One of the top-selling computer products of 2007 was—prepare for a shock—the digital photo frame. Market researchers estimate about 6 million were sold last year, a huge leap from 1.7 million in 2006. They predict sales of 9 million this year.

Why are millions of people flocking to them?

Mainly because they make great presents. The majority of digital frames are purchased as gifts, according to market research firm Parks Associates. 

That doesn’t surprise me.  My wife and I were among the millions who bought one for this very reason last Christmas. We purchased it as a joint gift with her brother and sister-in-law, who came up with the idea of getting one for my wife’s parents. A photo frame is one of those products you don’t want too badly for yourself, but think your parents or grandparents will love.

I bet the conversation that took place in our home last fall was echoed in millions of others. “Hey, why don’t we get your mom and dad one of those picture frame things that show digital pictures? That way they can look at pictures of their grandkids all the time!” If the exploding sales of digital frames proves anything, it's that there’s no shortage of parents who believe grandma and grandpa will never tire of gazing at a rotating assortment of their kids’ photos.

This may be true, but the frames themselves don’t always live up to expectations.

My father-in-law tried to hide his disappointment on Christmas Day when we hooked up his new 7-inch digital frame next to my 24-inch flat-panel computer monitor. Other than the obvious size difference, the resolution wasn’t even close. His frame had a paltry 480 x 234 display, making photos appear grainy and fuzzy. It was no match for the 1900 x 1200 razor-sharp pixels on my screen.

I later learned my in-laws quietly returned the photo frame we bought them, trading it in for a higher-resolution model that cost twice as much. (Being the techie in the family, I wanted to buy them a more expensive model to begin with, but was outvoted.)

The contrast and brightness of their little frame also left a lot to be desired, demonstrating that it pays to look at a model's specs before you buy. Most digital frames have a contrast ratio of 400:1 or 500:1. Don’t settle for less. As for resolution, forget anything below 640 x 480. High-resolution is especially important if you buy a large frame, say 10-inches or bigger. If the box doesn't specify a resolution, move on.  (To sample the variety of models now available, check out all 83 frames sold on Newegg.com.)

But trust your eyes more than the specs. Find a store that has its floor models turned on and loaded with images so you can judge screen quality before you buy.  The price tag will also tell you something. Don’t expect greatness from a $75 frame.

One promising trend: digital frames are getting bigger. One company, PhotoVu, offers three models ranging from 19 to 22 inches. But with prices for larger frames in the $800 to $1000 range, they cost far more than most people (read: I) want to spend.  You can buy a same-sized computer display for two to three times less.

Until digital photo frames improve and prices drop, I’m sticking with my 24-inch LCD monitor for showing off family photos at home. I can’t put it in my living room, but no electronic frame can hold a candle to a high-end computer display.

<John Swenson>

I recently got one of the best holiday gifts ever—a Swiss Army knife that includes a laser pointer and USB drive.

"Ooooh, cool!" is the general response from my envious co-workers.

This fits in well with my existing family of gadgets.  My flashlight, for example, recharges when you shake it.  My radio has a wind-up crank.

Then there's my other favorite kind of gadget: Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets.

These are mini-applications docked on my desktop. Like my new Swiss Army knife, they have a variety of possible uses.  By tapping the web, gadgets can deliver stock prices, weather information, news updates, traffic maps, Internet radio streams, and even slide shows of online photo albums.

Gadgets can also merge information from multiple sources. For example, the Live Search Maps gadget provides an at-a-glance view of the current traffic conditions for over two-dozen cities. Traffic information is  automatically updated, and you can easily display a full screen view of the map by clicking on the stoplight icon.

Windows Vista provides an essential set of gadgets to get you started, including a calendar, clock, and weather gadget. The Windows Vista Gadget Gallery carries hundreds more that you can download and enjoy. (For detailed instructions on adding and removing Sidebar gadgets, see this handy article on Windows Help and How-to. The site also has a very cool video on Vista gadgets.)

One of the more interesting gadgets I've downloaded is Moon Phase II, which displays a realistic representation of the moon and its phases. A configuration panel allows you to set the latitude and longitude for your location. You can also display a calendar of the current month's phases of the moon. This is a great gadget for planning outdoor activities, such as star gazing.

So go ahead and starting collecting your own gadgets. Which ones do you like best?

<Lorin Catudio>

With the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 winding down and the flood of product announcements over for another year, I’ve been wondering what it all means for Windows users. How much will the gee-whiz stuff announced at CES enhance your overall computing experience?

