shop

This powerful wallpaper changer should satisfy the most demanding desktop decorators. The rather unassuming interface belies a bevy of options that give users the utmost in wallpaper control.

Automatic Wallpaper Changer's interface is not much to look at. Extreme novices (say, your great-grandmother) may not find it immediately evident how the program works, but helpful tool tips pop up when users hover over the screen elements. To most users it should be fairly obvious that on the first screen you can select a directory of photos, adjust the speed of the image change, and set the position of the … Read more

Little sticky notes are a way of life in many offices, however, those handy reminders quickly become a clutter. Clean up your physical desktop by organizing your notes on your digital desktop. Crawler Notes offers users a chance to replicate those note with some added twists.

This free program appears immediately as a simple yellow scrap of paper and is incredibly easy to use. Simply fill in the blank space with your message, reminder, or note and it is saved to the desktop. Clicking on the thumbtack icon will send your message to the background, while clicking on the wrench … Read more

I'm a list guy. I have lists everywhere. I have stacks of them all telling me to do various things. Pay the bills, deal with the DMV, feed the neighbor's cat--stuff like that. These scraps of paper litter my house from end to end. A quick survey reveals that most of them seem to be grocery lists. I know for a fact the word "eggs" is scrawled on at least half a dozen pieces of paper, yet my refrigerator houses none of them. What's the problem? I always forget my shopping list.

While the SmartShopper Deluxe … Read more

The stock market may be showing signs of a rebound, but consumers still have a lock on their wallets at retail.

Shopping online for the right products at better prices can be quite overwhelming, but with some know-how, it's less intimidating and certainly worthwhile. These 12 tools will not only help you save cash, but they might also make you more confident about your purchases. I am.

Frucall: Frucall is a really great service. When you're at a brick-and-mortar store checking out a product, you can either call Frucall's free telephone line, text-message the company, or access its mobile site and compare the store's price with online pricing. When you input the name or bar code, it returns the pricing on the product from Amazon.com, Shopping.com, and other services. It's quick and easy. Plus, it's free, though standard text-messaging rates do apply. I really liked Frucall.

Google Product Search: Formerly known as Froogle, Google's Product Search is a relatively useful tool for finding cheaper prices on desired products. It will return a good portion of the online stores currently selling products that match up with your search terms. It also lists their seller ratings, based on customer reports. It's a nice tool, but it doesn't quite stand up to some of the more useful sites in this roundup. Consider Google Product Search a backup.… Read more

Other Music isn't the sort of place you'd go to pick up the new U2 record; its primary mission is to turn its customers onto, well, other music. Now, some of Other Music's titles are available as MP3 downloads.

The physical and download Other Music stores are an attempt to classify the unclassifiable; there's "In" (indie rock); "Out" (experimental, free jazz, noise, 20th century composers, and early electronic pioneers); "Electronica" (new electronic music including ambient, electro, and underground hip-hop); "Then" (influential artists from the '60s, '70s, and '80s); … Read more

Buying music or books online makes a lot of sense, but I'd draw the line at speakers.

Maybe there's no place close enough to go to for an in-store demo--a lot of shops closed their doors--precisely because too many people used their service to audition gear, and then bought online to get a lower price.

Nice, so now there are fewer places to hear speakers before you buy them. So even if you're reasonably happy with what you bought online you never had the luxury of comparing one speaker against another and picking the best of your choices. Good enough is good enough.

Over the past 30 years--16 as a high-end audio salesman and 14 as a paid audio reviewer--I've listened to thousands of speakers. My sales experience gave me a deep understanding of how all sorts of people, not just audiophiles, listen to and buy speakers.

Some buyers need to touch the speaker, get a sense of its build quality, and some buyers, even after reading a review, are surprised by the speaker's size or some other quality. It's one thing to read about a speaker or peruse its specifications, seeing and hearing it for yourself is so much better.

I draw upon those experiences when I review speakers, but I still can't predict how each reader will react to their sound. Everyone hears differently, and preferences are all over the place.

Some customers want lots of bass, some just want to play loud, or quietly, some care most abut stereo imaging. One guy plays dance music, another only opera. But most speaker shoppers can't articulate what they want from a speaker. That's the rub, and why reviews, even ones as well written as mine for CNET and magazines, may not be the best possible guide to the right speaker. … Read more