MAGAZINE   December Magazine Contents Web Links Past Issues Try a Free Issue Customer Service Feedback GETTING STARTED   YOUR HOME Home Buyer's Survival Kit Get the Most From Your Home Sale Tapping Your Home Equity   CAR Tune Up Your Car-Buying Skills Smart Shopper's Guide to Auto Insurance The Best Cars of 2003 MORE... SPENDING TOOLS   YOUR HOME Search for the best mortgage rates in your area How much will my home payments be? How much can I borrow? Which mortgage is better: fixed or adjustable? Am I better off refinancing?   YOUR CAR Kiplinger's Car Finder Search for the best auto loan in your area How much will my monthly car payments be? How much will my monthly car payments be? RELATED STORIES   The Web's Best Tech Guides Avoid a Holiday Spending Hangover Ten Tips for a Happier Holiday

Snapshots to go

Print beautiful, 4- by 6-inch digital snapshots with the Epson PictureMate or the HP Photosmart 375 Compact Photo Printer (above). These devices hook up directly to newer cameras with a cable, or you can pop in the camera's memory card. The Epson ($200 at www.epson.com) wins on print cost--only 29 cents each, compared with about 60 cents for the HP ($200 at www.hpshopping.com). But the HP wins for convenience: For an extra $50, you can get the 375B that runs on a rechargeable battery.

Sliver screen

At just 2.5 inches deep and 13 inches on the diagonal, the Sharp Aquos LCD TV (model LC-13S1U; $500) fits just about anywhere. It comes with a silver-colored stand, but imagine it hung above the kitchen sink or next to the bathroom mirror so you won't miss important moments on C-Span, or Joey. It can also do a disappearing act: Sharp makes an optional mount ($180) that lets you fold it under a cabinet. We recommend you spend $60 for a mount from www.mountsandmore.com and put the savings toward another TV.

No quarter asked

Remember when video-game scoring wasn't based on body count? Arcade Legends ($2,775 plus $350 shipping at BMI Gaming,  www.bmigaming.com) features G-rated, old-school favorites, from Centipede and Asteroids Deluxe to Lunar Lander and Tempest. The basic package includes 35 classics, plus an option to buy dozens more.

Poster-size pics

Ready for really big prints? The Nikon Coolpix 8800 ($1,000; information at www.nikondigitalusa.com), with a huge, 8-megapixel resolution and 10X optical zoom, produces clear prints up to 20 by 30 inches. It also records high-quality movies (30 frames per second) with sound, up to one minute on a 256-megabyte card. If you need to nail an action sequence, you can also shoot rapid-fire pictures -- the camera saves the last five shots.

Party animal iPod

Turn your iPod or iPod Mini from personal to public entertainment with Altec Lansing inMotion battery-powered speakers ($180 for the iPod iM3 speakers and $130 for the iMini speakers at www.store.apple.com). Just four AA batteries give you 24 hours of boogie time -- if you have the stamina. The speakers may be small, but they offer a surprisingly full sound and deep bass, even without a subwoofer.

Pop art

Toasting goes high-tech with the Morrison toaster from the Rowenta housewares company ($135 at department stores). This motorized appliance gently lowers and lifts slices as if they were CDs. A photo sensor ensures your bread is toasted to the desired shade, and the toaster is wide enough to handle an extra-large piece of bread or a bagel.