Have you seen Star Trek yet? The answer from me would be a big YES. In fact, I’ve seen it twice. Let me give it a one-sentence review for those of you considering it? It’s awesome, it’s fantastic, it’s incredible. Go see it — now (how’s that for a bite-sized review?).

One of the things that’s always distinguished Star Trek, since the William Shatner original series days, is the gadgets. The futuristic feel is significantly enhanced by the phasers, tricorders, scanners, etc. And given the renewed popularity that the movie has brought, it’s natural that those gadgets would be reproduced and for sale. Over the next week or so, I’ll be giving you a taste of some of the best gadgets.

We’ll start with an original series Communicator. This one features sound effects and clips from the series, and a pop-open design. The company says these are a limited edition item (unfortunately, it also says they’re currently out of stock. Since that’s likely due to the interest generated by the movie, be patient for a little bit and they’ll be available again.)

Check back soon for more Star Trek gadgets. And go see the movie!

Continuing on my journey through gadgets to go with my new Dell XPS laptop, we come next to a USB hub. Why a USB hub? Simple: my laptop has just one USB port on it, and I plug many things into it. For example, my keyboard and mouse, flash drive, digital camera, etc. In other words, I need interfaces!

The one I chose was the Gigaware 4-port USB hub. It appears you can only pick these up at Radio Shack. Fortunately, there’s one nearby.

USB hubs aren’t exciting, but often necessary. One reason I chose this model was that I wanted all my ports on one side. When you go USB hub shopping, you’ll see many models with ports on multiple sides (i.e. front and back.) For space considerations, having them all on one side worked better for me.

Using the Gigaware hub was absolutely simple. I just plugged it into my lone USB port, and plugged in my peripherals. Windows Vista recognized it instantly and installed the drivers, without my having to install them myself (which isn’t hard, but is another step that increases the hassle factor.) Everything worked without a hitch, and I have had no problems with the hub whatsoever. That’s what I like in a gadget; simple to install, works flawlessly, and I don’t have to think about it again.

Works for me!

Following my recent misadventures with the Rocketfish keyboard/mouse wireless combo, I decided to go with a Microsoft solution to replace it. At my local Office Depot I found a Microsoft wireless combo set that was about the same price: the Wireless Laser Desktop 6000 (version 3).

It consists, like the Rocketfish setup, of a keyboard, mouse and USB dongle. Unlike Rocketfish, it’s a wireless trio rather than Bluetooth. There’s not really any functional difference in how they work, for most uses.

The keyboard on this set is ergonomically designed — at least that’s what it says on the box. The keys have a curve, which you can see in the picture. It’s taken me a bit of time to get used to, and I can’t say I’ve noticed any big improvement in comfort. It is comfortable, however.

There are plenty of keys for special purposes, like zoom keys, volume keys and so on. There are also a number of programmable keys that you can set up for individual functions. I like the keyboard very much.

The mouse is taking some getting used to. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but the mouse is big and heavy. It’s taken me some time to acclimate to the size and feel of it. It has the standard two buttons and wheel, plus several thin buttons on the left side that are also programmable.

One very cool thing about the mouse is a small compartment on the bottom into which the USB key fits. It’s a small thing, but it makes the dongle easy to transport and not lose. I move around a lot in my house with my laptops, and having the space for the key is very handy, and a thoughtful touch.

I’ve been using the combo for about three days now, and have no connection problems to report. This is big, since I was constantly losing the connection with the Rocketfish set.

The Laser Desktop 6000 set is definitely pricey, but I think it’s worth the money, given my needs for efficient computing.

I’ve had my new Dell Studio XPS laptop for four days now, which is enough time to give a preliminary review. I’ve used it for work, written stories on it, and used a lot of its abilities.

First off, it’s a beautiful machine. Glossy black, with brushed metal and leather accents — yes, leather on a laptop. It’s just a strip on the top cover, but it’s cool. The 13.3″ screen is awesome; very clear, sharp and bright. It puts the screen on my lower-end HP dv4 to shame (yeah, I have a few laptops — more than a few, actually. The dark side of being a gadget geek.)

The keyboard is extremely solid, and backlit. That’s a significant bonus for me, as it means I can work in a dark room or area and still be productive.

With a Core 2 Duo processor, 8 GB of RAM (I need lots of it for my job), and a 500GB hard drive, the specs on the machine are top of the line. It has had no problem handling any of the tasks I’ve thrown at it so far, and I haven’t pushed the RAM or processor near its limits yet. Of course, you pay a premium for this kind of setup, but for me, it’s worth it. Programs open very quickly, and Web browsing is extremely fast (assuming a fast connection, which you can assume if it’s me we’re talking about).

