HANNspree HANNSlounge 32-inch LCD HDTV
$1,499
hannspree-usa.com
Like most LCD TVs, the HANNSlounge is black and not very deep, but the external similarities end there. For one thing, it's simply rounder — the top and bottom edges of the cabinet slope subtly toward the edges, and even the gently ribbed speaker grille sports rounded-off corners. Meanwhile, the back is clad entirely in plastic that looks like wood, which wraps all the way around the sides. But the most prominent design touch is also the most retro: a pair of legs that protrude from either side, supporting the TV like a sawhorse. Sure, a generic, pedestal-like stand might be more practical if you don't have much space on your table, but those legs sure look cool.
Features-wise, the HANNSlounge loses nothing to less distinctive-looking HDTVs. It has one HDMI and two component-video inputs and a PC input. Three front-panel slots that encompass nearly every variety of flash media let you watch digital photos. There's even an RS-232 control port for wiring the 'Slounge into your customized home of the future, if that's your thing.
The medium-size remote distinguishes itself with its clear plastic keys — alas, they're not backlit, and the layout is a bit cluttered. Clicking into the menu system, I appreciated the wide array of picture controls, including a two-step backlight and a trio of color-temperature presets. But I was disappointed to find that most of the picture controls were disabled with the HDMI input.
Overall, I loved the HANNspree's picture. Black areas looked a little lighter than on some other 32-inch LCDs, and very dark areas had a slight blue tinge. But most of the shows I watched, like a soccer match between New York and New England, looked as sharp as HDTV should, from the clearly rendered blades of grass to the crisp onscreen graphics to the pattern on the distant ball. Still, the TV itself looked even sharper. — David Katzmaier
RIM BlackBerry Pearl cellphone
$199
blackberrypearl.com
They can't really cram a BlackBerry into a cellphone chassis, can they? Well, yeah, they can, and they have — and with oodles of high-tech style to spare. The Pearl has too many features to list them all, but here are some highlights:
An excellent (for a cellphone) MP3/AAC music player. (There's a heaphone jack, and the 'buds are supplied.)
A tiny trackball helps you navigate the surprisingly large (1.5 x 1.6-inch) and readable (240 x 260-pixel) TFT display. The menu button left of the trackball takes you through the multitude of applications. Both the trackball and keyboard are backlit.
A decent 1.3-megapixel camera with flash and a 5x digital zoom — and that large main display makes it a cinch to compose shots.
Alright, you have to be unusually light on your thumbs to speed-type on the QWERTY-style keyboard (this is not the place to be writing up a last-minute term paper), but, unlike a lot of cellphone keypads, this one is very easy to navigate and great for doing short e-mails.
It seems like, as cellphones have gotten more sophisticated as multimedia devices, they've gotten crappier as phones. But the Pearl — which uses T-Mobile — fits comfortably in your hand, is easy to dial, gets great reception, and lets you actually hear what the other person's saying, so no problems here.
Having all those features crammed into it doesn't cause the Pearl to bulk up. At 2 x 4.3 x 0.6 inches and just over 3 ounces, it slides into your coat pocket easily and lightly. — Michael Gaughn
3DX Banshee surround-sound listening station
$129
bansheeaudio.com
You'll want to give (or get) the Banshee just for the fun of it. As with all one-box simulated-surround speakers, the surround effect depends heavily on where you're sitting. But if you find yourself taking the Banshee that seriously, you might want to start getting out a little more often. You'll want to give (or get) the Banshee just for the fun of it.
As with all one-box simulated-surround speakers, the surround effect depends heavily on where you're sitting.
But if you find yourself taking the Banshee that seriously, you might want to start getting out a little more often.
Five 2.25-inch drivers, a side bass port, and a 50-watt amp in a small (12.5 x 4.8 x 4.4-inch) but substantial enclosure that looks like Darth Vader's speakerphone.
Even when you're not sitting exactly in the sweet spot getting the surround effect, there's surprisingly good stereo separation, thanks to the five-driver array. The sound quality is on par with good multimedia speaker systems — which means it's not audiophile-grade but not annoying either. This is for casual listening while you work at your PC, not for savoring the intricacies of Mahler's 8th.
Like everything electronic these days, the Banshee is aimed at iPod users, but you can jack just about any audio source into it. (The supplied holder snugly cradles most iPods.)
