Easiest way to watch for Amazon price drops
http://bit.ly/uQoZSd
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Easiest way to watch for Amazon price drops

msnbc.com – 11/29/2011
Rosa Golijan

If you’re prone to using Amazon for your holiday shopping needs, you’re probably aware that the online retailer frequently — and often quietly — drops prices on its products. That’s great, but how do you keep an eye on the items you intend on buying as soon as they’re just a little bit cheaper — without putting in too much effort?

If you use Google’s Chrome browser, then you can let a free extension called That Is Worth do the hard work.

All you have to do is download the extension through the Chrome Web Store, install it, and forget about it — until you want to start tracking a product on Amazon (or another supported online retailer such as Direct2Drive or Steam).

In order to tag an item for tracking, visit a product page on a supported retailer, then click on the That Is Worth icon which will appear by your URL bar. It will prompt you to enter a target price — what you want to pay.

You can peek at your tracked products page at any given moment by clicking the button, to see how close to the target pricing your items are getting. Once the product’s price drops to (or below) the target, you’ll receive a little alert in the corner of your screen.

That’s it! Minimal effort, few thrills, and plenty of convenience. What more could you want?

If you’re prone to using Amazon for your holiday shopping needs, you’re probably aware that the online retailer frequently — and often quietly — drops prices on its products. That’s great, but how do you keep an eye on the items you intend on buying as soon as they’re just a little bit cheaper — without putting in too much effort?

If you use Google’s Chrome browser, then you can let a free extension called That Is Worth do the hard work.

All you have to do is download the extension through the Chrome Web Store, install it, and forget about it — until you want to start tracking a product on Amazon (or another supported online retailer such as Direct2Drive or Steam).

In order to tag an item for tracking, visit a product page on a supported retailer, then click on the That Is Worth icon which will appear by your URL bar. It will prompt you to enter a target price — what you want to pay.

You can peek at your tracked products page at any given moment by clicking the button, to see how close to the target pricing your items are getting. Once the product’s price drops to (or below) the target, you’ll receive a little alert in the corner of your screen.

That’s it! Minimal effort, few thrills, and plenty of convenience. What more could you want?

Get your system up to speed for online shopping- visit geeksoncall.com now

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The best tech deals this Black Friday
http://bit.ly/sIza4y
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The best tech deals this Black Friday

msnbc.com – 11/22/2011
msnbc

Whether you’re already in line for a Black Friday sale or still figuring out what you’ll do with Thursday’s leftover turkey, now’s a good time to review the best offers of this shopping season. We’re here to help with handpicked tech deals.

A few things to note:
•These deals are Black Friday offers — promised for Friday, Nov. 25 — so don’t panic if you don’t see them in stores or on retailer’s websites with the prices listed below right this minute.
•The deals in this list were selected by considering a combination of factors such as value, savings, product quality, features and brand reputation.
•Most offers are limited in quantity, so be quick if you’ve got your eye on something specific.
•The cellphone offers listed below typically require you to sign a two-year service agreement.
•You should read the detailed descriptions of each offer carefully before buying — msnbc.com is not responsible for the duration or integrity of individual deals, though we do our best to check the all.
•If you’re looking for a gigantic list of Black Friday deals instead of some handpicked deals, take a peek at the Black Friday Cheat Sheet compiled by our friends at Gizmodo. If you prefer an alternative pile of hand-selected offers, then check out what the folks at Lifehacker picked out.

Got all that? Great! Here are some of our favorite deals for Black Friday 2011.

We will be updating this list in the days and hours before Black Friday, so feel free to check back often.

Televisions:
I aimed to pick a variety of size options here and definitely kept value in mind. Samsung came out as one of the best bets for this shopping season — as far as TVs go, at least.
•22-in. Samsung LED HDTV (1080p) for $198 (Normally $250) — at Best Buy
•32-in. Emerson LCD TV for $188 (Normally $300) — at Walmart
•40-in. Samsung LED HDTV (1080p) for $497 (Normally $700) — at Best Buy
•40-in. Samsung LED Smart HDTV (1080p) for $728 (Normally $1,100) — at Best Buy
•47-in. LG LED (1080p) for $700 (Normally $1,000) — at Best Buy
•60-in. Samsung LED Smart HDTV (1080p) for $1398 (Normally $2,800) — at Best Buy
•60-in. Samsung 3D LED HDTV (1080p) for $3300 (Normally $4,200) — at Best Buy

