Summer Means Fun: A Guide to the Hottest Digital Entertainment Gear of the Season Columbia SC

Posted by : Dan Heilman

Come on--you can spend the rest of the year fretting over servers, firewalls, and all that other serious, brow-furrowing technology. In the words of an old surf-music record, summer means fun, and for technophiles of all stripes, fun means new toys. Whether the heat's firing you up or bringing you down, it's time to look into gadgets that will entertain, amuse, and enlighten. Here's a cross-section of some of the newest entertainment gadgets that promise to add some zing to your vacation time.

Say cheese

Summer antics are practically begging to be documented, and fortunately there's an impressive variety of new ways to capture your freshly baked memories. Two top new digital cameras are from Olympus and Samsung. Olympus's C-750 (MSRP: $550) boasts 10x optical/40x zoom, a hot shoe for adding extra flashes, a 4-megapixel CCD, a QuickTime movie mode, and free firmware that lets you connect the camera to any PictBridge-enabled printer and print photos without the need for a computer to act as a go-between.

Samsung's Digimax U-CA3 ($230) has just a 3.2-megapixel CCD. But to make up for the relative lack of bulk, it has MPEG4 technology for digital movies--up to 72 minutes' worth on a 256MB memory card. Throw in a Rainbow Eye lamp that will light your subject in one of seven colors, along with voice recording and memo capability, and the Digimax becomes hard to resist smiling for.

If you're all about the movin' pictures, check out the H...

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