The PictureMate Charm required anywhere from 54 to 70 seconds to print each of our 4-by-6-inch test prints, but they were worth the wait. It produced flesh tones that looked healthy and normal, it handled both fast-motion and landscape shots with aplomb, and it balanced lights and darks evenly in monochrome images. The on-board editing options are limited to a few layouts, borders, and automated corrections based on image type (such as a night scene or a landscape). If you install the printer on a PC, you can do more using the bundled Easy PhotoPrint application, which offers a wealth of editing, customizing, and printing options.

The features on this snapshot printer are basic but well executed. It has a 20-sheet input tray for just 4-by-6-inch media; by contrast, the HP Photosmart A646 can take three different sizes. Sheets exit onto the flip-out front panel. Inside the front panel you′ll find two media slots for CompactFlash, Memory Stick, SD Card, and XD-Picture Card. A PictBridge port is in back. A Bluetooth option costs $39.

When you insert a media card into the printer, on-screen prompts walk you through the process of choosing and adjusting an image before you print it. The 2.5-inch, tiltable color LCD works with a row of eight buttons, all of which are labeled and largely intuitive. It′s just a bit hard to tell how to cancel or back out of an option sometimes; the Stop/Clear button handles all such matters, but I was looking for a Back button.

The ink prices are great, and one of the highlights of Epson snapshot printers in general. The machine ships with a starter ink cartridge that prints up to 20 images. The PM 225 Compact Photo Printer PictureMate 200 Series Print Pack produces up to 150 photos using the included ink cartridge and paper. At $38 a pack, that′s a cool 25 cents per photo–better than all other brands of snapshot printer we′ve tested.

The Epson PictureMate Charm is not as versatile as other snapshot-printer contenders, but it functions well at what it does. It′s also cheap to buy and refill, which is a trade-off worth considering.

The Gamer Xtreme is one of the first value PCs in PC World′s database that makes use of Intel′s new 2.66GHz Core i5 750 CPU. The results are of this choice are fairly significant. We′ve tested a number of different systems across a wide range of processor models but similar speed. Yet, only a system running a 3.06GHz Core i7 950 CPU is able to top the Gamer Xtreme′s general performance–and barely. It′s not as if the rest of the Gamer Xtreme′s build is that jaw-dropping: 4GB of DD3-1600 memory represents an average amount for a value PC. The system′s 1TB of hard-disk space is notable, but hardly unprecedented.

As mentioned, the Gamer Xtreme beats out every other value PC for general performance save one–Micro Express′ MicroFlex 95B desktop ($1500 as of 8/23/2009). The $400 price difference translates into only a 4 percent performance difference in our WorldBench 6 suite of tests.

In gaming, the system dishes out frame rates in our tests of 77 fps in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and 94 fps in Unreal Tournament 3 (both at high-quality, 2560-by-2100 resolution). CyberPower′s own Gamer Xtreme XT-K desktop ($1500 as of 4/16/2009) beat those results by anywhere from 16 to 20 percent, and Maingear′s Dash ($1400 as 1/7/2009) is only able to overtake the Gamer Xtreme in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars by around 6.5 percent.

The Thermaltake Element T chassis that houses the Gamer Xtreme is a pleasant, albeit bare-bones design that features red accents for the front-panel buttons, connectors, and case fans. The grilled front makes for better-than-average airflow even though its love-it-or-leave-it aesthetic isn′t as visually stimulating as a solid, black look.

On the plus side, the case does offer plenty of room on the inside to play around with. Clutter-free cabling gives you easy access to the two free 5.25-inch or five free 3.5-inch bays, which require the simple twist of a locking mechanism to secure devices in place. Installing new PCI devices into one of the two free PCI slots, PCI x16 slots, or single PCI slot still requires a screwdriver.