Gaming:
If you’re looking for a gaming console, you should probably make Walmart one of your stops on Black Friday. It’s got some of the better overall deals.
•Xbox 360 4G console (with Kinect and “Kinect Adventures”) for $200 (Normally $300) — at Walmart
•Xbox Kinect (with “Kinect Adventures”) for $100 (Normally $175 — at Walmart
•PlayStation 3 160GB console (with “Little Big Planet 2″ and “Rachet and Clank 4″) for $200 (Normally $250) — at Walmart
•Nintendo Wii console (Limited Edition Blue) for $100 (Normally $150) — at Walmart
•Nintendo 3DS console with “Super Mario 3D Land” for $180 (normally $209) — at Target
•Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure Mega Pack for $80 (Normally $110) — Best Buy
•Xbox Live Gold (3-month membership) for $13 (Normally $24) — at GameStop
•Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360) for $40 (Normally $59) — at GameStop
•FIFA Soccer 12 (Xbox 360/PS3) for $40 (Normally $59) — at GameStop
•Maden NFL 12 (Xbox 360/PS3) for $40 (Normally $59) — at GameStop

Monitors:
After carefully interrogating friends and colleagues about their monitor choices, I’ve realized that Acer’s the crowd favorite due to its reputation and value. And there are definitely a handful of those monitors to be found on sale come Friday.
•20-in. Acer LED widescreen monitor for $90 (Normally $130) — at Best Buy
•20-in. LG LED widescreen monitor for $110 (Normally $160) — at Best Buy
•23-in. Acer LED widescreen monitor for $160 (Normally $200) — at Best Buy

Desktops:
It’s rough to make recommendations when it comes to desktops simply because individual priorities differ a great deal when it comes to these particular gadgets, so I went with a handful of decent deals for the average shopper.
•18.5-in. HP AMD dual-core 3GB DDR3 500GB HD desktop for $298 (Normally $429) — at Walmart
•20-in. HP 320-1034 AMD dual-core 4GB DDR3 1TB HDD all-in-one desktop for $400 (Normally $700) — at Best Buy
•24-in. Dell XPS 8300 Core i7 16GB RAM 1.5TB HDD desktop for $1000 (Normally $1500) — at Costco
•24-in. Sony Intel Core i3 4GB RAM 1TB HDD touch-screen desktop for $900 (Normally $1079) — Staples

Laptops:
Like desktops, laptops are a finicky topic when it comes to Black Friday shoppers. I decided to select a product I’d recommend personally — the MacBook Air — and two low cost solutions.
•10.1-in. Gateway LT2811U netbook (1.66MHz/1GB RAM/250GB HDD) for $149 (Normally $450) — at Best Buy
•13.3-in. MacBook Air (1.7GHz/4GB RAM/128 SSD) for $1099 (Normally $1299) — at Best Buy
•15.6-in. HP 2000-329WM laptop (1.60GHz/3GB RAM/320 GB HDD) for $248 (Normally $400) — at Walmart

Cameras:
A DSLR and a low-cost point-and-shoot. What more could you ever want to pick up in the camera department on Black Friday?
•Nikon Coolpix S3100 camera (14MP/720p video) for $99 (Normally $139) — at Best Buy
•Canon Rebel T3 DSLR for $480 (Normally $550) — at Target

Tablets:
There’s no getting around it — the tablet category was a popularity contest.
•Apple iPad 2 (16GB with Wi-Fi) for $455 (Normally $500) — at Best Buy
•Amazon Kindle Keyboard 3G with “Special Offers” for $85 (Normally $99) — at Target
•Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch for $79 (Normally $99) — at Barnes & Noble

Cellphones:
While some other options are listed, your best bet when it comes to cellphones on Black Friday is Amazon. Nearly every phone you can think of is available for just a penny — assuming you sign a two-year service agreement — and you get a bonus $100 gift card.
•AT&T Samsung Infuse for $0 (Normally $100) — at Best Buy
•AT&T LG Thrill for $0 (Normally $100) — at Best Buy
•Verizon Droid Incredible 2 for $0 (Normally $200) — at Best Buy
•Verizon HTC Thunderbolt for $0 (Normally $150) — at Best Buy
•Almost any phone you can think of (plus a $100 Amazon gift card) for $.01 (Normal prices vary) — at Amazon.com

GPS devices:
A solid GPS device, a lifetime of maps, and a decent price? No brainer.
•4.3-in. Magellan GPS device with lifetime maps and traffic updates for $99 (Normally $149) — at Best Buy

