This month's "Why didn't I think of that" award goes to Panasonic's nickel-metal-hydride (NiMH) battery set, which converts AAs to C or D batteries. It comes with rechargeables, but alkalines work as well. Just pop on the appropriate jacket and you're ready. Of course, you get the battery life of a AA, not that of longer-lasting Cs and Ds.


Price: $30; includes six AAs, two AAAs, four adapters, and a charger.

www.panasonic.com

Worker, presenter, painter: Acer's Tablet PC changes to suit your needs.


It's a regular laptop whose display swivels for presentations and folds back on itself to form a tablet. It'll be available by the end of this year at about the same price as a comparably equipped laptop. It'll also weigh less than 3 pounds and get 3 hours of battery life.