Jon Swartz
USA Today

SAN FRANCISCO — And consumers thought they were safe by not clicking on links in unsolicited e-mails.

Now comes a new batch of phishing scams that rely on an old tool — the phone — to trick people into giving away their personal information.

Vishing — short for voice phishing — is one of the latest iterations of phishing, a long-running e-mail scam that instructs recipients to click a link in the e-mail to confirm data such as their Social Security number and credit card number. But the link is really connected to a bogus website where the data are stolen.

Vishing has emerged as a new threat with the rise of Voice over Internet Protocol, technology that allows cheap and anonymous Internet calls.

The new batch of e-mails appear to come from PayPal, eBay’s online payment service, and — like most phishing e-mails — they warn the recipients about a problem with their account. An e-mail advises victims to call a number to verify basic data. But the number is actually recording data with the intent to steal it. The information often winds up on cybercrime forums, websites that function as digital marketplaces for stolen personal data.

Some vishing attacks don’t even begin with an e-mail. They come as calls out of the blue in which the caller already knows the recipient’s credit card number, and asks for the three-digit security code on the back of the card.

“Hackers are moving away from the Web and using something victims are more comfortable with: making a call,” said Paul Henry, vice president of technology evangelism at Secure Computing. “Consumers are programmed to enter in information on the phone. It’s a natural evolution of phishing.”

In the ruthless world of phishing, there is no shortage of sophisticated ruses for pulling a digital fast one on consumers.

Consider:

•Phishing-related losses to date are $2.8 billion, market researcher Gartner says. Victims, on average, lost $1,244 this year, compared with $257 in 2005.

•Six out of 10 banks were phishing targets in the year that ended in October, according to a Gartner survey of 50 top U.S. banks. The frequency of the attacks underscores the concern that anti-phishing measures at financial institutions and other large companies are not entirely up to snuff, Gartner analyst Avivah Litan says.

•Symantec detected 157,477 unique phishing messages in the first half of 2006, up 81% from the last six months of 2005. Home PCs were targets of 86% of security threats in the first six months of 2006, according to the Symantec report.

Incidents have soared as attacks become more sophisticated and evolve every few months, says Dennis Maicon, executive vice president of financial-services solutions at computer-security firm Digital Resolve.

And the victims are no longer just the usual targets, including customers of AOL, eBay, PayPal, Citibank and Bank of America.

Early this year, phishers began preying on customers of regional banks and credit unions.

“As large banks improve their computer defenses, phishers are moving downstream to smaller banks that don’t have the same level of security,” says George Tubin, a senior analyst at researcher TowerGroup.

The deceptive e-mail messages and websites have also gotten much craftier. One recent phishing attempt actually warned customers about phishing and asked them to update their information for security reasons. To assure wary users, the legitimate 800 phone number of a targeted company was included in the e-mail.

In others, customer names and addresses routinely appear. Previously, scams were addressed to “Dear valued (company name) member.”

“This is slick stuff,” says Ron O’Brien, senior security analyst at computer-security firm Sophos. “But as long as it works, expect more.”

Michelle Kessler
USA Today

SAN FRANCISCO — Computerlike “smart” cellphones are starting to go mainstream, creating opportunities for the wireless industry.

Holiday shoppers are expected to drive the number of smartphones sold this year to 81 million, says wireless analyst Todd Kort at researcher Gartner. They’ll make up about 8% of the overall cellphone market, an increase from about 6% a year ago, Kort says.

Smartphone sales in the first half this year jumped 50% from 2005, researcher In-Stat says.

Unlike regular cellphones, smartphones have a PC-like operating system and download and run computer programs. Most include advanced data features such as e-mail, instant messaging and word processing. Some, such as the Palm Treo and Samsung BlackJack, have small typewriter-style keyboards.

Smartphones used to be niche products. They were bulky and cost about $500, says tech analyst Ross Rubin at researcher NPD.

But now design and price “are becoming consumer-friendly,” says Nokia spokesman Keith Nowak. Nokia’s new, slim E62 smartphone sells for as little as $100 with a service contract. That type of product should help the market grow, Rubin says.

The industry certainly hopes so. Carriers like smartphones because they encourage users to buy data services, which usually range from about $10 to $50 extra a month.

Handset makers like smartphones because they don’t always cut into sales of other products. Business smartphone users are three times as likely to have a second cellphone than are regular users, says wireless analyst Bill Hughes at In-Stat.

