Digital Trends

Favorite Utility: This was actually rather easy. Window Blinds by Stardock is a little $20 utility that can turn your desktop into something that looks wild. You can have it look like Windows Vista or the MacOS; it changes the fonts, Window, background, animations or something out of Star Trek. This thing is just fun and it’s not particularly expensive.

Favorite Photo Frame: Memories are important but digital picture frames, in decent sizes, have historically been too expensive. Prices dropped like a rock for these things and the best one I found was the Pandigital 8” with LED lighting. It doesn’t use a lot of power and the pictures are sharp, bright and it even does transitions and plays music (speaker could use some work).

PanDigital Picture Frame

Favorite Camera: The HP Photosmart R927 is like a rocket. It takes 15 pounds off you, your spouse, your girlfriend, even your grandmother. Decent camera, not too expensive, but that 15 pounds can make you a hero and it sure is better than the diet or the “do I look fat” question. I’m surprised everyone doesn’t have this feature by now.

HP R927

Home Automation: This year I finally updated my own home’s automation system and moved from the X-10 which I’d used since the early 80’s to something vastly more reliable. The X-10 stuff had started to make my home look hunted as it mysteriously and without prompting turned things on and off. After a lot of research, I came to the conclusion Insteon from Smart Home was best and if you want to move beyond the clapper, it is the best path to travel.  

Favorite Gadget: Adding a tuner to a PC is interesting but adding one to a laptop turns the laptop into a portable TV. It’s kind of handy if you are traveling and don’t want to live with what the hotel has or you are simply sitting in an airport and want to watch your own programming. Pinnacle PCTV HD  plugs into your USB port and gives you both analog and HD TV programming and, as most in their class do, it has DVR capability. It was one of those things that just hit me as cool in 2006.

Pinnacle PCTV

DVD Player: You’ve purchased the HDTV set and now want to watch something on it. You saw earlier that we called HD DVD the winner but what player would you get? Personally I’d get a regular DVD player with an up-converter right now and the best I’ve seen is the Oppo Digital DV-981 it makes your regular DVDs look very close to HD. And if you are like me, you have a lot of regular DVDs.

Oppo Digital DV-981

Best HDTV: If you have the money and can find it, the best visually is the 46” Sony Qualia KDX46Q005 . This TV leads the market into LED backlighting and it is a brilliant TV to watch. Very hard to find though and about twice the price of any similar sized product but it is at least a year ahead in terms of technology and showcases what will likely see a lot of next year. Another was the HP 37” SLC3760N, this is the first wireless flat panel TV and it has a full media extender built in as well. It too is a technology showcase and while not big or as bright as the Sony it is also a lot more affordable.

Sony Qualia KDX46Q005