A wide array of external connections awaits your many devices on the system′s rear. Seven USB ports, one FireWire 400 port, one e-SATA port, two gigabit ethernet ports, coaxial and optical S/PDIF ports, and connections for integrated 7.1 surround sound create a powerful buffet of options for you to pick from, though curiously the relatively new Thermaltake chassis supports only two USB ports on the system′s front. An additional USB port can be found on an included multiformat card reader, but for the most part, the imbalance between the Gamer Xtreme′s two halves is slightly frustrating for the device-laden enthusiast.

The mouse included with our test system bills itself as a gaming input device. Its gray and black exterior certainly gives the illusion that some kind of underlying difference exists between this and a generic input device you′d find at the store. There isn′t. The 800-dpi mouse doesn′t feature any buttons for toggling additional modes or other standard “gaming mouse” features. And its three-button design is quite normal and, well, uninspiring. The included keyboard at least includes some additional buttons for application-launching and volume controls. It′s not as pretty as a standard gaming keyboard, but it gets the job done.

It might not be the fastest value PC on paper, but CyberPower′s Gamer Xtreme is close enough to the top to make its lower price a key factor–nay, key advantage–against competing systems. The only dry part of the system is its case. Although the Thermaltake chassis offers much for potential upgraders, its aesthetic design is only so-so, and it has weak offerings for external connections. Still, that′s not enough of a drawback to hurt the overall dominance of this tricked-out value PC.

–David Murphy

The Vaio L117FX/B starts at $1300; we tested a high-end, $2000 (as of December 8, 2009) configuration. At that price, you could score a standard tower desktop that has greater performance and upgradability, but such is the nature of all-in-one PCs.

This Vaio ratchets up the Intel processor to one step past that of the 2.33GHz quad-core chip found in the Gateway One ZX6810-01–a $1400 23-incher that also has a multitouch screen and a TV tuner (but no Blu-ray). However, despite its combination of a 2.66GHz Core 2 Quad Q8400S processor, 6GB of DDR2-800 memory, and a 1TB hard drive, this Sony AIO in some ways doesn′t surpass the Gateway in performance.

Both systems earned a WorldBench 6 score of 105, the best general performance by an all-in-one without an Apple logo. For comparison–as tested using 64-bit Windows 7 and Boot Camp–the $2200 Apple iMac (27-inch/Core i7) scored 128 in WorldBench 6, while the $2000 iMac (27-inch/Core i5) notched 123.

The Vaio also delivers strong gaming performance for an all-in-one, but falls behind the Gateway and the iMacs. Still, its 69 and 41 frames per second in our Unreal Tournament 3 tests (at 1024-by-768 and 1680-by-1050 resolution, respectively; high quality) make it better suited for gaming than most all-in-one-desktops.

The Vaio′s picture quality is as lush in its saturation as it is strong in its contrasts within a scene. That′s partly thanks to the screen′s glossy finish, which does much to amplify the perceived richness of the images–almost too much. It′s very easy to catch a reflection of yourself in this display, let alone any nearby light source. Meanwhile, the built-in speakers definitely sound better than your average laptop. It won′t shock and awe you, but it′s a sweeter sound than what most competing all-in-one desktops can offer.

External port connections are extensive. The side of the screen has two USB and a FireWire 400 port, plus separate slots for a Memory Stick and a standard SD card. Three more USB ports are on the back, along with one optical audio output, a gigabit ethernet port, an RF connector, an HDMI input, and a composite video input. Sony clearly wants this system to become an essential part of your living room setup, which is possible to do in a wireless fashion thanks to the Vaio′s integrated wireless-N connectivity. An included Blu-ray reader/writer rounds out the system′s high-definition multimedia capabilities. Except for a faster connection standard like eSATA, it′s difficult to think of other pertinent connections that the Vaio could offer. On the other hand, you may wish for more upgradability: You could upgrade the hard disk in the previous Vaio all-in-one, but this time around you′re limited to notebook-style RAM upgrades.

