[Cue Fairytale music...]Once upon a time, a geek found that he had way too many gadgets, and too few AC outlets to use them all at once. A simple powerstrip would have been a easy fix, but because he considered himself a serious gearhead, he wanted *special* powerstrip.

The first one he tried was called the Compact, by Belkin, but had room on top for 4 small sockets, and on its side, 4 great big sockets standing vertically. It was terrific, but maybe too simple; and anyhow, there were actually two more powerstrips by Belkin that were more interesting. One, called the Clamp-On had a claw on it for being mounted on a desk. And one was huge, and had a cable organizer. One was very, very good, and one sucked so bad, it made the geek want to plug it into a heavy, heavy VCR, climb into a rowboat, and drop it to the bottom of the sea.

The “Clamp On” powerstrip with the claw on it had a box with a picture on it. The picture explained what the claw was for — attaching it to desks or 2×4 planks of wood! It appeared to have space for 4 small power plugs, and 2 large blocks. This could be useful for keeping outlets off the floor, and close to his work area. But alas, the stupid powerstrip’s jaws were too wide to clamp onto a desk, with it’s puny spring loaded rubberized and orange teeth. It sagged, and threatened to leap to the floor when the outlets were filled with hungry three-pronged plugs. And too narrow to clamp on a 2×4. It only fit on his weirdly shaped Swedish furniture. (Despite the photo on the box, it was limited to grabbing onto the edges of things no greater than 1.5-inches thick.) A real engineer would have used a vice grip, he thought.

The next powerstrip, Conceal was gigantic. It was at least twice as big a the other powerstrips. What a waste of space, the geek thought, as he thumbed the hard plastic case. There was a single lonely outlet on the side of this whale of a powerstrip. Strange. Where were the other outlets? Right after he’d finished this thought, his finger happened upon a button. Click!

The case opened up, and inside were 10 outlets — 6 little outlets, next to gold-plated coax, ethernet, and RJ-11 power filters, and room for 4 big blocks. All through the top of the case were nooks for cable routing, and a space to pass all the cords through the top. This was the perfect powerstrip for a livingroom, where the cables need to be tucked away nicely.

AND THEY LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER. THE END…FOR NOW. Dun dun DUUUUN.*
(I’ve been writing too many news pieces, lately. Had to break it up. Humor me.)

[Belkin]

If you’ve been saving up your nickels to get a $800 TiVo Series3, you just got yourself a $500 bonus prize. Today TiVo releases the TiVo HD, a scaled-back version of the original Series3 that lists for just $299. We got our hands on one, and managed the even more complicated task of convincing Cablevision to install two CableCARDs. Now that it’s up and running, I can’t think of a single reason to ever plug in that Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD again. (Oh yeah, the TiVo’s a loaner.) The great news: To reach the low-low-price of $300, TiVo only cuts the corners we’d cut ourselves. It is functionally a Series 3, minus the fluff.

Big Brother, Meet Little Brother
Although the TiVo HD is built on the Series3 platform, it’s not exactly an update. Here’s the breakdown:

• The original Series3 can record 300 hours of standard-def video and 32 hours of HD on a 250GB internal; the TiVo HD can record 180 hours of SD and just 20 hours of HD on a 160GB drive.

• It's not THX certified, but it's got the coaxial cable and antenna inputs, plus all the requisite outputs: HDMI, component, S-Video and composite. It also has an optical audio out.

• As you can see in the gallery, it has a dual CableCARD slot so you can record two shows at once (and watch a third, too). One of the slots even supports M-Card, for multistreaming, so you wouldn't need two separate cards. I am not entirely sure if you can use it to go hog wild and record three shows at once—it may not surprise you that Cablevision never mentioned it as an option when I ordered the CableCARDs.

• Instead of the original Series3's glowing OLED display, TiVo HD has an array of multicolored status-indicator LEDs. That's the extent of the glowing, too—unlike the pricier Series3, this one has a standard TiVo remote, happily unchanged these 10 long years.

• TiVo HD has an eSATA port on the back, same as its big brother, so expansion will be easy. It also has hardware support for AVC (H.264) and VC-1, though there still isn’t any software implementation of this talent. We’re waiting!

