All mySimon Computers Shopping Picks

The 250GB Iomega eGo portable hard drive may look like a military flask, but it stores data, not hooch. A lot of data - up to a million photos, 4600 hours of music, or 375 hours of video. Not bad for $130. It has a USB 2.0 interface, so you just plug it into your computer, using software you download (free for PCs). It's less than an inch thick, and measures slightly smaller than... more

We don't drive much, and we don't mind stopping to ask people for directions. So we don't need the top-of-the-line Garmin Nuvi 880. But we're sure some people will have a hard time resisting the award-winning navigator (CNET calls it "one of the best GPS (products) we've tested to date"), because it crams so many features into such a compact package: Advanced speech recognition that lets you perform 30 functions without taking your hands... more

Remember that 2GB SD memory card we told you about that lets you upload photos to your computer or Facebook page without a single wire? It just got even better. The new Eye-Fi Explore is the same 2GB card with geotagging. It automatically adds geographic location labels to your photos, and lets you (wirelessly) upload them - to Facebook, Flickr, Shutterfly, Costco, and lots of other sites - from more than 10,000 Wi-Fi... more

New from Canon: A yellow and white bucket/beach pail! OK not really. This is the Canon Selphy CP770 portable photo printer. Actually, just the top half is the printer; it sits on top of a bucket that holds your paper, paper tray, power cord, and other supplies. The top panel of the bucket has big Fisher-Price style controls and a 2.5" LCD that lets you preview images before printing 4" x 6" photos (maximum... more

It's a shame Gateway uses such a boring image for its award-winning XHD3000 30" widescreen LCD display. Because the picture doesn't show it in action as computing monitor, TV display, and all-around home entertainment device. Features include a native resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels; DVI, HDMI, and component and composite video connections, which means you can play games on it and watch HD programming, DVDs, and Blu-ray discs; a 6-port USB hub; and... more

A month ago we borrowed this book called Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity from a friend. While the author's system for getting your life organized felt like too much work, the most valuable thing we took away from the book was the importance of a label maker. So we picked up the $30 Brother P-Touch PT-80 and spent a day labeling file folders and filling recycling bins with a... more

The June issue of PC magazine has a couple pages devoted to converting records and tapes to digital files. Your VHS player and all those tapes? You can get rid of them, thanks to the $40 Dazzle. Once you install the (included) software on your computer, just connect your VCR to the Dazzle, and the Dazzle to your computer. The easy-to-use software walks you through the process, recording your videos directly onto DVDs (not... more

Just in time for the recession, HP has released a compact, affordable laptop. The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC is a petite 9" laptop that weighs 2.6 pounds and costs as little as $499 (with Linux). The top-of-the-line $750 model comes with Vista, Bluetooth, a webcam, ExpressCard slot, and 2GB of RAM, and its keyboard is almost as big as a regular laptop's. It might not turn heads at the coffee shop, but it'll get... more

If you travel a lot for work, you need the Belkin mini surge protector. This petite 3-outlet power strip has a plug that rotates 360 degrees, which is convenient when you're competing with other bulky plugs in the same outlet. And it's got 2 powered USB outlets for charging almost any USB gadget (cell phones, iPods, etc.) - so you can leave your chargers at home. The MSRP is $25, but you can get... more

Looking for an inexpensive printer that also prints photos? Check out the Canon Pixma iP3500. It doesn't have a slot for your memory cards, but it does have a PictBridge USB port, which means you can connect your camera directly to the printer to print (no computer required), and it lets you print wirelessly from your infrared-enabled cell phone. Two paper trays let you store photo paper and regular paper, and print quality is... more

New from Belkin: A laptop case designed for using at home. A strange concept to those of us who live in one-room apartments, but if you work on your laptop in the kitchen, bedroom, and other parts of your house, maybe the Belkin Laptop Hideaway will come in handy. With plenty of room for a 15.4" laptop, power cord, mouse, and papers, the Hideaway has a large easy-to-grab handle and a sleek, modern design... more

New from LaCie: The d2 Quadra Hard Drive, an all-in-one professional hard disk with 1TB of storage and 4 interfaces (eSATA 3Gbits, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0). Designed by Neil Poulton, an industrial designer who, according to Wikipedia, "specializes in the design of simple, mass-produced objects and has won numerous international design awards," the d2 works with PCs and Macs (and is compatible with Leopard's Time Machine feature), offers plug-and-play simplicity, and... more

Looking for a new desktop computer with a lot of bang for the buck? As long as you're not an Apple snob or a gamer, you can't go wrong with the HP Pavilion Slimline S3330f. CNET gave it a rare "spectacular" rating, saying it "brings more entertainment capability, and at a better price, than any other system on the market." It's only one-third the size of a regular desktop, with a powerful 2.8GHz Athlon... more

If you burn a lot of CDs and DVDs for friends (or for professional presentations), you might be interested in the DYMO DiscPainter. It's a compact printer that lets you toss the Sharpies and labels and instead print in full color right onto matte, glossy, or colorized discs, from the edge to the hub, at up to 1200 dpi. You can use the included software with its fun photo collage tool to develop designs,... more

How James Bond are the new Lenovo IdeaPad laptops? They have integrated 1.3-megapixel cameras and facial recognition security where you use your face as your password. Designed for general users, the IdeaPad Y510 has a 15.4" display, 1.60GHz Dual Core processor, 160GB hard drive, and 2GB of RAM. The larger 17" IdeaPad Y710 (1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, 250GB hard drive), which can be outfitted with a Blu-ray drive, is aimed... more