The bundled keyboard and mouse are mostly generic, but are styled to match the Vaio′s dark color and straight edges. They′re both wireless, and the keyboard has extra buttons to access PC functions such as volume controls, sleep mode, and zooming. The keyboard can also tuck away in the gap provided beneath the display.

Sony′s Vaio VPCL117FX/B matches the cheaper Gateway One ZX6810-01 in general performance, and both have a TV tuner. The Vaio is larger (a 24- versus a 23-inch multitouch screen) and includes a Blu-ray reader/writer. But the Gateway comes out ahead in gaming performance, and it costs $600 less. If money is not an issue, however, then by all means feel free to splurge.

–David Murphy

Are you planning to buy Xbox 360, what is the first thing you are going to do? Most of the times we would go to the shop right away and buy the first Xbox 360 and may end up getting not the right deal. I think one should look online of where we can get a better deal and learn more about the product?

The quickest and fastest way would be to check out products at shopwiki. If you are a shopper like me this sharing is for you – we all know and heard about wiki already and today I stumble shopwiki. I thought, this is great to share because it is very enlightening and not just giving you the reason to buy it but also to wait of when is the right time to buy the product.

Why shopwiki?

ShopWiki has revolutionized online shopping since it stumbles on every store on the internet. Conventional shopping sites will only show you stores that have PAID for placement but ShopWiki will give a shopper everything, almost 30,000 stores instead of the usual 1,000 stores that other shopping sites have. For a shopper, this means they can find anything and everything for sale on the web at www.ShopWiki.co.uk. More products from more stores mean better deals and savings

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A partition table resembles the map of a township which refers to a block as residential or playground. In similar fashion we have start and end points marked inside 512 bytes. The partition table holds the information about a boot loader, also marking the bootable logical drive as active partition. Partitioning makes it possible to create several file systems (either of the same type or different) on a single hard drive.

Theoretically, a hard disk should contain up to four primary partitions, or one to three primary partitions along with a single extended partition. Further we can create logical drives in the extended drive. This procedure is followed in MS-DOS partitions created using FDISK.

A primary (or logical) partition contains one file system. MS-DOS and earlier versions of Microsoft Windows systems, the first partition (C must be a “primary partition”. Other operating systems may not share this constraint.

For example, under either DOS or Windows, a hard disk with one primary partition and one extended partition, the latter containing two logical drives, would typically be assigned the three drive letters: C:, D: and E: (in that order). Drive letter A: and B: are reserved for floppy drives.

Other than FDISK there are other popular third-party partition management programs available such as Acronis True Image, Norton Partition Magic, Norton Ghost, or specialized recovery programs that come with computers manufactured by most major manufacturers. Windows NT / 2000 / XP / Vista includes an inbuilt ‘Disk Management’ program which allows for the creation, deletion and movement of partitions.

For Unix-based operating system such Solaris, SCO Open Server, SCO UnixWare, IBM AIX or Linux the partitions are created with name of partition instead of drive letter for e.g. /boot, /home, /tmp, /usr, /var, /opt, swap and all remaining files under the “/” (root directory). Such a scheme has a number of potential advantages: if one file system becomes corrupted, the rest of the data (the other file systems) stay intact, minimizing data loss.

Briefly it would be much clearer now that MBR (Master Boot Record) consists of Partition table and a first copy of the boot sector of an active partition. The loss of MBR does not mean data loss. Data is intact and is on offering with the help of any good data recovery application it can be escorted out from this partition can be moved to a healthy drive. I must say a very important thing about one category of applications which were quite popular for some time “Partition Repair” tools. They are the most dangerous set of tools available and would create extremely complex problem for a data recovery technician which could have been a piece of cake kind of recovery for any good recovery software.

Most importantly we go for such tools because we are looking to restore everything if we are able to repair the partition table (a shortcut to heaven) to get back system with all settings, applications and most importantly Operating System which might prove a day’s job to rebuild. Let me tell you if you use applications such as Acronis True image or Norton Ghost then you need not worry about such problems. You just need to keep one image as a factory setting (First Installation Image) of either the first partition or of complete drive and keep on updating another one after every fortnight (that is minimum you could do with taking backup, however there are more things which can be implemented to take the most latest backup with lot of restoration options).