• As I just sort of alluded, nothing is different on the software side of things. Any rumors suggesting that TiVoToGo is available in the TiVo HD are incorrect at this point, though we'd love to see someone wave a magic wand and make that happen. The few screenshots I included in the gallery are intended to show you the similarities: it's all there, even though you're paying less than half the price.

Hands On
Though I had been suffereing at the hands of the loathed Explorer 8300HD for some time, I dreaded calling Cablevision and asking for CableCARDs. Fortunately, they knew what I was up to, and—after a couple of visits—were able to make it work. The trouble was not technical. The cards worked just fine. The trouble was that Cablevision installers are not allowed to be in your house when you go through the 20-minute setup, which they claim takes between 4 and 24 hours. In truth, the most time-consuming part of the process is waiting for the CableCARDs to take hold once they are installed. That took hours, but required the cable guy. Can I just say that I hate when people who don't know squat make up dumb rules? Well, I just said it.

The rest of the setup was super easy. TiVo provided the $60 Wi-Fi USB dongle, though you can use others, or just connect via Ethernet. I always love setting TiVo remotes to control the TV; it’s a simple thing that any remote in the world can do, but I rarely do it with my cable remotes. Having that reassuring wizard is just a better incentive.

Once all of that was working, I was back in TiVo Country. I could search for shows without growing a beard in the process, jumping to Swivel Search to do stream-of-consciousness browsing. I ended up jumping from The Daily Show to a TiVoCast channel of content from The Onion. Everything we’ve discussed in the recent past is there: Amazon Unbox downloads, One True Media video and photo sharing, Yahoo! and Fandango. But most of all, it’s a $300 way to unlock the HD cable subscription I pay a ridiculous amount of money for but can’t navigate using standard cable boxes.

OK, it’s not all perfect. My guess is that, since I had an early unit, there was some bugginess that will be fixed in the near term, including:

• Messed-up video decoding; I often got that that weird psychedelic MPEG frame lag, and some entire scenes of standard-def video had a bad iridescent quality, though that could have been due to a crappy analog source.

• At least one HD channel remains scrambled, and not a premium one. OK, I admit, it's CBS. I just got caught off guard by how funny The New Adventures of Old Christine is.

• Worst—though perhaps most fixable—of all: when I fast forward through lengthy stretches of content, the cursor jumps and skips, so that I end up way far away from where I want to be. Again, though I'm a bit traumatized, my guess is that it'll be fixed in the next firmware update.

• Also, as you know, decommissioning your cable box means no one-touch VOD. I like VOD, I will admit. But I am trying to figure out if I like it most because it's a way of getting around the frustrating user interface of cable DVRs.

How to get one
As you know, TiVo still has a monthly fee, one that can be as high as $17 per month if you don’t commit to anything over a year, or as low as $9 per month, if you pay, up front, $299 for three full years of service. (That’s a special offer. It’s been around a while, but it might disappear at any time.) I figure if you’re already saving $500 in not buying the deluxe Series3, might as well pay $300 of it back for the better service plan.

TiVo is taking pre-orders starting right this second. (According to one tipster, they actually started taking orders earlier, but quickly stopped.) The units themselves will start showing up in early August. If you are one of those sorry sons o’ guns who recently bought a full-priced Series3, I really hope you can dig up the receipt.

TiVo Unveils New Attractively Priced TiVo® HD DVR—the Ultimate Companion to HDTVs

The new TiVo® HD DVR seamlessly combines ease of use, new content and affordability.

ALVISO, Calif.– July 24, 2007 – TiVo Inc. (NASDAQ: TIVO), the creator of and a leader in television services for digital video recorders (DVRs), announced today the launch of a new TiVo high definition DVR, delivering a premium HD experience at an affordable price. Starting today, consumers can pre-order TiVo HD at www.tivo.com for just $299.99, with product expected to arrive on retail shelves in early August. The new TiVo HD DVR is the ultimate HDTV companion, maximizing the HD cable experience by combining a new popular price with the clarity of HD programming and our Emmy® award-winning TiVo™ service. The new TiVo HD is also a Digital Cable Ready set-top-box that works seamlessly with any cable provider in the U.S. Moreover, the new product also enables the latest and greatest exclusive TiVo service features such as Movie & TV Downloads from Amazon.com, Home Movie Sharing and universal Swivel™ search, delivering the best of broadband video directly to the television set.

