then combine your data with known geographic growing conditions.

If you’re in the garden planning stage, you can use the site’s Plant Doctor to select plants that will grow well from the site’s 6,000-plus plant database. Filter by size, bloom color, deer resistance and drought tolerance, among other qualities. The same data can be used to determine why your existing plants may not be thriving the way you hoped.

The Plant Sensor Plus can be used inside as well.

But a truly simple tool named CarMD ($99) can tell you exactly what's wrong in less than a minute and, with the help of a personalized Web site, even predict the price of fixing it.

If a problem may be lurking but hasn't materialized yet, CarMD will diagnose that, too, allowing you to take action before you have a mechanical breakdown. And if nothing is wrong with your vehicle, it will tell you that, as well.

This is all easily communicated with three LEDs––green for good to go, yellow for a warning and red if something needs urgent fixing––as well as an LCD screen that shows industry-standard diagnostic codes (understood by mechanics) representing the problems.

My Review of the CarMD

I recently tested CarMD with my ride, a 2006 Volvo S40, and found it surprisingly easy, even fun, to use.

The process started with installation of software on my computer and a visit to CarMD.com, where I registered for a personal account and entered my car's brand and model name to find the location of its "OBD II" on-board diagnostics port. The CarMD plugs in to the OBD to download information about the car's functions from the vehicle's electronic monitoring systems, and every car made since 1996 has one of these ports (normally used by mechanics with their similar, professional-grade tools). In my Volvo, the port is readily accessible under the dashboard, to the left of the steering wheel, and I easily slipped the CarMD into it, immediately hearing the two beeps that confirmed a solid connection.

Next, per the device's instruction manual, I turned the car key to the second position––illuminating all the lights and bringing all the dials to life in the instrument panel, but not actually starting the engine––and in less than a minute four more beeps indicated that the CarMD had finished its work.

The CarMD Analysis Report

A quick glance revealed a green light, but I took the next step anyway: connecting the CarMD to my computer's USB port with the supplied cable. This automatically launched the companion software, which in turn opened CarMD.com in my Web browser, uploaded the data from the CarMD device to my personal account, and generated a report about my car that I could download and print.

If I'd had diagnostic codes uncovered by the device, this is where I'd have found plain-English explanations of their meanings, as well as a clear explanation of the repair that would fix them, and the estimated cost of this repair––including parts and labor and the number of hours required. Common prices in my geographic area, based on my zip code, would be used for those estimates.

The report also included information about past recalls affecting my vehicle, and revealed the existence of "technical service bulletins," or TSBs, that mechanics receive, advising them of fixes that can be made but which didn't warrant a recall. By upgrading to a premium CarMD.com membership, priced at $19.95 per year, I was able to download these four TSBs and found them to be insignificant. TSBs can also be purchased without a premium membership, for $1.99 each.

Right now, CarMD reports cover only a vehicle's emissions systems––those triggering the check engine light––but the device is also able to read a vehicle's anti-lock brake system (ABS) and safety restraint system (SRS) diagnostic codes, and the reports will begin covering these, too, later this year.

Besides using CarMD reactively after a warning light goes on, you may want to use it proactively to determine in advance whether your vehicle will pass its next state-mandated emissions inspection. It can also be invaluable for revealing problems with pre-owned vehicles you may be considering buying from a private seller (or from a dealer).

Lensbaby uses a concept of exchangeable lens elements, called the Optic Swap System. The optics are the inside of the lens, which screw into the Composer. The swapping system offers six different optics, including three selective focus, a soft focus, a pinhole/zone plate and the fisheye optic ($35 - $150).

Switching the optics out is done by hand, and is slightly tricky and challenging at first, but not difficult once you get the hang of it.

The Composer lens has a “sweet spot” of focus with a blurry surround. When you add the Optic Swap inserts, each creates a unique effect. The Composer is also bendable; letting you move the location of the sweet spot anywhere within the frame.

While similar results are possible in Photoshop, one of the benefits of the Composer is the benefit of time. Shooting with a Lensbaby gives you an instant result with no post editing required.

These shots I took with the Double Optic (which comes installed when purchased) show how the sweet spot can be used to focus attention on key details.

Swapping in the Composer’s Soft Focus optic gives a dreamy effect over the entire image

And the Fisheye optic creates a spherical image. Notice how I was able to move the Fisheye’s circular edge around using the Composer’s bendable body.

Now, before you think, “neat effect, I want one”, there are a couple things you need to understand about the principles of photography in order to properly use these lenses. The lenses are strictly manual focus, so you need to know how to focus by hand instead of relying on your camera to auto-focus. Second, understanding depth of field and the amount of light that an aperture opening controls is crucial to working with the Composer. Instead of having built-in apertures like a typical SLR lenses, the aperture of the Composer is changed by manually inserting a small disk with a pre-drilled hole in it. Every time you want a different aperture, you must swap the disk with another one. Luckily, Lensbaby has a great Optic Comparison on their website, which shows how each of the lenses will look at each aperture setting.

I would suggest trying one of these lenses out if you’re someone who understands the basics of photography, wants an effect straight from the camera, dislikes digital manipulation and enjoys experimenting and leisurely shooting. It's a lot of fun and you may surprise yourself with the results.

The Tivoli Model 10 with Connector in Walnut/Silver finish

Tivoli Audio's original table radio, the Model One, combines great sound, due to its wood cabinet, and a classy design that's bound to fit into just about any décor. Yesterday the company annouced the Model One's successor, the Model 10 ($199). The new radio keeps the wood cabinet and adds a dual alarm clock with snooze and sleep timer, an equalizer for fine tuning the sound, Radio Data Service (RDS) for displaying song titles and five radio presets. The radio will come in ten finishes, including modern-looking light and dark aluminum. And no, the housing isn't all aluminum, which would degrade the sound quality. (See my video overview below.)

Tivoli also annouced the Connector ($119), an iPod/iPhone dock that sends audio and video to any TV or radio, including of course Tivoli's radios. It comes in the same finishes as Tivoli's line of radios and audio systems.

The Model 10 and Connector will be available from Tivoli Audio this summer.

The Vectron Wave whirling funnel charges on its base and is equipped with a sensor that can recognize objects beneath it to automatically adjust its height to hover above them. So you could play catch with a partner using your entire body or anything else solid that you have around the house or yard.

The sheer coolness of this flying toy makes it easy for parents to stand in awe and jump in to play with it too. Although the joy is tempered by some users reporting long charging times relative to actual play time (could be up to 30 minutes of charging for around five minutes of fly time), which would be especially frustrating for younger, more impatient kids. The toy is marketed to children eight years old and up, though after I showed my husband the video I took at the Toy Fair (see below), he added the Vectron Wave to our son’s birthday wish list for himself!

The hovering flying machine comes with one lithium polymer battery, and requires an additional six AA batteries to run. The Vectron Wave retails for $24.99 and is available through Toys R Us, Target and Amazon.

The Fujifilm Instax 7S (left) and the Polaroid 300 (right).

Polaroid, the brand that was once synonymous with instant film, left the business about two years ago. The brand is now back on a basic consumer camera that spits out business card-size prints. I say "the brand" because the actual camera is a rebadged Fujifilm model, the Fujifilm Instax MINI 7s White Instant Film CameraInstax 7S. (Though the Polaroid does come in other colors–black, red and blue.) The film appears to be the same as well, but we haven't been able to confirm that.

In the shots we took, the colors were bright and true to life and the focus was soft, which you'd expect from this type of camera. Prints take several minutes to fully process, but it's still fun to see them slowly emerge from the field of white.

The Polaroid 300 costs $90 and film $10 for 10 prints–a bit pricey for everyday shooting. Hopefully that will come down or you'll be able to use the Fujifilm packs, which are almost half the price. You can buy the Polaroid at Bloomingdale's in New York City and J&R Music World. It will be available nation-wide starting in June.

Check out the video below for my hands-on review.

Out of the Box

As you may imagine, there's not much setting up required for the Withings scale. After you insert the AAA batteries and attach the feet (only if you'll be using it on carpet), you'll need to connect the scale to your wireless home network. This requires connecting it to your computer with the included USB cable and then registering the scale at www.withings.com. During the registration process, you'll input your wireless home network settings and set up profiles for up to four household members. The profiles include birth date, height, current weight and sex. You can also choose to share your progress through a Web page or automatic Twitter updates and sync your data with your Google Health or Microsoft HealthVault account. Then you're ready to step on the scale.