We′ve sung the praises of nVidia′s Ion platform before, and the GPU-maker′s integrated graphics product turns the AspireRevo into a real contender. Gaming still isn’t an option–the system produced just 12 frames per second in our Unreal Tournament 3 tests (at 1024 by 768, and highest settings). But when it comes to HD video output, Ion trumps typical integrated graphics from Intel right now. The AspireRevo sports VGA and HDMI ports, and streams music, photos, and 1080p video with aplomb. Compare that with the similarly equipped Sony VAIO P netbook, which struggles to handle even 320-by-240-resolution video on its Intel GMA 550 graphics processor.

Streaming HD Web video from sites such as Hulu or Vimeo was shaky on the AspireRevo until we installed the new Flash Player 10.1 Beta, which beefs up Flash playback by enlisting the help of the Ion graphics chip. The AspireRevo′s support for 7.1 surround sound (via S/PDIF coaxial output), 802.11n Wi-Fi, and gigabit ethernet round out its home-theater PC capabilities. The system′s Windows 7 Home Premium OS includes Media Center, but you′ll need to get your own USB TV tuner or capture stick for DVR-like functionality.

On our WorldBench 6 test suite, the AspireRevo scored a paltry 36–the same as rival nettops such as the Lenovo IdeaCentre Q100, MSI Wind Nettop CS120, and Asus Eee Box B202. The bottom line: Power users or gamers should look farther up the desktop PCs food chain.

For everyday tasks, though, Windows 7 actually runs well on the R3610′s 1.6GHz Atom 330 dual-core processor, 2GB of DDR2-800 memory (upgradable to 4GB), and 5400-rpm hard disk. We saw a noticeable performance hit with common tasks, like multitasking or thumbing through half a dozen browser windows at 1900 by 1200 on a 32-inch HDTV, but you′ll get better mileage if you turn off some of Windows 7′s visual pizzazz, like the Aero visual effects.

The AspireRevo lacks an optical drive (Blu-ray, DVD, or otherwise), but its six USB ports, multiformat card reader, and high-speed networking mean you′ll have no problems streaming or copying over digital movie/music files. And if external hard drives are your thing, you′ll be pleased to know that it also has a high-speed eSATA connection.

The included wireless keyboard and mouse are nice enough for casual use. Powered by AAA batteries, they connect to the system by way of a minuscule nub of a USB dongle. The range is great; they′re perfect for couch surfing, and they never broke connectivity while we roamed about our test apartment.

You won′t find much in the way of extras. The included “Acer Games” console falls firmly into the realm of shovelware, offering demos of yesterday′s tired Flash games. The “manual” is two pages long, and tells you how to plug your HDMI cable into your TV. Of note is the dinky pair of USB speakers: The sound is okay (better than the tinny whine that dribbles out of most laptops), but yes, you will replace them. And HDMI users will just use their TV speakers, anyway.

The Acer AspireRevo R3610 has a lot to like, particularly if media serving is a niche you need filled. Plop it down beside or behind your TV and patch it into your home network, and you′ll have a fairly nice streaming box for just $330. You could instead get a newly updated Mac Mini for a few hundred dollars more, but if you want streaming media in a petite package (with a price to match), put the AspireRevo on your short list.

The million dollar question (give or take $998,001): Does the m17 deliver the goods? Yes. I′ve roamed Fallout 3′s post-apocalyptic wastelands at the laptop′s 1920-by-1200-pixel native resolution. It′s completely playable, and I didn′t run into any game-killing snags.

