Product: 7 Home Tablet

Manufacturer: Archos

Wired Rating: 5

Following the rather disastrous reception of its Windows-based Archos 9 PC Tablet, the company is back at the tablet game again with a wholly different approach: A cheap, Android-based tablet with a 7-inch screen.

Stripped to its absolute basics, this is a tablet for the user who expects the bare minimum from his gadgetry. This isn’t a smartphone without the phone — it’s a smartphone without the phone or the smart. Nothing in the tablet takes advantage of the features that even basic Android devices on the market provide. Without multitouch, GPS, an accelerometer, or even a Home button, the use case for the Archos 7 can be frustrating.

Fortunately, the device does offer a couple of key features that make it a shade better than useless, namely a headphone jack and a kickstand so you don’t have to prop it up on your knee.

The OS is stripped down and over a year old, but technically it’s still running Android. That means it has a web browser, an e-mail client, and a few basic applications pre-installed, but nothing that will knock your lederhosen off.

Rather, Archos keeps this device squarely focused on its heritage as a media player, albeit a limited one. Without a hard drive, you’re limited to the 8 GB of onboard Flash memory, expandable up to 32 GB with a microSDHC card. The screen, at 800 x 480 pixels, looks surprisingly good, though the speakers are decidedly not impressive. If nothing else, the Archos 7 is a solid “give it to the kids” media player. Load it up with movies for the car ride or plane and don’t look in the back seat.

If you want to use it for real work, though, you’re in trouble. The touchscreen is almost as buggy and difficult to use as the Archos 9’s, and performance is sluggish. The OS implementation clearly has some issues, too. For example, the device started giving us the “zero battery life” alert after just three hours of video playback, but didn’t actually die until more than 8 and a half hours had passed.

But hey, it’s 200 bucks. If nothing else, that’s extremely cheap for a device with a screen this large. Admittedly the Archos 7 doesn’t do much, but at least it doesn’t pretend to be magical.

WIRED Extremely affordable. Sharp and bright screen. Wi-Fi equipped. Keeps kids quiet better than a ball gag and a roll of duct tape. (Kidding!)

TIRED No hardware features (like an accelerometer) to speak of. Wretched typing experience on old-school resistive touchscreen. Old Android version installed (1.5 not kidding!).

Product: Lightroom 3

Manufacturer: Adobe

Wired Rating: 8

Remember when managing your photos used to involve dropping them into a folder and forgetting about them? Those days are over. Now, practically everyone from soccer moms to CEOs have ditched amateur hour handouts like iPhoto and Windows Live Photo Gallery for more capable, grown-up image-editing software.

One such piece of software is Lightroom, Adobe’s flagship kit for processing and organizing RAW image files — the unfiltered, uncompressed image data generated by your camera’s sensors. And its newest iteration, Lightroom 3, is reworked from the ground up to create a fast, proficient and generally awesome photo editing experience.

Adobe rewrote much of the underlying code for Lightroom 3 and it shows the minute you fire it up. In Lightroom 2, large image libraries frequently meant blurry, pixelated previews that took a few seconds to resolve into sharp thumbnails. At times it felt like using a prehistoric, web-based editor. Not Lightroom the Third. Thumbnail previews remain sharp even when you’re scrolling through massive image libraries (we loaded up a collection with 35,000 RAW images). Common tasks like switching from Library view to Develop view and exporting images to Photoshop are noticeably snappier. Essentially, everything about Lightroom 3 is really freaking fast when compared to Lightroom numero dos.

Also improved in Lightroom 3 is the new Import dialog, which has been rejiggered to resemble the rest of the app. The Import panel also has a few nifty tricks like the ability to zoom before you import. That means no more importing, then weeding out the blurry shots. Also kicked up a notch are the new set of sharpening and noise-reduction tools, which make it simple to get rid of noise in high-ISO images. The upgraded algorithm Adobe uses to weed out noise does an excellent job and manages to preserve the details of your image.

If you’ve got a RAW-capable point-and-shoot camera that is capable of high ISO settings, Lightroom 3 is worth the money for the noise reduction alone. While stand-alone noise-removal tools, like Noise Ninja, offer more fine-grained controls, Lightroom 3’s built-in tools are good enough that we’ve largely cast Noise Ninja aside.

Unfortunately, we can’t say the same for the new chromatic-aberration tools. Chromatic aberration refers to the unnatural fringes you sometimes see in the borders between dark and bright parts of a digital image (it often manifests as a purple halo). We were disappointed to find that Lightroom 3’s new tools failed to correct anything more than very light chromatic aberration. That’s not a problem for newer DSLRs, which generally don’t produce much distortion, but if you’re looking to patch up some heavy distortion, look elsewhere.

