Three Products That Just Work

Just a quick post to give a heartfelt plug to three products which I've been using and enjoying in recent weeks. They don't have a thing in common--except that they all do exactly what they're supposed to in a quietly competent way, and they've all solved problems for me.

Hawking Technology's High-Gain Wi-Fi Signal Booster. My living-room sofa is in the middle of a sort of Wi-Fi Bermuda Triangle--if I shift my laptop slightly on my lap, it can't find the network. Or couldn't: I'm now using one of Hawking's signal boosters, a little box you attach to any Wi-Fi router to, well, boost its signal. And since I installed it. my dead spot has disappeared entirely. I'm using the HSB1 model, which doesn't seem to be on the market anymore, but the HSB2 (about $85) is similar.

Kensington Digital FM Transmitter/Auto Charger. The world is full of little gadgets that let you get iPod audio on your car stereo via a wireless FM transmitter. Most of them sound terrible, especially if you live in a city with a crowded FM dial and little in the way of empty channels to transmit over. (Check out the majority of the reviews at iLounge.) But I've been using Kensington's cigarette lighter-powered transmitter, and darned if it doesn't produce audio which sounds just fine, with barely any static or distortion. Kensington's transmitters use technology from a company called Aerielle which is designed to spruce up the sound of wirelessly-transmitted audio, and it works so well that I'm no longer flirting with the idea of having some sort of wired iPod adapter installed. The model I'm using is pricey at $80, but it doubles as an iPod charger.

Ecto. Blogging is fun; using most browser-based blogging tools is a drag. Ecto is a sort of capable, customizable WYSIWYG word processor that happens to save directly to blogs (on popular platforms such as Movable Type, which we use here at PC World). Almost anything I can do in Movable Type, I can do quicker in Ecto--and the program (which is available in both Windows and Mac versions) lets you do things Movable Type doesn't, such as get a word count and create entry templates. I'm still using the trial version, but I won't mull it over for a moment when it comes time to pay the $18 registration fee.

Like I said, three entirely unrelated products. But I wanted to recommend them. And now I have.

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