That helps explain the flood of recent smartphone announcements. Palm, Samsung, Motorola and Nokia are among companies that recently launched products. Motorola this month announced plans to acquire Good Technology, a company that makes wireless e-mail software for many smartphones. Nokia this year acquired its own e-mail company, Intellisync.

The surge in interest means it will be easier to find advanced phones. But it may also create confusion.

Many smartphone users never download outside programs, Gartner’s Kort says. Such users might be better served by less-expensive regular phones, he says. Many now have data features such as e-mail once common only on smartphones.

Shoppers might also have a hard time choosing between smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDAs), because they share many features. But PDAs, such as many BlackBerry models, are designed to be used primarily for data. They are best for professionals who write a lot of e-mail on the road, Kort says.

Least concerned are people from the Prairies, Atlantic Canada

Peter Wilson
Sun

Identity theft is a worry for 70 per cent of British Columbians, more than in any other Canadian province, according to an online survey released Thursday.

Yet 24 per cent of respondents say they still don’t take the precaution of shredding their personal documents before putting them in the trash, according to the survey done for Royal and Sunalliance Insurance Company of Canada.

That compares with a reported national average of almost a third of Canadians who don’t bother to shred, despite the fact that two million Canadians have already been victims of identity theft.

Least worried in Canada about identity theft were those on the Prairies and in Atlantic Canada.

Other findings on British Columbians surveyed included:

– 80 per cent wouldn’t know where to start or what to do if their identity was stolen, almost on the mark with the national average of 78 per cent.

(Royal and Sunalliance just happen to offer a get-your-identity-back service in their home insurance policies, which just might have something to do with this question being asked.)

– 29 per cent keep their PIN number somewhere at home, instead of memorizing it, higher than the national average of 25 per cent.

– 28 per cent will shop online this holiday season and 80 per cent of those will use credit cards.

According to the survey, younger Canadians — those from 18 to 24 — are much worse than their elders when it comes to identity theft security.

One in 10 young shoppers go out with their pin number in their wallet or bag and some even keep it stored in their cell phone.

Shawn Desantis, Royal & SunAlliance’s vice-president of personal insurance said that, when his company set out to decide how to help customers reclaim their identities it found the process was a complicated one.

“We ourselves were surprised at the process,” he said. “It takes a lot of time.”

He suggests the following measures to prevent the problem in the first place:

– Shred statements, bills and direct mail, don’t just throw them in the garbage.

– Only take the credit and debit cards you need with you when shopping.

– Keep track of what you spend.

– Only shop on secure websites: Do not enter any financial information — if you see a broken-key or open padlock symbol on your Internet browser.

– Protect your PIN numbers.

– Always check bank statements and credit card statements thoroughly.

– Be aware of what personal information you are sharing and the measures in place to protect it.

– Review your credit report annually so that you can identify any abnormal activity: There are two credit report agencies in Canada: Equifax and TransUnion. You can order a free report from both of these.

– – –

SAFE SHOP

Here are some quick hints on how to protect yourself online as you buy gifts during the run-up to the holiday season:

– Always make sure that you’re using an authentic site (some browsers like the new Internet Explorer and Firefox have protection built-in) and not attempting to buy from a site set up merely to capture your credit card and personal information.

– Buy from well-known, established merchants.

– Never, ever, make purchases online while connected to a public WiFi connection. What are known as ‘evil twin’ networks — set up to look like real WiFi networks — are all too ready to help you divulge all your financial information.

– Don’t buy from people sending you unsolicited e-mail.

– Beware holiday themed e-mail because it could contain viruses and trojan horses. Personal financial information on your computer could be sent to thieves just because you clicked on an attachment. Think before you click.

– Keep up to date with your anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and firewall software.

– Use common sense. If a site looks suspicious or if even the smallest of alarms goes off in your brain back away from the keyboard. You don’t need any gift badly enough to compromise your financial security for it.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Bad drivers run risk of having their plate numbers exposed to the world

Misty Harris
Sun

With city streets looking more like a bumper-car rally every day, websites allowing motorists to unleash their rage are popping up faster than middle fingers on the freeway.

Among the most popular is platewire.com, a fast-growing site on which the road weary can air grievances — not to mention the plate numbers of offending drivers — for the world to see.

“It’s a useful tool for people who are fed up with being put in danger just from driving back and forth to work,” says Mark Buckman, who co-created platewire with his brother after the pair narrowly escaped five separate collisions during a single commute.

