Other Tech

TV Freeze Out

Q. I have a three-season home that's closed up and unheated during winter months. Early HDTVs (LCD/plasma) couldn't be guaranteed free of damage by their manufacturers if their screens were subjected to temperatures at or below freezing. A neighbor recently bought a plasma screen, believing it wouldn't be susceptible to such low temperatures.

Don't just stuff those stockings. Tech those halls! Make room on your list for small devices that will deliver big smiles.

How much is music worth? Nietzsche wrote, "Without music, life would be a mistake." That places a high value on sounds that entertain and sometimes inspire us. Then again, at 3 o'clock in the morning, you'd pay good money to have the music at the party next door shut off.

The latest home theater trend is 2.35:1 constant-height display systems (provided, of course, that you ignore 1080p, 250,000:1 contrast ratios, HDMI 1.3a, Deep Color, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD, Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD, multi-terabyte media servers, and PS3).

So just how big a Santa are you? A stocking-stuffer, who shills out a mere $21 for the latest two-disc Blade Runner DVD set? Or the kind that enlists all available elf-muscle to deliver an $870, 90-motion-picture gift-a-ganza: the United Artists Super Deluxe Gift Set?

Despite technological advances in every area, most homes are still limited to just two pieces of automation: garage-door opener and remote control. And while it's unfathomable to think of manually cranking a car's windows or locking its doors, people remain content to walk around their homes turning lights on and off - just like Thomas Edison did.