What's Hot in High Tech
Atlanta, GA: November 2005 -- For every new gadget that actually lives up to its hype, many more end up gathering dust in the basement. To separate the stuff worth buying form the dozens of don't-even-bothers, we tested this year's crop. Our kids, Cole, 9, and Ava, 7, played-and-struggled-with the gear targeted to children. Here, 13 fun products we all loved.
DIGITAL BLUE QX5 COMPUTER MICROSCOPE: There's something thrilling about seeing microscopic stuff big on the computer screen, where everyone else in the room can see it too. Our resident science geek got a kick out of using the QX5 to look at fingerprints and bugs at up to 200X magnification. Just plug the QX5 into your PC or Mac's USB port and find something to look at. The QX5 is also a digital camera, so you can capture stills, short movies, or time-lapse photos, and doctor the images with its special-effects software. You can then e-mail your discoveries and see if anyone can figure out what they are. Imagine what it could do for this year's science project. QX5 is new in a Mac version; also available for the PC. Digital Blue, $99, playdigitalblue.com.
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