In some cases, the answer is obvious.

New microprocessors from Intel and AMD, for example, make computers faster, allowing you to do more tasks simultaneously—or ones you never could before, such as editing high-definition video on a laptop. Toshiba, Sony, and HP all announced laptops with the new Intel Penryn family of Core 2 Duo mobile processors, which use less power while offering more speed. Other mobile PC makers will no doubt follow.

It’s less obvious, on the other hand, how new high-definition TVs, handheld gadgets, and hundreds of other related devices at CES that don't fit inside a computer will benefit PC owners.  But they will. Computers are becoming more and more intertwined with consumer electronics.  More people are using their PCs to record and playback video on their HDTV, send music around their house, make phone calls, and do other things perform other tasks once not considered computing tasks.

Here’s a look at some of the products at CES I think will have the biggest impact on PC users in the near future:

• Bigger, higher-resolution computer displays, such as the new Dell 30-inch UltraSharp 3008WFP. Big flat-panel monitors are going mainstream. Forget 22 inches, soon two-foot screens will be the standard. I bought a 24-inch Dell UltraSharp model last year and have been very impressed. Many large-screen monitors were announced at CES, including some bargains under $400. But look to the high end for what’s coming: Dell’s 3008WFP is the company’s second-generation 30-incher. It’s pricey at $1,999, but the previous model (the 3007WFP) is available for $600 less, making Dell one of the few companies selling more than one 30-inch model. I’ll bet these drop below $1,000 before long.
• Faster graphics cards and chips—especially in mobile PCs such as the massive new HP Pavilion HDX. This 20-inch laptop now comes with a powerful Nvidia GeForce 8800M graphics processor, which should satisfy all but the most demanding gamers.  Laptop owners once had to settle for “business graphics” most of the time. That’s changing. Nvidia, AMD, and Intel now offer some of their fastest 3D graphics chips for mobile PCs as well as desktops. The new ATI HD Mobility Radeon 3000 series from AMD is one example.
• Solid state drives (SSD). I touched on this in my previous CES post. But these futuristic drives—like the new 72GB model from SanDisk—are the most obvious and dramatic enhancements coming to PCs.  Laptop owners will likely benefit the most. Because they have no moving parts, SSDs are faster, more rugged, and use less power than conventional hard drives. They're still pricey, but that should change as capacities jump. Several models are already available in the 72 to120GB range.
• Better-looking case designs for both desktop and mobile PCs, such as the slick new Lenovo laptops (pictured above). Unimportant, you say? Well, for many people looks do matter—a lot. Why else would so many people be so obsessed with the design of Apple’s latest Macs? PC makers want to get in on the design action, too. Microsoft even took part, holding a PC fashion show.
• Bigger, better, cheaper flat-panel HDTVs. CES was awash in plasma and LCD TVs this year—devices that just get better and more affordable each year. Now next-generation OLED TVs are on the way, which are spectacularly thin and beautiful. As more people's homes go high-def, it's natural that the living room is where they're going to want to enjoy all their PC-stored photos, video and web content. More people will start connecting their HDTVs to their PCs, either directly or through a home network or some sort of Media Center extender device such as the Xbox 360. At CES, companies were already showing off a host of gadgets to make that link easier, including many new wireless routers and Media Center extenders.

<John Swenson>

If you like technology, you know the New Year always starts with a bang. When the Consumer Electronics Show kicks off the first weekend of January in Las Vegas, it’s like Christmas all over again.

I’m always amazed at the hundreds of new televisions, camcorders, digital music players, and myriad other gadgets announced in the span of just a few days. Since news started pouring out of Las Vegas last Saturday, I’ve tried to keep up with the flood. But it’s tough. At one point, the technology blog Engadget was posting CES product dispatches every 3 or 4 minutes—all day long.

For every couple dozen new products I read about, a few sound interesting. For every few hundred, one or two amaze me. Out of an entire show's worth of announcements, I always find at least two or three things I really, really want to buy.

I made the pilgrimage to CES two years ago, but actually find it easier to track new products by reading about them online from home. (My favorites CES news sites?  Engadget and CNET.)There are way too many gadgets to see in person; trudging through the crowded CES show floor can be mind-numbing.

What are the coolest products at this year’s CES? Well, that depends on what you’re most interested in.

