Many were anticipating that the short and stubby iPod nano would be a disappointment when the rumors of the device were running rampant. Once Steve Jobs introduced it, all fears were quelled. Just get one into your hands, and you will no longer be a skeptic. The 2-inch screen obviously isn't the best for watching full-length movies, but for music videos and the like, it's worthy. If you are all about the audio, the nano holds up to 8 GB worth of data. It's thin (0.3 inches), the screen is fantastic, and the battery lasts for 26 hours. Just stay away from Cover Flow on this one - it's sluggish. Compare Prices on iPod nano

Steve jobs claims that the iPod touch is the best iPod ever, but we think that the iPod nano 4GB is the best iPod to offer. Why? For a starter, studies show that most people have less than 4GB of music (try to buy 30GB of music on iTunes...). Also, the nano is thinner and lighter but it is also capable of playing videos (granted, on an uber-small display). Finally, it is cheap and provides the best value for the service (listening music). After all don't we all love consumer electronics because they make our lives so much more fun? Oh, and admit it, if you were going to buy an iPod Touch, we know for who that one would be ;)

After checking out B&W's 685 stereo speakers for more than a month, I'm truly impressed. These mid-size speakers are perfect for a roomy bookshelf or on speaker stands, and they handled all the music I could throw at them with precision and superb richness. Movies still benefit from a decent subwoofer, but most acoustic music lovers can do without one in a small living room. At $600 a pair, these are definitely one of the best speaker values ever. <!--more--> I've now spent over a month comparing the new 685's against the larger B&W DM610i’s I’ve been using for the last several years. I tested both pairs of speakers using a Marantz S-5000 receiver and B&W’s . My trusty 610i’s are great, but in some ways I prefer the newer model's more aggressive sound at low to moderate volumes in my 12 x 11-foot living room, not to mention the more compact size. Each 685 has a beef y 6.5-inch woofer with a fixed bullet-shaped centerpiece, as well as a 1-inch aluminum dome tweeter — they look pretty hip without the grille covers on, too. They’re rated at 8 ohms impedance, so they can be powered by most receivers. I sat them atop a pair of primo B&W speaker stands and let em fly. Initially, before the “burning in” process of mellowing out the speaker cone and suspension, the 685s sounded a little on the shrill side, but this subsided within about a couple days. They have strong mids at any volume, where the 610i’s seemed to drop out at lower levels. After the burn-in, the highs are crisp but roll off just enough to avoid being harsh. Since the 685s don’t reach as deep into the bass as the 610i’s, I set up a Cambridge SoundWorks passive subwoofer, which gave the overall sound a very accurate and natural bottom end. But even without the sub, the 685s sound superb for complex music thanks to plenty of detail and smoothness across registers. The sub is a must for movies, though. I tested the 685s with plenty of acoustic jazz, including Miles Davis’s <em>Round About Midnight</em> and <em>The Complete Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong</em>. Everything sounded surprisingly full given the speakers’ relatively small size. The bass didn’t sound tubby and there were no gaping holes in the mids. Ride cymbals sounded very lively but not shrill, and I could easily hear the grit in the horn sounds on Miles’s mid-1950s recording. Classical music like Bela Bartok’s Piano Concertos 1, 2, and 3 comes through exceptionally well, thanks in part to the speakers’ ability to maintain excellent sound even at low levels. There’s usually a lot of dynamic range in classical recordings, and it’s important that quieter passages sound as good as louder sections. The 685s deliver. If you listen to a lot of organ music or tracks with tympani, however, a subwoofer will make sure you hear everything down to the deepest tones. On bass-driven albums like DJ Shadow’s <em>The Outsider</em> and the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ <em>Stadium Arcadium</em>, all the individual parts stood out, but it was still clear that the low end is the moneymaker on these recordings. This is one area where the 685s benefit a lot from a subwoofer — even a simple passive one, though a powered sub may fit bass-head tastes even better. Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City” had plenty of thump, and the imaging on some DVD-Audio tracks from Queen’s <em>A Night At the Opera</em> was excellent for speakers in this price range. Classic and modern rock both have plenty of screech, grit, and wail; the 685s really help separate out all the layers in tracks by studio-magic bands like Led Zep and The Who, and modern masterpieces like Interpol’s <em>Antics</em> have all the depth of a classic Floyd album. Movies like <em>The Matrix</em> and <em>Hero</em> really need help from a subwoofer, but dialog-oriented flicks like <em>Broken Flowers</em> sound as full as they need to with or without. They also integrated nicely into my Cambridge SoundWorks surround speaker set as front speakers, blending smoothly with the center channel (though this is as much a function of setup as speaker quality). At roughly $600 a pair, these are a solid investment if you’re starting to get serious about your home audio setup. For movies and music with especially deep bass, a subwoofer is a must, but you’ll be well rewarded. - Mike Kobrin

Last year at about this time, I risked geek humiliation to recommend the first-generation Zune. I'm back this year to do the same thing about the Zune 2. First, Microsoft got mad props around the blogosphere for how it handled the upgrade. They were savvy enough to realize that Apple was getting clobbered for cutting the iPhone price and screwing early adopters, so they released the Zune 2 firmware upgrade and made it retroactive to all the Zune 1 buyers. Nice. read more...

The Apple TV is a good "media extender," especially for iTunes users. It's quick and easy to set up and fully ready for high definition ... as soon as the content comes along. In the mean time, it's a wonderful way to get your iTunes library of music, movies and TV shows into your living room with very little hassle. read more...

It seems like every holiday season there’s some new toy music character thingy, some strange looking robo-alien-critter that plugs into your PC or iPod and dances to the music, or flashes lights, or allows you to play it for sound effects. I’ve always seen these as the kind of present parents blow decent bread on and the kids find exciting on Christmas day at least, but it’s long forgotten by the time the National disco ball lands on the New Year.If this sort of electronic noisemaker is your idea of a good time, here’s one that just might not suck (and might teach your kids a thing or two about analog synthesizers and electronic music). read more...

If your children are anything like my 3-year old son, then chances are that they are just as familiar with your gadgets as you are. They want to hold them, use them, mimicking you every step of the way. The thing is, gadgets aren't the most affordable things in the world, and children don't seem to understand that. This is where the SanDisk Sansa Shaker comes in - it's a fully-functional flash MP3 player that is meant for little kids. read more...

Sick of buying batteries for your toys? Try hydrogen. This model car is powered by the same technology that automakers are using to develop zero-emission vehicles. Fueled entirely by hydrogen, the car is propelled without combustion while emitting only water from the exhaust system. It comes with an external fueling station that uses electrolysis to extract hydrogen gas from distilled water, which is then transferred to a small balloon inside the car that acts as the hydrogen storage tank. The car can run in a straight line for 3 minutes and can travel up to 325 feet on a full tank.