What caught me off-guard is that it didn′t exactly blow the doors off PC WorldBench 6, scoring only an 84. Frankly, between the GPU, the 4GB of RAM, and the 160GB hard disk drive (spinning at 7200rpm, no less), I was expecting a little better. I suppose the 2.26-GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 CPU shoulders some of the blame, but the good news is that this won′t affect your gaming experience in the slightest. Both Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and Unreal Tournament III, running at 1680 by 1050 pixels and high settings hum along at 44 and 51 frames per second, respectively. By comparison, HP′s HDX18, also a desktop replacement, has a bigger, bolder screen and earned a commanding score of 102 in WorldBench 6–but squeaks along in modern games. Running the same two games at the same settings, the HDX18 manages only 17 fps in ET:QW and 38 fps in UT3.

The M17 has a big 17-inch screen. Though not as eye-blastingly bright as some laptop displays I′ve seen, it′s certainly sharp enough for watching Blu-ray movies (though our unit came with a DVD-RW drive), and it handled some of the murkier corners of the Left 4 Dead zombiethon game. Even so, the screen doesn′t get the picture quite right at the default settings. Some colors get a little muted and warmer colors get cool. Also, the screen is glossy. That means colors look good when viewing the LCD indoors, but viewing anywhere near daylight will bring a little glare.

It also goes without saying that desktop replacement notebook batteries don′t last long. In this case, you get just under 2 hours on a charge.

That′s really not surprising given this laptop′s big, gawky, heavy design: It weighs a full 9.5 pounds and measures 15.6 by 11.7 by 2 inches. Even compared with Alienware′s Area 51 m15x, which we reviewed a number of months ago, the m17 is a half-step backwards to old-school boxy notebooks.

I have a love/hate relationship with the keyboard on the m17. For a moment, let′s dwell on the positive. I like the unusual font and the backlighting on the keys that make them easier to see in dim lighting conditions. And being able to change colors is a nice, if goofy, touch. Though the QWERTY key spacing is a little on the tiny side, it is functional and more than springy enough to satisfy me. And the shortcut buttons are neatly labeled and work exactly as you′d expect.

Now the negatives: First, I like that the laptop′s keyboard has a number pad, but this pad is so tiny and scrunched together, I′d almost prefer Alienware not bother and just stick with a larger standard keyboard. And while the lit keys are neat, they pretty much always need to be on. Without the backlighting, seeing the keys is tricky. For touch typists, that′s not a big deal, but for advanced hunt-and-peckers (like me) it′s a problem.

My biggest beef is with the rubberized wrist rest. Or maybe I should say, “wrist landing pad.” Its so huge, I could park a can of coke on it without fear of hitting it as I type. Seriously, it feels like an unnecessarily large gap between the keys and the edge of the notebook (my guess is that the beefy GPU needs room to breathe). I do like the touchpad and its long, thick mouse button bar, but trying to go back and forth between that and the keys forced my hands into an awkward angle. So make sure you′ve got good carpal tunnel coverage on your medical plan before buying this laptop (or get an external mouse). A plus, though, is that the machine′s coating feels good. Its supple, rubbery matte covers most of the beefy computer. It′s even on the Batman codpiece-like laptop lid.

The rest of the case offers a reasonable stable of features: A PC Card and SDHC card slots, three USB 2.0 ports, VGA, FireWire, and ethernet jacks. This machine also has some solid multimedia nods that I like: an eSATA port, an HDMI out, and an optical audio-out (TOSLINK). And thank you, Alienware, for throwing in an old-time analog dial for cranking the audio. I′m not joking: I actually prefer the analog dial. And the laptop provides fairly solid audio with its 2.1-speaker configuration. While a little tinny, the two front-firing cones are acceptable enough for cube rocking–and surly looks from neighboring officemates.

On the software side, Alienware gives you a gussied-up launch page. Basically, the Command Center breaks down the lighting and offers some power management, but not much more–though it sure looks pretty. I just think the notebook would be better served with more sophisticated tweaking options. Maybe it′s me, but I assume gamers are a little more comfortable flipping switches to eke out performance.

