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AGENDA
PLUGGED IN
see if win 8 was worth the wait
The much-anticipated Windows 8, the latest update of Microsoft’s foundational PC operating system, is supposed to be a game-changer, with instinctive simplicity on touch-compliant screens. The VivoBook S200 from ASUS offers a feather-weight, travel-friendly laptop with Windows 8-specific enhancements. Test for yourself whether Microsoft got it right, or just jumped the shark, Fonzie-style. Available from Micro Center, $599; asus.com
web surf with a
sleeker mouse
Form smoothes out function on the Manhattan Stealth Touch Mouse. Tailless and buttonless, it looks more like a surf- board for Stuart Little than a comput- er-input device. The wireless-equipped desk accessory senses fingertip pres- sure for left and right clicks and up or down scrolls, providing an elegant sculpted contour to enable agile online navigation. Available at Best Buy, $44.98; manhattan-products.com
unlock the light-
up padlock
They’ve digitized just about everything else we use, so why not Tron that gym-locker main- stay, the combination lock? You don’t have to twirl open Master Lock’s 1500eDBX dialSPEED; it yields to taps of the glow- ing arrows on its dial, corre- sponding to letter and number combinations only you can set. Available from Master Lock, $24.99; masterlock.com
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watch a bigger, smarter hdtv
Just when it seems high-def TV technol- ogy has hit a plateau, Samsung ups the ante with a room-filling, 75-inch, razor- sharp flat-screen, the ES9000. Richer contrast and a brighter picture are among the enhancements on this computer-aug- mented, 3D-ready LCD set. It’s so smart, it recognizes hand gestures to control it. Available from P.C. Richard, $8,999; samsung.com
Q1 2013