The scoop: LP-120 Coach Edition projector, from InFocus, about $2,100 (version without Coach leather carrying case about $2,000).

What it does: A stylish and very portable (it weighs just under 2 pounds) digital projector, the LP-120 lets you take your projector on the road to give presentations or hook up to a video source to provide better projection. Technical features include 1,000 lumens of brightness, native XGA resolution (1,028 by 768 pixels), an optical zoom lens (to adjust the picture size without moving the projector), and about 36 decibels output. The Coach Edition's leather case lets you carry the projector around in style.

Why it's cool: Having a small and lightweight device for your projection needs is a cool thing; we've lugged around too many bulky projectors that have strained our shoulders, and strained our patience when trying to hook up our laptop. The LP-120 is so small it will fit into a laptop bag. It was very easy to set up and get running, and it has easy-to-understand connection instructions, and power-up and power-down sequences. Focusing the projector, zooming in or doing the keystone correction also was easy (although we tended to leave fingerprints on the lens while trying to focus).

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The scoop: LP-120 Coach Edition projector, from InFocus, about $2,100 (version without Coach leather carrying case about $2,000).

What it does: A stylish and very portable (it weighs just under 2 pounds) digital projector, the LP-120 lets you take your projector on the road to give presentations or hook up to a video source to provide better projection. Technical features include 1,000 lumens of brightness, native XGA resolution (1,028 by 768 pixels), an optical zoom lens (to adjust the picture size without moving the projector), and about 36 decibels output. The Coach Edition's leather case lets you carry the projector around in style.

Why it's cool: Having a small and lightweight device for your projection needs is a cool thing; we've lugged around too many bulky projectors that have strained our shoulders, and strained our patience when trying to hook up our laptop. The LP-120 is so small it will fit into a laptop bag. It was very easy to set up and get running, and it has easy-to-understand connection instructions, and power-up and power-down sequences. Focusing the projector, zooming in or doing the keystone correction also was easy (although we tended to leave fingerprints on the lens while trying to focus).

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The scoop: iBoot, from Dataprobe, about $275.

What it does: The iBoot is a network-attached, IP-addressed and Web-controlled AC power switch that lets you reset the power of a device (such as a home computer or router) remotely. Take any device you want to control (a single device or power strip) and plug the power cable into the iBoot, which plugs into a standard power outlet. Then connect the iBoot to an Ethernet network, and you're up and running.

You now can monitor any device on that network and control the power of a device plugged into the iBoot. The iBoot includes utilities that let you control your device through a Web browser, command-line interface, custom applications or scripts. It also can be controlled through a ping utility, or a "heartbeat monitor," software that can be installed on a device to send information to the iBoot rather than responding to ping requests.

Why it's cool: In addition to monitoring computer and network equipment, the iBoot can be used to control consumer electronics. Whether it's for power savings or simply to ensure you remembered to turn off the iron (a bit extreme, we'll admit), you easily can access the device via a Web interface and turn the power on or off for any device or set of devices connected to a power strip.

The iBoot also provides the ability to use Windows plug-ins within other applications for management purposes. We didn't test this functionality, although we bet this feature offers limitless possibilities as to what conditions can be used to trigger the the iBoot and take action on the device to which the iBoot is connected.

The iBoot was extremely easy to configure, with a Web interface associated with the default IP address or with one acquired via a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server. Once logged on, you can assign it a static IP address. The password-protected Web console provides full management of the device and its advanced network-based detection tools.