I’ve come across one drawback so far: there’s only one USB port on the thing. It’s a pretty serious oversight, especially on a laptop, which generally needs a lot of USB ports. I’ve bought a 4-port USB hub (coming in a future review), but those can be unwieldy. It does have a 4-pin firewire port for transferring video to the hard drive. That can be a dicey proposition on some laptops, but not this one. It handled the video my kids and I shot without a hiccup.

The touchpad and mouse buttons are top-flight, sensitive and accurate. I also love the small form factor. The less-than-generous screen size for me isn’t a problem; when using it in my office, I simply plug it into my large monitor, which it handles well, thanks to a 256MB separate video card. I move around a lot with my laptop, and will be traveling with it often, so having something very portable works well for me.

Ultimately, buying a laptop is a very personal decision, and you should never buy more laptop than you need. For my needs, I need a lot of laptop. If that describes you, give the Dell Studio XPS a try. It’s a serious machine for serious productivity.

To go along with my new Dell laptop (reviewed later), I wanted a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Bluetooth, you may know, is a wireless technology that connects devices — in this case, my laptop with the keyboard and mouse.

So after looking around, I ended up buying this bluetooth keyboard and mouse combo from Rocketfish.

It comes with a full keyboard, mouse and bluetooth USB dongle that acts as the receiver for both devices (I prefer my MacBook Pro laptop, which doesn’t require dongles to use bluetooth). After plugging in the dongle, you push a button on the bottom of both devices, which connects with the dongle attached to the computer. I had some trouble getting the devices to show up in Windows Vista, the operating system for my laptop. The instructions weren’t very clear, and were out of date.

Eventually, though, I got everything working. The keyboard was comfortable to use, and had keys for often-used functionality like volume controls, on each side. The mouse is not particularly solid; I found that the back battery cover kept coming off, not wanting to stay set in place.

Problems began the day after I first installed the devices. When I fired up my computer, Windows didn’t recognize the keyboard and mouse anymore. They reverted to generic, default devices with limited functionality. For instance, the scroll wheel on the mouse no longer works. When I went to the Rocketfish Web site to get the latest drivers to hopefully cure the problem, I found that there were none.

Given these problems, along with poor product support and documentation, I can’t recommend this bluetooth combination. It has promise, but that promise is so far unfulfilled.

Few things excite a geek like me more than a brand-spanking-new laptop. See, in my day job, I edit a computer-industry magazine that’s read by system and network administrators — those folks who run datacenters.

Given the demands of my job, I need a real fire-breathing computer. I also need something really portable (I don’t like lugging around laptops that weigh a ton), and something Windows-oriented (as opposed to a Mac. I love Macs, and have a MacBook Pro I use often, but a lot of the software I need to use is Windows-only).

So after much looking around, I settled on a Dell XPS Studio laptop. It’s got a Core 2 Duo processor, and I maxed out the RAM at 8GB. That’s extremely important for what I do, and there just aren’t many laptops on the market that can handle that much memory.

I also like the small form factor. I outfitted it with a wireless 802.11n card (”n” is the latest version of wireless cards, with the greatest range) and bluetooth, to add more wireless gadgets like a keyboard and mouse.

I don’t have this laptop yet — I ordered it awhile ago from Dell, and it should be arriving in my happy little hands in about 10 days. It also wasn’t cheap — not at all. But it’s not uncommon for me to have six or seven applications running at once, and 10 Web browser windows. I’m not a casual user who can get by with a netbook, although I’m a big fan of netbooks and what they offer at a low price. Since I need mucho processing power and gobs of RAM, my options are, ironically, far more limited. But I’m happy with the specs of my new machine, and can’t wait to put it through its paces.

I’ll give a fuller report once I’ve played with it awhile.

When I recently wrote about the Belkin Skype phone, I didn’t realize I’d be writing about Skype again so soon. But when Skype releases an app for the iPhone, it’s worth writing about again.

Skype, for the unfamiliar, is a service that lets you make phone calls through the magic of the Internet, using a technology called “Voice over IP”, or VoIP for short. If you call someone else with Skype, the call is free; there is a small per-minute charge to call someone without Skype. (Skype itself is a free application.)

One important point to notice is that you can only use the Skype app to make calls when you’re in range of a wi-fi network; Skype does not use cellular networks, so you can’t use it in your car or other places that are out of range of wi-fi.

iPod Touch owners can also use the Skype app, but they will need to use headphones with an included microphone to make or receive calls, since the Touch doesn’t normally have phone capabilities.

