Crave

The best of today's home theater in a box systems are excellent, but how do you find the one that's right for you?

First, read my CNET reviews; they're loaded with information about how easy the HTIB is to use and how well it performs. It may be a dubious honor, but I probably hold the record for testing more HTIBs for magazines and Web sites than any other reviewer.

Most HTIBs come with Blu-ray or DVD players, receivers, and five or more speakers and a subwoofer. Right, HTIBs also come with lots of wires and setup chores, so they're almost as complex to install as separate receiver, player, and speaker-based home theater systems.

Onkyo's HT-S9100THX is the best-sounding HTIB on the planet.

(Credit: Onkyo)

If that's more than you bargained for, maybe you should be looking for something simpler: a single-speaker surround system? That would eliminate most of the wiring and setup hassles. Check my CNET reviews to see if one is right for you.

For small bedrooms or dorm rooms, a budget HTIB or single-speaker surround system may be ideal. Family-size home theaters may require larger systems with larger speakers and powered subwoofers.

Connectivity varies a lot in this category, so don't assume all HTIBs have what you need. If you don't want to switch inputs on your TV every time you select a different video source, say from a game system to a Blu-ray player, make sure the HTIB has enough HDMI and other video inputs. Some HTIBs don't switch video at all. Some have USB inputs and iPod-docking capabilities.

HTIBs tend to sound best with movies; music comes in a distant second place. I always refer to HTIBs' performance with movies and music, so if you plan on listening to a lot of music over your new system, definitely look for that in the reviews. Don't assume the sound will be equally good for music and movies; it rarely is.

(Credit: GoodGuide)

Just in time for the crazed holiday shopping season, San Francisco-based GoodGuide releases the first iPhone app that lets you scan bar codes for what the guide calls "impartial" health, environmental, and social responsibility ratings of not only the products you are scanning but their companies, too.

GoodGuide's free app lets you scan an item's bar code and instantly retrieve info on that product's health, environmental, and social responsibility ratings.

(Credit: GoodGuide)

As our Webware staff wrote in August, "GoodGuide is the reason we have awards for tech services and products: it's a small and relatively unknown service that demonstrates real leadership on the Web." And as we report in Health Tech just this week, GoodGuide is an invaluable resource when shopping for toys, as it provides the levels of lead, mercury, chlorine, etc., that might be in the toys.

But GoodGuide's newest app is quite possibly the group's pinnacle achievement thus far. Now, instead of having to be organized enough to do your research online before hitting the stores, or using the app's 2008 iteration, which involves entering a product into a GoodGuide database on your phone, now anyone with an iPhone can literally scan bar codes while shopping.

Seriously, this could become a tick. I kind of want to spend all day scanning bar codes with the same fervor I used to pop package bubbles as a kid. As GoodGuide spokesperson Suzanne Skyvara (mother of two boys, ages 8 and 5) tells me in a delightful English accent that somehow makes everything sound healthy and socially responsible: "It's making it easier to be good. We all want to do this, but god, who's got the time to research it all?"

I envision scoffing with delight at the higher-priced products that don't actually measure up to their less expensive counterparts, a discovery likely as satisfying as catching a poker player mid-bluff. Or, conversely, I can see justifying a slightly more expensive product that is far healthier for my body and environment.

Of course, the value of such a system hinges on how good the information is. GoodGuide licensed Occipital's RedLaser bar code-scanning technology for this app and culled ratings for more than 62,000 food, personal care, household chemical and toy products and companies, and plans to add thousands more every month. Learn more about GoodGuide's rating system here.

Best of all, of course, is that GoodGuide's app is free--a fact that also sounds delightful in an English accent. All you need is the funds to own an iPhone, but that's a different story.

Zvox Z-Base 525

(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)

Surround sound and its accouterments tend to dominate a living room, requiring an AV receiver, several speakers, stands, and wires to make the whole thing work. That's why many people choose to skip surround sound, opting instead for the tinny acoustics of their TV speakers.

Single-speaker solutions like the Zvox Z-Base 525 represent a middle ground approach, promising much better audio than your TV without all the fuss. The Z-Base 525 is particularly fuss-free; its unique design makes it look like nothing more than a pedestal for your HDTV. Even better, the Z-Base sounds better than most sound bars do, although it doesn't have as much of the surround effect as other sound bars. (The step-up Z-Base 575 sounds even better, but it's larger and more expensive.)

Like any sound bar, it doesn't compare with a full 5.1 system, but if you can live with the compromises, the Z-Base 525 ($350) is one of the more affordable options with respectable sound and an outstanding design.

Read our full review of the Zvox Z-Base 525.

Zvox Z-Base 525 photos

The Z-Base575 is a speaker and a TV base.

(Credit: Zvox)

Sound bar speakers vastly simplify home theater setup and installation, but their sound quality always falls short of bona fide 5.1-channel speaker-subwoofer-based systems. The single-box Zvox Z-Base575 get closer to that ideal than most.

The problem with sound bars is they're too small. Even pricey bars like Yamaha's YSP-3050 ($1,199 MSRP) can't generate full-blown home theater impact. And it's a bit bigger than average (31.5 inches wide by 6.1 inches high by 6 inches deep), but films like "Mission: Impossible III" sound tepid over the YSP-3050. The film's explosive effects lack the excitement you'd get from a 5.1 system. Yamaha's technology is amazing, but it can't produce high-impact sound from skinny cabinets. I'm not singling out Yamaha here; Denon, Marantz, Polk, Samsung, and Sony sound bars all--to varying degrees--squash dynamic range of movies.