“TiVo HD extends the TiVo experience to an even wider audience than ever, giving sports and entertainment enthusiasts the ultimate companion to their HDTV set,” said Tom Rogers, CEO and President of TiVo. “It is the ultimate media centerpiece for the living room with the broadest selection of broadband content, right alongside your favorite broadcast and cable programs, giving HDTV viewers more choice and control than they’ve ever had before. And it can be used in place of the customer’s existing cable box.”

The TiVo HD is designed to fit seamlessly with home entertainment centers, replacing cable boxes while complimenting other entertainment devices. It is compatible with digital cable, analog cable and digital antenna (ATSC). TiVo HD offers 20 hours of HD or up to 180 hours of standard definition content. The new TiVo HD DVR allows users to record two HD channels at the same time, while watching a third previously recorded show. With a built-in Ethernet jack, two CableCARDâ„¢ slots and USB ports, TiVo HD also provides advanced connectivity and easy networking, making it simple to access an additional suite of exclusive TiVo features.

“TiVo HD is a perfect complement to the HDTV sets that are quickly becoming the standard for home entertainment,” said Jim Denney, Vice President of Product Marketing at TiVo. “With an affordable price and uncompromised quality, TiVo HD is an obvious choice for anyone with a passion for home entertainment and HD programming.”
TiVo HD includes access to a number of renowned TiVo features, furthering the difference between the TiVo service and generic DVR competitors, such as:

• Movie & TV Downloads – In partnership with Amazon.com, TiVo brings you Amazon Unboxâ„¢ on TiVo®, allowing you to download thousands of movies and TV shows straight to your TiVo DVR. Amazon Unbox on TiVo allows you to rent or buy movies from Amazon Unbox using your remote, download them to your TiVo box over your home network, and enjoy them right on your television set whenever you want. The movies you want are always in stock and new releases are available for purchase the same day they arrive on DVD. Best of all, order with your TiVo remote from the comfort of your living room and your rentals and purchases end up in your Now Playing list, right where you’d expect them to be. It’s like having an entire video store connected to your TV.

• Universal Swivelâ„¢ Search – Exclusive to the TiVo service, universal Swivel search lets you quickly find everything you want in the world of broadcast and broadband television with a single, powerful search. It's the first truly TV centric onscreen search tool that allows subscribers to explore and discover broadcast, cable, and broadband content in an easy-to-use experience. TiVo subscribers can search using the way they intuitively think about television; that is, by starting with a program they currently enjoy and using elements of that program to find more of what they like. Universal Swivel search allows viewers to seamlessly link from descriptions of one program to all others that have common elements, including program name, actors, or suggestions based on other viewers' feedback.

• TiVoCast – TiVoCast delivers original video programming directly to your TiVo box over your broadband Internet connection from a variety of media brands and producers, including the New York Times, CNET, iVillage, The Onion, and many others. The content appears in your Now Playing List, alongside regular broadcast programming as well as your Amazon Unbox rentals and purchases and even Home Movies. It's all seamlessly integrated into the entire TiVo experience.

• Home Movie Sharing – Instead of burning your home movies to DVD and mailing them to friends and family, now you can share them through a private TiVo channel of your own. Simply upload your video footage or photographs to One True Media (www.OneTrueMedia.com), get a channel code, and send the code out to your audience. Your home videos will show up right in the Now Playing list on their TiVo boxes, so they can enjoy them on their own TV. No need to huddle around a computer screen anymore, home movie sharing delivers those precious moments directly to the TV.

• Online Services -With your TiVo box connected to your broadband home network, you can access a variety of online services right on your TV, including Yahoo! Traffic and Weather, Fandango movie tickets, live radio, podcasts, games and more.

• TiVo KidZone – Only TiVo-branded DVRs give you total control over what your kids see on TV. With TiVo KidZone, you get to choose which shows your children can watch and record. It also helps you discover great new shows for them through recommendations from leading national children's organizations. TiVo KidZone provides a customized Now Playing List for your children that displays only the shows you pre-approve, keeping their shows separate from your own shows. TiVo KidZone relies on your own personal settings and password to ensure your kids only see what you want them to see, keeping TV as safe as possible.

Pre-orders begin today with the first boxes being shipped in early August. See www.tivo.com for details on ship dates. A subscription to the TiVo service is required and sold separately. TiVo HD will be available starting early August at Best Buy, Circuit City and other retailers for $299.99.