Look and Feel

I've been charting my progress since mid-March 2010.

The Withings scale is beautiful and would look at home in any contemporary bathroom or bedroom. When you step on, the 3-inch display lights up and  first shows your weight. The scale then measures your body fat using the principles of bioelectric impedance. A very low electric current is sent into the feet and the resistance is measured. Fat is not a good conductor so looking at the resistance level of the tissue plus your age, weight, gender and height enables the scale to estimate your body fat percentage. The whole process takes than 15 seconds.

I wear contacts or glasses, which means the display is illegible when I roll out of bed in the morning. Knowing that the scale will automatically use Wi-Fi to send my weight and body fat measurement to my Withings online account means I can weigh myself "blind." I also installed the iPhone app, which is automatically updated by my Withings account.

For an accurate body fat reading, you can't let your hands touch your legs. The scale is also unable to ready your body fat when the battery runs low. I discovered this when the body fat reading stopped showing up a few weeks after I started using the scale. All of a sudden you'll only see your BMI (body mass index) number, which is based on height and weight. The battery ran out quickly because I didn't store the scale level. Further reading of the manual revealed that the scale will automatically try to recalibrate itself whenever it's not level.

Summary

For tracking your pregnancy weight gain and loss, watching your child grow or anyone trying to track their weight loss progress and garner the support of friends and family, the Withings Internet Connected Body Scale delivers. It's incredibly easy to set up and use. If charting your progress isn't important to you, though, the extra $70 or so for the built-in Wi-Fi isn't worth it.

Powermat 3-position mat

Powermat iPhone case

Normally, when my mom goes through airport security, she gets pulled out of line and searched. She’s never had a traffic ticket, much less been a candidate for the no-fly list. Why the delay? She carries numerous batteries, cords, chargers and other addendums – usually wound in to a large bundle and stored in the middle of her carry-on.

When I heard of wireless charging pads, I immediately thought of her.

These pads aren’t quite wireless. Call them wire-less: less wires, not wire-free. They require a wall connection (hardly surprising) and various gadgets to convey the charge from pad to product. The big selling point of wireless charging pads is that you only need one charger–and its accessories–instead of one charger per item.

Let’s take an example. The average family of four probably takes two cell phones and three mp3 players on vacation. Add in a portable gaming device, and that’s a total of six chargers. A single wireless charging pad could charge all of these devices, albeit in shifts.

The clear leader in the small field of wireless charging solutions is Powermat. The company offers a tiny coaster-size one-device charger for $70 and a three-device mat for $100, which comes bundled with the Powercube Universal Receiver you need to attach or plug into your devices. The Powercube (a $30 option with the one-device charger)comes with eight tips for most Apple, BlackBerry, LG, HTC, Bluetooth, Palm, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, and Samsung devices. A car charger ($60) will be available in the fall. It takes about 2 hours to complete a charge, and the batteries seemed to hold their power like normal.

However, you will need one Powercube or special charging case for each device, if you plan to charge them simultaneously—which can get pricey. The largely negative product reviews I saw on Amazon stem from this massive misunderstanding. Due to the advertising campaign, many people thought you could simply plunk down your device and it would absorb the charge.

Duracell myGrid Cell Phone Starter Kit

Other systems to consider include, Duracell’s myGrid Cell Phone Starter Kit ($90, with one receiver), which will charge up to four devices at one time and its charger tips work with miniUSB-powered and Nokia phones. You can also buy cases for Blackberry Pearl and Curve 8300 and Apple iPod Touch and iPhone. Plus Brookstone sells a case/charger combo, the PowerPlate Wireless Induction Charger for iPhone ($100).

So is a wireless charging pad worth it?

It depends on how many devices you and your family carry. Having a central charging point in your home that powers all your devices makes sense—no more searching for the correct cord. But keep in mind that the cases, do add weight, bulk and price to your devices. So for day to day use, it’s somewhat of a trade off.

For travel, there are two things to consider. First, there’s outlet availability. I usually travel with a powerstrip that has integrated USB charging ports just in case. And then there’s total travel weight. You should literally weigh the wireless charger versus the power cables.

Bike on CanvasPop canvas

Detail of bike on canvas

So you’ve taken a photograph that you really like and have decided to get it printed and framed. It sounds easy, but there are many options—from printing at home and sticking it in a simple store-bought frame, to having your image professionally printed, matted and framed. If you go with option one, you get something that was obviously done in a few minutes at home: inexpensive and fine for snapshots of the family. If you go with option two, you’ll probably spend a pretty penny and may end up with a gallery-quality framing job that looks nice on the wall, but may lack a certain creative edge.

Luckily, there’s a third option to choose from: canvas prints. This edgy, creative alternative is a striking way to display your photographs. Depending on what you have printed, you can achieve clean, museum-looking prints that mimic paintings, or whimsical “artsy fartsy” prints that are certain to catch any house or office guest’s eye.

Cows on CanvasPop canvas

Detail of cows on canvas

I worked with CanvasPop to print mine, and I’m highly pleased with the operation and my final prints. They give you myriad options for borders, frames, framing depths, sizes, and special effects (B&W, vintage, stamp, etc.). The website makes it easy to take the reins and maintain creative control. Their system is well organized with step-by-step instructions, making it simple for anyone to use. Plus, they offer live customer service chat, which I turned to a few times and got immediate answers.

To make a print from CanvasPop, you must own the copyright or have permission to print the images. So, don’t expect to print the studio portraits you had professionally done, but do expect to print anything you’ve taken or created yourself, including artwork that leans toward graphic design and collage. If your image needs a little help, their Picture Perfect option gets a designer to optimize the contrast, sharpness and red-eye at no extra cost.

Once you’ve chosen your options and uploaded the photographs, they’ll send you a free digital proof for approval. The whole process is quick and painless—I received my prints in about a week. Further bolstering my confidence in their product is a lifetime guarantee against cracking, fading, or bubbling.

The price range for one of these canvas prints starts at $30 and goes up well into the hundreds. While this costs more than printing and framing at home, the prices are within the same range of a professional print and framing job. I wouldn’t suggest printing all of your photos this way, but your very best is worthy of this display.

A few other tips

Don’t choose photos with lots of minute details, as they tend to get lost in texture of the canvas. The best photos to print are ones that have the clean lines and colors that would suit a painting. The canvas medium does, after all, transform a photo into a more painting-like image.

Don’t overdo the special effects. While special effects sound fun (and sometimes are), I suggest sticking with simple effects, like black-and-white or sepia tones. When you get into color isolation, sketches and stamps, they can be a little over the top—not to mention cheesy and bordering on no longer look like a photograph. Keep it simple.

Be careful with the split-panel options, which allow one photograph to be divided up and printed onto two, three, or four different panels. Think this option through carefully—you wouldn’t want a photo of your child’s face to be chopped in half would you? If you’re interested in doing a split, print the photo at home and cut it into the same number of panels that you’re thinking about having made. This way, you get a good idea of which part of the image will fall into which panel, and whether any of the important details will be cut in half. This option works best for images that are already visually divided (such as when you’re following the rule of thirds).

Without saying anything more, I can hear the gears turning in your head about which photos to have printed on canvas. So go, have fun, be creative, make awesome images, display them like an artstar!
 

CanvasPop Pricing

Single panels start at 8x10 inches for $30 and go up to 24x17 inches for $219. You can also order a custom size.

Dyptich, or 2 panels, start at two 24x18-inch panels for $125 and go up to two 24x36-inch panels for $219.

Tryptich, or 3 panels, start at three 24x12-inch panel for $125 and go up to three 48x24-inch panels for $300.

Quad, or 4 panels, start at four 18x18-inch panels for $204 and go up to four 30x45-inch for $468.

Many iPad reviewers are asking a rhetorical question: "Why do I need it?" That's the wrong question. You don't need an iPad. iPad is a total time-waster, but in good way.

The real question is “Why do I want it—or not?” To answer this question, Stewart Wolpin, one of our regular contributors, and Suzanne Kantra, Editor-in-Chief, purchased iPads ($499 for 16GB WiFi-only versions) and unboxed them this weekend so we could provide a full hands-on review of the good, the bad and the beautiful of this highly-hyped product.

Stewart: iPad gives you more ways to fill your time than any other device devised. Over the weekend, it provided distraction while I accompanied my wife on a shopping trip. I was actually glad to go since I knew I had a cool plaything to help pass the time on the boutique's sofa with the other husbands and boyfriends, many of whom wanted an iPad tour.