I happen to be looking to replace my old MiniDV camcorder, so this year I’m eyeing the new crop of high-definition camcorders that record in the new AVCHD format, especially the growing number that record onto flash memory cards, hard disks, or both. Sony, Panasonic, and Canon all announced new models at CES, giving AVCHD critical mass (and making me wonder about the future of high-def camcorders that record onto tape in the HDV format). I was particularly impressed with the new Canon Vixia HF 10 (pictured above).  

Another trend I find interesting is that all the new A/V receivers at CES include at least two or three HDMI inputs—even the low-end models. This means video switching is now a standard feature on A/V receivers, and something everyone will be able to afford. Video switching makes it easier to connect different devices to your home theater system and switch between them. The new Pioneer receivers seem particularly impressive.

There are far too many cool new products at CES to cover in a short post, but here are a few of the other standouts I spotted: 

• New solid-state hard drives (SSD drives). These may not sound too exciting, but the shift toward hard drives that don’t spin (and therefore access data faster while using less power) is going to be huge. Just wait until you buy your first laptop with one of these drives (sooner than you think), and see how fast Windows starts up.
• Huge curved display. Dell subsidiary Alienware is showing a prototype display that curves to fill your entire field of vision (peripheral vision, at least) when you sit up close. It’s wider than a 30-inch display, but not as tall, and should be released as an actual product later this year. The company is billing it as a display for gamers, but I think a massive, high-definition monitor like this would work equally well for something as mundane as reading spreadsheets. Maybe we’ll all be using curved monitors someday.
• Sansa View 32 GB MP3 player. The player itself isn’t that special (I own a Sansa View with 8 GB of memory), but the fact that one leading company is now offering a flash player with 32 GB means all the other manufacturers will have to follow. Soon we should see a doubling of memory in all flash players.
• Panasonic 150-inch plasma TV. No report on cool CES products would be complete without a mention of this beast. Every year, TV makers try to outdo each other to see who can unveil the biggest HDTV at CES. This year Panasonic (see right) took the prize.

<John Swenson>

One of the most talked-about highlights of Bill Gates' swan-song keynote at CES Sunday was the hilarious spoof video portraying Bill on his last day at Microsoft.

In the video, which blogger Long Zheng has now helpfully posted online, Billg (played with gusto by the real Billg) struggles to figure out how to deal with life after software—and turns to a variety of A-list stars for help.  Bono, Jay-Z, George Clooney, Steven Spielberg, and Matthew McConaughey all make cameos. 

Gadget blog Gizmodo's take on chairman Bill's acting chops? "I know it's scripted, edited and contrived, but I'm sold: The man is a cool geek." 

I admit that one of the things I'll probably miss most after Bill leaves his full-time role this summer are these good-natured spoofs, which have become a favorite not only of conference keynote crowds but Microsoft employees at the annual company meetings. Enjoy.

<Michael Stroh>

If, like me, you've been holding off on buying a new high-definition DVD player until the dust settles in the format war between Blu-ray and rival HD DVD, it may be time to pull out your wallet. The New York Times reported this morning that Hollywood heavyweight Warner Brothers, the biggest player in the $42 billion home entertainment market, has sided with Sony-backed Blu-ray technology.

According to the newspaper, that means Blu-ray now has 70 percent of the market locked up. In addition to Warner, Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox, MGM, and Lionsgate are also backing the technology. "The overwhelming industry opinion is that this decides the format battle in favor of Blu-ray," the Times quoted analyst Richard Doherty as saying.

The paper, however, noted that rival HD DVD isn't necessarily dead.  Paramount, Universal, and DreamWorks—which together are responsible for a slew of popular movie titles—still have exclusive deals to release films on HD DVD. Still, analyst Paul Erickson noted in the article, "When a consumer asks a store clerk which format to buy, that clerk is now going to have a hard time arguing for HD DVD."

<Michael Stroh>

The Wall Street Journal has a front-page article today about a new effort by Dell, HP and other major PC makers to give their products a radical style makeover. Manufacturers, the newspaper writes, "are racing to replace boring boxes with sexy silhouettes that will differentiate their products, entice new buyers and command higher prices."

My feeling: It's about time. I'm tired of my PC being the homeliest piece of hardware in the room—and Apple having a near monopoly on glitz. Apparently, I'm not alone. As the article notes:

Consumers have long regarded desktop PCs as such aesthetic duds that they've been known to cover them with bedsheets and saris, says Genevieve Bell, an Intel anthropologist who observes global PC usage in homes. "There is this sense of, 'Oh god, why does it have to be so ugly?'"

