Point and Shoot Digital Camera Buying Guide
Since the advent of digital point and shoot cameras, the professional and amateur worlds have radically collided. Now, spending a few hundred dollars gives the armchair photographer the power to create the same images as the pros.
HDTV Buying Guide
With prices falling and technology improving, this is an excellent time to buy. But before you rush out, take a moment to familiarize yourself with the basics of how it all works, so that you’ll find the best HDTV for your needs.
Plasma TV Buying Guide
The price of plasma televisions are now comparable with LCD TVs which means that larger plasma screen sizes are within reach of more consumers. If you’ve been waiting for the right time to buy a plasma TV, then it’s time to start shopping.
LCD TV Buying Guide
If you’ve been sitting out the HDTV revolution and waiting for the right time to buy, the time is now. You’ll find a surprising variety of choices at any price range and solid performance in some budget models.
Headphone Buying Guide
Headphones have evolved to fit every need, niche and price range imaginable. The new generation of aftermarket headphones offer much more functionality than the headphones included with almost all device purchases. Some aftermarket headphones utilize noise-canceling properties to help tune out ambient noises, allowing the listener to truly enjoy their audio experience, while others use soft gell inserts to maximize your listening comfort.
Webcam Buying Guide
By sending video, and possibly voice, a webcam turns your PC into a futuristic video phone: you can stay in touch with loved ones across the miles, share your life with the world, or even keep an eye on what’s happening at home while you’re away.
Two-Way Radio Buying Guide
Two-way radios, a common sight in the hands of police and firefighters, are becoming a popular way for families to communicate and a backpack essential for hikers and climbers.
Digital SLR Camera Buying Guide
Ready to make the plunge into the next level of photography? Do you want more manual control of your camera? Want the benefits and results only specialty lenses can lend to your photography? If you are ready to own a more serious digital camera, you should be shopping for a digital single lens reflex (DLSR) camera.
Handheld GPS Buying Guide
Socrates said, “To find yourself, think for yourself.” We know he wasn’t speaking literally, but thanks to the increasing affordability of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, they can do the thinking for you whether you’re in Athens, Greece or Athens, Georgia. Developed by the US Department of Defense for military tactics, GPS technology is a 24/7 radio navigation system that identifies and tracks the location of the GPS device virtually anytime, anywhere.
MP3 Player Buying Guide
Gone are the days of choosing which CD to bring to the gym, or deciding how many CDs to bring on a trip. Today’s MP3 players allow us to carry our entire CD collection in the palm of our hand. We can even take along our favorite photos and video. But this convenience comes with a dizzying array of options.
DVD Recorder Buying Guide
DVD recorders have officially replaced video cassette recorders as the permanent-storage media for home entertainment.
Laser Printer Buying Guide
More and more we hear this is the Digital Age, but the reality is that more often than not, almost everything we create digitally finds its way into print. For most offices and some homes, laser printers are the most cost-effective way to manage your printing needs.
Computer Monitor Buying Guide
If your monitor is more than three years old, it’s time for an upgrade, and lower prices coupled with advances in LCD monitors mean there are more affordable choices than ever.
DVR Buying Guide
A DVR will put you in charge of when you watch what you watch, because the technology allows you to record TV shows. The new king of home video recording, DVRs, or digital video recorders, record television programs in a digital format.
Digital Camcorder Buying Guide
A digital camcorder can put the power to create broadcast-quality video in your pocket. Whether you’re capturing important family events or you’re aspiring to be the next Steven Spielberg, there’s a compact and affordable digital camcorder for you.
Radar Detector Buying Guide
If you’ve ever been caught in a speed trap, you’ve probably thought about buying a radar detector. With the cost of speeding tickets rising and the possible impact on your car insurance premiums, a radar detector can pay for itself in less than a year.
Microphone Buying Guide
The explosion in podcasting, home recording and desktop filmmaking has made microphones an increasingly common sight in homes. If you want good sound on your projects, or if you’re hitting the clubs to tune up for the next American Idol, you’ll need a quality microphone that captures the full range of sound.
Auto GPS Buying Guide
With features like turn-by-turn directions and voice prompts, finding your way to and from your destination is akin to clicking your heels three times. Developed by the US Department of Defense for military tactics, GPS technology is a 24/7 radio navigation system that identifies and tracks the location of the GPS device virtually anytime, anywhere.
Cordless Phone Buying Guide
With so many of today’s electronics operating on frequencies that were once used only by cordless phones, manufacturers have developed new technology to reduce interference so your calls are crisp, clear and uninterrupted.
Car Stereo Buying Guide
These days, most car stereo systems are easy to use, but they’re not that easy to buy if you haven’t done your homework ahead of time. You’ll need to make well-informed decisions about which components to install and figure out how to fit them in your car.
Cell Phone Buying Guide
If your cell phone contract is up, or if you’ve waited as long as you can to join the ranks of cell phone users, there’s good news: Today’s cell phones pack more features at a lower price than ever before. Need a music player, digital camera, or the Internet to go? There’s a cell phone for you.
DVD Player Buying Guide
Since its introduction in the 1990s, DVD has been the most popular format for Hollywood movies and has become the de facto choice for video gamers, software installation and now music and audio too.
Speaker System Buying Guide
Today, speakers are often referred to as “loud speakers” and they are available for viewers who want a cinema-quality soundscape at home. If you’ve recently spent a small fortune on an HDTV setup or top of the line home entertainment system, you won’t get the full experience if you don’t also invest in good speakers.