Stepping up to the YSP-4000 ($1,600 MSRP) won't make that big a difference; in my CNET review I noted that it stumbled with big special effect-driven flicks like "Mission: Impossible III." The explosions fell flat, the bass was rumbly, and the Yamaha couldn't play loud at all. Hooking up an Acoustic Research HT60 subwoofer to add extra muscle helped a little, but the YSP-4000 still lacked punch.

Part of the problem is that almost all sound bar speakers are too small. Zvox's Z-Base575 is big and very, very deep. How deep is it? Sixteen inches! So unlike other surround bar speaker systems that can either be wall-mounted or set on a shelf, the Z-Base575 was designed to be used as a base under your TV. Don't worry, the sturdy medium-density fiberboard cabinet can support heavyweight displays.

With the launch of Windows 7 this week, we've seen a number of product marketing attempts that made us ask "what on earth does this have to do with anything?"

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Windows Cafe in Paris

Windows 7 Whopper marketing promotion

I'm a PC USB keys

Pistachio ad campaign featuring Levi Johnston

Dolce & Gabbana Sony Ericsson Jalou

Regretsy

(Credit: Flickr user Kyle Simourd)

Bears have some awfully funny inclinations. Back in 2004 there were all those wackynews stories about the bear who'd downed three dozen cans of beer at a campground and proceeded to pass out.

But this one takes the cake: this summer, when Vermont hiker Kris Rowley was approached by a bear and it kept following her, it proved more interested in chowing down on her iPhone.

Rowley, who serves as Vermont's chief information security officer, tells CIO.com: "In a semi-panic, I threw the phone at the bear."

The bear proceeded to ignore Rowley and started clawing at the iPhone instead, CIO.com explains. Rowley used that as her chance to make a hasty exit. She returned two days later to get her iPhone back--bringing along a baseball bat for defense--and found it still there, but chewed and scratched up to the point where she couldn't use it anymore.

Unfortunately, the Genius Bar support team at her local Apple Store wouldn't take "a bear ate my iPhone" as a legitimate excuse to get a new one on the house: Rowley had to pay full price for a replacement.

Maybe that would've been different if she'd brought the bear along with her. Just a thought.

FoodScanner for iPhone is a calorie counter's dream come true.

When my eating starts getting out of control, I usually fire up the Lose It app to keep tabs on my calories for a few days.

Of course, it's a hassle to have to manually enter the foods I eat. Enter FoodScanner, a new app that scans package bar codes for quick and easy calorie logging.

Does it work? It does. Is it just as cool as it sounds? It is. Will it earn a spot in one of Apple's "There's an app for that" commercials? Almost certainly. It's just that slick.

To use FoodScanner, just tap the little lightning bolt, then point your iPhone's camera at a UPC bar code until it's centered within the arrow guides.

In a matter of seconds, the app scans the bar code and presents the matching food (complete with a thumbnail picture). I found the scan process remarkably fast and accurate, especially compared with the somewhat unforgiving scanner in the pic2shop app I mentioned yesterday.

Once you've looked up your food, you can review its nutrition label or tap "I Ate This!" to record it in your daily database, which keeps a running tally of your caloric intake.

Of course, restaurant foods and other non-packaged items (like most fruits and veggies) have no bar codes--but FoodScanner also features a search option that ties to developer DailyBurn's database of more than 200,000 foods. So you can look up just about anything you can't scan.

No bar code? No problem. FoodScanner lets you search for non-packaged foods.

Speaking of DailyBurn, there's an eponymous app that's much more robust at tracking your calories, exercise, weight goals, and the like. FoodScanner is kind of a companion app.

Thankfully, it can sync with your Web-based DailyBurn account, which in turn syncs with the DailyBurn app. It's unfortunate that FoodScanner wasn't just built right into DailyBurn, but ultimately the data lands there.

The DailyBurn Web service and app are free, while FoodScanner costs $2.99.

If packaged foods make up a sizable portion of your diet, you're sure to find the convenience of bar code scanning (to say nothing of the off-the-charts cool factor) well worth the price.

Seven channels from one skinny speaker? We'll see.

(Credit: Atlantic Technology)

Atlantic Technology claims its FS-7.0 Surround Bar is the first loudspeaker capable of reproducing all seven channels of a home theater soundtrack from a single wall-mountable enclosure. A matching 8-inch powered subwoofer will be offered for optimal integration with the FS-7.0.

A lot of very expensive soundbars are either tweeterless, or include just one tweeter, like Bowers & Wilkins' $2,200 Panorama. The FS-7.0's front baffle includes three 1-inch soft dome tweeters, for the front left, center, and right channels. The front panel also has a pair of 4x6-inch woofers.

Surround channels use full-range 3.25-inch drivers mounted on the sides of the cabinet. The Atlantic Technology FS-7.0 and SB-800 compact theater system will be available this month at suggested retail prices of $800 for the FS-7.0 in Gloss Black and $300 for the SB-800 subwoofer in matte black.

We all know that invading space aliens have one primary objective, and that is to impregnate human kind. That and possibly to collect today's assortment of handy gadgets for use on their own planet. Meanwhile, there we'll be, doing their alien chores and cooking their alien dinners for them with no ability to break from their alien spell. Aren't we just a sad bunch of humanoid life forms?

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