That gripe aside, those who want to get their game on will get a good deal out of the Alienware m17–especially considering that last year the m15x sold for over twice as much. As a gaming machine, the m17 delivers speed where it counts, but it lags a little in more conventional office-application tests.

–Darren Gladstone

But Asus hopes that its software bundle will set the Eee Top apart. Beyond a large-icon program launcher (now expected on all touch-enabled PCs), Asus throws in a handful of touch-friendly programs, including some games, the Eee Cinema media viewer, and Eee Memo (a sticky-notes app). SoftStylus, another piece of software, lets you draw letters directly on the screen or use an on-screen keyboard. I didn′t find SoftStylus particularly practical, however; using the included keyboard was much easier for me. Other apps to get you started include Opera, Skype, and StarSuite 8.

With its glossy white chassis and transparent plastics, the Eee Top looks like something Apple would design. Its 15-inch, 1366-by-768-resolution LCD touchscreen is small by desktop standards, but it is adequate for most basic tasks (Internet, word processing, light gaming, and the like), and it helps the Eee Top fit into a range of living environments. One of the all-in-one′s best design touches is a carrying handle integrated into the angle-adjustable foot, so you can carry the Eee Top around. Of course, it helps that the Eee Top is light enough and compact enough that toting it around with one hand doesn′t require you to have the arm strength of Alex Rodriguez.

Powered by a 1.6GHz Atom processor and running Windows XP Home, the Eee Top is no world-beater. In our PC World Test Center tests, the Eee Top achieved a WorldBench 6 score of 41, which is slow by desktop standards, and comparable to similarly priced netbooks. You won′t want to run any high-end graphics programs or games on this machine; but for the basics, the Eee Top will get the job done.

Asus includes six USB 2.0 ports on the Eee Top, two of which occupy the left side (along with an SD Card slot) for easy access. One nagging design flaw, however, is the location of the Eee Top′s headphone and microphone jacks on the unit′s rear. The Eee Top is small enough that you can easily rotate it to reach the jacks, but I wish that Asus had included jacks on the front.

Another drawback: What you buy is what you get. The Eee Top is a completely closed system, and you can′t upgrade the components inside–which you may find frustrating if you want more memory than the unit′s included 1GB. (The system′s storage, a 160GB hard drive, is also paltry.) In addition, Asus has omitted any optical drive.

Users who value expandability are clearly not the Eee Top′s target audience. Instead, this computer and its components are most suitable for users who want a no-fuss PC to cover the basics, plus a touch screen to simplify performing certain activities.

The Eee Top′s signature feature is its display, with touchscreen capabilities. Colors are bright and vibrant, and the screen accepts both finger input and touch input–though not multitouch as the HP TouchSmart IQ816, HP TouchSmart IQ500t, or Dell Studio One 19 do. That system supports two fingers at once for iPhone-like pinching gestures.

The Eee Top also sports some healthy networking features, namely gigabit ethernet and 802.11b/g/n wireless. The bundled keyboard and mouse lack certain features (the keyboard has no numerical keypad, for example), but I found them usable, and I liked the keyboard′s feel and tactile response.

If you′re looking for a computer for the kitchen, for your kids, or perhaps for the technophobe in your life, the Eee Top is still worth a look. But remember that just $30 more will get you an almost-identically configured 19-inch system from MSI or Averatec.

With the 10-megapixel DMC-FZ28, Panasonic has nixed those two problems entirely. The FZ28 lets you use that huge 18X optical zoom while shooting video (in HD, no less), and in the PC World Test Center′s tests, its battery life maxed out at 500 or more shots on a single charge (up from just 420 shots with the Lumix FZ18). The sum of those improvements? The camera was a joy to use.

Similar to its advanced point-and-shoot competitors, the Lumix FZ28 boasts a whopping 18X optical zoom (27mm to 486mm in 35mm film equivalent) and a range of manual controls.

