[ Fujifilm FinePix Camera ] [ Harman Photo Paper ] [ Franklin Dictionary & MP3 Player ] [ Norton 360 ]
[ The Best of Toy Fair ] [ More Hot Toys ]

LOVE a consumer friendly user’s manual. The booklet of directions for the Fujifilm Digital Camera FinePix S6000fd is a beauty. Running 195 pages long, it packs a lot of information on using this fine 10.7x optical zoom camera.

You can tell I am not thrilled with cameras that come unaccompanied by a printed user’s manual. Some companies store their manuals online. How convenient is that when you’re on location and need to look up some guidelines? It’s easier to carry a printed manual in your pocket than a laptop.

The FinePix S6000fd fits snugly in one hand. Reduce camera shake by selecting the Picture Stabilization in the shooting mode. This will give a fast shutter speed to minimize shaking and blurring. Use it when your subject is moving.

The "fd" stands for face detection, another cool attribute of this camera. When shooting a person, the best shot often is the unexpected, the unposed. If there’s no time to adjust the camera, the intelligent face detection feature boldly adjusts the brightness of the face. Your subject will thank you for that.

In addition, the high sensitivity of the S6000, with an ISO of 100-3200, captures images that are sharp in low light.

The FinePix S6000fd is the perfect camera for the advanced enthusiast who wants to upgrade from a compact camera.

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For Black And White Prints

N this color-saturated photo world, there are times when you require a print of black and white proportions. In that case you can’t go wrong with the new Harman photographic paper launched this year in the United States.

The Harman Photo Matt FB Mp Warmtone photographic inkjet paper is specially designed for black and white prints.

FB (fibre base) means its baryta base increases paper whiteness. Mp (microporous) indicates an ink-absorption layer that minimizes fading and enhances its longevity and archival properties. What’s more, the paper doesn’t curl; it lies flat during and after printing.

Harman Photo paper is geared for the professional photographer, so you can’t go wrong if you want the best in quality. It’s ideal for pigment and dye based ink printers including Lexmark, Canon, Epson, HP and other brands.

The paper comes from Harman Technology in Mobberley, Cheshire, England, where it manufactures Ilford Photo monochrome paper as well as Harman Photo inkjet media for both color and monochrome photography.

See more information at www.harman-inkhet.com; purchase product at www.calumetphoto.com.

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RANKLIN Electronic Publishers allows you to do more with the Merriam-Webster Dictionary & MP3 Player. It includes a calculator, clock, crossword solver, five games and a currency/metric converter. Whew!

While using the standard qwerty keyboard to access 274,000 definitions, you can listen to your favorite tunes with the included earbuds.

With phonetic spell correction, type in a word the way it sounds and get alternatives; for example, type "nolige" and get "knowledge."

Listen to songs, audio books and podcasts. The product has 119MB internal memory to store your MP3 files, and a USB cable. There is an SD expansion slot for additional memory, but the SD card is sold separately.

It lists for $79.95 in the stores but you may get it for less at www.franklin.com.

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The Best Gets Better

YMANTEC has produced another computer protection product that goes further than their highly acclaimed Norton Internet Security. It’s called Norton 360, and does everything Internet Security does, and more.

Besides blocking hackers, suspicious programs, worms and spyware, removing viruses from your email, Norton 360 also restores damaged or deleted files, offers online storage, fixes computer problems and removes clutter.

To help you backup Norton 360 offers 2GB of online storage. Need more? You can buy 5GB for $29.99, 10 GB for $49.99 and 25GB for $69.99. You may choose to backup to an internal CD/DVD drive, USB drive, or external hard drive.

While you’re surfing, banking or storing photos, this all-in-one security service works automatically to protect against online fraud. Price $79.99 at www.symantecstore.com.

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HE 104^th Annual American International Toy Fair, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York, is the largest toy trade show in the Western Hemisphere. Truckloads of new imaginative playthings are on exhibit. Junior PET Johnathan, being under age, was restricted from perusing the goodies at the showcase so he checked out the pick of the crop off premises.

Learning Resources has a catalog brimming with excellent Interactive Electronics designed to teach youngsters as they play. Johnathan evaluated several offerings from the company. These are his choices. The first three items are suitable for children 3 years and up; the fourth is for 5 years and up. See more at www.LearningResources.com.

Supermarket Checkout, $42.95, is an all-in-one set consisting of nine play foods, swivel price display, credit card, shopping basket, produce scale sitting atop a cash register with plastic credit card and coins, complete with a conveyor belt that moves the groceries toward scanner with flashing light.

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Playmobil has a huge number of toys to delight the kids with hours of fun. Our Senior PET was delighted to get his hands on Grande Mansion ($129.99) which he declared to be perfect for his little sister. The interlocking wall assembly results in a front that looks like a magnificent three-story mansion. The open back is where all the action is, with a kitchen on the main level, bedroom and bathroom on the second floor, and a playroom on the top level. See more at www.playmobil.com.

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