Software
OfficeMax is one of the spots with the best software deals on Friday, so head there if you’re looking to feed your computer some new apps.
•Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 for $55 (Normally $100) — at OfficeMax
•Dragon Naturally Speaking (Home Edition) for $45 (Normally $90) — at OfficeMax
•Microsoft Office Home for Mac for $80 (Normally $120) — at OfficeMax

Miscellaneous odds and ends:
Dyson products. On sale. This doesn’t happen often, folks. Take advantage of it.
•Dyson DC 28 full-size bagless upright vaccuum for $479 (Normally $649) — on Dyson.com
•Dyson Hot fan/heater for $299 (Normally $399) — on Dyson.com
•Dyson Air Multiplier AM 03 fan for $349 (Normally $449) — on Dyson.com
•iCade iPad arcade cabinet for $60 (Normally $100) — on ThinkGeek.com
•HP C410a Color Inkjet Photosmart Premium wireless all-in-Oone printer/fax for $100 (Normally $300) — at OfficeMax
•Most items on Panasonic’s website for whatever discounted price Panasonic employees would pay (Normal prices vary) — on Panasonic.com

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Home for the Holiday Tech Support
http://bit.ly/sXNAeP
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Home for the Holiday Tech Support

themorningnews.org – 11/22/2011
Nozlee Samadzadeh

When the annual trip home becomes a customer-service visit to “fix the internet,” sometimes even bourbon can’t save the day. We gathered a half-dozen of our favorite tech writers and editors to help anticipate the headaches of 2011.

This week and through December, anyone who is computer-savvy will appreciate the following scenario: Your family gathers for a holiday meal. Your older sibling, the one with twins, has a slideshow of baby pictures that everyone wants to see, but he can’t remember which online photo-sharing service he used to upload them. Also, mom’s wifi network is down. And she forgot the password. And dad says the computer is dead anyway, in no part due to the nine antivirus packages that he half-installed. Now can you sort all of that out by dessert, please?
To share in the miseries and pleasures of holiday tech-support, we gathered six of our favorite technology writers and editors to share their war stories, anticipate this year’s unique miseries (Kindle Fire flambe, anyone?), and single out the products and services that can help bring harmony to dinner tables nationwide.

Paul Ford is a writer who programs computers. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Brian Lam runs The Wirecutter.

Peter Rojas is the co-founder of gdgt, Engedget, and Gizmodo.

Jason Snell is the vice president and editorial director at Macworld.

Gina Trapani is a Project Director at Expert Labs, where she builds software that confuses her relatives.

Christina Warren is the entertainment editor at Mashable.

What new product or service is going to require the most tech support this holiday season?

Gina Trapani: Oh God, phones. I anticipate an array of new Android handsets flashing with preinstalled NASCAR apps. My brother will ask me what rooting actually does and my cousins will demand to know why they can’t get Facebook on their phones.

Brian Lam: It’s always computers. They’re a nightmare for parents.

Jason Snell: Kindle Fire. Its low price and Amazon’s brand name mean that Amazon will sell a whole bunch of them. But the Kindle Fire is a little complicated. The touchscreen interface is a bit hard to navigate. It’s not an iPad or an Android tablet, not really, nor is it like any of the other Kindle hardware devices Amazon has made. In the end I think Amazon will have success with the Fire or its successors, but I suspect that this first device is going to cause a lot of headaches.

Christina Warren: I usually say anything wireless, but looking at the direction that gadgets are going I’d say connected TVs and set-top boxes. DLNA is cool stuff, but getting it all to play nice together rarely works (a high profile gadget maker failed repeatedly at showing off tablet and TV integration at their flagship store in New York City–it was an embarrassing demo for them and I had to stifle a laugh).

It’s amazing how stuff gets more complex over time. My parents still have trouble turning on the surround sound and their cable box. I’m not sure I could ever explain how to get video from a Mac or PC to the TV or Blu-ray player.

Paul Ford: It’s not the actual products but the remote support questions for computers hundreds of miles away. “When I click the mouse it turns blue? And then the whole thing shakes? What is that? Pass the stuffing.” Or: “What software do I need?” (“For what?” “For my computer.”)
Peter Rojas: I want to say “everything,” but you probably don’t want me to hear that, so I’ll settle on smartphones. Even iPhones, which have a reputation for being easy for anyone to use, can be surprisingly complicated for non-technical types. My mom didn’t realize for an entire year that her iPhone had wifi until I suggested that her Skype calls might be clearer if she switched from 3G to wireless.

