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The Rialto
For the greatest holiday party ever: buy a Sony Bravia SXRD 1080p Projector ($14,999), don parkas, serve eggnog and show It’s a Wonderful Life on the side of your house in full 1080p resolution (trust us, that’s plenty) up to a whopping 200 inches. |
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Awesome Obelisks
This slick operation from Edifer (model E3350, $99) provides deep bass and easy MP3 hook-up, laying waste to the myth that good sound plus good design has to equal high cost. |
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Musical Chair
The GenevaSound Home Theatre ($3,999) from Swiss geniuses Geneva Lab gives you a sweet place to put your plasma, and offers superb sound without having to install costly in-wall speakers. |
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Easy Reader
Tired of the endless wait for Amazon’s much-hyped Kindle 2, we grabbed a Sony Reader Touch Edition ($399) and darned if the thing wasn’t way easier to use than its competition. |
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Sounds of Silence
Planes these days have two types of travellers: those on the verge of a complete mental breakdown and those with top-drawer noise-cancelling headphones. Bose Quiet Comfort 15 ($399) are the best. |
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Long Distance Relationship
The Slingbox PRO HD ($384) is a great pieces of technology that inexplicably remains the domain of tech nerds. Slap it on your home TV and it allows you to watch anything on your PVR (or DVD) on your laptop, anywhere in the world.
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There Can Be Only One
Worst thing about flat screens? Wires everywhere. Best? The thin profile. Panasonic’s TC-P54Z1 ($7,999) is an inch thick and wireless. Meet the best TV you can buy right now.
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Mission Control
A lot of companies claim they have the system that allows you to operate your home music with one easy hand-held module. But in our experience, only the Sonos Bundle 250 ($1,199 for a two-room bundle) is both easy to use and technically sound. The only problem is who gets the remote at the party. |
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Killed the Radio Star
Unless you’re David Lean, you don’t need anything more complicated than this MinoHD ($249) wonder from Flip that films in full, crisp HD with one-button ease. |
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Cool O’Clock
We covet each new offering from Danish design powerhouse Bang & Olufsen, even as we brace for the inevitable sting of the price tag. But their new BeoTime ($450) is beautiful—and won’t preclude the kids from going to college. |
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Green Ray
The new 4E5 from Sony ($1,699) uses a unique technology called HCFL to reduce energy consumption by up to 40 percent—so you can breathe easy while watching the Discovery Channel. |