There's a low-frequency output for patching in a subwoofer — although you'll probably want to stick with a typical multimedia bass module to avoid too big of a frequency gap between the Banshee and the sub. — Michael Gaughn
Samsung YP-K5 music player
$209
mpfreedom.com
Ensconced in earbuds, iPod users are a generation apart from those who grew up listening, willingly or not, to boom boxes. Now, Samsung has introduced a clever public/private MP3 player with some cool features Pod people can get only by accessorizing.
A hidden two-channel speaker panel slides up from the player for when earphones won't do. For something so small, the panel's sound is surprisingly full.
The YP-K5 plays MP3 and WMA files, including licensed songs rented or bought from services such as Napster, Rhapsody, and Yahoo! Music.
You can view JPEG photos while listening to music.
The strong FM receiver auto-scans up to 30 station presets — but keep the earphones connected even if you're using the speaker, since they serve as the antenna.
The 2-GB model I reviewed held about 500 songs encoded at 128 kilobits per second. (There's a 4-GB version for $259.)
At 4 x 2 x 7 inches and 4 ounces, the YP-K5 is small and light.
The Samsung's intuitive interface and compelling design could challenge Apple's near-monopoly on digital music players. — Michael Antonoff
Parrot Bluetooth Sound System
$455
parrot.biz/usa
A serious minisystem that doubles as a conversation piece, the Parrot consists of two powered bookshelf speakers that have Bluetooth technology so that the only cables are the ones running to an electrical outlet. Using a Bluetooth-equipped music player, laptop, or cellphone (like the BlackBerry Pearl) lets you send audio wirelessly to the speakers; but 'toothless players aren't shut out, thanks to an RCA-jack connection.
These aren't Trojan Horse computer speakers lurking inside bookshelf-size cabinets, but legitimate bookshelf contenders that happen to have Bluetooth going for them. At 11.6 x 7.5 x 8.8 inches with 1-inch dome tweeters, 4.75-inch midrange/woofers, and 60-watt amps, the Parrots are far more substantial than we've come to expect from iPod minisystems.
Don't be in too big of a hurry to plan an all-Bluetooth home theater, but this system will do nicely in a home office, dorm room, bedroom, or any place where you're looking for serious, if not seriously tweaked-out, sound.
My past adventures with Bluetooth have ranged from interesting to maddening, but the wireless connection here — both between the player and the speakers and between the speakers themselves — proved robust.
The Parrots come with hardware for mounting them on the wall — something you probably wouldn't consider doing with a pair of Costco multimedia wonders. — Michael Gaughn
JBL On Time iPod minisystem/clock radio
$250
jbl.com
For the On Time, JBL took its popular doughnut-shaped On Stage and set it on its side to create a kind of tabletop shrine to everybody's favorite household god, the iPod. (A blue light just above the player adds to the air of solemn devotion.) There are lots of minisystem options for your iPod, but this is one of the most compact that still provides decent, room-filling sound.
Two midrange drivers on the sides and a tweeter on top give clean separation to the sound, instead of the abrasive muddle you usually get with minisystem speakers. And the midrange drivers go down far enough to provide some solid upper bass — again, something sadly lacking in most minisystems.
The On Time has adapters for all dockable iPods — which means it can handle everything but the Shuffle. But a back-panel minijack lets you plug in that (or any other) MP3 player as well.
It's an alarm clock, too — and that's not just a gimmick, because you can set the On Time to wake you to your iPod instead of the radio. (This can be a bit of an adventure if you have an old iPod, but it's still a useful feature.)
The clock face is a large, backlit blue LCD that also serves as the readout for the On Time's menu system. The menus are pretty easy to navigate, and having a bar graphic indicate the volume is a big improvement over the uncalibrated knobs on most minisystems and clock radios.
You navigate the menus — and turn the On Time on and off, adjust the volume, and operate the dual alarms — using the clusters of big, easy-to-find-in-the-dark buttons to either side of the readout.
And let's not forget the AM/FM radio, which gives you pretty darn good reception for a tabletop model. (AM and FM antennae are supplied.) There are five AM and five FM presets.
The On Time is also available in white. (But it looks way more elegant in black.) — Michael Gaughn
Doghouse RoverTV video recorder/player
$349
rovertv.com
It's amazing how much pleasure you can pack into a gadget the size of a Pop-Tart. Doghouse Electronics' RoverTV plays video, music, photos, FM radio, and e-books on its own small screen, or you can connect it to a TV or computer. Besides letting you transfer content from a computer, it records video directly through an A/V jack or just audio through an embedded mike.
At 5.5 ounces, RoverTV is light to carry but a heavyweight to leave behind.
Bright 4-inch color 480 x 272-pixel widescreen LCD. (There's a 4:3 version for $299.)