CNET is reporting that the Skype iPhone application will be available Tuesday, March 31. I’m assuming the Skype app is free, although news reports don’t specifically state that information.

It’s often the case that the first product in a new category quickly becomes ascendant, so that it pushes out the competition and develops an unassailable position. It’s happened with Amazon.com, Netflix and other Internet legends.

That’s also happened, to a degree, with e-book readers. In this (still very narrow) space, most folks know the Kindle, also from Amazon. I wrote about the Kindle recently, but it’s not the only e-book reader out there. One of my favorite electronics companies, Sony, has its own version, called simply the Reader Digital Book.

It’s about $60 cheaper than the Kindle, but they’re both expensive.

One advantage of the Sony is that it looks better than the Amazon product. The Reader is much more minimalist, without the keyboard that feels tacked on to the bottom of the Kindle. Fewer buttons means a cleaner layout; and I’m not sure why you’d want a keyboard on an e-book reader, anyway. The point is to read, not type.

The Reader has enough storage, Sony says, to hold about 160 books. It also has storage card slots to add more books. One cool thing the Reader offers is access to the 500,000-strong library of Google public domain books. That should keep you busy for awhile.

One drawback of the Reader vs. the Kindle is that Amazon’s reader has access to its books, magazines and other content wirelessly, whereas Sony doesn’t offer any Internet connectivity. You have to hook it up to another computer and download your books. While this isn’t difficult, it is a multi-step process of which you should be aware.

The reading experience for the Reader gets solid marks from reviewers; you can also read Adobe PDF files and Microsoft Word documents on the Reader. Overall, Sony’s done a nice job with its Kindle competitor; it’s worth checking out before you plunk down your plastic on the “name” gadget, and see what the other guy has to offer.

One phrase you may have heard recently is “Voice over IP”, or VoIP, which basically means making phone calls via the Internet. If you have a fast Internet connection like a cable modem or DSL, you can take advantage of VoIP to save a lot of money on phone calls.

The most well-known service for doing this is Skype.  If you call someone else with Skype (which is free to download and install), the call is free. You can also call people on regular landlines and mobile phones, for a small fee.

What’s also cool is that you can use Skype even if you don’t have, or are not near, a computer. Belkin offers a wi-fi phone for Skype that lets you make calls to anyone, as long as you have access to a wi-fi network. You can find them almost anywhere nowadays — they even have one at my local Safeway!

The thing to remember about this phone is that it’s just that — a phone. This isn’t a device for browsing the Web; in fact, it doesn’t even have a Web browser. It is a phone, plain and simple. On the other hand, you don’t have to download the Skype software to use the phone, as it comes pre-installed, and you can sign up for a Skype account through the software.

Many folks use Skype to make VoIP calls. If you get this phone, ask those you call frequently to sign up for a Skype account, and save money — for yourself, and whomever you call.

OK, my kids love the idea of writing about their gadgets, so here’s another one: 12-year-old Patrick reviews his Sony PlayStation Portable handheld game console.

“I got my PSP in 2006. The first game I ever got was Daxter, one of the best games available for the PSP.

The first time I saw the PSP I thought the analog stick was a speaker. Well, it turns out that it’s not. The PSP is the first portable game system ever to have an analog stick on it. The analog stick is a huge upgrade from the D-pad. It really helps you move around better.

I didn’t expect the graphics to be very good, but I had my hopes. So, I loaded up Daxter; when I saw the in-game graphics, I just said “Wow.”

The graphics for the PSP are incredible. There exactly like the ones on the PlayStation 2 (PS2). I have many games and all of them have wonderful graphics. They look so life-like.

There were two things I wasn’t impressed at all by: The sound, and the brightness of the screen. Even with the sound all the way up it was hard to hear, but thankfully Sony fixed the problem by coming up with a sound enhancer. The screen is so dark there’s almost no way you can play it outside on a sunny day.

Sony has come out with the PSP slim, which is lighter, but still had some issues. With the new release of the PSP 3000, all the issues are fixed.

The battery life is very long; on one charge; it’s run for about 1 ½ days. The fact that you can store music, pics, videos, watch movies also impressed me.

I wish they would put a camera ability in there so you could take pictures. With the newest update you can get the PlayStation store, which you can get loads of demos from. You can also download games directly to your PSP. Online play isn’t very good, because you can only go online if you have Wi-Fi near you.

Overall, the PSP is a wonderful system. If you’re looking at handheld game systems, you should definitely get this instead of the Nintendo DS or Wii or something.”

Thanks, Patrick!