About TiVo Inc.
Founded in 1997, TiVo (NASDAQ: TIVO) pioneered a brand new category of products with the development of the first commercially available digital video recorder (DVR). Sold through leading consumer electronic retailers, TiVo has developed a brand which resonates boldly with consumers as providing a superior television experience. Through agreements with leading satellite and cable providers, TiVo also integrates its full set of DVR service features into the set-top boxes of mass distributors. TiVo’s DVR functionality and ease of use, with such features as Season Passâ„¢ recordings and WishList® searches and KidZone have elevated its popularity among consumers and have created a whole new way for viewers to watch television. With a continued investment in its patented technologies, TiVo is revolutionizing the way consumers watch and access home entertainment. Rapidly becoming the focal point of the digital living room, TiVo’s DVR is at the center of experiencing new forms of content on the TV, such as broadband delivered video, music and photos. With innovative features, such as TiVoToGoâ„¢ and online scheduling, TiVo is expanding the notion of consumers experiencing “TiVo, TV your way.®” The TiVo® service is also at the forefront of providing innovative marketing solutions for the television industry, including a unique platform for advertisers and audience measurement research. The Company is based in Alviso, California.

TiVo, Season Pass, Swivel, TiVoToGo, WishList, the slogan ‘TiVo, TV your way.’, Series2, Series3, and the TiVo logo are trademarks of TiVo Inc. or its subsidiaries worldwide. © 2007 All rights reserved.

CableCARDâ„¢ is a trademark of the Cable Television Laboratories, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

We had a chat with the Parallels guys earlier today, and got some new information that should be very interesting to people who are even the slightest bit interested in running Windows on your Mac.

We went over some of the stuff we covered yesterday, but there’s lots of new stuff and even one major feature we didn’t mention: Snapshots.

First off, the three major features are 3D graphics support, SmartSelect, and Snapshots.

3D graphics support is the shiniest feature everyone's talking about now. Yes, it will support 3D games like Quake and Half Life, but no, right now it doesn't support Vista Aero—that's coming in a later release.

Parallels couldn’t give me an exact number when I asked for how much of a performance gap there’d be between running a game in Parallels and running it in native Boot Camp, but they did say that it’s very close to native and you wouldn’t really notice any gameplay problems. That, of course, depends on the game, but Half Life 2 ran fine on his machine.

One thing to note is that not all games will be supported by default. They’ll have a list of games they support, and the list will be updated whenever there’s a new build available. Hopefully your game will be supported at launch, but Parallels has a reputation for releasing frequent, and top-notch, updates.

The second major feature is SmartSelect, which allows you to set a preference for opening any file in any application, no matter which OS it’s in. Example: You can set text files to open up in Windows Notepad, so even if you double-click it in OS X, it’ll still pop open Notepad. Think of it as an extension of Coherence, which lets you run Windows apps in its own window on OS X.

On a side note, if you’re in Windows and you look in your start menu, you’ll be able to see all of the OS X apps listed under a Parallels folder, and have a similar option for opening Windows apps in OS X. Neato.

The third major feature is Snapshots, which lets you take a snapshot of your virtual machine so you can revert to it if something’s wrong. Do this before you install apps or make any major changes, and you’ll have something to fall back on in case anything goes wrong.

It’s super useful for software testers or people who make modifications to their OS, and only takes up minimal room on your hard drive per snapshot.

All in all, the guys tell us that besides the new features, everything else is more robust than even version 2.5, which just came out recently. With their track record, we believe them. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Parallels]

Over the weekend, we teased you with a rumor that had been floating around, that Creative would introduce a tiny, flash-based audio player for under $50. Well, it happened, and it’s actually under $40. (I mean “under” in the TV-announcer sense of the word.)

Creative’s $39.99 1GB Zen Stone will be out this month, in six colors: black, white, red, blue, pink and green. Follow the jump for details, plus some very sweet photos you may not see anywhere else.

For $40 you get the 1GB player itself, about half the price of that other screen-less multicolored baby flash player you may have heard about. Creative says it will get 10 hours of playback from a fully charged internal battery. It’s a basic USB-drive drag-and-drop interface.

The clip will cost you $9.99 extra. “What clip?” you ask. You know what clip.

