13. Back to School Part 2

Introduction

Okay, so maybe we're just starting to accept that the end of the summer is nearly here, and that school will be upon us sooner than we thought. We've now reached the middle of our Back to School Buyer's Guide, chock full of goodies and gadgets for those headed back to school, and to delight gadget and widget lovers everywhere.

In this installment you'll find a gear-laden grab-bag of computing gadgets. Starting with a handy wireless printer, we move on to a handful of mondo multimedia marvels, including a media streaming playback system, a personal sunglass-style video display, some high-concept headphones, a colorful gimcrack of an MP3 player, and another nifty media server just to round things out. Next, we scope out a couple of high-end LCD screens, including a 24" HDMI number and a 20" high resolution reference monitor. Our next target is a nifty new cordless mouse that works in the air as well as on any flat surface. Finally, we close out this section of the guide with a look at one of the new perpendicular magnetic recording hard disks that are just making their way to the market.

Our wireless printer of choice is a great little model from Lexmark, the capable and affordable Z1420. We look at two media streaming devices, the Neuros OSD from Neuros Technology International, and the Digital Entertainer HD from NetGear. Our personal multimedia device line-up includes a personal display from Myvu designed to work with the iPod, a set of Force Feedback headphones designed by famous modder Ben Heck, and the colorful Sansa C200 MP3 play from SanDisk. Our two monitors include the great big NEC MultiSync LCD2470WNX wide-screen display, and the ultra-snazzy Samsung SyncMaster XL20. The Logitech MX Air mouse works with equal facility in the air and on a desktop, which makes it just peachy for driving a media PC, playing a game, or making a presentation. The drives that take us perpendicular in this guide installment are none other than the Barracuda 7200.10 family from Seagate Technology.

OK, pull up your socks, and let's dive into this treasure trove of tools and technology for digital living gone wild!