Dave's Download

Step back and relax a bit. Using a microscope will no longer require hunchbacked peering, thanks to an LCD-equipped model due soon from Celestron. A 3.5-inch screen replaces the eyepiece, making it more comfortable to use. Plus, it's easier to share the experience with family or classmates.

It's otherwise a traditional compound microscope that uses slides to hold specimens and lenses to magnify them up to 400 times. That puts it in the range of basic lab models with power to see detail at the cellular level. It's more than enough to gross out a kid sister with germs from her spit.

The scope's $300 price tag is about twice the cost of a similar model without the LCD. But the extra money also buys a built-in, 2-megapixel digital camera and a USB cable for transferring images to a PC. Or you can just save them to a memory card.

Celestron says a 4x digital zoom can magnify images to the equivalent of 1,600 times. But I imagine a digital zoom is no more useful on a microscope than on a digital camera, where it simply enlarges a portion of the image. It doesn't add detail.

Celestron says the new microscope goes on sale sometime in late February or early March.

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Most folks seem ready to celebrate that the format war is over for the next generation of DVD players, the high-definition battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray. I'm not so sure it is, nor that it would be a good thing, at least not yet.

The competition has gotten prices down. Player prices would be much higher if Toshiba hadn't made it a price war, as well as a format war. That's Toshiba's best shot at keeping HD DVD alive. It's losing ground on content, a point soundly reinforced when Warner Bros. recently dumped HD DVD for Sony's Blu-ray format.

If Blu-ray prevails, sales volume would eventually get the price of those players out of the clouds. But I'd bet that competition works faster. I hope Toshiba sticks around for another year or so.

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Corrected on 1/29/08: An earlier version of this blog post said making Vumber calls requires pushing 20 buttons, including a security code. When calling from certain phones, the security code is not necessarily required.

Dating these days can be a scary process, from what this married man reads. Those psycho stalker dates make the most dramatic case for throwaway phone numbers now available from a couple of services, including one that officially launched this week called Vumber.

The numbers also have strong appeal to us nondaters. They can add a layer of privacy when, for example, selling something through a classified ad.

Vumber gives you a number that will ring whatever landline or cellphone you choose. The monthly $5 charge (which will be going to $10 sometime later) includes voicemail and the ability to change numbers. The first three changes come free of charge, and later switches each cost $2.

Especially cool: You can use the same number to make calls. Recipients don't see your real number on their caller ID.

The company originally expected the numbers to be temporary. But it turns out that in beta testing, the numbers have proved sticky with users, says CEO Cliff Wener: "Unless you've got somebody stalking you, you're going to keep the number."

On the downside, making calls can mean pushing at least 20 buttons—your "vumber" and then the number you're calling, plus a security code. And there's no way to cut off just the creeps. You have to change your vumber and alert everyone you gave it to.

But Vumber works as advertised. It's easy protection for when you're selling something in an ad—especially if that something is you.

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With laptops selling faster than desktops, it's clear that a lot of us are scrunching over keyboards on the run. The simple and inexpensive ($40) Cricket Laptop Stand could help save a few neck aches.

When the Cricket goes on sale next month, its best selling point will be its simplicity. Three bars unfold to form a tripod, with two grasping the laptop and the third boosting the PC into the air a bit. The pivot that holds the three arms together makes it easy to adjust the height, and rubberized ends make it feel secure and rugged.

Best of all, the Cricket folds into a small package that's about 8 inches long and a couple of inches wide—plenty small enough to throw into a laptop bag.

That's all good. But you'll need to add the weight of a keyboard and a mouse to plug in. The keyboard, in particular, is too awkward to use when a laptop gets propped at an upward angle. An extra keyboard and mouse add to the cost. But the Cricket is a simple and flexible laptop stand at a reasonable price, and a little pain in the pocketbook is better than one in the neck.

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