Tell us the story of the most frustrating–or heartwarming–tech support experience you provided for a loved one.

BL: I don’t really do tech support for loved ones without a fair amount of annoyance. I’m like the accountant who has unbalanced checkbooks or the chef who eats hot dogs at home.

JS: Nothing is more frustrating than hearing “it doesn’t work” on the other end of a phone line. It’s so hard to troubleshoot something when you can’t see it, and that’s magnified when the problem is being described by someone who doesn’t understand what they’re seeing or doesn’t have the terminology to explain it to you. These days, fortunately, there’s a lot less of that–”screen sharing” services and software exist so that you can actually take control of someone else’s computer and show them what’s wrong, or fix it for them. I use iChat to fix things on my parents’ and in-laws’ computers, for example, and it has helped a lot. Spending half an hour trying to fix something that’s actually not broken, all because of a misunderstanding of terminology, is about as frustrating as it gets.

PF: A few years ago I sat down with an older person who hadn’t touched a typewriter in 30 years (he dictated into a tape recorder) to teach him how to use a computer. After about a half-hour of talking about word-processing and how to drag-and-drop icons onto applications in order to open them, he looked at me and said: “Where is the dragon?”

That said, my dad just called and said he wants to root the tablet he bought at Walgreens. So there’s a spectrum.

CW: Two years ago, my uncle bought an expensive Windows laptop and proceeded to force me to spend Thanksgiving helping him install a non-trial version of Office, manage the multiple antivirus packages he installed (which I subsequently had to uninstall), and find a way to access all the photos in his Yahoo! email account.
Needless to say, I needed bourbon by the end and vowed to never do Windows tech support for extended family again.

PR: We don’t watch that much TV anymore, so I canceled our cable TV service earlier this year and felt very satisfied to be saving $100 a month. A couple of months later I was flying to California for a trip and was logged into the in-flight wifi when I got an IM from my wife. She wanted to watch The Tudors on Netflix. We use the Netflix app on the Xbox 360, which she had never actually used herself, so to watch something meant I needed to explain:
1.How to get the receiver and TV set to the right inputs.
2.How to turn on the Xbox 360.
3.How to use the Xbox 360 controller to navigate and find the Netflix app.

After much back-and-forth–and remember, I’m on an airplane–I managed to successfully walk her through the first two of these steps, but somehow I could not explain over IM how to get through the Xbox 360′s menus to get to the Netflix app. After twenty minutes we finally gave up.

GT: My 92-year-old Grandpa-in-law had a serious email overload problem. His friends constantly forwarded to his inbox everything from proof President Obama wasn’t born in the U.S. to kitten photos. He’d get tired of going through it all himself, so every Sunday he’d invite us over to watch 60 Minutes and have what he liked to call “a delete party.” Sitting at the computer together, dialed into his Juno account, I’d read subject lines and the first few sentences of each message to him. More often than not he’d call out “Delete!” and I’d trash the message. Once in awhile he’d say “Keep” and I’d move onto the next one.

One fine Sunday during our delete party, I opened an email with an interesting photo attachment: a topless woman with the most enormous breasts I’ve seen in my life. Eyebrows raised, I glanced over at Grandpa beside me. He leaned in for a closer look, grinned, and said “Keep.”

We’re in the nth year of a recession and iPhones aren’t getting cheaper. Do you see more friends and family choosing new products for their price instead of their quality?

JS: Actually, iPhones are getting cheaper. You can get an iPhone 3G for free now, with a two-year contract. (The iPhone originally cost $499.) And cellphone carriers know that to sell smartphones to a broader audience, they’ve got to do something about their rate plans. That’s why you’re seeing companies such as AT&T and T-Mobile offer cheaper 250MB data plans targeted at value-conscious people who just don’t want to pay for gigabytes of data if they can try to use wifi a lot and save $20/month on their phone bills.

I think many people are conscious of the tradeoff between price and quality. You can argue that in a tough economy people want to save money, but you could also argue that in a touch economy people want to find value and longevity. Some people are always going to pay as little as possible for a product that disappoints them, but the more savvy people become about technology, the more they see through the low prices and start looking for higher-priced items that provide a whole lot more value.

CW: I think that price definitely plays a bigger role in purchasing decisions than it did even a year or two ago. The Kindle Fire–a device I quite like–is inferior to the iPad 2 in every way but one: price. Yet that price difference is what will likely drive sales.