“It seems like the only time people pay attention to their driving is when there’s a police officer behind them.”

Although currently geared to American motorists, the site’s venting forum will soon be opened to those in Canada, Mexico and Europe in an effort to expose bad drivers of all nationalities. Buckman’s vision is to use public humiliation to get people to clean up their act.

Recent posts include a motorist who was run off the road by another driver, causing $1,000 in damages; someone who witnessed a driver who “ran over a little kid at a crosswalk and drove away;” a pedestrian who was hit by a “maniac in an Audi” while crossing the street; and a bedazzled driver who complains that a fellow motorist’s rims were “so bright and shiny that the glare nearly made me run off the road.”

Buckman has yet to be contacted by police about the criminal activities reported on platewire, save for one officer he claims warned him “the authorities should be left to take care of this stuff.”

Michael Marsden, a noted expert on car culture, believes sites of this kind (among them, aboveaveragedriver.com, monkeymeter.com and baddriving.com) could be helpful in taking road rage off-road.

“If we believe in ultimate automotive freedom, which we do, then those [motorists] who are attacking us aren’t just criminals, they’re downright unpatriotic,” says Marsden, dean of St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. His only concern is that some people might use the information on the sites to exercise a kind of vigilante justice.

“It’s almost like America’s Most Wanted,” says Marsden. “Posting information about a criminal and hoping other people will find him.”

Off-road raging in the newspaper is also proving popular, with publications such as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Edmonton Journal maintaining reader-generated columns designed for letting off steam.

“People tell me the act of writing or phoning is cathartic, that they feel better even if their vent never gets published,” says Terry McConnell, whose Venting feature in the Journal attracts more than 300 submissions a week — about one in five of which are related to traffic.

Christopher White, spokesman for the Traffic Safety division of the Canadian Automobile Association, believes motorists would do better to focus on the task at hand — getting to their destination in one piece — than documenting the activities of fellow drivers.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

SaskTel Mobility maintains its top spot while Fido is rated second overall

Gillian Shaw
Sun

The prospect of increased competition has driven Canada’s wireless service providers to substantially step up their customer satisfaction rankings, according to a J.D. Power and Associates study released Wednesday.

Customer satisfaction was up across all carriers, with SaskTel Mobility maintaining its top ranking among contract service providers in the second year of the study. Fido rated second overall, followed by Telus Mobility, Aliant and MTS Mobility.

Virgin Mobile earned the strongest loyalty among customers in the prepaid arena for the second consecutive year, followed by Aliant and Telus Mobility.

“The overall industry average has increased quite a bit so it is quite encouraging,” said Charles Schade, senior director of research at J.D. Power and Associates. “The industry is starting to step up to the plate with respect to satisfying the needs of their customers.”

Fido moved up from third place to second in contract service, and Telus bumped up from fourth to third place. Despite an increase in satisfaction levels, MTS failed to keep up with the industry average and dropped from second place to fifth.

Rogers wireless trailed at the bottom of the customer satisfaction rankings for contract service, behind second-to-last place finisher Bell Mobility. In prepaid service, Bell came in last, behind Rogers.

Prepaid service, which lags behind contract service in market penetration, is costing its users much less, with contract customers paying on average $74 a month compared to $29 for prepaid customers.

Schade said number portability and the prospect of increased competition in the industry are driving improvements in customer service. Number portability, expected next spring, means customers will be able to switch carriers without changing phone numbers.

Andrew Black, president and chief executive of Virgin Mobile Canada, suggested his company’s customer service has helped improve service among Canadian carriers.

“I think competition is a good thing for the industry and it will make us all better,” he said of his company which doesn’t lock customers into contracts.

“It comes down to the fact that our culture is so consumer centric,” he said. “I spend over an hour a week on the phone with our customers.

“Our call centre is in the building, 200 feet from my desk and everybody knows if a customer wants to speak to me, they can come and get me.”

Shawn Hall, spokesman for Telus Mobility, said his company’s churn rate, which is the lowest in the industry, is an indication of good customer satisfaction. The churn rate measures the number of customers leaving a carrier.

Telus’ churn rate for the third quarter of this year was 1.36 per cent compared to an industry average of 1.55 per cent.

“This is just one report, you have to look at a lot of different factors when you are considering customer satisfaction,” said Hall.

The survey which was carried out in October was based on online responses from close to 6,000 mobile phone users, starting as young as 13.