The built-in timer lets you record, say, SpongeBob SquarePants unattended at 5 p.m. as long as your source has been left tuned to Nickelodeon.
The included 2-GB SD card holds up to 4 hours of video recorded at "high" quality. (Low- and mid-quality settings increase recording time.)
RoverTV doesn't have an internal hard drive, but because SD cards can be swapped out, you can carry an unlimited number of shows, movies, songs, photos, and blank cards with you.
The FM tuner scans for stations and installs 20 presets in seconds.
RoverTV plays MP3 and unprotected WMA and AAC music files. — Michael Antonoff
Shure E500 PTH sound-isolating earphones
$499
shure.com
When an audiophile gets an iPod, he invariably — and wisely — throws away the supplied earbuds for a more musical pair of transducers. Those who've shown their good taste in the past by opting for a set of Shure earphones will find that the new E500 PTH continues the company's tradition of first-rate sound.
Each earphone has a tweeter and two woofers, leading to nicely balanced sound — none of those chainsaw highs that set your teeth on edge or that gaseous, turgid bass that makes you feel like you're trapped in a laundromat on a Saturday afternoon. The sound is neutral without ever being sterile — all you could ask for from a pair of Lilliputian speakers.
If you're all-too-familiar with the ritual of yanking your 'buds from your ears whenever somebody asks a question, you'll love the E500 PTH's "Push to Hear" (that's where the "PTH" comes from) feature. Pressing a button on the doodad dangling from the earphone cable mutes the music and activates a small microphone, letting you engage in a brief conversation without having to remove your oh-so-carefully-positioned 'buds.
As for the art of positioning: You'll find an abundance of sleeves, able to accommodate just about any imaginable pair of ears, in the super-slick oval carrying case. — Michael Gaughn
Starz Vongo movie download service
$9.99 a month
vongo.com
With broadband now more common at home than dial-up, the time seems right to use the Web to stream a premium movie channel directly to subscribers' computers. Include the ability to choose from among 1,600 titles for download and playback on up to three computers or handheld devices, and Vongo ("Video ON the GO") from Starz Entertainment Group is a compelling service for tech-savvy movie fans.
Subscribers get 24-hour access to the main Starz East Coast feed. (A cable or satellite subscription to Starz won't give you access to the Internet feed.)
Before downloading a movie, you indicate whether you want the standard or widescreen version and whether you'll be watching on a PC or portable. The widescreen PC version of Bride & Prejudice took 25 minutes to download, but I could start watching it after only about 5% of the 1-GB file had downloaded. The portable version took 15 minutes to download and another 9 minutes to transfer into a Toshiba Gigabeat video player (shown at left) using the Windows Media Player sync function.
Vongo deletes a movie when it stops being broadcast on Starz's window, but movies are usually available for 9 to 18 months.
You won't want to watch the downloads on a bigscreen TV, but the picture looked crisp on the Gigabeat's 2.5-inch screen.
If you don't want a subscription, a pay-per-view fee of $3.99 a film gives you a 24-hour viewing window once you start watching the movie. — Michael Antonoff
GiftFlix mini-DVD gift card
$35
giftflix.com
Admit it: Giving gift cards is lazy. But what if you could slip your favorite movie fan a card that's an experience in itself? That's the premise behind GiftFlix, which is really a mini DVD that helps the recipient choose two DVDs from among the 50 available at 877-GIFTFLIX or guides him to the more than 1,000 titles available at the GiftFlix site.
Somebody is really on the ball here. Though some might quibble with the claim that the 50 movies featured on the DVD are among the best of all time (Bowfinger?!), there's a lot of cinematic wheat here and very little chaff. The featured genres — action/adventure, comedy, drama, kids & family, and thriller & horror — each include a "hidden gem": an older or more obscure film that's worth a look.
More evidence of intelligent life at GiftFlix: The Web site features foreign films and documentaries along with the five genres spotlighted on the DVD, and the selection is surprisingly broad. Another pleasant surprise: GiftFlix defaults to the widescreen edition of all its titles. (Most multidisc sets and special editions incur a charge of about $8, but they're definitely worth the few extra bucks.) — Michael Gaughn
SeV Performance long-sleeve networked T-shirt
$40
scottevest.com
The last thing anybody needs is another T-shirt — but this one really is different. The chest pocket is designed to hold your iPod, MP3 player, cellphone, or other portable device without having the weight stretch the pocket out of shape, pull at the neckline, or generally make you feel like a gadget geek with a device jiggling around in your shirt.
