tested

Editor Mike Haney is training for the New York City Marathon with all the help from high-end running tech he can get. Read his previous posts here.

Despite my geeky leanings, I've typically run with tech no more complex than an Ironman watch. But in the spirit of the title of this column, I've recently been testing a number of sports watches, from Suunto, Polar, and Garmin, to see if I could gain anything from monitoring my effort (or lack thereof). So far, the one device I find myself frantically searching the house for before I head out is the new Garmin Forerunner 405CX. And not for what it puts on my wrist, sleek as it is, but for what it puts on my monitor later.

Now you can rock out even with puny laptop speakers. Normally when you try to pump up the bass using the equalizer settings in iTunes or other software, you inadvertently distort your music's sound by boosting frequencies that small speakers can't reproduce. New software and chips promise crisper sound and fuller bass, using tricks such as toning down the extra-low frequencies that your speakers can't handle. We tested the tech by cranking the volume on CDs, DVDs and MP3s on three laptops.

New point-and-shoot cameras capture video in the 720p high-def format you’ve seen on TV networks such as ESPN. But all HD is not equal. The algorithm, or codec, that compresses the video onto a memory card affects the quality of the footage and your ability to edit it. We tried out three cameras, each sporting a different codec, to find the best mobile movie rig.