Early results of this style upgrade effort (like the slick Dell monitor, pictured at right) will be on display at the Consumer Electronics Show, which kicks off Sunday in Las Vegas with a keynote from Bill Gates.

What about you?  When it comes to computers, do looks matter? Would you shell out more for style?

<Michael Stroh>

UPDATE 1/7: On its press site, Microsoft has a short feature with more insight on the future of PC fashion on display at CES. This article is kind of cool because the company asked several fashion-industry types for their take. Check out the video to see what they had to say. Also, here's a bunch of pictures of some of this haute couture hardware.

If you unwrapped a new PC over the holidays, chances are it's replacing an older model that's now gathering dust somewhere in your home.  In its January issue, National Geographic has an enlightening article on the worldwide glut of high-tech trash. Americans toss out two million tons of e-waste each year, according to the magazine. And, writes Chris Carroll, it's not just a computer problem:

A switchover to digital high-definition television broadcasts is scheduled to be complete by 2009, rendering inoperable TVs that function perfectly today but receive only analog signals. As viewers prepare for the switch, about 25 million TVs are taken out of service yearly. In the fashion-conscious mobile market, 98 million U.S. cell phones took their last call in 2005. All told, the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] estimates that in the U.S. that year, between 1.5 and 1.9 million tons of computers, TVs, VCRs, monitors, cell phones, and other equipment were discarded. If all sources of electronic waste are tallied, it could total 50 million tons a year worldwide, according to the UN Environment Programme.

So what happens to all this junk?

Suffice to say the answer isn't pretty. Much of this toxic trash winds up in dumps, both here and overseas.

What's the best way to deal with your e-junk?  In the past the answer hasn't always been clear—a dilemma reflected in another interesting statistic from the article:  According to the EPA, about 180 million TVs, desktop PCs, and other obsolete electronic gear sits in closets and basements. That doesn’t surprise me. I have a hard enough time figuring out the best way to toss plastic and glass in my house, let alone a PC or cell phone.

Luckily things are changing.  In recent years Dell, HP, Toshiba and other major PC makers have started programs to help take an old computer or monitor off your hands—often for free. Non-profits and local governments, meanwhile, have also stepped in with creative ways to recycle or reuse everything from cell phones to the batteries that power them.

To learn more, check out the EPA's comprehensive list of drop-off locations and recycling programs. National Geographic also has handy list of e-cycling suggestions.

<Michael Stroh>

Another interesting tidbit I learned from the National Geographic E-cycling article: A big reason people don’t recycle their old PCs is because they're worried about data security. Turns out it's not an unfounded fear. One 2005 study found that 113 of 200 hard drives bought from eBay still held recoverable data—some of it personal or confidential.

By now, many people know that dumping a picture or TurboTax file in the Windows Recycle Bin doesn't physically remove it from your hard drive. Only Windows thinks it's gone. So how do you truly erase a drive you’re planning to recycle or resell?

The easiest option is free software designed to "wipe" the drive. Two programs that many people swear by are the ominous-sounding Boot and Nuke and another one called Eraser.  These utilities work by recording random data to each individual sector on your hard disk.  They do this over and over—sometimes making as many as 35 passes—until all traces of your digital life are gone.

Many drives made after 2001 also have a built-in sanitization feature called Secure Erase. Never heard of it? As ZD Net's Robin Harris noted in a recent column, it's not surprising. Harris says many computer motherboards disable the feature, perhaps to prevent people from accidentally invoking it. "Secure Erase is a loaded gun aimed right at all your data," he writes. The feature was developed with the help of researchers at UC San Diego's Center for Magnetic Recording Research, which also created this free Secure Erase utility.  One caveat: Secure Erase is mostly aimed at ATA disk drives and is a little trickier to use than Boot and Nuke or Eraser. So beginners might want to stick with those.

Most of the time, that should be all you need to do before you kiss your PC goodbye. Of course, if Scotland Yard or the CIA really wanted to know what secrets your drive once held, even software like Boot and Nuke probably isn't enough.

The only guaranteed way to give your PC permanent amnesia is with a hardware-based solution.  And I mean hardware. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Guidelines for Media Sanitation, the government bible on erasing everything from hard drives to cell phones, advises "pounding [the drive] with a hammer." By doing so, you'll "disfigure, bend, mangle, or otherwise mutilate the hard drive so that it cannot be reinserted into a functioning computer."

And who says government reports are dry.

<Michael Stroh>