Other accessories, shown below, include a keychain ($12.99) and an armband ($15.99) In July, Creative will introduce TravelSound Zen Stone, the tiny docking speaker system shown below, for $39.99. Powered by two AAA batteries, it will run for 20 hours.

The Stone supports MP3, WMA and WAV files plus Audible formats 2 and 3. It supports for-purchase WMA DRM files, but doesn’t support portable subscription WMAs. On that subject, Creative told us:

Subscription support would have required much more processing power, which would have increased the cost and price of the player. We felt that the vast majority of folks would have 1GB of non-protected content and so it would be best to go with the great price of $39.99 instead of trying to support everything and offer a more expensive player.

If you store music in folders (by artist or genre), you can use the “skip folder” button to jump from folder to folder. On the side, there’s also a shuffle random button. The play/pause button is one of those cute little touches Creative often integrates into designs: because the button is shielded by a clear rubber droplet, it has a weird distortion/magnification effect.

The Stone is obviously a marketshare move against Apple (there, I said it) and SanDisk. But it's also a statement about the flash-memory business. Creative told me that because they are buyers of flash memory, they can get all Mortimer & Randolph Duke and stockpile it when the price is low, like so many pork bellies. The gist is that makers of flash, such as SanDisk and Samsung, suffer more at the mercy of the market. It's an interesting point, and at least a plausible explanation of the $39.99 Stone price point.

I think this is a good place for Creative, playing hardball at the "value" end of the flash-player business. Creative products have always been stylish, but this whole DRM thing has really thrown the company for a loop. In this segment, style counts almost as much as price—just think of the SanDisk revolution of 2006. Whether or not you can sync to iTunes doesn't matter nearly as much in this part of the playground.

A few weeks ago, I held one in my hand, and I liked the feel. The Stone is smooth and little, a skipping stone maybe, but certainly not something you could use to slay Goliath. More of a PEBL pebble, some have said. Still, I like the name. After all, it’s the condition most of my favorite musicians were in when they recorded their finest work. – Wilson Rothman

Creative Labs Corporate Information [Creative]

Since man discovered digital video compression, he’s been fashioning tools to view smut entertainment on the big screen. Early attempts of cutting out holes for CRT monitors were futile, as were the fruitless attempts at training monkeys to hold laptops at eye level. Luckily, companies like Netgear have better solutions.

Their EVA8000 Digital Entertainer HD is a media streamer that can suck almost any audio or video format from your computer to your overpriced HDTV—upscaling and supporting resolutions up to 1080p. Is this the all-in-one digital connectivity mecca we've been searching for? And how does it stack up against the Apple TV?

CNET, LAPTOP, Living Digitally and PCMag have an opinion on the matter…

Design
“The metallic enclosure is slim and eye-catching, and the connections on the back of the unit are well marked, so you can easily understand where the cables go. (2)

…this flat rectangular device is ugly. It’s much bigger than the Apple TV (4)

The included remote is pretty good, with mostly excellent button differentiation, which makes it easy to quickly find the page up/down rocker or the play button. (1)

Connectivity & Playback
This is very important people – I didn’t have to install any software, drivers, or anything, and was able to get my music, photos, and videos all streaming in a matter of minutes. (3)

Support for just about every popular video format, including MP4 and Xvid, as well as most popular photo and music formats, means the EVA8000 will rarely balk at an unsupported media file… Most videos, music, and photos played perfectly fine over our home network (2)

The USB 2.0 ports can be used for more than just thumb drives–we had no difficulty in playing music off iPods, which often give other A/V players trouble. We even hooked up a 160GB USB hard disk, and it worked perfectly. (1)

We also looked at King Kong, which is an excellent-looking DVD, and the Digital Entertainer HD didn’t disappoint. Detail and colors looked excellent, and we completely forgot we were watching the DVD streamed, instead of on a decent upconverting DVD player (1)

Where the EVA8000 really stumbled, however, was with a 1080p movie file. We streamed a WMV-HD test file of Robotica in full 1080p resolution. It played perfectly on an Xbox 360 streamed over our 802.11n wireless network. Playback on the EVA8000, however, stuttered and made frequent audio dropouts. Other 1080p files had the same problems. (2)

…it’s also the only game in town with both full 1080p support (3)

