Other Tech

Recently I sat down with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, in the guise of actor Patrick Stewart. He was out of uniform that morning because we were in a roundtable discussion about X-Men: The Last Stand.

XM Satellite Radio tuner and 5.1-channel Neural Surround decoder

Tony Hawk became the world's most famous skateboarder by "going big" and performing maneuvers no one else had even thought of. But when it came to his new home, the avowed "electronics nut" decided that less is more. Hawk in front of his home theater system.

Most people never see hard-disk drives, but their impact on our lives is becoming universal. We take them for granted, remembering how essential they are only when they occasionally fail. While CDs pretty much own the data of the audio world, hard-disk drives are providing exciting new possibilities. Take Yamaha's CDR-HD1300, for example.

Furniture Why banish your components to a dark, stuffy closet? Furniture makers have a variety of stands and cabinets that will make your gear easy to get to and great to look at.

Back in October 2004, we tested the ZVOX audio system, an all-in-one "virtual" surround option for those who want something better than built-in TV speakers. Now comes the $199 ZVOX mini audio system, a shrunk-down, portable version intended to provide sound for music players like the iPod or for TVs.