The pocket can hold portables as big as Apple's 60-GB iPod without discomfort. I ran flights of stairs with an iPod nano and then a Motorola Razr phone and hardly knew the gear was there.
A hidden loop lets you thread earbud wires from the pocket to the collar.
The shirt is made from 3M Quick Dry fabric, which wicks moisture away from your body, keeping you cooler and more comfortable — perfect for the gym or just running around town doing errands.
Two hidden pockets are also part of the T-shirt's Personal Area Network, making it easy to run wires through the shirt's lining.
The stylish three-pocket, long-sleeve version comes in red, blue, black, or white. (There's a short-sleeve "T" for $35.) More colors are on the way. — Jamie Sorcher
Hopscotch Bob time manager
$100
hopscotchtechnology.com
Ever hear parents lament that their kids weren't watching enough TV? I doubt it. Many kids spend far too much time camped in front of the boob tube, with parents unsure what to do. Instead of fighting the "just 10 more minutes" battle day after day, let BOB be your enforcer, managing how much and when they can watch.
Six user accounts with individual PIN codes let you manage viewing time for multiple family members. When time's up, BOB cuts the power and says, "No time left! Go do something fun!" Just make sure you keep your master PIN safe or you might find yourself locked out!
BOB is well-built and feels like it'll be around for the long haul. Large buttons make it easy for small fingers to operate, and the rubberized finish helps with the inevitable cleanup.
It can also teach kids how to manage their schedules. Accounts are given time by the day or for the week. Viewing can be blocked at specified times, say for homework during the week, or to thwart late-night viewing.
BOB can manage any device that requires power — TVs, videogame systems, stereos, computers. A locking cover will keep older kids from defeating BOB and stealing more time. It even includes a "cool down" feature — 90 seconds of beeping where the user is instructed to power down the TV — perfect for protecting the lamps inside LCD and DLP sets.
FlyTime lets you temporarily add — or subtract — time from a user's account. Perfect for when the game goes into overtime — or if someone forgot to clean his or her room. — John Sciacca
Logitech Harmony 670 universal remote control
$150
harmonyremote.com
When you're sitting pretty atop the universal-remote market, what do you do to keep challengers from toppling you from your perch? If you're Logitech, you task the Harmony design team to give one of its original — and most successful — models, the 659, a makeover to produce the striking and up-to-date 670.
Three oversize activity buttons at the top of the remote — Watch Movie, Watch TV, Listen to Music — make it easy for anyone to get a system up and running. Coloring the activity buttons means even toddlers (for better or worse) can learn to power things up, letting you catch some extra zzz's on Saturday morning.
Designed with DVR owners in mind, the 670 conveniently puts all transport (Play, Stop, Rewind, and so on) and guide/menu keys within easy thumb-reach of the navigational pad. The 670 also eschews individual navigation buttons for a slimmed-down directional pad — this might prove a challenge to big thumbs.
More buttons mean more control. The 670 adds four that were missing from the 659: Chapter Next and Previous, plus Page Up and Down arrows. Also, it's fully backlit for easy operation in your lights-out media room. — John Sciacca
MusicGremlin Gremlin Wi-Fi player
player: $300
service:$15 a month
musicgremlin.com
Now you can download Thin Lizzy, Air, or just about any band you can think of out of thin air. This Wi-Fi-enabled player, about the size of the original iPod, lets you retrieve music wirelessly through a home or public access point. You can either sign up for a $15-a-month all-you-can-hear subscription or buy songs for 99¢ each.
MusicGremlin quickly found my Wi-Fi network, but I first had to call the company to activate the device before I could download songs.
Once I spelled out "Corinne" on the player, MusicGremlin filled in the "Bailey Rae" part. I then downloaded her tune in about a minute, no computer necessary.
The MusicGremlin found several wireless networks as I walked around New York's Bryant Park, but it couldn't connect to any of them because either a password was required or the player couldn't handle the multimedia-laden "splash" page. But later at a hot spot in an Indian restaurant in Jackson Heights, I was able to download sitar music by Ravi Shankar while passing the parathas.
The MusicGremlin Direct catalog is 2 million tracks deep. (The player's 8-GB hard drive holds about 2,000 songs as MP3 or WMA files.) — Michael Antonoff
GalleryPlayer high-def art DVD
$25 each
galleryplayer.com
A flat-panel TV makes a nice addition to any room, but when you're not watching movies or TV, it just hangs on the wall looking blank. Why not use it to display art? GalleryPlayer's new DVD collection features works by Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, and significant American artists who painted in Paris during the late 19th century. There's also a DVD with lush pictures of great destinations — everywhere from Iceland to the Amalfi Coast.
