We’re big fans of the Flip, which starts at $150, but if you like a wide-angle lens, the third generation Vado HD from Creative Technology lists for $230 but we saw it for $98 at their own website.  A wide-angle lens means you get more of the scene when you snap the picture.

Unlike the Kodak, the Vado doesn’t have removable storage. Its built-in memory records up to four hours of high definition video or eight hours at lower resolution. It takes excellent video in low light. You can post your videos directly to YouTube, Photobucket or Box.net with the built-in software.

The new Flip SlideHD, which has become the best-selling brand in this category, also holds four hours of ultra high definition video or 12 hours of regular video, but sells for $280 from theflip.com.

These so-called “pico” projectors are already here for cameras. The first such camera is the Nikon Coolpix S1000pj, which is selling at $350 to $450 on the web; most prices are closer to $350. It can project your pictures as large as a 40-inch diagonal image and still retain resolution. The Coolpix camera has a 12 megapixel sensor, which means clear color prints as large as 16 by 20 inches.

LG Electronics has a pico projector that snaps on to their “eXpo” camera and the combo is priced at $480 (more info at lge.com). The projected image can be as large as a 60-inch diagonal. You can also get tiny stand-alone projectors, such as the “Pico Pocket Projector” from Optoma, for around $225 to $300.

The Flip is a pocket-sized camera that’s hugely popular because it’s so easy to use. Push the big red button to start a video. Take up to two hours worth at a time. Then push a button and a little USB arm flips out, allowing you to plug the whole camera into your computer. The Flip software starts right up, and shows you how to trim your video, email it, upload it to YouTube, etc.

DigitalWish.com is a site where teachers can ask for the technology they need for the classroom. Visitors donate small amounts until there’s enough money for the purchase.  Or teachers can buy directly on the site.

Other examples of how it’s  used:

• Alex Wulff, a fifth-grade teacher in Ventura, California uses a Lumens camera to  project a kind of lizard on the  big screen. “I can grab the bearded dragon and put it on the screen and suddenly every single kid is glued to whatever I’m saying.” He likes to switch back and forth between the live animal, pictures of other animals from the Internet, and worksheets.
• A chemistry teacher in Fremont, California uses it to show experiments.  “If I’ve got a beaker with water and sodium, I can zoom in on a tiny piece of sodium reacting. So they can see the details of things that might otherwise be too small to see in the back of the room.”
• A math teacher in Arlington, Virginia uses it to model math games with three-dimensional cubes, pattern blocks and coins, which she was unable to do with a conventional overhead projector.

You still need a projector to work with the camera, so it gets pricey. ($790 at markertek.com.) Why not just use an ordinary video camera and a projector? You might not be able to get a good angle, the way you can with the bendable gooseneck on the Lumens camera, and you might not be able to achieve the same quality of lighting.

We get pitched on more accessories for iPods and iPhones than any other product we have ever seen, and we ignore almost all of them. But one that caught our eye, so to speak, is a case with a sliding lens that lets you take close-up photos with your iPhone.

 Normally, an iPhone shot has to be 18 inches or further from a subject in order to get a clear focus. The “Clarifi” case from GriffinTechnology.com has a sliding lens that can be moved over the iPhone’s own lens to reduce the focal length to as close as four inches. When you want to take a close-up of a flower or an insect – or a business card, slide the lens into place; to return to normal focus, slide it out of the way.

Users say they not only get sharp close-up shots with this Griffin case but the color seems better as well. The Griffin Clarifi costs $35 from their web site, but we found it for about half that price at Amazon and other Internet discounters. 

The “Mino” answers every non-techie’s prayer: you push a red button to film something. After you take the video, you plug the camera itself into your computer; it has a little spring loaded arm that pops out and you plug that into a USB port.

As soon as you plug the camera into a USB socket, a menu pops up and you can choose to put your video on a website, email it or burn it to disk. We wrote about the first version of this camera several months ago. It was nice but the new version is a big improvement. For one, you don’t need batteries for the new one; it charges itself when you plug it into your computer. And the second reason sound a little silly, but the button is much easier to push. It was really hard before. The Mino is $180 from TheFlip.com. (Probably cheaper from other places.) 

The Flip has 13 percent of the world market for video cameras and is far and away the No. 1-selling camcorder at giant online retailer Amazon.com. Why? Because it is the video equivalent of point-and-shoot.

The “flip” that gives the camera its name is a finger that flips out of the side of the camera. You plug the finger into a USB socket on your computer. Right away, a menu comes up with some easy choices: save to computer, e-mail the video, upload to sites such as YouTube, Amazon and MySpaceTV.com.

No more cable to carry around, no more rewinding a tape or “finalizing a disk.” You do need an extra cable if you want to watch your Flip videos on a TV, but it comes in the box. If you want your video burned to DVD, you can take it to a retail store that will do it for you (see theflip.com/dvd ) or use the software that came on your computer.

A button on the side turns it on. Push the big red button on the back to start recording video and sound. A screen above the button shows you what you’re recording. To play back what you recorded, hit the play button that’s next to the red button. That’s it.

Flip is the same size as a cell phone, only thicker and fits in a shirt pocket. It runs on two AA batteries.
There are limitations, which wouldn’t bother most users but would make it unacceptable for others. The main one is a recording limit of one hour. That seemed like plenty to us, but if you’re a video fanatic, you want more. You can’t stretch the one-hour limit because the memory is built into the camera and you can’t simply add a larger compact flash card. When your hour is full, or anytime before that, you can unload the memory contents to a computer and start over with another hour. The Flip is also not so good for zooming. You can zoom in 2X (two times closer) but the result is a little blurry.

The Flip works with Windows or Mac and you can see lots of reviews and comments on use with a simple web search on “Flip.” Joy said it’s the first time she’s had a video camera she actually wanted to use.

This is what’s called a digital switch box, and that’s what the “DGS” letters stand for. It’s the size of a paperback book. On the back of the box there are eight Ethernet ports. You plug an Ethernet cable from your router into one of them, and your computers and other devices into the others.

That’s pretty much it because this D-Link switch is “self-managed”: It automatically recognizes everything connected to it, and there are no configuration routines to figure out. Everything connected is now linked. The package comes with a copy of Network Magic, which allows all users to share files and peripherals.

Aside from computers, the most common devices hooked into a network are printers and scanners. But no matter what is plugged into the digital switch box, they are all connected, with one proviso: The computers and peripherals must be network-enabled. This means they must have chips that allow them to be connected to a network, but this has been common for the past few years, and most computer equipment is network-enabled.

We want to point out that this creates a wired network, not wireless. We much prefer wired networks because they are secure from eavesdroppers, and they are less subject to interference. The DGS-2208 digital switch box operates at gigabit speeds. This is extremely fast, but please note that the data transfer rate you get is dependent on the weakest link in the chain, meaning if you have a slow router or slow service provider, your transfer rate is limited by that unit. The DGS-2208 sells for around $50 from discount retailers. It has been getting four- and five-star ratings from users. More info is available at dlink.com.