On a weirder level, I discovered iPad makes an excellent companion in the, um, reading room, which is totally a guy thing. In fact, given all the distractions iPad offers, I have a feeling I'll do a lot less reading, regardless of which room I'm in.

Suzanne: The holiday weekend was the perfect opportunity to try out the iPad, as well as observe its use by my husband, children and parents. All took to the iPad easily and there was at least one app that caught each person’s eye.

Out of the Box

Apple has simple down cold, and the experience of unboxing the iPad was no exception. You get the iPad, a charger (which pulls apart to serve as a USB connector) and a one-page guide.

Before you can use the iPad, you have to make sure you’ve downloaded and installed the latest version of iTunes on your computer. You then connect your iPad to your computer, so you can register your iPad, transfer music and movies in your iTunes library, and sync contacts, calendars and web browser bookmarks. If you already own a Touch or iPhone, you can also transfer apps you’ve bought.

Optional 6-foot Power Cable

Suzanne: One notable problem is that the 3-foot charging cable/USB cord is far too short. If your outlet is near the floor, you won't be able to charge and use the iPad at the same time, unless you're sitting on the ground. Plus it doesn’t charge in all USB ports. The manual says that it will charge very slowly, but my iPad had a “not charging” notification message when I tried plugging it into all of my computer’s USB ports. Apple is basically forcing you to get the optional 6-foot power adapter—for another $29...

Look and Feel

The iPad is a beautiful, sleek device that we would be happy to be seen carrying around. At 1.5 pounds, iPad feels a little heftier than we’d expected, more than twice the weight of a basic Kindle, but it's definitely lighter than a laptop or netbook, which we wouldn't bother to carry for purely entertainment purposes.

Suzanne: Unlike the Touch and iPhone, the iPad has flat edges. So if you’re holding it for an extended period of time, to read a book or play a game, the edges cut into your hand. I ended up resting it on the palm of my hand, lap or the bed most of the time, but that’s not always practical or preferable. And, this may just be a perception issue, but I’m afraid it will break. I freely hand over my iPods, Touch and even iPhone to my toddler for use, but not the iPad. Part of it is the price tag, but the other is a sense that the big 9.7-inch display will crack if dropped. A comfortable, shock-resistant case is a must.

Stewart: Its smooth back is too slippery; considering its cost, I'd feel better with a firmer grip.

iPad LCD screen has a wide viewing angle. My wife and I watched the Paul McCartney at CitiField concert sitting side-by-side on a train and each of us could see the band just fine. But the screen is highly-reflective. In daylight or other bright environments, it's almost a mirror and, in dark scenes especially, every finger smudge and dust spec becomes visible and annoying. Fortunately, iPad, like the iPhone, has a special anti-smudge screen that reduces oil streaks.

WiFi or 3G?

Stewart: The initial WiFi version sort of limits iPad's best behaviors. You can wait until later this month for the $130-extra 3G version and its $15/month AT&T 3G service, or get a MiFi – a deck of playing cards-sized gadget that converts a cellular signal into WiFi, which also can be used with your laptop – from Sprint or Verizon. Slip the MiFi in a pocket or backpack and you become a walking hotspot. I've been using Sprint's, and it works perfectly.

Suzanne: A number of the apps need wireless connectivity to work properly. However none are compelling enough that I can see shelling out another $15 or $30 for a month of cellular access on top of the $130 3G premium. And I already get email on the road through my iPhone. So I’ll be sticking to my iPhone for connected apps away from home.

The Interface

If you have a Touch or iPhone, there’s really nothing to learn. There are just three buttons on the iPad – the Home key, which brings up the listing of apps, a volume toggle and an orientation lock, which disables iPad's accelerometer.

Most of the navigation is done via the 9.7-inch touchscreen. You touch to select items, swipe to turn pages and move items around, and pinch to shrink, enlarge and rotate. There’s also a virtual keyboard, which automatically pops up any time you want to input text.

Stewart: I like typing on iPhone's touch QWERTY but was concerned that typing with the iPad on my lap and with the screen facing up parallel with the ceiling would be a problem. Not only wasn't the angle a problem, but after a half dozen typing sessions I found I could tap out messages and short notes with a high degree of accuracy and speed, which even I was surprised by.

Suzanne: I frequently use the iPhone virtual keyboard to compose messages, but continue to be plagued by typos. With the iPad keyboard, I’ve had virtually no issues. The larger keyboard really makes a difference. But if I were going to use this for typing school reports, I would go for the add-on keyboard ($69).

Lacking is a camera for stills, video recording and video chat. Most netbooks and cell phones have them built-in, which makes its absence annoying. We Skype all the time with relatives and that isn't going to happen on the iPad.

The Basic Apps

The iPad comes with 12 apps preloaded onto the device. If you’re a Touch or iPhone user, you’ll immediately notice that most have been upgraded to make use of the larger, higher resolution display.

Productivity: Calendar/Contacts/Mail/Notes/Maps
The updated productivity apps really make use of the extra space. Whether it’s seeing a list of your contacts while viewing one, pulling up the list of new mail over an email or viewing more of a map, the improvements speed up access and use. They also look like their real world counterparts—Contacts looks like a physical book and Calendar likewise.

Web Access: Safari/YouTube
For a portable device, Safari is a great browser. It renders pages well and the added screen size makes selecting links even easier than on the iPhone. The lack of Flash, which many sites use for navigational elements and videos, is definitely a problem. Media properties like the Wall Street Journal, TMZ and The New York Times, have apps, which solves the access issue, and Apple pre-loads YouTube. If you’re planning on this being your only means of Internet browsing, though, think again.

Entertainment: Photos/iPod/Videos
iPad is a great digital picture frame. Just hit the flower icon to the right of the screen unlock slide to start an animated slide show. With iTunes, it's ridiculously easy to sync your pictures. And like iPod and iPhone, iPad optimizes (i.e. compresses) your photos so you don't waste memory storing high-resolution photos, which means you'll be able to fit more pictures on the iPad.

If you’ve purchased videos from the iTunes store in standard definition, you’ll have mixed results. Cartoons like Scooby Doo looked fine, but the sitcoms looked a little grainy. The built-in speakers were surprisingly good—delivering load, clear sound for movie watching.

Shopping: iTunes/App Store
Not much has changed here. Making purchases is still faster and easier on your computer, but it’s easy enough to search and see best sellers.

iPhone/iPod Touch Apps on iPad
One of the purported benefits of the iPad is the existing library of more than 140,000 iPhone/Touch apps. Using apps that aren’t designed for the iPad’s larger screen poses some problems. You can run them in a small window on the iPad or blow them up to fill the screen. Unfortunately many of the apps have just enough resolution to look good on the iPhone/Touch’s 3.5 inch screen. Look for apps that say they’re iPad compatible, but even then you won’t really know until you tried them.

Reading eBooks

Suzanne: The Apple iBook and Kindle book reader apps are a pleasure to use. You can easily adjust the brightness and font size right on the page and with the iBook app, you select from five different fonts. Both also have a smooth page turning animation that makes it feel more like you’re reading a real book.

I did not find the backlit screen uncomfortable to read and it works great in areas with low light, unlike the Kindle and other eInk readers. But the iPad is a lot more reflective, which was not great for outdoors. Also, you definitely feel the weight of the iPad (1.5 lbs) compared to a Kindle (10-19 oz).

Playing Games

Stewart: Thanks to iPad's large 9.7-inch screen and snappy accelerometer eliminating the need for separate navigational controls or joysticks, iPad is a nonpareil gaming device. And thanks to iPhone, there are more games available for iPad than for all other portable gaming platforms combined. I know I looked like an idiot "driving" (i.e. waving it around to steer) a souped-up virtual Volkswagen in EA's Need For Speed Shift racing game, but I didn't care.

Dungeon Hunter HD

Suzanne: As a casual gamer, I love the selection of games. The board games, though, really benefit with the ability to use the iPad as though it were a real game board. For checkers or chess, for instance, you can set the iPad between two people for comfortable play—not passing the device back and forth. Some of the card games even recognize when you cup your hand over your stack of cards, so you can peek in privacy. I really got hooked on Dungeon Hunter HD, a quest-based role playing game.

Summary

Suzanne: The iPad is definitely a luxury item for now. It’s not a replacement for a laptop because it has a deficient browser and no camera and it won’t take the place of your current portable entertainment device because it’s too big and fragile. It can replace your eBook reader, your portable gaming machine (for casual games only), your digital picture frame and your portable video player. The question is whether that’s enough for you. Can you cobble enough uses together to justify the iPad’s $500 price tag?

