On December 8, 2008 I showed off some great family friendly hi-tech gadgets and games for the holidays on the Today Show. To view the segment click here.

(Microsoft $69.99) Lips is Microsoft's attempt to go head-to-head with Sony's karaoke SingStar franchise.

If you've ever played any game on the strongly masculine styled Xbox 360 you're going to give Lips a double-take. The look and feel here screams "casual"; it almost feels like you're playing on a Nintendo game. You'll probably know right away whether this game is for you by looking at the artists: Duffy, Coldplay, Johnny Cash, and John Denver. For sure, this isn't your teen-son's Rock Band.

(Microsoft $59.99) Microsoft's 2008 version of Scene It? for Xbox 360 is one of the best quiz games I've played - it overcomes many of the problems that plague the genre. Too often, quiz game producers get lazy: The format (simple true/false or multiple choice questions) are often produced using cookie cutter models - all that changes between one program and the next is the "skin", the usually licensed characters.

Ultimate Band (Disney $49.99) Apparently Disney’s marketing people didn’t get my memo suggesting that naming their programs the “ultimate” was serving up low hanging fruit for critics such as myself. “Ultimate”? Really! Really? No, not really.

You wouldn't believe how many mice and keyboardshave recently found their way to jamesgames.com for review. Though they may look similar, and even have similar pricing, these peripherals are as different as night and day.

I've taken them for a test drive, and what you'll find here are my personal reactions. However, I always suggest that you take any product review of input devices with a grain of salt, because my hands and yours may be sized very differently.

Go to the store and take them for a spin to see if your body and their design is a good match. You can't get that info from an article or even a photo.

So far, here are the products I've looked at: Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Pro Keyboard and Mouse, Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard, Logitech Illuminated Keyboard, Review: Microsoft Explorer Mouse, Microsoft Sidewinder X6 Keyboard, and the Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop 6000.

It wasn't long ago that there weren't too many earbuds with an in-line microphone that worked with the iPhone. Now, many (even Apple) have rushed in to fill the vacuum left by Apple's defective-by-design earphones that ship with the iPhone.

UPDATE: Media Monkey has launched a beta version of their program that purports to correct the problem addressed in this article.  I'll be posting a review soon.

I have a box - honestly, I probably have several boxes - full of unmatched power bricks. You know those unseemly, ungraceful black hunks of plastic that fit so uncomfortably in power strips and surge protectors. For me, their size was always the second worst thing about them. The bigger problem is that they nearly never say what gadget they belong to. Once the gadget and block separate you're in real trouble. Soon, you'll be like me, with boxes full of orphaned transformers.

A great home media and backup server requires rock-solid hardware and software that gets the job done without turning into a second career. Get either or both wrong and you’ve got a disaster of a product.  Can Maxtor, a hardware company, deliver a home server that home technology officers, i.e. moms and dads, can use without giving up their day jobs?

Note taking was was a problem that plagued my career as a student. "The five principle causes of the Civil War were..." would intone my professor. While I was writing I was also thinking about what was being said and invariably I'd end up with four of the five causes. If I had the Livescribe Pulse digital pen I wouldn't have had the problem. You see, as you take notes with your Pulse it is also digitally recording what is being said as an audio file.