That said, I think that as tech in general gets cheaper–for example, the Samsung Focus Flash is a fantastic Windows Phone and is just $50–the trade-off between price and quality is less important. An iPhone 4 is $99. A 3GS is free. The economy might mean spending less but that doesn’t always mean getting inferior goods.

GT: Amazon had the right idea. For my friends and family, this holiday season is about the cheaper Kindles, not the iPad.
PF: I’m amazed that everyone has awesome phones. Even cheap phones do everything. It bothers me that people are anxious; they’ve been told that they need Apple products in order to be fully engaged with society. I asked Siri about this and she agrees.

PR: Always seems like it’s been a mix of both. People are always value-conscious, but I feel like a lot of gadgets are moving from the luxury category to the necessity category, and so it seems easier to spend a bit more money on them.

BL: It’s always been like this for the majority of the country. Tech writers aren’t price-sensitive enough because they live in this bubble of free test units. Except me.

Pretend I’m your grandmother. You love me, but you hate updating the security software on my 2004 Dell Dimension desktop. Give me a reason to upgrade. Be sweet, dearie.

PR: Hackers.

CW: Upgrading to a newer, faster machine will not make the pains of updating software less frustrating–it will give you a more stable and enjoyable system. A lot of people forget what a fast, stable system is suppose to feel like. Rather than struggling to load email or photos, upgrade to something newer. You can spend very little and get a big upgrade over your current computer–often with a better monitor to boot.

BL: Trick question–doesn’t matter if grandma’s computer has viruses because she never does anything but play solitaire on her computer, so no big deal if it gets hacked. Once it does, buy a her MacBook Air.

JS: Grandma, you know what? You don’t need a computer. All you do is read email and the web, and you keep complaining about how hard it is to find a large-print edition of that latest book from the nice fellow you watch every weekday on Fox News. So I’ll tell you what: It’s time to get an iPad. It doesn’t need any security software or anything like that. You can use it anywhere in your house, not just at that desk. You don’t even need a computer to set it up or back it up–it will do all that over your wireless connection. You’ll be able to check e-mail and without worrying about the roller in that old mouse getting stuck. You can buy books from iBooks or Amazon and crank up the font size, so any book can be a large-print book! And there’s a camera on front so that we can do video calls so that you can see (and talk to) your great-grandchildren.

GT: I don’t give Grandma a reason to upgrade her computer. I just arrive at her house with a better model, plug it in, and lie about it. “Guess what, Grammy? Work just bought me a new computer so that means I don’t need this one anymore. Let’s donate your old one to the local school. It’s a tax write-off!”

PF: We stopped upgrading Grammy a few years ago, after she hit EOL.

What single product or service would help the most to establish harmony in your holiday season?

PR: I suspect everyone would be happier if I looked at my phone a lot less. Is there an app that would temporarily lock me out of my phone?

JS: For harmony’s sake, let’s give everybody some device–any device–that uses wifi and gets them on the internet. Then they can stop asking me to Google stuff on my iPhone.

CW: I’d say an iPad. I got my mom an iPad for her birthday in 2010 and she loves it. She’s not afraid of it, which is huge. She can get online, watch me appear on TV (or on a podcast), send emails, read my Mashable articles, and even print from it. The best part of the iPad is that it has made my mom less afraid of technology and more open to exploring new things.
GT: A speedy, reliable internet connection. That way any one of us can retreat to a safe virtual space when Uncle Harry’s eggnog-fueled political tirades get out of hand.

What single product or service should be banned to make you and your loved ones’ holiday season more harmonious?

JS: Let’s ban that feature that takes a standard-definition TV picture and stretches it out across a widescreen TV. I go to the houses of relatives and suddenly everyone on TV is 30 pounds fatter and pixelated. Let’s get rid of standard-def in general, but more specifically, if you’re watching a standard-def picture on a widescreen TV, just embrace the black or gray bars on the sides. It does not make the football game better if those 300-pound linemen look like they weigh 700 pounds and are playing on one of the moons of Jupiter.

GT: If I can get through the holiday season without troubleshooting a family member’s problem with their printer or wireless router, it will be a Christmas miracle.

CW: Windows. In a former life, I was a PC Tech. I’ve diagnosed and repaired hundreds of Windows machines, including my parents’ various computers. No more. I made my mom get a Mac last year and refuse to service my dad after he voluntarily installed fake antivirus programs.

The amount of hair-pulling required to get Windows to reliably work with multiple wireless printers was enough that I insist my mother get a Mac. She’s happier and I don’t have to do tech support calls from New York City.

BL: Not sure. Everything, when used properly, is pretty helpful. I appreciate a lot of technology these days.