For me the answer is yes. In fact I can’t wait to go sit in the dentist office waiting room this afternoon. I hope they’re running late.

Stewart: Like the iPhone and the iPod before it, the iPad is not about its impressive specs. It's about what it does, the experience. The iPad takes functions, features and a user interface we're familiar with, repackages them and creates new usage paradigms. That means more ways to kill time in on public transportation, in the reading room, between offering opinions on blouses, or in any other dead-time situation.

The new 2009 versions of tax software from H&R Block and Intuit (TurboTax) were developed to guide users through the more than 350 income tax credits and deductions available this year and make it easy for people to get the maximum refund possible for your situation. In addition, your options for receiving an income tax refund have expanded from a mailed physical check, direct deposit or debit card to include an automatic savings option by receiving your refund in the form of a U.S. Savings Bond.

H&R Block at Home (formerly TaxCut)

• Updated user interface – Recognizing that people tend to spend 1-3 hours doing their taxes, H&R Block has redesigned the look and feel of its tax software program with brighter colors, less text and simpler language so that people are less likely to miss important information – in both the online and desktop software versions.
• Greater personalization – H&R Block At Home tailors questions and suggestions to common activities and tax deductions for your industry. (I.e. prompting you for mileage information if relevant to your occupation.)
• Smart Import – Features simple imports of W-2 and 1099 data and prior year tax information from TaxCut or even from TurboTax.
• Best of both – For those still left with questions, they offer unlimited help and answers to questions from an H&R Block tax professional at point-of-need. Or, if you’d like, you can have an H&R Block tax professional review your return for missed tax credits, deductions or mistakes (s/he just then needs to sign the return as the preparer of record and e-file the return).

TurboTax

• Smart-checking and accuracy – Intuit has found that it’s easier to correct income tax return errors at the point they are made rather than finish a return and go back to fix errors, so they’ve moved to real-time error-checking rather than waiting until the end of each section. For instance, TurboTax will prompt you if you’ve filled in a code, but missed filling in the correlating amount as a separate line item. This also helps to ensure people don’t miss out on appropriate deductions.
  
  TurboTax claims that an estimated 5.6 million eligible taxpayers failed to claim the Earned Income Tax Credit last year, missing out on as much as $4,600.
• Flag feature – Most people complete their income taxes in two or more sessions, so Intuit created a new icon in the upper right navigation bar “flags” questions to come back to later. Once you’ve started flagging different blanks to come back and fill in, you’ll see a drop down list of the items you flagged to return to when it’s convenient for you without losing any of the information you’ve already filled-in.
• Live community – A side panel on the right shows common user questions that are relevant to that page, with instant answers provided by tax experts, supervisors, technical experts and “power users,” so that many people may find their specific question or situation is more common than they otherwise thought. Over 10 million people have interacted with the Live Community feature over the past three years, and it works in both the online and desktop software versions.
• Instantly transfer information – TurboTax can instantly import wage and investment data from over 140 financial institutions and payroll providers.

H&R Block at Home	TurboTax
Basic/1040 EZ filers - FREE	Basic/1040 EZ filers - FREE
Deluxe (for investors and homeowners)* Available at Amazon.com: $35	Deluxe (maximizing deductions for most taxpayers)* Available at Amazon.com:  $46
Premium (self-employed or rental property owners) Available at Amazon.com: $45	Premier (investors and rental property owners) Available at Amazon.com: $68
Premium & Business (users wanting help from a tax professional) Available at Amazon.com:  $60	Home & Business (freelance consultants and contractors)  Available at Amazon.com: $74
	Business (corporations, LLCs) Available at Amazon.com: $97

*Recommended for most returning customers.

Fisheye One Royal Blue lomography camera

Being really close up offers the most distorted
effects and resembles what you might see through
a peep-hole in a door or through a fishbowl.

At a mid-range distance, the lens still bends the
objects or scene into a circular shape.

At far distances, such as a landscape, curvature will
be minimal at best, but the camera still offers a neat
vignetting effect that mimics a viewfinder frame such
as a spyglass or monocle.

Have you heard the term “Lomography” yet? If not, I think you’re about to get excited.

Lomography, or lomo, cameras are typically inexpensive, made of plastic with few controls, and require film. They produce an artistic snapshot that is unpredictable, experimental, and sometimes accidental. Characteristics of this type of photography also include blur, saturated colors, incongruous exposures, and a specific desired effect depending on the model of camera.

One of my favorites in the Lomo line is the fisheye camera. This is the only 35mm camera being produced anywhere with a built-in fisheye lens. It comes in multiple color options, is lightweight, and comes with a built-in flash. Prices range from $50-$80 at lomography.com.

The fisheye lens offers between a 170-180 degree wide angle view which not only shows more in the frame than a typical lens or camera, but it also distorts the subject & begins to curve the lines within a circular shape. The closer the lens gets to the subject, the more distorted the image will be. The lens also incorporates a large depth of field to capture the foreground and background in focus.

If you’re looking for something attention getting and fun or if you just want to let go of the control that the digital age has brought with it’s fancy technology, then one of these cameras is for you. They are easy to carry around, and at under $100, there’s little “worry” that you, the kids or dog may break it.

One last bit of advice, if you do happen to venture into the unknown with one of these charms: Watch out for creeping feet and the dangling lens cap, which find their way into shots because of the fisheye lens's super wide angle of capture.
 

The basic $9.99 app has 200 workouts which you can sort by location–home, gym, hotel room, no equipment, outside–and goal–heart health, sport conditioning, flexibility, yoga or a specific body part, to name a few. Each workout provides an overview of its benefits, the equipment you'll need and the estimated number of calories you'll burn based on a person who's 120, 140 or 200 pounds. You can then flip through the exercises, which list directions, provide pictures and a video of a person performing the exercise. Or you can build your own workout from about 2,000 exercises.

When you're ready to start your workout, you page through each screen following the directions. For time-based exercises there's a handy built-in timer that tracks the exercise time and the rest time. You can log your progress as you go or at the end. For weight-based exercises, you can note the weight you used and the number of repetitions. For cardio segments, you can input the level, incline, speed, distance, calories and your heart rate.

When you're done, you can store your workout for future reference and save it as a favorite.

You can also use the app to track your weight, blood pressure, body measurements and resting heart rate, and there are built-in calculators for basal metabolic rate, body fat percentage and target heart rate.

Moving up to the Plus level ($4.99 per month, $19.99 per six months or $34.99 per year) more than doubles the number of workouts and exercises, lets you ask the FitnessBuilder fitness team unlimited questions, and allows you to share your workouts with friends.

Out of the Box
If all you want is to map buttons for your individual components, setup is a snap. It literally took me less than five minutes to be up and running. What really impressed me was the fact that secondary buttons, like the one that changes the aspect ratio on my TV, was automatically mapped to the touchscreen. All the buttons were there.

What makes a remote like the XSight really stand out, though, is its ability to perform a series of tasks, or activities, with the push of a button. To create an activity, like “Watch TV,” you create an account on the Acoustic Research EZ-RC website and attach the remote to your computer. The website then steps you through the process of determining which devices you use for each activity, where everything is hooked up and which remote you use to perform each task, like controlling volume. You can also input your favorite channels and add either a text label or graphic. Unfortunately, the process took longer than it had to because the website is very slow.

If you’re setting up a remote like the XSight, make sure you create “Hello” and “Goodnight” activities to turn all your devices on and off. Unless your equipment has separate codes for on and off (the vast majority don’t), the remote has no clue whether your devices are on or off.

Using the Remote
The XSight is a little heavier than your typical single-device remote— not surprising considering the touchscreen and battery required to power it—and it feels solid in your hand. Like with many remotes, I found it to be a little wide for one-hand operation. Even men will have to use two hands to work the touchscreen—one hand to hold it and the other to operate the slider that lets you switch between screens for access to additional device buttons or favorite channels.

The touchscreen is resistive, not capacitive like the iPhone. So you have to apply some pressure to make your selections. Once you’re used to it, touch operation works smoothly.

The backlighting on the buttons is great and the buttons themselves have a nice tactile click when you press them. I would have like to see the top two rows of buttons a little larger, though, since they're responsible for important functions like the onscreen program guide and favorite channel list.

You’ll want to keep the charging cradle handy for the remote. It will go for weeks without recharging. But with that LCD sceen on top, this isn't a remote I would want to keep jammed between the sofa cushions.

