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December 2, 2003 |
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Now that you've put away plenty of Thanksgiving turkey, it's time to start thinking about some serious holiday shopping. Many of you readers are already making your list and checking it twice against CNET's editors' reviews. |
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Holiday
Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, it's time for the big ramp-up to the holidays. And while most malls and stores seem to have been ready for the holiday shopping season since before Halloween, most of you are just now getting into the shopping spirit. How can we tell? Lots of CNET's search results over the weekend have been for specific products, which tells me that you're researching either products that you've seen on sale or that you've seen on a special someone's gift list. Most of the searches have been for MP3 players (such as the new Rio players and the Dell DJ), digital cameras (specifically the Kodak EasyShare CX4310, which was on sale at Wal-Mart), and gaming consoles (Xbox and GameCube, mostly). If you're not certain about what you should get for some folks, check out our editors' recommended picks in this year's CNET Holiday Gift Guide. Not only will you see the products we love, you'll also get our editors' lists of common shopping mistakes by category. Should you buy a Pocket PC for a Mac user? Is an MP3 player's loudness important? Find out. |
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HDTV
By looking at readers' search topics and checking our Personal Tech Radar survey numbers, we know that many of you are seriously looking into stepping up to a high-definition TV. And why not? Most of you are also early adopters or at least demanding technophiles, and you crave the excellent image quality that HDTV delivers. But for those of you who are still a bit hazy on what HDTV is all about, our editors have pieced together our ultimate guide to all things HD, HDTV World. Not only do you get the lowdown on the different types of HD sets and calibration, we also fill you in on how to get HD programming and what's available to actually watch in HD. And if you're still lost on some of the HDTV jargon that those electronics-store salespeople bat around, use our handy HDTV glossary to decipher the mumbo jumbo. |
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Motorola MPx200
Ever since this first-released phone running the Windows Mobile Smartphone OS hit the stores, CNET readers have been clamoring for more info about the Motorola MPx200. After rigorous testing, illustrious Cell Phone Diva Joni Blecher has finally posted her review of this sought-after ringer, and the news is all good. Giving it an overall 8.0 rating, she describes the MPx200 as "an impressive blend of design, features, and function...ideal for those who want to sync with Outlook on their PCs." Best of all, it's reasonably priced. Corporate users can easily set up this phone to retrieve e-mail from a single IMAP or POP3 account, but typing a reply isn't quite as easy without a keyboard. And power users who really need this smart phone to have a strong PDA feature set will be happy to know that Motorola built in an SD memory expansion slot. We'll be reviewing more Microsoft-powered smart phones in the coming months as they emerge, but for now, we're very impressed with this affordable model. |
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Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart notebooks? That's right. Last week, industry sources were quoted in the Taiwan Economic News as saying that the megastore chain was planning to introduce notebooks under its own brand name during the first quarter of 2004. The news really piqued the interest of curious readers. But when asked about the story, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said, "We have no plans for a private-label PC at this time"; she further stated that the company is evaluating new product possibilities. Guess we'll have to wait to see if that shows itself to be true. For now, if Wal-Mart did launch its own notebooks, such a move could send ripples across the PC industry. Analysts think that Wal-Mart's typically aggressive pricing could compel PC makers such as Dell, HP, and Toshiba to reduce their notebook prices in response, which could be a boon for consumers. But other megastores haven't had much luck with similar efforts; CompUSA and Best Buy both have since dropped unsuccessful PC lines. Of course, Wal-Mart could be different, but we'll see if the chain even takes the notebook plunge first. |
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HijackThis
This week brought another cool download choice from our readers. In line with your constant desire to solve the problem of spyware, HijackThis 1.97 has cropped up as a popular search item. For those who aren't familiar with it, this software tool seeks to thwart home page hijackers, those sneaky invaders who change your home page to one of their choosing. The makers claim that HijackThis "examines certain key areas of the Registry and hard drive and lists their contents. These are areas which are used by both legitimate programmers and hijackers. It is continually updated to detect and remove new hijacks." While it's not a tool that our editors have reviewed, many readers seem pretty pleased with the results. If this is a recurring problem for you, you may want to check out this nifty tool. |
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