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• Apple 30 GB iPod video Black (5.5 Generation)
• Canon PowerShot SD600 6MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom
• Samsung LNS3251D 32" Wide LCD HDTV with Integrated ATSC Tuner
• JBL Creature 2 Speakers
• Sony DCR-TRV280 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom
• Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player
• Garmin Nuvi 350 Pocket or Vehicle GPS Navigator
• Canon PIXMA iP90 Photo Inkjet Printer
• Acer AL1706AB 17" LCD Monitor
• Palm TX Handheld

Apple 30 GB iPod video Black (5.5 Generation) - View Product

"Truly amazing!"

"I received my 30 GB black iPod Video back in October as a birthday present. I`d gotten my wife an iPod mini a year or two earlier and was absolutely amazed at what that little device could do. For a year or two I was happy enough to just use iTunes (which is tremendously easy to use) on my PC. But, I now have 5500 songs (all of our CD collection, plus just about everything else anyone in my family could possibly want), 13 videos at the moment (8 hrs. worth), 1500 photos, some games and even my Palm Tungsten E`s contact list! (I used a free software called Palm2iPod to do that.) The quality of the video is fantastic. And if you plug it in to your tv, you get a very clear, good picture and sound. I also bought a very inexpensive (maybe $10 or less) stereo cable which allows me to connect my iPod to my stereo. I`m not exactly a highly discriminating audiophile, but I`ve found that the quality is close enough to that of my original CDs, that I can`t really hear any difference. It`s like having instant access to 400-500 CDs! I do have a few quibbles.... The Search feature is a bit of a pain -- takes so long to search for a song, that I find it easier to just use the basic controls to navigate to it by Song or Artist. Also, every once in a while, it takes a bunch of tries to turn the unit off or to turn it on. I`ve had to reset it (holding down Menu and the center button) maybe 1/2 a dozen times. I also personally disliked the earbuds that came with my iPod (the kept falling out and it was hard to adjust them for the best sound)-- I opted for the $8-$10 Koss Sparkplugs, which may look a tiny bit bulkier, but fit very comfortably in the ear and are up there in quality with the much more expensive noise-cancelling earbuds. But these are minor issues. The only major one is the thought that when the battery finally goes, I`ll have to pay $50 or so and maybe ship it to Apple. (I haven`t really explored this yet. For now, ignorance is bliss!) In the meantime, I love my iPod. That so much entertainment and quality can be bundled into this single little device is truly amazing!"

Canon PowerShot SD600 6MP Digital Elph Camera with 3x Optical Zoom - View Product

"A week in Boston - 400+ photos and not a bad one in the bunch!"

"This is my third - and possibly final - digital camera. It does everything superbly and in a size I can just throw in my pocket so it's always there. Before the SD600 I had a Canon S100 2.1 mp [a great camera] and a Sony DSC-W1 5.1 mp [a piece of $%#@ - every other image blurry].

With the Sony less than a year old, I couldn't put up with it anymore - it was time to go back to Canon so I wouldn't miss any future shots. I got the SD600 at Best Buy 1 day before leaving on a week-long trip to Boston. My 10-yr old daughter was studying the Revolutionary War in school so I was told to take a lot of photos and "Dad, make sure they aren't blurry like all those others." [She's got the old S100, so she's not worried].

Since I'd already had the old S100, the controls were familiar. Best Buy had a 1GB PNY SD chip on sale for $39, so I had room for over 500 photos, plus I picked up an extra battery.

In the week in Boston I shot day, night, flash, long exposure, high light, low light, drizzle, rain, sun, and even a short video of Morris dancers in Boston Common. Every shot was great - and not one blurry, even when the 'shaking hand' was on. I'm not sue that the image stabilization with the SD700 would be all that necessary.

I found that indoors [my greatest fear since the Sony made you worry about every shot] with reasonably good lighting I was able to turn the flash off and shoot with natural light. I've not yet had the time to play with the various modes - just straight turn it on and shoot [both of which were very quick with minimal delay].

Everyone we were with were greatly impressed by the 600's size, style, and images on the LCD - and surprised to see me turn it on end to show full screen portrait format shots [very cool]. Even friends with the SD450 [my Christmas recommendation] wanted to trade theirs in.

I was able to get over 150 shots - maybe a quarter with flash - without recharging [I just stuck the little spare in the coin pocket in my jeans and didn't worry about it].

