Summer Gadget Guide

Archos's sleek AV 700 Mobile Digital Video Recorder may be the answer. It lets you record directly off a VCR, a DVD recorder, cable box, or TiVo. And you can watch what you record on an eye-popping 7-inch-wide screen. With the AV 700, you also can record and listen to MP3s, directly store and view photos, even play games. The rechargeable battery is removable, so you can swap in an extra when the old one runs low. (Each can endure 5 hours of video playback or 10 of audio, Archos says.) Plug in the included AV cables to a TV, and voila: a mini entertainment center.

The AV 700 is OS-agnostic, so Mac addicts and the PC faithful can both enjoy in harmony. The 40 GB version costs $599.95; the 100 GB, $799.95 (www.archos.com)

-- Jennifer Vilaga

A: And check out this do-everything charger.

The hidden bane of the gadget freak is obvious to anyone who has ever traveled for more than a couple of days: charger hell. A laptop and three other devices? That's four chargers to pack, bucko. So, welcome the new iGo 7500 series from Mobility Electronics (www.igo.com), which juices pretty much anything. At 13 ounces, this brick nearly defies the word "mobility." But it works well: One cord powers your notebook computer, while a second simultaneously charges a phone, camera, PDA, MP3 player, or Game Boy. The $139.99 unit comes with car and air outlet cord, plus adapters for most major laptops -- except, incredibly, Apple's. Apple tips and those for other portable devices cost a hefty $9.99 apiece.

-- KH

Q: How much notebook will $1,000 buy me?

A: Plenty

A grand doesn't buy what it used to -- except, of course, in the realm of computing, where Moore's Law keeps upping the performance ante. Notebooks get smaller, faster -- and cheaper. So today, $1,000 buys a very versatile, powerful machine.

I spent some quality time with two new models priced (barely) below the $1,000 benchmark: Hewlett-Packard's Pavilion dv4000 ($999 after $50 rebate, www.hp.com) and Toshiba's Satellite M35X ($999, www.toshiba.com). They share very similar technical features, inside and out: 15.4-inch-wide screen displays, DVD/CD-RW combo drives, powerful graphics cards, and 512 MB of memory.

At this price point, both make small trade-offs. The Satellite is slightly thinner, but at 6.8 pounds, also a bit heavier. Toshiba's processor is an Intel Celeron, running at 1.4 GHz, slightly slower than HP's 1.5 GHz. And HP's comes with a hard drive of just 40 GB, compared with Toshiba's 60 GB. Neither made much difference to me: I happily watched a DVD movie and played the graphics-intensive Morrowind game on both machines.

Really, I found only two profound differences. The Satellite comes with built-in wireless LAN capacity, where the Pavilion settles for a modem and ethernet. But HP compensates for that shortcoming with a more stylish design. In either case, Moore's Law still applies: For $1,000, these are terrific computers.

-- NJ

Q: How do I recharge my cell phone without my charger?

A: Disposable chargers

There's nothing more annoying than having your phone shut down midcall without a charger on hand. Compact Power Systems fixes that with its Cellboost disposable batteries/chargers (www.cellboost.com). Plug them in, and watch as your battery indicator goes from nearly empty to full. The $6.99 batteries for cell phones, the company says, give about 60 minutes of talk time and 60 hours of standby time; a new $9.99 model will power your iPod for eight hours. (It also functions as a charger: I accidentally left one connected overnight -- and found my iPod completely recharged the next morning.) The package is thick and sort of bulky, and it's not exactly environmentally friendly. But in a pinch, it's really handy to have around.

-- MP