According to the survey, contract phone subscribers aren’t using all their minutes. The average number of minutes contracted for a weekday service plan is 187, but customers reported they use only 51 per cent of that. Contract customers use an average of 16 long-distance minutes, accounting for 29 per cent of their contracted time.

The survey also ranked mobile phones with LG taking the highest ranking among brands, followed by Sanyo, Samsung and Sony Ericsson.

CHURN RATES

Churning could describe the feeling mobile phone execs get in the pit of their stomach when they see another provider entering the market, but in industry parlance it refers to customers who leave. Thus a churn rate of one per cent would mean that during the period measured, one of every 100 customers abandoned the carrier.

TELUS MOBILITY

Q3 2006: Blended churn rate for prepaid and post-paid service was 1.36 per cent, compared to 1.33 per cent in the third quarter of last year.

Year-to-date: Telus had a 1.33-per-cent churn rate compared to 1.38 for the same period in 2005.

BELL MOBILITY

Q3 2006: Blended churn rate of 1.5 per cent, the same as the third quarter of last year.

Year-to-date: Bell had a 1.6-per-cent churn rate, unchanged from the same period last year.

(Canadian industry average for Q3 2006: 1.55%*)

Sources: Telus Mobility, Bell Mobility, Merrill Lynch*

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

Few products break within the period, Consumer Reports magazine says

Sun

TORONTO — The organization that publishes popular Consumer Reports magazine says buying an extended warranty on electronics and major appliances is like pouring money down the drain.

Consumers Union says few products break within the extended warranty period. When they do, the repair rarely costs more than the warranty would.

The organization, which counts 300,000 among it magazine readers, based its conclusion on decades of product testing.

American consumers are expected spend $1.6 billion US this holiday season buying extended warranties for everything from laptops to flat-screen TVs.

Consumer Reports says profit margins on some extended warranties can be as high as 50 per cent.

It says a warranty shouldn’t cost more than 20 per cent of the product.

Canadian retailers say they offer consumers extended warranties because some people want them.

“It’s a bit like buying insurance, I guess,” said Vince Power, a spokesman for Sears Canada Corp., the country’s largest appliance retailer.

“You don’t expect things to go wrong. But, if they do, you know with the protection agreement you have that peace of mind. That’s really what we’re selling.”

“The reason we offer them is because there are customers who want them,” said Lori DeCou, a spokeswoman for Best Buy Canada, the country’s largest consumer electronics retailer.

Neither retailer would comment on what percentage of customers opt for these contracts, nor how much money they make on them.

Sears’s appliance sales associates work on commission, Power said. Best Buy’s sales associates don’t, DeCou said.

And if you’re still determined to buy the extended warranty, don’t pay more than 20 per cent of the price of the product for which it was purchased, Consumers Reports said.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006

 

But will it be plasma or LCD? There are differences

Marc Saltzman
Province

You’re finally ready to ditch that aging cathode ray tube TV you bought when The Cosby Show was king. In its place will be a gorgeous widescreen high-definition set, you decide, and better yet, one of those flat ones to hang on the wall.

Yes, that would look just perfect — and be the perfect excuse to ditch that ugly painting you received from your “artistic” sister-in-law.

With credit card in pocket and smile on your face, you march to your local electronics store, only to be dismayed by a sea of flat-panel televisions that extend as far as the eye can see.

How on earth can you decide which one is for you?

Buying a new television these days isn’t an easy task. But if you’ve decided to go with a flat HDTV set — after all, once you go flat, you never go back — then you’ve already narrowed down the purchase to a plasma television or a flat-panel LCD television.

Plasma TVs contain an array of tiny cells, referred to as pixels, which contain phosphors corresponding to the colours red, green and blue. A mixture of trapped neon and xenon gases are then stimulated by an electrical current, thus producing a rich and vibrant picture to the viewer on the other side of the glass.

Similar to your laptop computer’s monitor, flat-panel LCD televisions use a “liquid crystal display” to produce a sharp and bright picture; liquid crystals are sandwiched between two panes of polarized glass, which are stimulated by an electric current and illuminated by fluorescent tubes housed behind the glass.

Panasonic, a “technology agnostic” company that sells both plasma and flat-panel LCDs, believes there is a market for both products.

“We’re seeing LCD televisions, which are available in smaller sizes, as a replacement for those who have a CRT television, while plasma tends to be a replacement to larger rear-projection televisions,” says Barry Murray, director of marketing for audio/video products at Panasonic Canada.

Murray maintains, however, plasma offers a better overall video experience over LCD in three key areas: contrast ratio, colour and in its ability to represent motion.

