1. Introduction

Top to bottom, left to right: Vonage V-Phone, Matrix Trilogy, PNY Collegiate Attaché, Pictronic Illuminated Photo Frame, Pantone Huey, Pandigital Digital Frame, Planetwide Comic Book Creator: Mangna, Dell XPS 710 H2C, Advantek Networks Wireless Bluetooth Speakers, Philips HTS8100 Ambisound Sound Bar and HP Pavilion tx1000z Entertainment Notebook PC

Welcome to the second of three installments of our annual Dads and Grads Buyer's Guide. In this series we do our best to bring would-be buyers (and perhaps a few dreamers) together with cool gifts, gizmos, and gear for their loved ones. As summer approaches in the northern hemisphere, we turn our attention to goodies that should interest those in search of ideas for Dads on their day (June 17, 2007) and for grads of all shapes and sizes as they don their caps and gowns to gather degrees of all kinds.

In this installment of the Dads and Grads Buyer's Guide you'll find a couple of PCs, one a water-cooled gaming extravaganza from Dell (the XPS 710 H2C), the other a petite but powerful and good-looking notebook from HP (the Pavilion tx1000z series). There's also an integrated speaker/DVD package with separate subwoofer that manages to match sound output from a 5.1 speaker rig with accuracy and aplomb, and at a pretty good price (the Philips HTS8100 SoundBar).

If you're looking for wireless speakers, check out Advantek Networks' versatile Bluetooth speaker system that both plays music and supports voice dialing on your phone. Digital photo frames that cycle among various collections of digital snaps make great gifts for grads and dads. Check out our look at Pandigital's 8" frame. We also feature a simple backlit photo frame that makes a printed picture look almost digital. And, for those who want better digital photos for these frames, we looked at Panatone's Huey monitor calibration tool.

To get hearts pounding, pulses racing, and to foster appreciation for high-definition media, we include the HD-DVD version of the Matrix trilogy, including all three titles (The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, and The Matrix Revolutions) plus 35 hours of additional bonus materials on 8 DVDs. For those who'd rather exercise their own imaginations, we present the well-known Comic Book Creator software series, which lets users create their own comics and story books.

Also included here is the compact Vonage V-Phone, ready to plug into the USB port on a PC and start providing VoIP phone service. Finally we conclude our collection with a collegiate themed USB Flash drive from PNY, which features over 150 team logo and school color themed data storage accessories.

So buckle up and get read to dig into these interesting products as we describe and depict them for your entertainment, amusement and possible acquisition!