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Best- Great stuff - tested and approved in our top-secret labs.
Smartphones
__A true smartphone can send and receive email, act as a PDA, surf the Web - the real one, not just WAP - and, of course, make calls. If price alone doesn't narrow the field, look for a phone with tightly integrated features that's easy to tote, makes entering info a snap, and lasts as long as possible between battery recharges. __
FIRST CLASS
Nokia 9290 Communicator
Affectionately called "the brick," Europe's most popular smartphone compensates for its 8.6-ounce heft by doing nearly everything a laptop can do. The generous keyboard makes for easy pecking, and the speakerphone automatically turns on when you open the brick for a call. Although the bundled HTML browser is a bit sluggish, perks like the vivid 4,096-color display, Mobile RealPlayer, Symbian OS, and 10 hours of talk time elevate the 9290 to an almighty all-in-one.
9290 Communicator: $699. Nokia: (888) 665 4228,www.nokia.com.
BUSINESS CLASS
Samsung SPH-I300
Even without a keyboard or physical dial pad, the Palm-powered SPH-I300 shines thanks to its decent 256-color touchscreen with a built-in Graffiti window. The display turns itself off during calls, stretching talk time to four hours. The SPH-I300 is a portable 6 ounces, but it lacks a protective cover, so smudge marks are inevitable. Top-notch rendering makes browsing the Web a breeze.
SPH-I300: $499. Samsung: (800) 726 7864, www.samsungusa.com.
COACH
Handspring Treo 180
Designed from the bottom up to break convergence ground, the Treo 180 is a flip phone, Palm organizer, and messaging maven wrapped in an ultracompact package. At 5.2 ounces, it's the lightest smartphone yet. And with the Blackberry-style keyboard, you can access contacts in just a few taps. It's too bad the Treo manages only 2.5 hours of talk time; but unlike the 9290 and SPH-I300, it can be upgraded to next-gen networks (in this case, GPRS) once they're fully deployed.
Treo 180: $399. Handspring: (888) 565 9393, www.handspring.com.
Digital Photofinishing Services
__Sitting on a backlog of unprocessed digital pics? The easiest way to turn them into glossies ready for framing is through an online photofinishing service. Consider print quality and fees, and then order and processing times. Many services offer great extras, such as tips for selecting print sizes - a big help for overly optimistic shutterbugs who want to avoid grainy images. __
Image-Edit & Art
This finishing lab meets graphics studio specializes in making custom alterations to digital pictures. You can have pictures professionally lightened, hand-retouched (good-bye red eyes), or fully restored. It even managed the difficult task of erasing an ex from a hi-res group shot. The results, received in less than a week through regular post, were astonishing: The ex disappeared, and Image-Edit's pros reconstructed the billowing drapes in the background.
Custom finishing: $25 and up per photo. Image-Edit & Art: (866) 668 8880, www.image-edit.com.
BUSINESS CLASS
Apple iPhoto
The iPhoto desktop software lets you order any number of pictures with a single click. While Microsoft's Windows XP has similar desktop capability, the simplicity of iPhoto can't be beat - though it works only on the Mac. Photos straight from the camera were ordered in minutes, and the prints came within a week via snail mail. Like the other services, iPhoto lets you create a free online gallery so you can share your camera work with your cohorts.
iPhoto: 49 cents to $4 per photo. Apple: (800) 692 7753, www.apple.com/iphoto.
COACH
dotPhoto
It doesn't get any cheaper than dotPhoto. The service has the lowest prices online for individual pics, and you can join a monthly family plan to drive the rate down to 19 cents per 4-by-6 glossy. Considering the price of photo-inkjet paper, that's less than running off digital images at home. (It also works out to be about 16 cents less than using an offline store.) The fun part: Our prints arrived in about a week, looking nearly as good as those from the more expensive outfits.
Photofinishing: 29 cents to $3 per photo. dotPhoto: +1 (609) 434 0340, www.dotphoto.com.
Programmable Robot Kits
__Get into the BattleBots action by building your own Ballbreaker, Deathstar, or Armageddon. These do-it-yourself kits contain the same microcontroller brains as those found in some of the cable TV show's bots. None requires more than a day to assemble, and all are surprisingly straightforward to operate. __
FIRST CLASS
Lynxmotion Hexapod IIPE
The Hexapod is the most complex and time-consuming robot to piece together, but if you've tackled advanced car and spaceship models before, you can handle it. The bot's 12 motors and 6 legs can haul a 2-pound payload with ease. It's preprogrammed to scuttle around quickly on smooth surfaces and slow down when traversing carpet. Like the others below, its microcontroller relies on Basic code. Write your own, or download commands from the kit's software.
Hexapod IIPE: $693. Lynxmotion: +1 (309) 382 1816, www.lynxmotion.com.
BUSINESS CLASS
Parallax Boe-Bot
Building this bot is about as difficult as painting a Lichtenstein by numbers. The kit's well organized, the manuals are flawless, and there's no soldering required (which cuts construction time to two hours) - no surprise, considering that the Boe-Bot gets its name from the Board of Education. The machine employs wire whiskers to avoid objects in its path and can be programmed to follow a line or light beam, or to communicate with other bots through infrared. In living-room tests, the Boe-Bot bullied the WAO-G with ease.
Boe-Bot: $219. Parallax: (888) 512 1024, www.parallaxinc.com.
COACH
WAO-G
Only want to spend an hour perfecting your bot? Then the WAO-G is for you. The Japlish instructions are tough to follow, but assembling it is a blast and it requires no metalworking. Compared with pricier rovers, this unit has limited functions. Its built-in, 26-button keypad lets you program it without a computer. Or you can load up the kit's PC software and write Basic routines from your desktop. When the bot hits an object, sensors tell it to back up and try another route.
WAO-G: $99. PC interface kit: $30. Robot Store: (800) 374 5764, www.robotstore.com.
