What's in Store

Is holiday shopping stressing you out? Wish you knew what the cool gadgets are this year? Shopping.com is here to help!

Back again this season as the most in-demand video game console is the Nintendo Wii. In fact, it sold out in many retail locations over the Thanksgiving weekend, so most shoppers will have to head online to a site like Shopping.com to find this in time for Christmas. eBay sellers also offer Wiis for an average selling price of around $430.

A super hot video game this year is the Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock game for the Xbox 360. Complete with new tracks and enhanced graphics, you’ll be less productive at home with this game in your collection. Find it for as low as $59.99 online.

Portable GPS devices are flying off the shelves this year as more and more people admit they have no sense of direction. In addition to helping you get from point A to point B, these devices will even direct you to the nearest gas station, hotel or fast food joint. Pretty handy when you’ve got an insatiable burger craving! The Garmin StreetPilot c550 is a great model, ranging from $300 - $500 on Shopping.com.

Everyone’s always talking about iPods, but what about the Microsoft Zune? They just released an 80 GB version, which is the equivalent of having a mini hard drive in your pocket! The good news is that it doesn’t weigh as much as one. Only slightly bigger than the 30 GB version, this player has a huge screen and comes with a built-in FM tuner so you can listen to news and sports on the radio. You can even wirelessly share songs, pictures and podcasts with other Zune owners. It’s tough to find offline, but you’ll find it on Shopping.com and eBay for roughly $210 - $420. I’m adding it to my list!

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This week we found fun items that can enhance your summer experience:

Splendora boasts about David Park’s Park Manhattan Shorts as a current What to Wear item. From the famous to the infamous and the just plain style-savvy crowd, it seems that all the ladies love these chic shorts. While you wouldn’t want to wear them with heels, they do look fabulous with flats.

Engadget buzzes about the iPhone arrival. (Too bad the phone didn’t work on the Today show this morning.) I trust it plays good tunes. If you can’t wait to get one, your wait is almost over. They will be available online starting at 6 p.m. PT today.

GeekSugar recommends the Portable Cuby Speaker for your iPod Shuffle. This was made for second generation Shuffles and connects via the headphone jack or to your computer via a USB cable. Each dock comes with speakers built-in on both sides and can play continuously for five hours with three AA batteries. This lovely music box will be available for purchase this July.

Delight tantalizes taste buds by recommending Weber’s Big Book of Grilling. Perfect for backyard gourmets, this cookbook brings insight from the world’s best-known and most trusted grilling experts. To boot, it’s packed with the tastiest and most reliable recipes ever to hit the grill with hundreds of mouthwatering full-color photos.

Productdose relays information about the unsinkable Molly Brown! …er, I mean The Sharper Image Unsinkable Pool Lounge, which is built for durability and comfort. If you like lounging in the water, this product is a sure bet.

UberReview touts the Portable Pillow with FaceSaver. While it’s not aesthetically pleasing, it can help prevent your face from getting sunburned. If you’re into new and different things, then say goodbye to the old-school beach umbrella.

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Summer travel tends to bring out the Ansel Adams or Annie Leibovitz in all of us. We want to make sure we capture our memories, whether they’re of Yosemite, Big Ben, The Vatican or Wally World.

Many of Shopping.com’s top 50 clicked products fall under digital cameras, especially at this time of year when everyone’s clamoring to update their model before  vacation. On our site alone, shoppers can find nearly 1,000 different digital cameras, but how to choose the right magic box for your holiday? Definitely do some research before you buy and consider the user and the purpose. To do so, visit Epinions.com, which has over 2,500 consumer reviews on digital cameras. There you’ll also find a helpful Digital Cameras Buyer’s Guide from Howard Creech, the Epinions.com Category Lead for digital cameras.

Sony’s DSC-W80

Perfect for Elle Woods, it’s powerful and cute! 7.2 megapixels, automatic red-eye reduction and an anti-blur system are some of its advanced features. If you’re not sure what a megapixel is and why you might need 7.2, make sure to check out Howard’s buyer’s guide or get more information on Shopping.com. eTailers on our site sell it for $225 - $329.

Nikon COOLPIX S6

Maybe all you need is a sleek-looking gadget in your pocket with a large LCD screen (no viewfinder required). If so, the Nikon CoolPix S6 could be for you. Epinions.com reviewers give it 4.5 stars overall. Find it from $170 - $300 from our merchants.

Canon EOS 400D/Rebel XTi

Not for the faint-hearted, this sophisticated snapper is hands down the favorite among our shoppers and boatsts a whopping 10.1 megapixels. It’s a little bulky for the occasional picture-taker, but Nigel Barker wannabes will love its professional-grade features, with the option to turn on simple point and shoot functionality. Save up for this one - it ranges from $687 - $950.