The software's great, too. I used the old ZoomBrowser EX with the Sony, so it was nice to see this updated and much more functional. I might not have to use Irfan Skiljan's IrfanView package anymore.

I'm sure that over the summer I'll find all those bells and whistles to be entertaining, but for just taking pictures, I don't think there's anything more I'd ever want. Now if I can just find someone to take the Sony... and I'll throw in my old Omega D2 enlarger for free!

The SD600 is as close to perfect as you can get and all I'll ever need."

Samsung LNS3251D 32" Wide LCD HDTV with Integrated ATSC Tuner - View Product

"Exceeded my expectations"

"This TV was recommended to me by a co-worker who had recently purchased it. I already had a 20" Magnavox LCD TV that I purchased from a major discount retailer and wanted to upgrade. I`m a dedicated on-line shopper and found the best price on Amazon.com. I paid $[...] with free shipping. That was [...]dollars cheaper that any local electronics store in my area. The 4000:1 contrast ratio is beyond description! I see things that I never saw before. I also purchased an upscaling DVD player that uses an HDMI cable. The DVDs are amazing at [...]. This TV can really deliver and has the necessary connections for high definition. My friends call this TV "sexy" because of its sleek black gloss design. The cabinet seems to disappear in low light. Auto set up was simple and remote easy to operate. Few things in life exceed expectations--this product is one of them."

JBL Creature 2 Speakers - View Product

"Great speakers for the price!"

"I purchased the original JBL Creatures for myself when they first came out. I usually hook my laptop up to them when I have parties and people are always so surprised how great they sound for being so small and inexpensive. Also, they are sharp-looking and look great with my Mac! The glowing lights at the bottom of the speakers are great too, they add a little ambiance! Anyways, I ordered the JBL Creature 2 for my boyfriend and he loves them. I prefer my older speakers though since they have the green lights, while these have white. Not a big deal though! I`m sure there are better sounding speakers out there if you want to drop alot of cash. You can`t beat these for the price!"

Sony DCR-TRV280 Digital8 Handycam Camcorder w/20x Optical Zoom - View Product

"The BEST top bang-per-buck value in digital camcorders!"

"This is easily the best value DIGITAL camcorder out there today, hands down. 'Digital8' is just as good as 'MiniDV' in terms of resolution and picture/audio quality. Why pay more for MiniDV? For under three 'Benjamins', you get reliable digital video and audio quality with over 500 lines of resolution, and a proven medium (Digital8) whose videotapes cost half as much or less than MiniDV tapes. The video quality in low light is also excellent, with a low light switch and feature that works great. And size-wise, the camcorder is not much larger than a MiniDV unit. It is feature-rich and comes with all the accessories you would need, including a charger, battery, lens cap, A/V cable for connection to your TV, a USB cable and software for connection to your PC or Mac. The owner's manual is one of the best i've ever seen, with very intuitive diagrams and easy to operate instructions. And the battery level meter and 'time left' indicator on the LCD view panel is very useful and amazing in it's detail and usefulness. Folks, this is one serious digital camcorder that is available 'for a song'! Great job Sony!!!

UPDATE 1/2006: 'Consumer Reports' listed this camcorder as a 'Best Buy', and mentioned that Sony has the best 'repair free' history out of all camcorders! Proof that this is a GREAT bargain! I wrote my original review of this here last year."

Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player - View Product

"Great DVD Player with minor flaws"

"I recently purchased the Philips DVP642 DVD player and I am quite pleased with it. I have a lot of files in .avi format, and it takes me several hours to encode them in DVD, SVCD, or VCD format to play on a DVD player. Now, with this player, I can just put my .avi files onto CD-Rs, pop them in the DVD player let the machine do the rest.
The quality that AVI, DIVX, and MPEG-4 are displayed in is amazing. The files play much better than they do on my home computer. This is thanks to a "smart" technology that the player uses to enhance compressed video. Many scenes will appear in almost DVD quality.

Many users have complained about the sloppy interface. I tend to disagree. Although other DVD players offer far better interfaces, this one holds up quite well. It will not distract from the overall experience you will have with this product. The remote control feels more like a television remote, though.

This unit is not perfect. It doesn't play Nero Digital MPEG-4s. There isn't any sound on non-VOB structured MPEG-2 files, nor is there any sound when miniDVDs are played (but who uses those anyways). However, a simple file conversion program will solve most of these problems allowing you to keep up to 2 hours of very good quality video on one CD. No DVD players are perfect and the bottom line is for $70 this unit is a steal. If you have a lot of video files laying around on your cpu and a cd burner, this player is a must buy."

