Bose Companion 2 Series II (graphite)
Bose's entry-level Companion 2 Series II speakers offer good bass and dual inputs--but they're not the best-sounding PC speakers in their price class.

Netflix Player by Roku
While it's still a work in progress--and currently lean on quality content--the Netflix Player's simple operation, overall convenience, and cheap price makes it a compelling option for Netflix subscribers looking for instant gratification.

Source Claims 240K Kindles Sold
Naturalist writes "Exact data on (the Linux-powered) Kindle sales figures have been hard to come by. Amazon is notoriously tight-lipped about it, and although CEO Jeff Bezos did give some Kindle-related information back in July, the company has yet to break out how many readers it has sold to date. Now TechCrunch claims to have spoken to a source close to Amazon with direct knowledge of the company's sales figures. According to this unnamed source, Amazon has sold 240,000 Kindles to date, for an estimated hardware revenue between $86 million and $96 million; media sales would push the total above $100M." We've been following the Kindle since its launch nine months ago.

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Canon Selphy CP770
The Canon Selphy CP770 is a neat, little dye-sublimation printer that includes a bucket for easy travel, but the wireless accessories aren't included. If you're shopping for a convenient travel-friendly printer, check out the Canon Selphy CP760 that offers the exact same technology with a similar style for a better price.

IBM Pushing Microsoft-Free Desktops
walterbyrd and other readers are sending along the news that IBM is partnering worldwide with Canonical/Ubuntu, Novell, and Red Hat to offer Windows-free desktop PCs pre-loaded with Lotus software and ready for customizing by local ISVs for particular markets. The head of IBM's Lotus division is quoted: "The slow adoption of Vista among businesses and budget-conscious CIOs, coupled with the proven success of a new type of Microsoft-free PC in every region, provides an extraordinary window of opportunity for Linux." One example of the cooperation: "Canonical, which sells subscription support for Ubuntu, a Linux operating system that scores high marks on usability and 'the cool factor,' will re-distribute Lotus Symphony via their repositories. Symphony 1.1 will be available through the Ubuntu repositories by the end of August."

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Philips BDP7200
The BDP7200 has a unique design and is Profile 1.1 compliant, but subpar Blu-ray image quality and the lack of onboard audio decoding options limit its appeal.

Debian's Testing Branch Nears Completion
DeviceGuru writes "With Debian Lenny (aka 'testing') poised to displace Etch as the popular Linux distribution's 'stable' branch possibly as soon as next month, blogger Rick Lehrbaum loaded the latest preview (beta 2) of Lenny's KDE CD image onto an available Thinkpad, and took it for a spin. How's it coming along? After detailing a handful of issues — and offering solutions for each (except Bluetooth support) — he concludes: 'Other than the need for a few hacks and fixes, my main complaint with it is its inclusion of way too many of KDE's rich set of applications, such as games, tools, etc.' From the looks of it, looks like Lenny might be the new 'Debian stable' soon!"

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Optimus Maximus
As impressive as we find the Optimus Maximus keyboard in concept, the $1,600 price tag overwhelms its real world benefits. We can only recommend this keyboard to those most charmed by this unique keyboard's novelty.

BenQ V2400W
With its offset neck and thin chassis, the BenQ V2400W presents a unique look. In addition to the sleek design, its low price and strong performance earn this 24-inch LCD our recommendation for home or office use.