Summary
Once the remote was set up, it worked beautifully. Babysitters who have never watched TV in our home were up and running on the new remote immediately. And I could finally stash all of my old remotes in a basket—that is until my review period was done and I had to send the XSight back.

Targeting 3-7 year olds, Kidos downloadable software temporarily turns your regular computer into a kids computer, with a secure desktop and customized interface. The Kidos program takes over your computer screen so there is no way for your child to access your email, alter your computer's settings, or otherwise delete your documents or drive files, etc. The child stays securely within the framework of the Kidos platform. The software is currently available for FREE as a public beta and works on Macs, PCs, or Linux systems.

It takes mere minutes to download the software and set up an account, and then you can personalize the program for your child, for instance, by uploading photos of family members or recent activities, or by choosing the websites that you want your child to have access to within the framework of Kidos (PBSKids, Nickjr, etc.). We were unable to add some common sites, such as Disney.com, because of browser incompatibility; hopefully, this will be fixed during the beta period. 

Similar to how iTunes operates, you can add to the basic options by perusing a gallery of programs and applications available for purchase like online books, games, music, art and some learning apps. For instance, kids can set up their own playlist of favorite songs, or download a game to learn a foreign language. The applications available for purchase range from $ .49 to $9.99, plus nearly 80 free options.

Several custom background designs are available, and the variety of interactive content makes it appealing to kids. One of the coolest features is the photo-based email: while kids in Kidos' younger age range won't be able to spell many words to send actual emails, they can use the mouse to find and click on someone's photo and send a picture or draw one to make a parent's or grandparent's day. For security purposes, Kidos does not allow reply emails, so kids can only send them outbound to people in their email photo contact list. While not ideal, any family or friend would then need to forward the email with a response to the parent, who could then read the response to the child.

OtterBox provides three layers of protection. The first, is a clear membrane that protects the touch screen. The membrane is connected to a hard polycarbonate protective shell, which comes in two pieces that encase the front and back of the device and click into each other. The polycarbonate skeleton leaves windows for the ports, camera, speakers and, funny enough, there’s a window to show off the Apple logo on the back of the iPhone. The third layer is a shock-absorbing silicone skin that hugs the hard shell with interlocking grips for a slim, tight fit, and provides protective coverage for the volume, power and audio ports.

The Defender case comes with a detachable belt/handbag strap clip, which can ingeniously click into a phone stand when placed on a tabletop. I often use it to hold my phone at my desk, easily able to pull up my calendar or Skype on my phone while at my computer working on other documents.

For my money, I don’t think you could get the same durability and protection from another cell phone case on the market without sacrificing bulk. OtterBox also offers the Defender Series for Blackberry, HP iPAQ, HTC, iPhone, iPod, Nokia, Palm and Samsung devices.

What makes an all-in-one so perfect for my needs? There’s no tower to hide and it takes up a lot less room than a laptop. Basically, it looks like a flat panel TV and can even hang on the wall using a standard VESA mount (a kit can be purchased for $50). But because it’s a PC, I can check my email, surf my favorite websites, look up recipes, listen to Internet radio and best of all—watch most of my favorite shows on demand.

The model I tested was the HP TouchSmart 300z, a sleek, all-in-one 20-inch touchscreen computer that sits on my counter and keeps me wildly entertained, connected and up-to-date. The touchscreen is nifty—I probably use it about 75 percent of the time to navigate. You can pinch, rotate, arc, flip, press or drag a finger across the screen. There’s also a virtual keyboard which lets you type right on the screen, but I prefer using the keyboard I keep stashed next to the mouse in the space below the display. Oh, and because the display is covered in glass, you can use regular glass cleaner and the included cleaning cloth to wipe away those nasty fingerprints that tend to build up.

From the time I got it set-up, which took about 10 minutes out of the box and included sticking the batteries into the included wireless mouse and keyboard and logging onto my Wi-Fi network, I was hooked. I began by bookmarking my favorite sites so I could tap onto them at any moment. That includes the BBC i-Player to listen to BBC World radio in the mornings and my number one guilty pleasure, the CW Network to catch up on missed episodes of 90201, Gossip Girl and Vampire Diaries. And no, I don’t have a teenage girl in the house.

Then I checked out the apps which come loaded with the TouchSmart. Just tap on the TouchSmart Home icon and you’ll be treated to an array of exclusive touchscreen applications. My favorite is the Recipe Box, which will allow you to type in your favorite recipe website (ie: Epicurious, Food & Wine, Cook’s Illustrated), then actually import—or extract as HP calls it—a recipe. From there you can edit it accordingly (in case you want to add a little touch of your own), then save it and organize your collection. Don’t feel like reading the recipe off the computer? Throw on a Bluetooth headset and you can have it read to you while you cook. Not my cup of tea—I like to work at my own pace in the kitchen—but it’s a nifty option. A voice command, recipe dictation feature also allows you to dictate a recipe step-by step to be saved instead of typing it in. But be aware you’ll have to work with the voice recognition software before the computer can pick up your commands correctly.

Music is simple to access through the HP Music Store, which is based on the music subscription service Rhapsody ($12.99 per month or check out the 14-day free trial) and Pandora Internet radio, a free service that delivers a personalized music experience based on your favorite bands. I am already a Rhapsody subscriber, so I loved being able to jump right in and start playing my favorite songs and playlists on the well thought out software. The speakers worked well in my kitchen, though you can always add your own for a higher quality experience.

Another of my favorite apps is called Canvas, which lets you easily find all your images and make cool collages out of them. Make each picture as big or small as you see fit using the touchscreen and place them anywhere on the page at any angle. Once you’re done, you can save it as a regular jpeg image file for sharing or printing. And, you can use the screen as a giant photo frame as well by tapping in to all your saved images.

Other cool stuff includes an app to instantly play your Netflix movies (I just started watching The Tudors while I make dinner), a webcam that lets you take videos and photos of yourself, then use special effects to create all kinds of nifty images, an app to play your favorite videos on HULU and something called Notes, which lets you write to-do lists and reminders, and create video and audio notes. This is especially nice for kids, who appreciate the interactivity of the app.

I could probably go on and on—I seem to find something new to try every day. But you might want to check this out yourself. The TouchSmart 300z in the “recommended configuration” that I tested comes loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium, an AMD Athlon processor, 2GB memory and a 640 GB hard drive. If you have the counter space, the 23-inch TouchSmart 600t is a better value with its bigger screen, Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB memory and 640 GB hard drive.
 

Here are some of our favorite online sites and software that will help you to quickly and easily share your photos and videos in a video greeting or montage:

Sites

Animoto By using cinematic artificial intelligence, Animoto allows you to assemble a combination of video clips and photos and then seamlessly merge them into a professional looking video package. The site is intuitive to use, and uploading pictures and video is straightforward. Animoto has some nice options to add to your piece—including music. Once you’re done creating your video, you can share it through email or on sites like Facebook and YouTube.

While you can access features for free, and an Animoto iPhone app exists, an All Access Pass for $30 per year will give you unlimited full-length videos and greetings, plus a bonus hi-res holiday greeting.

BubbleJoy Consider BubbleJoy if sending a video greeting, and simplicity and speed are your priorities. The site enables you to record yourself via your webcam and upload the video into a variety of card templates that are provided for free on the site. BubbleJoy is great for a video greeting novice, as the editing options and features are intuitive, even for non-techies and the provide what you need to send out a simple video birthday greeting, thank-you or birth announcement. 

Motionbox Motionbox is a secure video sharing site that is aimed at families. It provides basic, easy-to-use video editing tools that allow you to trim, rotate and combine your videos, You can then share these online with your friends and relatives in a private environment. Motionbox is free for up to 750mb of storage. Upgrading to "Premium" for $40 per year buys you virtually unlimited storage, HD video support and the ability for recipients to downlod the video fro the site. They also offer a video "flipbook" for $8 plus S&H, which allows you to transform 15 seconds of video into a pocket-sized book you animate with your thumb.

Software

muvee Reveal This is a full-featured software program that allows you to easily create videos using still images or video. Muvee has incorporated some great utilities including music trimming, which enables you to use only the parts of a song you’d like, captions, voice-overs, credits and customizing tools to control the pace and background of the video. You can easily share your completed video to Facebook and YouTube, but can also burn it to a DVD or upload to your iPhone or PSP directly. Muvee offers a free 15-day trial off their website, otherwise it costs $69.85, with additional style packs available to spice up your video for $14.95 each.