Garmin Nuvi 350 Pocket or Vehicle GPS Navigator with Integrated MP3 Player and Photo Viewer - View Product

"Expensive, but fabulous"

"After trying both Garmin's i3 and c340 GPS units, this is the one I'm keeping. Simply wonderful.

It has all the characteristics that I was looking for:

1) VERY compact -- easily able to fit in a breast pocket
2) Text-to-Speech -- announces proper street names, not just "turn left in 500 feet"; radically reduces how much you need to look at the screen to figure out the real instructions; wouldn't own a GPS unit wihtout this
3) Bright Screen -- readable in virtually every situation

AND

Faster location of the GPS satellites. This turns out to be quite important in day-to-day use. In the other systems, it wasn't unusual that we could be driving for a couple minutes before it located the satellites and could give us directions. With this unit, the satellites are located almost as quickly as the unit fully starts up.

One comment on how we use this: We don't mount it on the dash board or on the window (which is technically illegal here in California). Instead we just lay this on the center console in our van or car. The antenna system is plenty sensitive to work just like this and we've never lost the satellite signals except in tunnels.

We also like all the potential of the traveling features (clock, calculator, etc.), but this is the one to own even if you just use it for the basic GPS features.

Very impressed.

[July 2006 Update]
How Its Ease-of-Use Enhanced Our Vacation: We were recently on a vacation combined with a business conference. While I was at the conference, my family had the confidence to explore the city without ever getting lost. Even our kids were able to help enter addreses and find locations.

Factoring In Added Cost: Just a warning about upgrade costs. Although Garmin does a good job of releasing updates to their system software that either fixes bugs or adds enhancements, the cost to update the built-in maps is extra. And they issue updates about once a year."

Canon PIXMA iP90 Photo Inkjet Printer - View Product

"Excellent travel printer"

"I have wanted a small, lightweight travel printer for some time and after reading a number of reviews and researching a number of options I decided to buy the Canon PIXMAiP90 Photo Inkjet Printer. I travel weekly and often need the use of a printer and so the purchase of the Canon seemed timely and has proven to be a wonderful printer. I admit I also purchased the Bluetooth option and the extended batter as well so the total cost of this bundle was right around 400.00. This is a bit pricy but after using the printer dozens of times I have no regrets for purchasing the printer or the wireless and extended battery options. The printer is easy to use, quiet and prints both color and b&w documents quickly and with very very good quality. I printed an 8x11" photo on old color paper from a small image and got very impressive results. B&W documents are crisp and of an excellent quality. What else do you want from a printer. Easy, quiet, quick and sharp quality prints!
The bluetooth and extended battery options are by no means necessary but I have bluetooth and love that I don't have to carry a bunch of cables and battery charger every time I travel. The extended battery lasts a long long time. I wish I could say exactly how many hours but I have printed at least 300 pages and never had to recharge, even when the printer was not in use for more than a week.
I carry my laptop and printer in a laptop backpack and even with magazines, ipods, files and the other stuff we carry around the printer feel lightweight and doesn't add a trmendous extra weight to the pack.
Cartridge use seems adequate and I have yet to replace a cartridge. Installation of them is easy as is the installation of the software.
I give this printer a 5 star because if has exceeded my expectations of a small, lightweight travel printer, that I also use at home. I would dfeinitely purchase this printer again."

Acer AL1706AB 17" LCD Monitor - View Product

"Space Saving Monitor"

"The Acer LCD Monitor is just what I needed to free up space on my corner computer desk. I was a snap to set up and image quality is better than the Dell Monitor it replaced. I`m very happy with it and recommend this Monitor to anyone looking to save physical desk top space."

Palm TX Handheld - View Product

"The best Palm ever"

"I had had this for about a month. I was initally concerned since I have the Win XP Media edition but there has never been any conflicts (this maybe because i frequently update Win). Others mention issues on Win XP Media edition. Beautiful screen, Decent sound, easy to use, great interface. Have had intermittent issues with Wi-Fi but not a concern for me since I am always around a broadband PC. Would highly recommend to anyone. I had a Pocket PC (liked the Win/Excel aspect) but was too slow for my requirements. This one has MS Office (except Powerpoint) and opens up fast. I like the new security features when you can turn it on with the scoll button when it is locked. I previously owned the Pocket PC, Palm Treo 600, Sony UX50, various older palm models."