I looked at quite a few photos, and I didn’t really feel they were being displayed at the maximum resolution possible. This could be a trick of the eyes, but I was expecting the pictures to look “HD-like” since they are all resolutions of 720p (3)

Somehow, the smart minds at Netgear found a way around Apple’s DRM (not videos, though). You can listen to any audio content that plays in iTunes and any content that plays in Windows Media Player. Even the iTunes album art is displayed. (4)

We did have success playing other video files from BitTorrent [giz ed note: online store], but it was a pretty arduous process–and one that wasn’t well-covered in the manual. (1)

User Interface
I liked the user interface (GUI) in that it’s simple and navigates quickly (much faster than, for example a MovieBeam or Comcast HD-DVR menu). If you’ve ever used a TiVo or Media Center PC, you shouldn’t have any problem getting it up and running. (3)

Given that there are hordes of graphic and computer designers out there, this amateurish menu system baffles and annoys me. (4)

The onscreen graphical interface lacks the slick panache of Apple TV, but it’s functional–and the navigation is lightning fast. (1)

Conclusions
…the product’s basic value proposition is definitely delivered in a good way (3)

Fix the bugs and allow users to stream without disabling their firewalls, Netgear, and you’ll have one fantastic product. (4)

Granted, we were pushing the device to its limits, but we do get the feeling you’ll experience more hiccups with the EVA8000 than with Apple TV. (1)

The lack of 802.11n support is what ultimately what makes this premium-priced streaming device less than spectacular. (2)”

I hate it when a product is released and all I can think is, “I can’t wait for version 2.0,” but that’s the case here…for me at least. – Mark Wilson

SPECS
Audio Formats MP3, WAV, WMA, AAC, FLAC
Photo Formats JPEG, BMP, PNG, TIFF
Video Formats MPEG1, MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, WMV, Xvid
Ports USB, HDMI, Component, Composite, Stereo RCA, Coaxial/Optical Digital Audio with S/PDIF, Ethernet
Wireless 802.11b/g
Size 17 x 10 x 2 inches
Weight 4.4 pounds

We’ve been known to download DivX files using BitTorrent on occasion, and there’s nothing better than using an upscaling DVD player like the Helios H4000, the LG DN191H or the Oppo DV-981HD to watch these shows and movies on our TVs in high def. But the Ziova CS505, much like the Helios X3000, can stream the files directly from your computer without having to burn them to a disc beforehand—the ultimate in convenience.

Although both this and the Apple TV stream video, they’re in totally different classes. Apple TV is made for playing back movies and music purchased from the Apple store, and unless you re-encode your downloaded BitTorrent movies from DivX, it’s not going to play on Apple’s offering. This and the Helios X3000 are for every other non-Apple format.

In many ways, the Ziova CS505 is even better than the Helios X3000 we tested before—which technically makes it the best streaming, upscaling and DivX player we’ve used yet. Make the jump to find out why.

First off, the format support is pretty complete, playing back just about everything we threw at it. There’s DivX, of course, plus “Windows Media Video 9, XviD, Nero Digitalâ„¢, MPEG-4, QuickTime MPEG-4, MPEG-2, MPEG-1, DVD and other formats.” Audio support isn’t taking a nap either, with FLAC, OGG, AAC, MP3, WM9, CD and various others. You’ll be hard-pressed to find something this sucker doesn’t play, unless you’re talking about Real Media formats.

The video quality is fantastic—noticeably better than the Helios and on par with the Oppo DV-981HD. Both DVDs and DivX files are played back at 1080i, which loses out to the Helios's 1080p, but isn't a huge deal unless you've got a very new set. It's the first player to support HDMI output with HDCP, but to most people that doesn't matter all that much.

What does matter is the player’s ass-kicking ability to read files from pretty much anywhere. The CS505 can support SMB (Server Message Block) shares, which is just basic Windows shares, but can grab data off of Macs and Linux machines as well (since they support SMB). Not only that, there’s UPnP support, which works with the Orb software we tested a while back, and USB (FAT and NTFS) disk drive support. That means you can dump a bunch of files onto an external hard drive, walk to your living room, and have days’ worth of stuff to watch.

There’s also standard photo streaming/playback as well as music streaming/playback, which both support SMB and UPnP as well. Both these worked well for us, and it was nice that the audio kept streaming when we got out of the audio menus and into the photo menus.