The CUBE provides a shiatsu-style massage to the feet, calves, hips and lower back, using dozens of individual air cells that are inflated and deflated in a choreographed sequence. There are four program options – full coverage; back and hip stretch; legs; and hips and buttocks – along with high and low intensity levels. Each program runs for 15 minutes.

In our tests, the air cells of the CUBE provided a natural-feeling massage with a fairly high level of intensity. There is simply no comparison between the quality of the massage you will receive in the CUBE and the vibration-based chairs you commonly find in the sub-$1000 category. Noise levels were also low, making it easy to listen to music, read or watch TV while our massage was in progress.

Folding and unfolding the chair was simple enough that even my eight-year old could do it (yes, she liked the chair, too!). And moving it into place was also easy with the built-in wheels, though at 48 lbs, carrying it wasn’t that hard, either.

The CUBE is offered in black, ivory or red. Its fabric is a functional, polyester-type material that zips off and is machine washable.

Currently, the CUBE is available through RichardSolo.com, which is offering $5 shipping and a 30-day return period with pre-paid return shipping.
 

In addition to iPhone and iPod connectivity, you’ll also get AM/FM stereo radio and an alarm clock that wakes you to music from your library, a radio station or just a simple alarm sound. And to add simplicity (and cater to the laziness in all of us) just touch any part of the aluminum trim around the face of the product to trigger the snooze function.

I got one to try out and immediately put it in my kitchen. Though some people might use it in the bedroom (with the clock-radio function and all), I love having something that will play my iTunes library, Rhapsody-to-Go and Pandora from two, high-performance 3.5-inch speakers while I cook, clean and generally take care of my two boys. I’m in the kitchen—awake—a lot more often than in my bedroom. Throw in local radio stations for my daily news fix and I’m thrilled (there’s room for 15 presets—10 FM and five AM).

Don’t have an iPod or iPhone? You can also use one of the two auxiliary inputs to play your music from another media device. Or, if you’re game, watch your iPhone/iPod content by connecting the Duo-i plus to your TV with a composite wire from the video output port on the back in the unit. It may seem like too much work, but I promise, it’s a simple operation.

It’s not small, but the Duo-i plus fits nicely into the corner of my counter and is a well-designed product. With just three rubber knobs and perforated metal grilles, I don’t have a hard time looking at it. Mine is white, but if you want to match it to a specific décor, you can purchase an optional metal grille in a variety of colors for just $15.

A pint-size remote control is also included, but I don’t really have a need for it. The Duo-i plus is so easy to use, I just switch it on or off, or from iPhone to radio, with the push of a button. Best of all, my iPhone automatically charges in the dock, so I leave it in there even when I’m not using it. My husband and I have an ongoing battle over who can first plug their charger into the one available socket in the kitchen, so this helps immensely.

But in addition to its ease of use, what really makes the Duo-i plus worth the $250 price tag is the well-rounded stereo sound and clean bass—which isn’t a surprise, knowing Boston Acoustics’s reputation.

Now, Livescribe is adding even more utility to the Pulse Smartpen with the launch of a new online Application Store, where there are more than 30 free and paid programs, in categories ranging from productivity and reference tools to travel, education, games and entertainment.

For example, one series of programs converts English phrases for travelers into foreign languages—Spanish, French, German, Japanese or Korean—and plays the spoken translation through the pen’s speaker while displaying its written text on the pen’s sharp looking monotone display. Another program, U.S. State Facts, displays the names of state trees, birds, flowers and mottos, among other information, for all 50 states. Magic Yad uses the pen’s audio capabilities to teach Hebrew chanting and is aimed at Bar Mitzvah boys and Bat Mitzvah girls. There’s even a World Series Champions application that gives the results of all World Series games by year, including team names, the final score and the name of the game’s most valuable player.

And this is only the initial selection, because the Livescribe Application Store is currently in its “beta” or test phase. Besides Livescribe itself, there are more than 5,500 other software developers that have contributed to or are working on software for the store, Livescribe says.

Adding an application to the Pulse Smartpen is as simple as downloading it from the store to the Livescribe Desktop software, and then syncing the pen to Livescribe Desktop by placing it in its special dock, which links to a PC or a Mac via a USB port. (The latest version of Livescribe Desktop, version 2.0, is required.)

All of the applications are accessed and controlled using the Pulse Smartpen and dot paper. Each dot represents the coordinates of a location on the page and, as you write, the pen’s camera uses them to record both an image of your handwriting or drawing and where on the page you laid down the ink. Simply draw the controls for the application on a sheet of dot paper—the application tells you what to draw—and you're ready to go.

Buying a separate netbook for your child has two advantages. If they do managed to get a virus or otherwise break the computer at least it's not your laptop loaded with family photos and important spreadsheets from work. And, some netbooks designed specifically for children come with robust parental controls that allow you to track what your child does and block them from accessing potentially harmful content.

Nickelodeon and Disney both released such netbooks recently, through partnerships with Dell and ASUS respectively. A close look reveals two very different machines.

Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition ($329)
The Dell Inspiron Mini Nickelodeon Edition is more or less the same as the company's Mini 10v, but with a slime themed paint job and Windows interface. That's not entirely a bad thing though. The Nickelodeon Edition, for only $30 more than the standard Mini 10v, gets a fun paint job and 15 months of McAfee security (normally an $89 option). It does have some Nickelodeon specific content, like a Nick.com desktop gadget, educational games from Whyville.net and a free Nick Game of the Week, but is otherwise no different than its non-slimed sibling. In addition to the slime covered model, Spongebob and iCarly branded models are planned but currently not available through Dell.

The Dell Nickelodeon Edition leaves the parental controls up to you, but adds 15 months of McAfee security and 12 months of Computrace LoJack for laptops, if your child has a habit of leaving things behind. However, any computer can be set up to be kid-friendly. Set up your child with a “Standard” Windows user account, turn on parental controls to select the applications they can run (by title or game rating) and when they can run them, and install an Internet parental control program, like NetNanny.

The Dell has a 160GB hard drive, which should provide plenty of room for photos, movies and any applications your child needs for schoolwork.

Disney Netpal ($349)
Disney is targeting a much younger audience with its Netpal (a modified ASUS Eee PC), and one that parents want to keep better tabs on. The Netpal, available in "princess pink" or "magic blue," uses a customized interface that makes the netbook easier to navigate for youngsters and keeps them out of the system's more sensitive parts. A “gadget tray” resides on the desktop that provides access to Disney applications, including music and photo editing. Fifteen different desktop widgets are available, including a digital memo pad, stopwatch and a calculator. And, the desktop can be customized with more than 10 themes inspired by franchises like Cars, Club Penguin, Disney Princess, Hannah Montana and JONAS The Series.

The Netpal also offers fine-grained controls over what kids are allowed to do and when. There’s an array of child-friendly websites that the Disney browser launches right out of the box, and will only let children visit new sites you personally approve. While the robust parental controls allow you to block certain applications, like games, from being run during particular times of the day, like when your child should be doing homework.

The Disney Netpal comes was a 16GB solid state drive (SSD). An SSD has no moving parts, and can withstand bumps and drops—making it perfect for a young child. But 16GB is not a lot of space, so you will only be able to store a few movies and larger programs, such as Microsoft Word, will take up a significant percentage of your drive.

Other Options
There are of course other, less specialized options. You can pick up an unmodified ASUS Eee 1000 in black or white, with a larger display and bigger battery than the Disney Netpal, for only $299 through Toys "R" Us. So if the extra content isn’t a lure and you’re comfortable setting up your own security, a regular netbook may be the way to go.

For older kids, it may be worth investing in a more powerful system that will carry them through their school years. Check into the Gateway EC1430u ($550) or Dell Inspiron 13 ($585). Both have Pentium Dual Core processors and 3GB of memory, which is what you should be looking for in an entry level product.

Regardless of which type of laptop you select for your child, the safest place for a kid to use a computer is in the same room as an adult. So make use of the laptop’s portability to make sure your child is with you while using the computer.

The CitiZ comes in four colors –
limousine black, steel grey, 60’s white
and fire engine red.

We’re big fans of the Nespresso single-serve pod system (see Single-Serve Coffee and Espresso Makers), and were excited to get a chance to review the new Buy from Amazon.comCitiZ model ($279). We found that the CitiZ provides the same excellent quality espresso we’re used to, in a very compact, stylish design.

