(FORTUNE Magazine) – The Music Aficionado

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The Bose SoundDock digital music system ($299) lets you listen to your Apple iPod or iPod Mini without earbuds and without a computer. It's great for filling the kitchen, bedroom, or office with Bose-quality stereo sound, and it comes with a credit card--sized remote. Sorry, iPod not included.

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Auvi's SA250 MP3 Player & USB Flash Drive ($130) holds 256 megabytes of MP3 and WMA tunes but has an FM tuner as well and records your favorite radio programs as MP3 files. It's also a voice recorder. On top of all that, it runs 15 hours on a single AAA battery and serves as a USB flash drive for your Mac or PC.

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At last, a portable satellite radio that goes almost anywhere you do. The Delphi XM MyFi ($350) comes with adapters for use at home and in the car, but you can also just take a hike with it, enjoying more than 100 channels of near CD-quality music, sports, and talk programming. The XM radio service is $10 a month.

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Dell's Dimension 8400 PC system with Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 software ($2,026-plus) is a value-packed computer for managing your music, photo, and video collections, especially when paired with this optional Dell 20-inch flat-panel display.

The Business Traveler

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Shure's E5c Sound Isolating Earphones actually block out more airplane noise than those earmuff-style, noise-canceling headphones you see on the smug music lovers up in first class. The E5c's snuggle into your ear canal, sealing out background distractions. You'll gasp at the quality of your music or audio books. You may also gasp at the price: $499.

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Want a cellphone but also need wireless e-mail and data? PalmOne's Treo 650 (available from Sprint for around $500, with other carriers to follow; prices vary) adds a removable battery, a high-resolution color screen, a better keyboard, faster e-mail and web browsing, an MP3 player, and Bluetooth wireless networking. World travelers rejoice: The GSM version will be quad-band.

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You're elbow to elbow on the plane, but you need privacy for typing a confidential report and reading your e-mail. 3M's Laptop Privacy Filters allow you to see your computer screen, but the guy in the next seat sees only a dark, blank screen. The filters fit regular and widescreen laptops (12 inches and up), and cost $50 to $150.

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Want a mobile e-mail device but also need to make and receive calls? RIM's new BlackBerry 7100T (starting at $199) from T-Mobile) is the most phonelike BlackBerry yet. We give it razzberries for its limited Bluetooth support (headsets only), and the keyboard is non-QWERTY, requiring a learning curve, but BlackBerry fans can probably learn to love it even if they're all thumbs.

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Traveling with sensitive information? IBM's ThinkPad T42 ($1,700-plus) offers a built-in fingerprint scanner and data-encryption technology to keep your secrets safe, even if you lose the computer, plus shock absorbers on the hard disk in case you're clumsy. It's also thin and light (around five pounds) and gets up to seven hours on a battery charge.

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Small digital devices weren't designed for large human digits. That's why we love to fondle the Stowaway Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard ($150) from Think Outside, a pocket-sized, six-ounce unit that unfolds into a full-sized keyboard for typing memos and e-mail messages into your Bluetooth-enabled PDA or smartphone, like the Treo 650.

The Couch Potato

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Take advantage of the superior sound on DVD discs and in high-definition television with Denon's DHT-485DV home-theater-in-a-box system ($649). Just add a TV to the speakers, subwoofer, progressive-scan DVD player, and AM/FM receiver, and it's showtime.

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Dell's W4200HD high-definition 42-inch plasma display ($3,499) is a widescreen centerpiece for your living room media center, at a price well below comparable sets. Just over three inches deep, with detachable speakers, it can even hang on a wall with an optional mount.

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How many remote controls do you have? Replace them all with the Harmony H676 universal remote control ($230), and operate your media center with simple one-button commands like "Watch a Movie" or "Watch TV." The Harmony does all the rest. Just hook it to your PC to download the remote codes.

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Okay, so now you have the plasma and the sound system. How are you going to enjoy them late at night without waking up the kids and annoying your spouse? Pioneer's amazing Wireless Dolby Digital 5.1 Headphones SE-DIR800C ($475) create believable surround-sound effects for your ears only.

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iRiver's Portable Media Player PMP-120 ($500) has 20 gigabytes of storage (good for about 80 hours of video or 600 hours of MP3 or WMA music), a 3.5-inch LCD display, a built-in FM radio and voice recorder, and enough battery life to watch two movies in a row. Just don't use it while driving.

The Gamer

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Although hard-core gamers still prefer analog monitors, Sony's gorgeous PremierPro SDM-P234 widescreen 23-inch LCD monitor ($2,000) delivers outstanding video performance for work as well as play. With its thin black bezel and silver stand, it looks good even when turned off.

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Silent screamer: Gaming fans love the Voodoo Rage f:50 PC ($3,800-plus) because it has no fans and thus runs as quietly as death. Internal cooling pipes keep the AMD Athlon 64 and nVidia graphics chips from leaving scorch marks on your floor.

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This season's hottest game toy, the dual-screen Nintendo DS handheld game console ($150) plays older Game Boy and Game Boy Advance titles, but you can bet that cool new games will be coming soon to take advantage of the lower touch-screen and built-in microphone.

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Atari's Flashback Classic Game Console ($50) takes players back to the thrilling if somewhat less than 3-D games of yesteryear. Just attach it to any TV, hook up the retro-style joysticks, and challenge your kids to a round of Asteroids, Breakout, or 18 other golden oldies.

Rodent with fangs: Razer's Diamondback ($60) is a fast, high-resolution optical mouse with seven programmable buttons that give hard-core gamers a competitive edge. It's friendly to lefties as well as right-handers, and comes in chameleon green or salamander red.

This season's hottest titles are all sequels: the Sims 2, Metroid Prime 2, Doom 3, Halo 2, and Half-Life 2 ($40 to $60).

The Digital Photographer

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Say "bling!" Canon has wrapped its compact Optura 400 digital camcorder, with a 10X optical zoom lens, image stabilization, and the ability to take 2.2-megapixel digital photos, in a custom Coach leather case and gift box. ($1,099)

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Apple's all-in-one iMac G5 computer ($1,299-plus) is essentially a widescreen flat-panel display--it comes in two sizes, 17-inch and 20-inch--with a powerful graphics computer hidden inside. The built-in iPhoto software provides unmatched ease of use.

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Konica Minolta's eight-megapixel DiMAGE A2 digital camera ($999) features impressive antishake image stabilization and a wide-angle 7X optical zoom, in a convenient all-in-one design that's suitable for amateurs and pros alike.

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If you've got a high-resolution digital camera, show it off with Canon's PIXMA i8500 photo printer ($350), which uses eight ink cartridges to deliver brilliant color prints up to eight by ten inches. And unlike other printers, it's pretty as a picture.

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Apple's new iPod Photo (40GB for $499, 60GB for $599, Mac or Windows) now stores digital photos as well as music, and performs musical slide shows. Use the easy scroll wheel to display your favorite shots on a bright color screen. Camera not included.

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Casio's Exilim Z55 Zoom ($450) packs a five-megapixel sensor, a 3X Pentax optical-zoom lens, a 2.5-inch LCD display, and overall great performance into a tough but stylish case not much bigger than a pack of playing cards.