If you frequently use a wide-angle lens with significant barrel distortion, the new lens-correction tools can make fixing those distortions a one-click process — provided your lens is one of the supported Nikon, Canon or Sigma lenses.

Of course sometimes the lens distortion is exactly the effect you want, so Lightroom has separate controls for each type of distortion — for example you can correct barrel distortion, while leaving a natural vignette.

For those who use lenses without profiles, Adobe Labs offers a separate app, Adobe Lens Profile Creator, which you can use to make your profiles. Unfortunately, if you’ve got one of the new Micro 4/3 cameras, like Panasonic’s slick GF1, you’re basically screwed, there is currently no way to create a profile for Micro 4/3 cameras.

Lightroom 3 has also gone social, integrating with Flickr so you can upload, view comments and interact with your Flickr stream. Keep in mind that you’ll only see Flickr images published from Lightroom, there is no two-way sync. However, if you’ve got a Flickr Pro account you can edit and update images you’ve already uploaded from Lightroom.

Curiously, Lightroom does not currently offer any integration with Photoshop Mobile, Adobe’s own online storage and editing service.

The new Publish panel, which is where you’ll find the Flickr tools, does have a second option to publish to somewhere on your hard drive. As a bonus feature, the new publish tool means that you can now use Lightroom to manage your iPhone photos — just publish your Lightroom images to a folder and tell iTunes to sync photos from that folder.

While it’s not without it’s shortcomings, Adobe Lightroom 3 secures Lightroom’s place as the Cadillac of RAW editors and is more than worth the modest upgrade price.

WIRED Faster, sleeker, sexier upgrade from Lightroom 2. Greatly improved noise reduction and lens correction. Thumbnail preview is sharper than a Mensa meeting. Flickr integration. Finally.

TIRED Chromatic-aberration tools are straight up janky when compared to other improvements. Some might call it pricey when there’s so much freeware floating around out there. No integration with Photoshop Mobile is a bit baffling.

Product: Guardian Case for Amazon Kindle

Manufacturer: M-Edge

Wired Rating: 8

If a book and a Kindle got into a street fight, the book would kick some e-inked ass. (Especially if it’s a hardcover.)

As capacious and technologically advanced as Amazon’s e-book reader is, it’s gossamer compared to a tightly packed wad of printed paper. Throw a Kindle in your bag unprotected, and you’re liable to crack the screen. Drop it down a flight of stairs, and you’ll be picking up pieces at the next landing. If you take your Kindle in the bathtub, get ready to practice throwing it like a Frisbee; that’s about all a wet one is good for.

Long overdue, the Kindle’s suit of armor has arrived: The M-Edge Guardian. With 17.1 ounces of hard plastic and O-rings, the Guardian lets you tote your Kindle anywhere: the beach, Fallujah, even the bathtub. The heavy-gauge plastic exterior will clamp around your electronic library with four Pelican-case–like clasps.

You access the buttons and keyboard through thin, clear rubber windows. These provide generally decent tactile access: We have no complaints about the side buttons, which you use the most anyway. It’s easy to turn pages or hit the menu button.

The keypad is slightly more problematic, but it’s not as if that thing is a joy to type on when it’s not covered by a polymer layer. The joystick, however, is basically disabled. We never got the hang of using it through the weird rubber appendage that sits over it.

Our first test was to bring the Guardian in the tub. No problem with water (or hardcore nekkidness). When we took it to the beach, not a grain of sand breached its fortified perimeter.

Then we kicked it up a level and threw the Guardian — containing Kindle — into the dishwasher. Do not try this. Even though the case protected our reader admirably and showed no adverse effects, M-Edge doesn’t warranty against the pot-scrubber cycle.

That, and your office probably doesn’t pay for you to put your electronics through the tortures of hell.

WIRED Danny Trejo tough. Internal air chambers make the thing float. Soft-touch plastic on the back boosts your wet-fingered grip.

TIRED You can’t access the power button, so if your machine turns itself off while you’re re-enacting PT-109 with rubber duckies, you have to dry the case off, exit the tub, and extricate your Kindle to turn it back on again. Shiny plastic-screen overlay robs the reader of some of its direct-sunlight skills. Heavy: essentially triples your reader’s weight. Gotta leave it unlatched when you board a plane. Why? Decrease in pressure could wreck the case’s flexible-plastic portion.

Product: /Adidas PMX 680

Manufacturer: Sennheiser

Wired Rating: 9

Like many dedicated long-distance runners, I have been on a perpetual hunt for the perfect set of headphones. Every time a new pair arrives, it’s like a first date ringing the doorbell. The anticipation! The promise of a new (running) partner! But eventually the sound quality disappoints and I’m inevitably left alone.

