Other Tech

And the Trojans wheeled the great wooden horse into their city and shut the gates. Later, while the city of Troy slept, Greek warriors slipped out from inside the horse and pillaged the city.

Did you get interested in consumer electronics when you were kids? David (above, right): Yeah. Zach's been tinkering with electronics since he could stand.

Zachary (above, left): There are stories of me taking apart my grandma's clock radios back when I was a kid.

Performance
Features
Ergonomics

PRICE $130

AT A GLANCE
Plus
Three bands with automatic switching for greater dedicated bandwidth to individual devices
Fast, reliable streaming throughout home network
Two USB ports make hard drives accessible within home and remotely
Minus
Dashboard makes it hard to customize some settings
Automated band switching and QoS remove options to change settings to suit your needs
No backup or media management software

THE VERDICT
A speedy, reliable router that’s great if you accept its automatic settings.

As I’ve taken to streaming as much 4K video as I can from Netflix and Amazon, it was important to get the fastest router. Perhaps there’s something psychological about the candy-apple red glossy exterior that reminds me of a cross between a drag racer and a spaceship, or perhaps it was its impressive specs, but either way, I was inspired to try out D-Link’s DIR890L/R top-of-the-line tri-band router.

03/17/2006 Last weekend I went shopping for a protective jacket for the iPod Nano I bought recently. (Yes, even Sound & Vision reviewers buy gear at retail.) The buzz was that the Nano's high-gloss finish was more easily scratched than the finish on earlier iPods, something I can't verify.

No one ever said being a home theater enthusiast was cheap. If you've got a full 7.1-channel speaker system, tricked out with the latest gear, and topped off with a 60-inch plasma, it could cost you more than $10,000. Yeah, that thing saying "ouch" is your credit card.