Contrast ratio — which refers to how white the whites are or how blacks the blacks are — is usually better in plasma televisions (such as 10,000:1 contrast ratio over 3000:1) because LCD televisions are a backlit-driven technology, therefore you have a fluorescent light that’s on all the time behind the crystals. With plasma, if you want pure black, you don’t activate that cell.

Murray says plasma offers more accurate colour reproduction than LCD, resulting in a more “organic”-looking picture.

While LCD televisions are getting better at displaying fast motion, such as a hockey game, their refresh rates are poorer than plasma. Unless the television has relatively low response times, viewers may see “ghosting” or trails following a fast-moving object.

But Chris Matto, Marketing Manager at Sharp Electronics Canada, one of the leading manufacturers of flat-panel LCD televisions, disagrees with some of Murray’s claims.

For one, Matto says plasma used to be the only player above 42 inches, but this is not the case any more.

“There’s a few good reasons why LCD televisions are outselling plasma TVs more than three to one in Canada, and one of them is that unlike plasma, which starts at about 37 inches, LCD TVs are available in screen sizes from 13 inches to 65 inches” says Matto.

Oreste De Vincenzo, Samsung’s Consumer Display Product

Marketing Manager, mirrors Matto’s sentiment: “Up until last year, there was a distinct differentiation between LCD and plasma models: LCDs covered the 13- to 40-inch range, while plasma was primarily available in 42-inch and larger sizes” says De Vincenzo.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

 

Flash, radio, widescreen, photos, speakers and media sharing jazz ’em up

Marc Saltzman
Province

It’s been exactly five years since Apple introduced its iconic iPod portable media player — now with close to 60 million units sold worldwide, not to mention thousands of accessories such as wireless headphones, designer cases and home-stereo docking stations.

And there doesn’t seem to be any sign of the iPod’s popularity slowing down. A recent report by leading global financial services firm Morgan Stanley found that more consumers want an iPod than a new cellphone this holiday season.

If you happen to be one of them, or if you prefer a non-Apple MP3 player in the stocking this year, the following is a look at a handful of worthy digital media players that will be music to your ears.

HARD DRIVES

– Carrying thousands of songs, audio books and podcasts in your pocket is cool, but imagine also being able to tote around dozens of movies, TV shows, music videos, recorded sporting events and camcorder footage on that same portable device.

The latest iPod does just that. Available in 30-gigabyte models ($299) or 80 GB ($399), the new iPods also offer a handful of improvements over older models, such as longer battery life (20 hours), a much brighter LCD screen and new ways to quickly search through all of your media. What’s more, your iPod can now download games ($5.99 each) from the iTunes store. An 80-GB iPod can store roughly 20,000 songs or up to 100 hours of video.

– Media lovers who want a big-screen experience out of their pocket player should opt for the just-launched Creative Zen Vision W ($359.99 for 30 GB, $479.99 for 60 GB).

Unlike the iPod’s 6.4-centimetre display, the Vision W offers a high-resolution 10.9-cm colour widescreen display. Other features not found in the iPod include a built-in microphone, FM radio, loud external speaker, video-out jack to connect to a television, a flash memory card reader to view or copy photos from a digital camera over to the Zen W’s hard drive and support for multiple video codecs. The 60-GB player supports up to 15,000 songs or up to 240 hours of video.

ZUNE WITH A VIEW

– Microsoft has just launched its first line of digital media devices. The Zune — available in black, white or brown — is a 30 GB hard-drive-based media player with a 7.6-cm screen (viewable in portrait or landscape modes). The pocket-sized player supports up to 7,500 songs, 25,000 photos or 100 hours of video.

The Zune separates itself from the pack by encouraging sharing between friends. Integrated wireless technology means you can share selected full-length songs or custom playlists to a nearby Zune. You’re thinking “But won’t this encourage piracy?” Nope. The recipient of the song can listen to the track up to three times in three days. If you like one song in particular, you can flag to purchase it online the next time you sync with your computer. The Zune also has a built-in FM tuner.

FLASH MEMORY PLAYERS

– Samsung’s iPod nano-killer is the YP-K5, a tiny and stylish flash memory player that has a surprising little twist: a hidden stereo speaker that cleverly slides down so you can enjoy your favourite music without earphones. The slide-out speaker is also used to prop up the device. Or, why not create a slide show with a couple of button presses? Load up your tunes and enjoy your photos on its bright 4.34-cm colour screen.