But unlike most of those competitors–except the Olympus SP-570 UZ and the Canon PowerShot G10 IS–the FZ28 is capable of shooting in RAW format. Not only does this eliminate any exposure and white-balance problems that arise during capture (since you can correct them after the fact), it offers complete post-production control over your images.

The FZ28 also boasts a Leica DC Vario-Elmarit lens: excellent glass, to say the least. But surprisingly, in the PC World Test Center′s subjective tests, the Lumix FZ28 lagged some of the competition when it came to image quality.

In well-lit, indoor test shots, PC World Test Center jurors noted inaccurate color reproduction on the bright end of the spectrum. The jurors assessed overall image quality as “Good,” on a par with Canon′s highly-rated PowerShot SX10 IS and close to the PowerShot G10 IS, but trailing high-zoom advanced cameras such as the Casio Exilim Pro EX-F1 and the top-ranked Olympus SP-570 UZ.

In my own hands-on testing, the FZ28′s most serious shortcomings were white balance and focus speed. When shooting inside with a flash (under tungsten light), the camera consistently produced overwarm images. Outside, however, the white balance was spot-on. Focus speed was noticeably sluggish when the lens was zoomed all the way in; on the wide-angle end, though, focusing was fast and accurate.

One standout feature is the FZ28′s ability to shoot 720p HD movies (1280 by 720 pixels at 30 frames per second). Although to my ears the sound quality was less than stellar, the videos themselves were excellent, making the camera an acceptable substitute for a video camera when you want to travel lightly.

I found nearly all the camera′s functions intuitive to use. A back-of-camera “joystick,” which controls the FZ28′s manual functions, threw me off at first, but it was a cinch to operate once I got used to it. The mode dial on the top of the camera makes switching easy between manual, program, aperture-priority, shutter-priority, and automatic modes. The dial also has five dedicated scene modes (portrait, landscape, sports, night-portrait, and close-up) and two custom modes. A final dial option is a gateway to 17 additional scene modes, giving you more shooting parameters than you′ll probably ever use.

Overall, there was little I didn′t like about the FZ28, except for a few very minor annoyances: When holding the FZ28 with two hands, my left thumb rested directly in front of the focus assist lamp, making focus difficult in low light (until I noticed what was happening and moved my thumb). Also, the flash does not automatically open; it requires pushing a button. Finally, I found the manual focus useless, although that seems to be par for most cameras in this class.

Given the price (about $400), the Leica lens, the telephoto reach, the wide angle, and the camera′s ability to shoot RAW, the Lumix FZ28 is a solid high-zoom point-and-shoot.

–Danny Palmerlee

Sony Ericsson provides three sets of different-size earbuds in the package, though the even smallest pair were still a smidge too large for my small ears. Nonetheless, I was able to get a reasonably good seal, and the overall fit seemed comfortable, secure, and discreet. The headphones stayed snug as I walked (and then ran) around.

In general, the headphones delivered great-sounding tracks, with crisp vocals, warm (but not overwhelming) bass, and clear reproduction of background instruments–such as a tambourine′s jangles. I found, however, that dance music, like acid jazz, tended to come across as a mishmash rather than distinct tones.

Phone call quality was mostly good. People could tell I was speaking on a headset, but voices were clear at both ends. Call recipients occasionally heard a crackling sound in the background; they told me that–though my chatter blocked background noise somewhat–when I stopped talking, the loud din became quite noticeable.

The inline control unit actually dangles down from the left side of the headset. This unit houses the microphone and the action button–the headset′s only control. I found it a bit annoying, as it often got tangled up in my hair, but surprisingly it didn′t bob around much. You use it to turn the headset on and off; to initiate, accept/reject, and end a call; and to play or pause tunes. The HBH-IS800 doesn′t let you adjust the volume or skip forward or backward through tracks. I missed that.

If you′re willing to sacrifice some phone and music controls for an ultrasmall headset with dependable audio quality–and the hefty price tag is no barrier–the Sony Ericsson package has got the goods.