Scanner Buying Guide
The advent of digital photography has changed how we take photographs, but what about those boxes and albums filled with all the photographs taken years or even centuries ago? Scanning them and other large-volume collections (e.g., documents, art work, etc.) into digital format is the best way to preserve these visual histories for generations to come.
Portable DVD Player Buying Guide
Portable DVD players are available in a variety of sizes with a handful of options including supported formats and battery life. Find out what the best one is to keep your kids entertained for that long drive to grandma’s or that long flight to Europe.
PDA Buying Guide
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) have been around since 1996 when Palm introduced the Palm Pilot. PDAs took the paper to-do lists and bulky address books into the digital age, storing all your most-needed information in one, portable place. Today’s PDAs are truly mobile computers.
Multifunction Printer Buying Guide
Before you haul out your old stand-alone equipment to the curb, or list it on eBay as a collector’s item, there are a few things you’ll want to know before you purchase a multifunction printer.
Fax Machine Buying Guide
If you’re ready to replace that aging fax machine, or if you need a new one for the office, there are a lot of features and operating costs to keep in mind.
Binocular Buying Guide
Binoculars bring us closer to the world around us. Whether you’re a bird lover, sports fan, star gazer, opera lover, or sightseer, a set of binoculars is an essential tool to see the world the way you want to see it—up close and personal
Portable Digital Projector Buying Guide
Portable digital projectors have replaced the overhead and slide projectors once used for conferences and meetings. By hooking up a portable digital projector to your PC, you let your presentations come alive with graphics, movement, even full-motion video.
Answering Machine Buying Guide
In this digital phone age, most people regard the answering machine as a technology on its way out. But answering machines have a distinct advantage over the built-in voicemail programs on your cell phone or landline—they let us screen our messages as they’re being left. This is crucial when you’re unsure if Aunt Sally is just phoning for a marathon chat or has important news to share.
A/V Receiver Buying Guide
Stereo receivers have been a part of the American home since the 1950s. Today’s A/V (short for Audio/Video)receivers are far more evolved than the basic stereo receivers of decades past. More speakers, more inputs, and more functions leave many consumers wondering where to begin shopping for a new A/V receiver.
DVR Buying Guide
One day, your children will look at you with pity and awe as you reveal that DVRs didn’t exist when you were a kid. Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are a common fixture in most homes now, but they were only a gleam in TiVo’s eye just ten years ago.
Flash Memory Buying Guide
Today’s portable devices have an insatiable appetite for flash memory. From cell phones to music players to digital cameras, flash memory provides the storage to hold your music, pictures and vital information.
External Hard Drive Buying Guide
An external hard drive is a must for every computer owner. Sooner or later, you’re going to have more files than available space, and it’s far less expensive to get an external hard drive than it is to buy a computer with a larger internal drive.
Photo Editing Software Buying Guide
Photo editing software is a useful tool whether you’re a mom looking to upload and share photos of your kids or a professional graphic designer looking creating logos and packaging. As you might guess, parents and graphic designers need two very different pieces of photo editing software.
Computer Mouse Buying Guide
The humble computer mouse has grown up and become a multifunctional tool designed to optimize your PC experience. Scroll wheels, navigation buttons and optical sensors have complicated the computer mouse buying process, but these innovations allow you to choose a computer mouse that is tailored to the way you use your computer.
Computer Keyboard Buying Guide
As computer keyboards evolve to cater to every need, be it a sleek design or a slew of multimedia functions, shopping for them has grown increasingly complicated. Do you need a wired computer keyboard or a wireless model? What’s Dvorak, and is it for you?
Wireless Router Buying Guide
With the increasing number of devices that require Internet access, a wireless router is a must for those who can no longer survive with the single connection offered by cable or DSL modems. Wireless routers also eliminate the cable clutter that surrounds most computers and let you use Internet-enabled devices throughout your home.
Desktop PC Buying Guide
Choosing a desktop computer can be a complicated task. While it’s easy to compare the picture quality on HDTVs or the features on a DVD player, desktop PCs are hard to understand until you get them out of the box and start using them.
DVD Burner Buying Guide
DVD burners were a costly component for desktop PCs just a couple of years ago. Today, you can get a DVD burner for about what you’d pay for a movie on DVD, and as prices have dropped, consumers have discovered that there’s more to DVD burners than just movies.
Laptop PC Buying Guide
Laptop computers were once reserved for businesspeople and students, but the days of expensive, underpowered laptops are over. The advent of wireless Internet and a desire to save desk space has lured many consumers to abandon desktop PCs in favor of the slim, go-anywhere power that a laptop provides.
Video Game Controller Buying Guide
If you’re a PC gamer, you need a video game controller to ease the wear and tear on your keyboard, and you might need a specialized video game controller for driving, flying, or fighting games. Console gamers can get a fuller experience—and perhaps an unfair advantage—with specialized video game controllers designed for the games they love.
Video Game Console Buying Guide
Video game consoles used to be a moderately priced form of entertainment, but the new generation of consoles has upped the cost of ownership to the point where you need to carefully consider your gaming investment.
Satellite Radio Receiver Buying Guide
Sick of the same 10 songs playing over and over again on local radio? Miss Howard Stern? Want to hear your local team’s games anywhere in the country? These are all good reasons to bring a satellite radio receiver home.