Design

As its name suggests, the CitiZ was designed for city dwellers, such as ourselves, or anyone who is looking for a slimmer design to save on counter space. At only 5” thick, including the base, you’ll have no trouble finding a place to set it up. And, as with other Nespresso models, the sleek retro design puts most other kitchen appliances to shame.

One big advantage of the new, taller design is that the flip-up cup holder allows you to fit larger cups under the spout than other entry-level Nespresso models. This is very helpful when making lattes or, in summer months, iced coffees (which the Nespresso machines do surprisingly well).

Making Espresso & Cappuccinos

The basic functionality of the Nespresso CitiZ is the same as for most other Nespresso models. Once you have filled the 1-liter tank housed on the back, you insert a proprietary Nespresso pod, pull down the lever and push a button for either an espresso or larger “lungo”. That’s it – the machine takes care of the entire brewing process. Used pods are stored inside the machine until you are ready to dump them.

In our testing, espressos from the CitiZ were identical to those from our Nespresso Lattissima model. Total time from turning the machine on to brewed shot was marginally slower than our Lattissima, but still plenty fast at under a minute. Once the machine has warmed up, subsequent shots take less than 30 seconds. If left on, the CitiZ will eventually go into an energy saving standby mode.

There is no built-in milk frother on the CitiZ. However, recognizing that most of us like to make cappuccinos as well, Nespresso created the Buy from Amazon.comCitiZ and Milk model ($349), with a wider base that incorporates an Aeroccino+ milk frother. The Aeroccino heats and froths milk in under a minute, and makes enough froth for about two cappuccinos.

Having the Aeroccino attached provides some convenience, but negates all the benefits of the slim design. In our opinion, unless you have plenty of space, most people would be better off buying the basic CitiZ model and Aeroccino+ ($99) separately, even though it will cost you thirty dollars more to do so - would be nice if Nespresso offered a discount on this combination.

And, if space and cost are not an issue for you, you may also want to consider the Nespresso Lattissima, with fully-automatic milk handling, at its new lower price of $499. The froth is not quite of the quality that you get from the Aeroccino+, but the convenience of the automated milk frother is exceptional.

Conclusion

We can’t help but love the design of the CitiZ. You pay a premium over Nespresso’s other “entry-level” machines, but we feel the ability to use larger cups and the super thin design makes it worth the extra expense. At $279, we highly recommend this model.
 

IREX DR 800SG

Books are a tough act to follow. And yet Amazon got a lot right when it launched its first digital-book reader, the Kindle, a couple of years ago. The electronic ink technology provided enough contrast so that reading for extended periods of time wasn’t fatiguing. The page turning buttons were fairly well thought out, giving you the option of turning with your right or left hand. You could take literally hundreds of books with you in the same space you usually reserve for a paperback. The biggest innovation, though, was having wireless access to a bookstore built into the digital-book reader using Sprint's 3G network—with no monthly fees.

This fall will bring more options to people who want a digital-book reader with free access to a wireless bookstore built-in. Arriving next month is the IREX DR 800SG, an 8.1-inch tablet, running on Verizon’s 3G network and supported by the Barnes & Noble eBookstore, among others. And in December, Sony joins the wireless digital-book-reader fray with its Reader Daily Edition, a device with a 7-inch display and access to the Sony eBook Store via AT&T’s 3G network.

Currently. we don't have a lot of details on the IREX and Sony devices.  The chart below gives you a general comparison between each one and the Amazon Kindle models.

Microsoft Zune HD

The biggest news is Microsoft’s Zune HD, a challenger to Apple’s iPod Touch. The sleek device has a high-quality 3.3-inch widescreen touch display, better media compatibility and higher quality playback. The Zune HD can also output HD movies and TV shows to an HDTV—via an optional dock and HDMI cable—for optimal viewing. And the battery outlasts the iPod Touch by two hours (an estimated eight hours total for video).

Zune HD also includes an HD radio and FM tuner, a web browser (with Facebook and Twitter apps scheduled for later in the year) and the ability to sync with a PC wirelessly to download music, band photos, lyrics and album art, even if songs weren't purchased from the Zune Market. And if you have a Zune unlimited monthly pass, you can stream content straight from the store over Wi-Fi. All in all the Zune HD gives Apple some competition.

Apple iPod Nano (5th Generation)

Apple isn't one to rest on its laurels, however. The new iPod Nano has a microphone and a video camera, giving you the ability to make voice notes and record video that’s perfect for YouTube or sharing via e-mail (which you accomplish by connecting to a computer). The only disappointment is that you can’t take pictures. Another iPod first for Nano is an FM radio, which has one neat detail others lack: the ability to pause and restart live radio broadcasts. This feature is sure to come in handy if you're in the middle of the latest episode of “This American Life” and need to stop and order a cup of coffee.

In addition, the iPod Touch is now available with 64 gigabytes of memory and a faster processor for better gaming performance.

Creative Labs Zen X-Fi2

Creative Labs, which was making PMPs long before the iPod, just introduced its latest, the Zen X-Fi2. With a 3-inch touch screen, 32GB of memory and video-out for viewing video and photos on a TV (an option), the X-Fi2 is clearly designed for video. Other features include an FM tuner and voice recorder.

The X-Fi2 has one feature the other new players lack, the ability to expand storage. Thanks to a microSD card slot, like that found on many high-end cell phones, you can add up to 16 gigabyte of additional storage to the PMP for as little as $40. That means an X-Fi2 with 48 gigabytes of storage will cost less than an iPod Touch or Zune HD with only 32. But be warned, you get what you pay for. The X-Fi2 is not nearly as polished or pocket friendly as its competitors.

Those in the market for a new PMP will find plenty of new choices to consider. Clearly, the media player market is a completely different world than it was even just a few short weeks ago.
 

Go, Diego, Go!: Great Dinosaur Rescue ($20, Wii)
You know Diego. Your kids definitely know Diego. Now you and your child can both help him reunite a baby dinosaur with its mama. Using the Dinosaur Guide Helper feature and another remote, parents can hang with their kids and collect various items in different levels by swinging on vines, jumping, digging and climbing. It has awesome graphics that look almost exactly like the TV show. And it’s perfect for the preschool set—with tons of repetition and motion.

UP! The Video game ($40, Wii, PS3, Xbox 360)
If they loved the movie UP!, they’re going to die for the video game. It follows our hero Carl Hendrickson and his young friend Russell through the jungles of South America—meeting their canine friend Dug and Kevin the prehistoric bird on the way. You’ll be competing in dog-fights, getting away from man-eating plants and battling exotic animals. Up to four players can work together at one time to create an exciting adventure.

Madden NFL 10 ($50 for Wii, $60 for PS3 and Xbox 360)
The newest addition to the Madden series is here and, in addition to fabulous graphics and better camera angles, it has a new cooperative mode called Huddle Up that enables even very young players to join in. In Huddle Up mode, the parent plays the game normally while the child uses a pointer to block or trip up the receiver.

Wii Sports (comes with Wii)
This is simple because it comes bundled with the Wii. Of the five different sports to play—tennis, baseball, golf, bowling and boxing—tennis is the only one with a cooperative mode where you and your child can compete as a team in doubles matches.

The first and most important thing to know before you spend any money on the update is that Snow Leopard is strictly an Intel based Mac only affair. So if you're still using that Power Mac G5 or toting around that G4 based Power Book this is unfortunately where the trail of OS X updates ends for you.

Thanks to changes in the Snow Leopard operating system’s underlying components, some programs are no longer compatible. The list of programs that either refuse to work, or are only partially functional includes several products from Adobe, older versions of Parallels, AT&T's Laptop Connect, and even some older versions of Apple products, like Keynote and Aperture. You can see a complete, but unofficial list of Snow Leopard compatibility here. If any incompatible apps are essential to your daily computing needs, we recommend that you hold off on the upgrade until your app is updated to work with Snow Leopard, which may add an additional cost to your upgrade.

If these aren't deal breakers you'll still have to decide, is the update really worth $30? First, it’s faster. And don't be dismissive of the speed increases. Normally OS speed improvements are barely noticeable, but Snow Leopard turns out to be quite a bit faster than Leopard. Just check out these tests from Gizmodo and this video comparing the time it takes to open a preview of six JPEGs. Second, Snow Leopard is better able to judge how much disk space is left. These two capabilities alone make the upgrade worth it.

wireless signal-
strength icon

You’ll also get the ability to interact with Microsoft Exchange servers (so you can ditch Entourage). You can now sync your contacts and calendars with Yahoo! and Google. Quicktime X how has video editing and sharing features. And can finally see wireless signal strength, which Windows users have been enjoying since XP. Boot camp even gets a welcome improvement, adding the ability to access your Mac files from within Windows.

