HOLIDAY WISHES 2
IRO BO T
The Looj from iRobot propels itself through leaves, twigs and whatever else you don’t want to manually remove from your gutter.
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Trying to buy another toy for the tech-savvy person is tough. Surprise them by giving the gift they never knew they needed.
Gadget fans are known for leaping on the latest technology the minute it hits store shelves. That makes shopping for something new for them a daunting challenge. But while they’ve splurged on the big-ticket item, you can still serve up some clever complements that will help them get more mileage from their devices without breaking your bank.
For the do-it-yourselfer Even if home prices have sunk like a stone, there’s no better time to recoup some value with a little old-fashioned sweat equity. Help the handyman with some high-tech gear, such as Black and Decker’s CrossFire laser level. The CrossFire ($140) projects perfectly straight lines – both horizontally and vertically or both simultaneously – for properly hanging shelving
Page 8 Friday, December 4, 2009 The Southern Illinoisan
or pictures. It can be mounted to a wall, hung from a rope or simply planted on the ground. Finally, who doesn’t love robots? Moreover, who doesn’t hate cleaning gutters? So why not let a robot tackle one of life’s most thankless jobs? From the same company that brought us the Roomba robot vacuum comes the iRobot Looj ($169). The Looj can be placed into almost any standard sized gutter and propel itself – and it’s high-powered, 500-rpm augur – through twigs, leaves, and any other debris that’s lodged in there. It’s waterproof too, and you can set the direction of the augur so that debris is blasted away from the house – not onto your roof.
For the movie lover Home theater owners lavish over picture and sound, but are they paying
attention to power? They should. A sudden influx of juice could fry their components. Monster Cable’s PowerCenter HTS 1000 MK III ($199) not only protects delicate home theater components from power surges by automatically disconnecting itself and all components from the incoming bolt but “cleans” the normal electrical signal flowing into these components for improved performance. It features eight AC outlets that are spaced out to accommodate bulkier plugs, a digital LED that displays incoming voltage, and protected jacks for cable, satellite, phone and DVRs.
For the home video lover For the family archivist who’s sitting on stacks of camcorder tapes, help bring them into the digital era with Roxio’s Easy