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EXPENSIVE $1,800 SHARP SD-NX10 For your favorite golden-eared Bach-ophile, we recommend 1-Bit digital audio, a new technology that improves dynamics and frequency range. Sharp's 1-Bit desktop system with built-in CD and MiniDisc players delivers almost freakishly clear sound. www.sharp-usa.com
SOFTWARE
CHEAP $30 STARRY NIGHT BEGINNER A guide to the night sky worthy of Van Gogh. Starry Night shows you the heavens as seen from your backyard, then leads you through the Dippers, Bears and other constellations one by one. It will even show you the night sky of the date you were born. www.starrynight.com
MODERATE $50 GENERATIONS DELUXE Sometimes futuristic technology is the best way to get to the past. Generations helps you trace your family history through public records and online databases. When you find what you're looking for, it will build your family tree for you, branch by branch. www.sierrahome.com
EXPENSIVE $100 PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS At last Adobe has scaled down its industrial-strength Photoshop software into an affordable, user-friendly package for casual shutterbugs. Elements makes your digital photos look the way you want them to: brighter, straighter, smoother and crisper. www.adobe.com
MP3 PLAYERS
CHEAP $130 SAMSUNG YP-20S MINI YEPP MP3 players are great because, unlike CD or cassette players of the Walkman ilk, they tend to fit in your pocket. The 64-MB Mini Yepp is so tiny it fits on a key chain. It's easy to set up and makes plenty of noise for its size. The only trick? Not losing it. www.samsungusa.com
MODERATE $299 INTEL POCKET CONCERT This loud little flash-memory player can hold 128 megs of MP3s (or two to four hours of music). Because there are no moving parts, it can't possibly skip. Intel is throwing in a $50 mail-in rebate through January that drops the price to $249. www.intel.com
EXPENSIVE $399 APPLE IPOD Once again, the folks who brought us the iMac have seized the design-and-engineering high ground. The elegant, stunningly easy-to-use iPod is the size of a deck of cards yet can hold 1,000 songs. Apple can't say if or when it will let Windows users join the fun. www.apple.com/ipod
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FITNESS
CHEAP $30 OREGON SCIENTIFIC PEDOMETER Don't live near Venice Beach? No problem. Your evening stroll (sans boardwalk) can be just as fun with this lightweight pedometer. It tracks distance covered and elapsed time with a large, easy-to-read LCD screen, and it also has an FM tuner. Hey, if you can't enjoy the sounds of the beach, you might as well enjoy the Beach Boys. www.oregonscientific.com
MODERATE $50 TANITA ULTIMATESCALE 2001 Really wanna get fit? Throw away that prehistoric bathroom scale (toss out those takeout menus too), and try a scale that measures your body-fat percentage--which is what really counts--as well as your weight. This body-fat monitor from Tanita is priced right too, so you won't feel bad about buying all those Tae-Bo videos. www.tanitascale.com
EXPENSIVE $135 NIKE HRM TRIAX 100 This sleek-looking Nike watch doubles as a heart-rate monitor. Strap its elastic chest transmitter (not shown) around your torso, and the fun begins. You can program it to graph your pulse and heart rate with each grueling lap (up to 100 laps), and it will even sound an alarm if it thinks you're overdoing it. Easy there, Flash. www.niketown.com
OUTDOORS
CHEAP $10 PRINCETON TEC PULSAR FLASHLIGHT What? You think key chains are just for holding the keys to your SUV? Princeton Tec's tiny terror of a flashlight is the size of a large grape, but it puts out 12 hr. of brilliant white light on just two watch batteries. You won't even remember it's there--until you lose a contact in your tent in the middle of the night. www.princetontec.com
MODERATE $94 LEATHERMAN JUICE XE6 The Juice is loose: this year Leatherman premieres a line of user-friendly multitools for the rest of us. The xe6 is the most comprehensive entry; highlights include scissors, four screwdrivers, two knife blades, wire cutters, a saw, a diamond-coated file and a molded purple grip. (O.K., Leatherman calls the color thunder.) www.leatherman.com
EXPENSIVE $374 GARMIN ETREX VISTA Wherever you go, there you are--if you're carrying a GPS (global positioning system) unit. The eTrex Vista, Garmin's top-of-the-line model, gives you your latitude and longitude to a fiendishly precise 3 m. This cell phone-size gadget also packs an altimeter, an electronic compass and digital maps of the Americas. www.garmin.com