Before you update we strongly recommend backing up your most important data, on OS X and under Windows if you're using Bootcamp. The upgrade shouldn't erase any of your data, and should leave your Windows install untouched, but its better safe than sorry.

Snow Leopard isn't a game changer. It's an incremental upgrade to the Apple OS, but a reasonably impressive one. You'll have to decide if it's worth the $30 and the potential price of upgrading incompatible software. But if you ask us, this one is a no brainer.

I admit I’m a little biased. Ever since puberty, I’ve loved the surfer-influenced fashion of Roxy. Though I may not be able to pull off the tiny bikinis or short shorts anymore, I still dig this label’s laidback and colorful designs. So when I pulled out the bright blue and green headphones from the package, I couldn’t wait to take a walk with my iPhone and my favorite tunes.

As mentioned, they come in an over-the-head form factor. The ear cups are green and have the Roxy logo painted in black and white while the headband is blue with a funky ivy-type scrawling (they also come in pink and orange). Both are nicely padded in black felt and you can adjust the size via steel loops that slide along the band.

When I first put these headphones on and walked out of the house, I was transfixed. I can’t promise you high-end audio, but I can promise you an above average listening experience—both in comfort and sound.

The ear cups felt nice and the headphones didn’t give me a headache like some of my over-the-head hair accessories do. I had to adjust the headphones to the smallest setting, but once that was done, they fit nicely.

JBL did a nice job with sound balance and left out any distortion. Though other reviewers haven’t been impressed by the bass (saying it is underwhelming), I had no problems with it.

I tend to carry my headphones in a diaper bag or a trash-bag-size pocketbook, so I don’t have a problem with the size. But I can see how some gals might want something that folds up and can be more easily stowed (the ear cups do rotate, but it doesn’t change the basic form factor).

A pretty nylon carrying case is included in the $70 price tag, which I always have on hand to protect them from the likes of a half-eaten lollipop or loose baby wipes. The headphones don't feel solid, which makes me wonder how well they’ll hold up in the future.

All in all, I was pleased with this product. I think the marriage of style and function is a happy one and it’s a good purchase for everyday listeners who want to get a little more oomph from their portable music.

However, prices for full-featured notebooks have come down considerably. Today you can get a Dell Inspiron 15 for $449 (at dell.com), an HP G60t series for $499 (at hp.com) and a Lenovo G550 for $499 (at lenovo.com).

With the price advantage largely gone, when does it make sense to buy a netbook, with a much more limited set of features, instead of a full-featured notebook?

To determine whether the netbook still had a place, I gave the Toshiba Mini NB205 (list $400) netbook a test drive to see how it worked out in my day-to-day computing tasks.

Toshiba Mini NB205

The Mini NB205 is a pretty, blue, 10-inch netbook (it comes in brown, white and pink as well).
Weighing in at 2.8 lb (3.4 lb with its AC adapter), it measures 10.4 x 7.6 x 1.3 inches and looks like the baby brother of my regular 16-inch notebook, a Dell Studio XPS 16. And, at $400, it still runs at least $50 less than the cheapest notebooks.

The Mini NB205 was much smaller and lighter than most entry-level notebooks, which have a 15-inch display and a weight between 5-6 pounds. This was great for when I needed to throw the netbook into my bag to get some work done at my local Starbucks.

It was not as great for actually doing the work. The Mini NB205’s keyboard is quite spacious for the computer’s overall size. Even so, I kept turning on the CAPS LOCK whenever I wanted to type an “A” or an “S.” I’m pretty sure, I could get used to it. But I didn’t in the time I had it. On the other hand, the touchpad was large, smooth and easy to use with comfy, dedicated right and left mouse buttons.

I hit some snags when setting up the netbook with the software I usually run. There’s no CD/DVD drive, so when I tried to install Microsoft Office, I had to download the software from the Web (If you already own a boxed copy, the software key will usually work when you download a copy from the Web). And here’s something that surprised me. I was trying to download audio books for my son’s Leapfrog TAG reading system, which meant I had to download the company’s Leapfrog Connect software. Lo and behold, I got an error message saying it was unable to complete installation because my computer’s screen resolution was too low. (The software requires 924 x 668 and the Mini NB205 has a maximum resolution of 1024 x 600.)

You also give up a significant amount of processor speed and memory with netbooks, meaning tasks such as photo editing or gaming will be tedious or impossible. I use Adobe Photoshop Elements in my work, and it simply wasn’t going to happen on the Mini NB205. Web browsing, email and word processing were all no problem, though, and that is where most of us spend almost all of our time.

What netbooks give up in power, they gain in power consumption. I got six hours of video playback for my kids on a recent trip, which is far more than I’ve managed from my full-sized notebooks. Plus the Mini NB205 comes with USB sleep-and-charge ports, which charge any of your USB gadgets even when the netbook’s power is turned off. So I always had an iPod, Blackberry or camera hanging off its little frame. What can I say, there are never enough plugs in our apartment!

In the end, a netbook is a good option if a few key things fall into place. Ultra-portability has to be very important to you. You should only plan on doing word processing, emailing and browsing the Web. And, you have to be able to live without a CD/DVD drive for loading software. No, I wouldn’t suggest swapping it out for your notebook, but really, for $400, it does make a perfect extra hand around the house or on the run.

Hasbro I-Turtle ($20, age 8+) It's a cute, little pet your child will enjoy taking care of. Though it’s supposed to be for ages 8 and up (mainly for girls), we think children of any age—or gender—will enjoy it. The younger ones can watch it dance to any music that it hears. Dancing entails raising its shell, swaying its head, tapping its foot and flashing the different colored LED lights on his shell. Older kids can plug it into a portable music device and use it as a portable speaker.
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Chicco Talking Vacation Car ($50, age 18 months+) Did someone say vacation? Take this fun-packed car with you when you pack the family up this summer, and let it teach your tots a few new words on the way. This talking automobile teaches both English and Spanish, and has three levels of play to choose from—Word Mode, Story Mode and Riddle Mode. A suitcase-shaped picture book is included to help children follow along with the stories.
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Crayola Glow Station on the Go ($15, age 6+ ) Think campsites, sleepovers or even a long car ride. That’s where Crayola’s new Glow Station on the Go is at its best. It's simply a lap-sized canvas for glow-in-the-dark drawing. Your kids can make their own freehand drawings with the included light wand, or use the stencils and texture sheets that come with the product to create something different. Once the kids are done, they can simply turn the lights on to erase it. It even includes a compartment in the back to store all the pieces.
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Fisher-Price Fun 2 Learn Color Flash Laptop ($30, age 3-8) In our homes, the computer is a favorite toy. So how do you keep a curious tot's hands off your expensive equipment? Try Fisher-Price’s newest laptop toy. With six learning modes, including letters, phonics, numbers, music, games and typing, it promises all kinds of fun and learning. The LCD display switches between red, green and blue backlit screens, and there is a slide-away mouse and rubber keyboard that can be banged on, tossed and manhandled.
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Leapfrog Tag Junior Pal ($35, age 2-4) Tag Junior Pal is a reading system that allows toddlers to follow a story with an interactive easy-to-grasp device made especially for tiny hands. Children use it to interact with specially printed board books. By pressing the base to the book, a child can have each page read aloud, hear sound effects embedded in the pictures and listen to music. The books are themed for preschoolers and toddlers with characters like Curious George and The Backyardigans. Books are $11 each.
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The Goldberger Co. Water Wonders ($10, from birth) If you’ve got a very little one at home, you simply must check out this line of water toys. Water Wonders are soft, plush toys that light up and blink when they touch water. They are embedded with a chip that will eventually turn the lights off, so the batteries won’t run out too quickly. There are six characters to choose from, including Albert the Alligator, Fernando the Frog, Sinbad the Shark, Shelley the Turtle, Otto the Octopus and Felicia the Fish.
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FurReal Friends Lil’ Patter Pup ($25, age 4+) If you’re tired of listening to your child’s pleas for a dog, you may want to try this new Furreal Friends Lil’ Patter Pup. It walks, barks, wags its tail and even sniffs an included bone. Soft, happy and oh-so-real, we have to admit, Patter Pup is almost freaky. Take it anywhere to keep your kids company, and don’t mind the eating noises. Best of all? There’s no cleaning up after this little guy. Make your selection from the Pomeranian and the Shih Tzu.
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