Most people don't know this, but your DVD collection actually looks better than you think. Most standard DVD players put out the lowest resolution the disc has to offer. To get the good picture, you usually need a HDTV, HDMI cables, and in some cases, additional hardware. What a pain.

Enter NeoDigits' Helios: a region free DVD player with a lot of options. A sore spot with many movie enthusiasts is the inability to play foreign DVDs on their home machine. Between region encoding and the whole NTSC (US and Japan) and PAL (rest of the world) format issues, it's no wonder why it's easy to get a headache. This is where the Helios shines.

Not only will it automatically up sample the DVD to match your TV's resolution perfectly, it is able to play all regions of DVDs and translate PAL into NTSC. This is a great thing for anyone who's ever wanted to watch a foreign film and not worry if it's been released in the US.

Although I've never heard of NeoDigits before, this DVD player is making some good waves. At a reasonable $199, the Helios can do what many, far more expensive, and less attractive machines claim. I've been in the market for a new DVD player myself, and I'll definitely be looking at the Helios.

In the beginning, there was cash, then the check, followed by the debit/credit cards. We've all seen the commercials (and the device itself at 7-11) for pay pass, which doesn't even touch the card reader.

In an ongoing attempt to increase profit margins, several large retailers including Albertsons and Wal-Mart are trying out a new Biometric payment system utilizing fingerprints. The concept is simple: sign up at the store by scanning your fingerprint and then enter in information for your checking/debit or credit card. When you hit the register to pay, you scan your finger in the reader and select how you wish to pay. This new system claims to produce a 70 percent faster checkout service, carry lower merchant fees (thus increasing a retailer's profit margin) and is claimed to be more secure.

While I do suppose a fingerprint is more secure, this raises the whole privacy issue. It's already obvious that there is a ton of personal information about you out there. Your credit and debit cards tell a retailer more about you than many people would like. But in the case of biometrics, it really puts an identifier on you, which may not be very welcome. Personally, I don't see what the need is. We already have a completely anonymous system that utilizes no personal identification: cash.

You gotta love Samsung's MP3 players. Not only are they a great value and feature-rich, they frequently carry a little something called innovation. Available next month, the SBH 300 features many cool things found on a varitey of players: MP3 playback, an FM tuner, voice recording/playback and even photo browsing on its 256 color OLED. What's new about it is the use of Bluetooth connectivity. The player can function as the handset when it's paired with a Bluetooth-enabled headset. With the SBH 300's A2DP stereo connectivity, your music should sound exceptionally good.

This is cool. Sure, a set of Bluetooth headphones isn't as affordable as that pair in the $3.99 bargain bin, but a life without wires sounds very sweet. Go running once with regular paid of headphones and you'll see why wireless is great. It's nice to see something new in the MP3 land.