Oh, and there’s a weather app on there, too. So you can get weather. Kinda superfluous, but neat nonetheless. The 802.11g wireless was a nice touch, but we prefer its 10/100 Ethernet since we’ve got so many wireless devices and don’t want any skipping.

Now for the things we didn't like. First, it took about 50 seconds for the thing to boot up to where we could do something. Then there's the fast forwarding through DivX movies—not very responsive, but better than fast forwarding on our Motorola Comcast DVR. You'll often go past where you wanted to stop, and then have to rewind again.

Oh, and the unit’s not exactly pretty. The silver design reminds us of a late ’90s VCR or DVD player, but if you’ve got it stashed away in your entertainment cabinet, it’s not a huge deal. Other than these, we didn’t really find anything else to complain about, which is great news.

We can confidently say this is our favorite upscaling DivX and DVD player we’ve played with so far. It’s responsive, has lots of playback options, and can handle just about every file we have. And the best part is that the price is only $299, which is only a little bit more than the Neodigit’s Helios X3000 at $269. If you’re into watching streamed DivX files without all the hassle of burning discs, this is the one for you. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Ziova]

We have a Nikon D40X ($730, body only) in our hands, and testing it for the past few days has been a joy. The camera is light but not too light, and its controls are perfectly placed. We’re even okay with its menu system, which other reviewers have called “meandering.” It also gives you the overall impression that it’s going to back you up if you do something stupid. For example, its auto ISO setting will reach into its higher numbers, pushing the light through to help you out in a dark situation.

What we really like is the way the thing feels in our hands. It just fits perfectly. Its menu buttons are right where they need to be, along with the dial for automatic exposure, manual control and tons of programmed auto exposure routines. In fact, we like all the nice touches in this camera. When a product is crammed into a crowded market with scads of me-too products, these little details are what can set one digital SLR apart from all the others. With the Nikon, it’s that perfect-sounding click when you release the shutter.

We also appreciate the extra megapixelidge added to this D40x model, which doesn’t replace the lesser D40, but gives you 10.2 megapixels instead of the D40’s six megapixels. The D40x also brings a bit faster rapid-fire rate, snapping off shots at three frames per second. Sure, it’s not the spectacular 10fps motor drive of the Canon EOS 1D Mark III, but it’ll still do the trick if you need to take a few quick shots in a row. What about that honking lens? There’s more.

Another huge plus when you choose the Nikon D40x is its complement of outstanding Nikkor lenses. With our test unit, Nikon included its latest 55mm-to-200mm AF-S DX VR Zoom-Nikkor f/4-5.6 lens (35mm equivalent: 82.5-300mm), an image-stabilized and super-sharp piece of glass that we immediately liked right out of the box. It features VR (Vibration Reduction), Nikon’s antidote to shaky-cam shooting that’s located in the lens, not in the camera body as you’ll see in Sony DSLRs.

The 55-200mm lens (about $250) shares many of the characteristics of its coveted brandmate, the $870 18mm-to-200mm VR zoom that David Pogue was fawning over, and it gives you shots that are far steadier than you can ever handhold without image stabilization, even when zoomed all the way into 200mm at f/5.6.

Our supreme test was in a low-light situation, using only room lighting at night. Zooming all the way in to 200mm, we snapped a picture of a clock, which turned out to be fairly sharp even when handheld, with the shutter opening in about a 30th of a second. If you can hold a 200mm lens still enough for a shot taken at a 30th of a second, there’s some serious stabilization voodoo going on there. Bravo, Nikon.

Overall, our first impression of the Nikon D40x and this Nikkor 55-to-200mm image-stabilized lens is highly favorable. We think it hits that sweet spot of price and performance, opening up a new world of digital SLR quality to those who might otherwise have stayed with a point and shoot. Both the lens and camera body are highly recommended.

However, we get the feeling that a similar Nikon DSLR with a live preview viewfinder is in the offing, so we're holding out for that one. We've just gotten too accustomed to live view in point-and-shoot cameras to abandon it for a digital SLR. We're spoiled—it's nice to be able to hold the camera away from you and still see how your shot is framed up. That said, if live view isn't important to you, Nikon has hit a home run with the D40x. Great camera. – Charlie White