xcen>pt RAltavista

Greetings! I'm Ben Patterson, and I'll be your guide to the latest and greatest in gadgets: music players, cell phones, GPS devices, Bluetooth headsets, DVD recorders-you name it. Sure, many of the devices I'll be covering have practical, sensible applications; for instance, cell phones that track your location, MP3 players with voice recorders, and wireless PC cards that keep you connected. That said, I'll also be writing about gadgets that are just plain cool. If you're craving, say, a motion-sensitive gaming phone or a digital camera that connects to your Wi-Fi network, you've come to the right place. But first, a little about me: I'm based in New York, and I've been covering tech for close to a decade, starting as an intern at Wired magazine and eventually landing at CNET, where I served as the senior editor for help, how-tos and tech trends. Most recently, I was the editor-in-chief for infoSync World, a web site focusing on wireless news and reviews. In addition, my articles and reviews have appeared in such publications as PC Magazine, Mobile PC, and Computer Shopper. More importantly, here are a few details about my gear. In my living room, you'll find a 42-inch Westinghouse LCD HDTV, a Panasonic DVD player that upscales to 1080i over HDMI (soon to be replaced by an Oppo player), an Onkyo receiver and 5.1 speaker set, a couple of Apple Wi-Fi routers, and a new Xbox 360. And when I'm out and about, I'm usually toting around two cell phones-a Palm Treo 700p and a Samsung SGH-T509 (thin and light, but a little long in the tooth), along with a first-generation iPod nano (which may fall victim to either the Apple iPhone or the Samsung F300 Ultra Music). Have any suggestions for bleeding-edge gadgets you'd like to see covered? Just let me know. Also, please send along your tips and questions; I'll be featuring them regularly in my upcoming posts.