Other features include a super-slick interface, FM radio, alarm function and audio support for MP3, WMA, OGG and ASF files.

Bundled accessories include a software CD, earphones and USB cable. The YP-K5 is available in one-GB sizes ($179.99) or four GB ($299.99).

– Wildly popular in Europe and now available in Canada, the Sansa flash memory players from SanDisk, the world’s largest supplier of flash memory products, offer a number of features for a competitive price. For example, the Sansa e200 series (available in two GB, four GB, six GB or eight GB sizes; prices start at about $129.99) lets mobile media lovers access their music, photos and videos with a clean on-screen interface and backlit buttons.

These thin devices feature a 4.57-cm screen, FM radio and a built-in microphone for voice recording. It’s also the only MP3 player on the market with a microSD expansion slot for additional flash memory cards (available in one GB or two GB); a secondary advantage of removable microSD memory is the ability to pop the card — which can store up to 500 songs — into a compatible cellphone or PDA.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

WIRELESS WONDER: Scanning, printing seamless with Lexmark’s newest creation

Jim Jamieson
Province

What is it? Lexmark X9350 All-in-One

Price: $349

Why you need it: If you are looking to get the performance of three work-intensive devices in one footprint.

Why you don’t: If you don’t have high-volume need for any of these functions.

Our rating: Four stars out of five

Although Lexmark’s newest all-in-one is aimed primarily at the home-office crowd, the increasing demands of university, high school and general around-the-house printing, scanning and faxing make the X9350 an interesting option.

Anyone who enjoys working on their laptop while lounging around the house will appreciate the built-in capability of wirelessly sending files to the device for printing at a resolution of 4,800-by-1,200 dots per inch.

And, of course, wireless means less cable clutter — something most of us despise.

This feature can also work in the other direction, with wireless scanning from the printer to the computer for those with home wireless networks.

The C9350 will print at speeds up to 32 pages per minute for black and 27 ppm for colour. Another handy feature is automatic two-sided printing.

The X9350 also uses Lexmark’s water- and smear-resistant Evercolor pigmented inks.

Some other nice features: multiple-page fax and copy using the 50-page automatic document feeder; a six-centimetre adjustable LCD display; 48-bit flatbed colour scanning; PC/Mac compatibility; and the ability to print four-by-six borderless photos.

© The Vancouver Province 2006

 

Sun

1) EPSON PICTUREMATE PAL, PERSONAL PHOTO LAB, $179.

Apparently most digital photographers are afraid of their computers, or you would think so by the number of printers out there that allow users to print directly from their cards. This offering from Epson has a fast print speed of 60 seconds for a 4×6 along with auto correction for poor backlighting, washed out photos, and nasty skin tones. It also sharpens. It also offers a number of layout options including borderless prints. Oh, and it can print in black and white and sepia as well as colour.

2) HP PHOTOSMART R967 10 MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL CAMERA, $500.

HP may not be the first name that leaps to your mind when you think about digital cameras, but there are a lot of people who swear by the brand and now HP has moved into the 10 megapixel market with the 3x optical zoom R967 which sports an eye-easing three-inch LCD monitor. Built-in anti-shake helps with blur prevention while automatic red-eye removal means that your children don’t have to look like the devil’s spawn, should you choose to print straight from the camera or card. Adaptive lighting means that dark areas become much more visible in high-contrast shots.

3) LG 8500, CHOCOLATE PHONE, $130 WITH THREE-YEAR TELUS CONTRACT, $330 WITH NO CONTRACT.

If you want to wait until later in November, other models of the stylish phone with all the built in MP3/WMA-format music player and dedicated music key with the easy listening to playlists will be available from other wireless companies. But right now, the jump has been given to Telus. With it’s recent launch elsewhere, the buzz has been building among those who want to look stylish as well as get those calls, text messages and listen to their music on the go.

4) NIKON D2XS, 12.4 MEGAPIXEL DIGITAL SLR, $5,540, BODY ONLY.

Oh, we know this is really for the professional photographer but you owe it to yourself to have the best equipment you can’t afford, right? And as we can tell you from personal experience if you want to shoot great photos — with a $2,000 lens and have people stare at you with jaws dropped — then this is your baby. Great shutter release time of 37 milliseconds and a viewfinder blockout time of a mere 105 milliseconds, along with an 11-area autofocus systems make this almost irresistible. Get the spouse to get it for you for Christmas.

© The Vancouver Sun 2006