Clicks away!

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Snoop around my kitchen and you’ll find drawers packed with cooking tchotchkes and cabinets of eclectic appliances. I might suffer from an unhealthy addiction to kitchen gadgets, but that won’t stop me from sharing some of my very favorites with y’all.

The Perfect Slice

I adore a great cobb or chef salad, and one key ingredient in both is a hard-boiled egg. But don’t just chop it up haphazardly or throw it in whole. Use a precise egg slicer to instantly turn that egg into uniform sheets of tasty protein. Often after slicing an egg horizontally, I’ll turn it and slice it again vertically in order to get mini-pieces to garnish a salad. You can even use these tools to slice mushrooms and strawberries. Chefs Catalog offers a sturdy stainless steel version for $16.99, but you can also find a plastic version with steel blades for prices under $5.

Freshly Squeezed

Do you ever make recipes that call for 1 TBSP of fresh lemon or lime juice? It’s not enough juice to justify pulling out your electric juicer, yet squeezing by hand is such a pain. Enter the hand juicer. Appropriately sized for oranges, lemons or limes, these handy juicers require, well, just your hands! Place half of a citrus fruit (cut-side down) in the juicer and close it tight to extract all the fresh stuff, without letting the seeds wiggle their way into your recipe. This is especially handy when squeezing a bag of limes for a pitcher of mojitos in the absence of an electric juicer. Sur La Table offers three different sizes of hand juicers at varying prices.

The Crown Jewel

One of my kitchen prep pet peeves is slicing veggies when making scalloped potatoes or zucchini au gratin. I once had to thinly slice eight large potatoes by hand for a Tortilla Espanola and the task seemed interminable. Never again. My mandoline tops my kitchen gadget list, hands down. This baby will cut your work in half and make it look professional too! Once you attach a fruit or vegetable to the safe “pusher”, simply slide it back and forth over the cutting blade and voila, you’ve got perfectly sliced anything. You can easily adjust the thickness of your slices, and even get fancy and create julienne strips, ridge cuts and french fries. Mandolines usually fold down for easy storage and are sold by various Shopping.com merchants for a range of price points.

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This week, we found some unique and limited items to snatch up before they become obsolete:

Splendora recommends shopping on Etsy for unique wares in limited quantities for your wardrobe, jewelry box, or home.

Stuff Magazine highlights the non-cumbersome Fio MP3 Sunglasses to keep you sunning in style while listening to your favorite music.

Gizmodo mentions that adult swim season is ahead with the new blue-grey, limited edition Zune. This item pictured is one of 500 and not available to the public, so if you can get your hands on one you can be the envy of all your friends.

Engadget points out that Sony’s latest and greatest digicam, Cyber-shot DSC-S800 will be available in May at the earliest, and only to Europeans. If you’re traveling in Europe in the coming months, you might want to check this baby out.

Shiny Shiny spotlights Apple’s highly anticipated mobile device of the year — iPhone. Oooh la la!

Omiru styles its Special Sampler Edition of the Friday Fashion Hotlist and presents vintage button bobby pins from Two Busy Bees with a flair for fashion.

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We’re always checking out our favorite blogs, web sites and online magazines. Each week or so, we’ll point out the cool things we find. This week, we found a bunch of neat new gadgets and umm accessories:

UberReview reports on iPod themed Baby Clothes. Gadgets gone too far or yuppielicious?

GeekSugar spotlights the Asahi Beerbot, a robot that serves you cold ones, and a Kodak locket-inspired camera.

Gizmodo features a new kid on the MP3 block: Sandisk’s Sansa Connect. Also, animal lovers can help their dogs get two legs up with the new Hotdoll, a sex doll for dogs. It’s like a traffic accident, you just have to check it out.

Splendora discovers the Squeezebox which lets you stream Internet radio to a stereo.

Engadget points out that Wal-Mart has a $299 Blue-ray HD DVD player on the way. Other cool devices were mentioned including the exotic mobile Porsche Cayenne phone and a widescreen LCD for your wrist.

Men.Style.com highlights its GPS device top-pick: the Garmin Nuvi 360 with an intuitive, easy-to-use interface perfect for the everyday globetrotter.

Productdose.com reveals Philips’ latest VoIP phone the DECT 6.0 offering Skype Internet and traditional landline calling cabability.

Stuff Magazine reviews the Creative’s Zen Vision: M an MP3 player the size of a deck of cards, available in five different colors.

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