The DVD images are crisp and have been formatted for widescreen TVs without stretching the original pictures.
The Dolby 2.0 music tracks sound clear and range from classical-lite staples such as Debussy to all-out Muzak. (Okay, you might want to just leave the audio off ...)
Art education isn't the point of these discs, but each one features documentation of the individual artists and paintings, just in case you get curious.
GalleryPlayer is obviously playing it safe with these initial releases. The Monet disc, for instance, is sure to be crowd-pleaser, but I'd prefer to see some Pop Art on my plasma.
At $25 each, these DVDs make an affordable gift for a flat-TV owner on your list. — Al Griffin
Sirius Conductor tuner with remote
$150
sirius.com
Satellite radio has satisfied that metadata jones — the need to know at all times what artist and song are playing. But until now, you've either needed a high-end audio distribution system with video touchpanels in every room or have had to sit and stare at the receiver's small LCD display with a pair of binoculars to enjoy that metadata from your preferred listening spot. The Sirius Conductor offers an incredibly affordable solution.
Installation couldn't be easier. The Conductor consists of a tuner and a remote. Plug the antenna into the tuner, connect the AC power adapter, activate your Sirius subscription, press the reset button on the tuner to pair it with your remote, and you're ready to rock!
You can enjoy all that song and artist info from the comfort of your easy chair, bed, or hot tub because the feedback is displayed right on the remote's LCD screen. Signals are transmitted wirelessly. While operating range is listed at an optimistic 150 feet, my real-world results were closer to 50. When in range, the remote tells you what's playing, even letting you browse ahead and see what's on other stations before making a channel change — a feature I love.
Sirius partnered with Universal Electronics (UEI), makers of the One For All and Nevo SL remotes, to build the Conductor universal. It's fully backlit and can handle up to 12 components.
Feeding Sirius to both your home theater rig and your multiroom audio system is a breeze since the tuner includes both analog and optical digital outputs.
Not satisfied with one stream of Sirius? Add a Sirius Connect home kit ($50) to enjoy independent control and metadata feedback from your Conductor remote. — John Sciacca
Pinnacle PCTV hd pro stick high-def USB tuner & DVR
$130
pinnaclesys.com
The screen on a notebook computer is puny compared to that bigscreen HDTV in your living room, but most late-model notebooks have just as much picture resolution. So, why not use one to watch HDTV? Enter the Pinnacle Systems HD Pro Stick, an ATSC tuner on a thumb-size USB drive.
The USB 2.0 tuner can pull in over-the-air DTV/HDTV and NTSC broadcasts, thanks to an antenna with a magnetic base. There's also a remote. (For HDTV viewing, you need a Windows XP computer with the latest service pack and 1 GB of RAM.)
You can download an electronic program guide (free for 1 year) from the Internet.
Pinnacle's MediaCenter software (which comes on a CD-ROM) lets you pause and then replay live broadcasts and record shows, including high-def ones, to your PC's hard drive. (There's video-editing software, too.)
You can save to DVD, DiVX, Apple iPod, and Sony PSP formats.
The software scans the airwaves for stations, but how many you pull in depends on where you place the antenna. I got about half the available DTV stations in my area by putting it in a window (and I was surprised to pick up an all-music-video DTV station that's not available on my cable system). Pinnacle recommends connecting the HD Pro Stick to a rooftop antenna.
Receives 32 Pinnacle-selected Internet radio stations via Wi-Fi.
The HD Pro Stick can tune in and record analog (but not digital) cable channels directly from coaxial cable. — Michael Antonoff
Sony Vegas movie studio +DVD platinum 7.0 editing software
$100
sonymediasoftware.com
Sony's scaled-down version of the pro-grade Vegas video-editing software gives you everything you need to create polished-looking home videos complete with titles and special effects — all for $100. The surprisingly comprehensive package (for entry-level software) features advanced color correction and support for high-def HDV-format camcorders and provides controls to create your own 5.1-channel Dolby Digital surround-sound mixes. When you've completed your movie, you can format it for DVD using the bundled DVD Architect Studio program or export it for playback on a video iPod or a PlayStation Portable using the software's presets.
The ability to handle a total of six tracks (three video and three audio) provides plenty of flexibility for editing projects.
The still-image animation feature lets you do things Ken Burns-style — nice.
The included templates for DVD authoring look pretty, but there are tools for designing your own menus as well.
All of the programs have a reasonably steep learning curve, but Sony gives you solid documentation and tutorials along with a training DVD. — Al Griffin
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