Thus, the arrival of the Sennheiser/Adidas 680 Sports Headphones was like a 13-year-old finding Edward Cullen ringing her doorbell. These are some of the best runner-friendly headphones we’ve yet strapped on.

The first sign that these headphones were a cut above was the carrying case. Yes, some headphones — very, very special ones — come in a heavy, water-resistant drawstring sack.

The sack contains more than the usual extra set of foam earpads and cable clip. The headphones also come with an extension cable that has integrated volume control, which is a thoughtful idea but more useful while sitting at your computer than running. It’s already as easy as it could possibly be to adjust the volume on an iPod. Still, the extension cable is useful, great for hooking onto or through extra layers of clothing.

The sound quality is exceptionally clean and crisp, with particularly deep bass. Playing “In da Club” is a peculiarly satisfying experience, as I’d never been so able to thoroughly replicate the head-pounding experience of being in a club in the streets of my decidedly suburban neighborhood. The headset’s large earbuds do let in some ambient noise. However, this is more advantage than inconvenience, as nothing ruins a good run faster than being hit by a car.

I tested the headphones’ touted water resistance, first in Portland’s 62-percent humidity and rain, then in sweaty ears and finally by soaking the headphones in wet hand towels. After each soaking, the phones suffered no ill effects in performance.

Kevlar-reinforced cables even survived the slobbery mouthings of my dog (that one was an accident, not a test). And the behind-the-neck design stayed put, even through the most strenuous circumstances — doing yoga while watching The Discovery Channel. I’ve always preferred a behind-the-neck design over in-ear buds, whose security depends on the size of the user’s ears. They do make wearing sunglasses or hats a little more difficult, though. And the PMX 680s are no exception. Trying to wear a baseball cap or Ray-Bans with these suckers is virtually impossible.

In sum, these headphones are everything you’d ever want in a pair of running headphones. And at a mere 60 bucks, they’re just a little easier to obtain than a sparkling 100-year-old vampire with fantastic hair.

WIRED Exceptional sound quality. Marvelous bass. Stays put securely. Water resistant and dog-proof.

TIRED Ambient noise leaks in. Large earbuds might be uncomfortable for some users.

Product: Ideapad Y460

Manufacturer: Lenovo

Wired Rating: 8

Buy a laptop today and you have to make (at least) one big decision that is an exercise in trade-offs: Get a machine with cheap, integrated graphics and better battery life, or buy one with a high-performance graphics card that sucks down more power and runs hot?

Can’t decide? Get the Lenovo Ideapad Y460. It’s both.

Perhaps we should explain. An innocuous switch on the front of the Y460 lets you control how much graphical power this otherwise unassuming notebook pumps out. Flip it on, and you’ll have full access to the ATI Radeon HD 5650 graphics chip. In graphics-on mode, gaming rocks, with performance on par with recent games-focused machines we’ve reviewed, but battery life fizzles to barely an hour and a half.

Not fragging this afternoon? Switch yourself into integrated mode. Gaming suffers immeasurably (framerates are on par with your average $500 system), but battery life shoots through the roof, jumping from 90 minutes to nearly four hours, perfect for long plane rides when an A/C outlet is miles below you.

Best of all: Graphics are switchable in real time without a reboot, so you can jump from spreadsheet to Sims 3 and back in seconds.

The only problem with the Ideapad Y460 is that you can’t switch the price. At a thousand smackers, it’s expensive, considering it bears the Ideapad brand instead of the more upscale Thinkpad logo. Clearly designed with consumers in mind, it offers an attractive, yet a little out-there, industrial design. It has desirable features like a multitouch trackpad, super-loud JBL speakers, and a mega-bright 14-inch LCD (at 1366 x 768 pixels). Other top-notch features are a 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5 M520 CPU, 4 GB of RAM and 500 GB of hard drive space.

The only question is whether you will want to pay nearly a grand for all of this. It’s not quite in MacBook territory, but it’s awfully close.

Maybe you can justify it. The Y460’s performance is so dazzling and the machine is put-together so well that I think you can make the case that it’s worth the cash upgrade. Just tell the wife you’ll eat ramen for a month. She won’t understand, but you’ll be so happy with your computer you probably won’t care.

WIRED Unbelievably dazzling performance. Switchable graphics give you the best of both worlds — gaming performance and battery life — at the flick of a switch.

TIRED Not all features are perfectly polished: SlideNav application switcher bar is functionally useless. Noisy optical drive. Surprisingly heavy (5 pounds) for its size.