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.

Energizer has several recharging systems for the major next-gen gaming systems and they recently sent the Xbox 360 recharging station for me to take a look at. They stylish $29.99 stand can charge two Microsoft controllers simultaniously in about 2 and a half hours. It can reduce clutter and simplify the chore of keeping your gaming platform in an "always ready to play" state.

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.

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.

Remember the scene in Goldfinger where Bond magnetically attaches a homing device to a car? I always wanted one of those; the inner stalker in me. Who's car would I want to track. Didn't matter. I just wanted the ability. Now, with Zoombak's $199 Universal A-GPS Locator I have the power to make fiction fact. I can track cars, pets, even people.

Building a system to play your digital music collection throughout the house is frought with the difficulties attendant to the Tower of Babel.  The higher you reach, the more you will bang your head on the fractured welter of competing formats and copy protection schemes (DRM). Can either the Sonos or Logitech systems deliver?

Even at its relatively high price, the Ultreo ultrasound toothbrush gets very high marks from me. The company, founded by a physcist (who designed the ultrasonic method of generating bubbles to scrub your teeth) and one of the former officers of Sonicare, has come up with a winning bit of technology.

The Turbo Charge Reusable Portable Cell Phone Charger has found its way into my travel kit. I'm very selective in what goes in there…every ounce counts, and this gadget is worth its weight. Basically, you throw two AA batteries into its case, plug in the adapter cable right for your phone and connect it to your cell phone just as if it was a regular charger. Voila, your dead cell phone has power…even if you're nowhere near an outlet.