PF: I think sometimes technology is the symptom, not the root cause.

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Scam alert: Bogus flight confirmations from ‘Delta’
http://bit.ly/seJuBF
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Scam alert: Bogus flight confirmations from ‘Delta’

msnbc.com – 11/15/2011
Harriet Baskas

If you received an email today from Delta Air Lines confirming your round-trip flight from New York’s JFK International Airport to San Francisco for the week of Nov. 26, don’t drop everything to start packing your bags.

In fact, do not click on any part of that message.

The email is bogus and has apparently been sent to many Delta customers.

“We have received reports from customers of fraudulent emails claiming to be from Delta,” said Delta Air Lines spokesman Paul Skrbec via email. “We have updated delta.com with an advisory and continue to work with our customers regarding these claims.”

Skrbec would not say how many customers may have received the bogus email, only that “we continue to investigate these reports from customers.”

Delta’s website alert warned that the fake emails were “phishing,” a scam by which someone tries to get financial or other confidential information, typically by sending an e-mail that appears legitimate.

Delta said on its website: “These emails claim that you have purchased a Delta ticket, a credit card has been charged and/or an invoice or receipt is attached to the email. If you receive one of these emails, do not open the attachment as it may contain potentially dangerous viruses or harm your computer.”

The company says that customers’ credit cards have not been charged as a result of the emails. “These emails did not originate from Delta, nor do we believe that any personal information that you provided us was used to generate these emails,” Delta says. “We will continue to post updates on this page as additional information becomes available.”

In the meantime, though, the airline recommends that anyone receiving the phishing email message change their SkyMiles account PIN immediately and monitor their account for any misuse.

Earlier this month, Delta also posted an advisory about fraudulent postcard offers for two tickets anywhere on Delta’s system and/or 3 days/2 nights hotel and vacation packages. The airline notes that similar postcards are also circulating using Northwest Airlines trademarks, and is telling customers that “Delta does not market in this manner, has no affiliation with these promotions, and is working to identify and stop the parties responsible.”

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Top-10 must-have gadgets – CNET Reviews http://bit.ly/vpLzLg
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Top-10 must-have gadgets

cnet.com – 8/20/2011
cnet

CNET has top products lists for each of the categories we cover–they’re listed on the left–but this list brings the cream of the crop together in one place. For November, new additions include the iPhone 4S, the Droid Razr, and the Roku 2 XS streaming video box. Rather than trying to compare gadgets across multiple categories, we present them in alphabetical order, because when you get right down to it, we think they’re all must-haves.

Apple iPad 2 (16GB, Wi-Fi)

The iPad 2 refines an already excellent product. Its easy-to-use interface, vast app catalog, and marathon battery life bolster Apple’s claim to being the king of tablets.


Apple iPhone 4S

The iPhone 4S isn’t the king of cell phones, but it’s part of the royal family nonetheless. Even without 4G and a giant screen, this phone’s smart(ass) voice assistant, Siri, the benefits of iOS 5, and its spectacular camera make it a top choice for anyone ready to upgrade.

Apple MacBook Air (11-inch, Summer 2011)

This year’s 11-inch MacBook Air improves on last year’s model in several significant ways and is by far the fastest ultraportable you’re likely to find, though some users will consider the limited flash storage space to be a hindrance.

Barnes & Noble Nook Simple Touch Reader (Wi-Fi)

The new touch-screen Nook is a major advancement over its predecessor and offers some real advantages over the 2010 Kindle.

HTC Sensation 4G (T-Mobile)

Its excellent design and user experience, coupled with its solid performance, make the HTC Sensation 4G one of the best Android phones yet and a top pick for T-Mobile customers.

Kodak Playsport

The Kodak Playsport is an excellent minicamcorder that can take some rough treatment and capture solid HD video.

Logitech Harmony 650

The Logitech Harmony 650 is one of the best universal remotes you can buy for less than $100.

Motorola Droid Razr (Verizon Wirless)

With its razor-thin design, jam-packed features, and blazing speed, the Motorola Droid Razr is easily one of the year’s top Android smartphones.

Roku 2 XS

Thanks to a varied range of content offerings–including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, Crackle, and Pandora–that beats the Apple TV, the Roku 2 XS is the best all-around streaming-media box you can get for less than $100.

Sonos Play:3 (black)

While it doesn’t sound quite as good as the larger Play:5, the Sonos Play:3 delivers a superior streaming-audio experience that you can control from any iOS device or Android smartphone.

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