OLLOCLIP iPHONE LENS

Stylize your iPhone photos the old-school way

Whether it's a spur-of-the-moment family road trip to Disneyland or a random get-together with friends, your iPhone 4 is probably a camera you often grab to capture the moment. After all, it's always close at hand. Unfortunately, the iPhone's fixed lens doesn't give you much creative control, but with an Olloclip in your pocket, you practically have a camera bag full of lenses at your disposal—without having to carry around a bunch of heavy glass.

NOTEPAL INFINITE EVO LAPTOP COOLER

It's really not very cool...

When it comes to computers, heat is a bad thing. An overheated CPU will shut down, which sucks for obvious reasons. Operating at high temps can also lead to a shorter lifespan, which is equally bad, if not quite as obvious. Fortunately, the aluminum unibodies of Apple's MacBooks are pretty good at dissipating heat. But that doesn't stop snake-oil salesmen from trying to convince you that your trusty MacBook is really a fiery inferno just a few clock cycles away from melting into an expensive puddle of goo.

HD HOMERUN NETWORK TV TUNER

Tune in; in tune; two tuners are better than one

There's so much content available on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, iTunes, and others, that we only miss those 400 channels occasionally— mostly for sports and news. Reclaim live sports and news, and cut streaming service costs with the HD HomeRun. It tunes in over-the-air broadcasts or unencrypted (Clear QAM) cable channels, if you're not ready to end that service.

BIGSTREAM iOS VIDEO STREAMER

Static in the stream

When Apple announced the video-out feature for the iPhone, we rejoiced. Finally, we could watch YouTube cat videos on the big screen from our iPhones—albeit with the addition of an expensive cable. Okay, so maybe we didn't rejoice that much. Cables are a pain. Grabbing one so you can watch something on the TV...and then only being able to stand a few feet away from said TV is pretty much a bummer all around.

SONOS PLAY:3 WIRELESS SPEAKER

The Play:3 is the most affordable entry point into Sonos' wireless audio Utopia. While $300 might seem a bit steep, especially considering that a $99 Airport Express can give practically any speaker AirPlay capability—what you're paying for is quality. The Play:3 sounds better than most other speakers this size, and setting up a Sonos network is so simple that you'll be playing music in less time than it took to get everything out of the box. Sonos devices talk to each other over their own mesh network, so your streaming music won't tax your existing Wi-Fi. At least one Sonos unit will need to be hard-wired to your network—if there's no Ethernet handy where you want to place your Play:3, a $49 Sonos Bridge connected to your router will let your other Sonos gear go cable-free.

STARFRONT: COLLISION

Call the exterminator; this one's got bugs!

Gameloft's slick-looking real-time strategy game Starfront: Collision sure was a hit in the iOS App Store—the majority of user reviews are for the full five stars. But when we played the Mac App Store port, it was full of bugs and hampered by a weak Al, though the solid multiplayer mode redeems it at least a little.

FORTIX 2

Turns tower defense on its head

You, Sir Fortix, the lone knight of the kingdom, are called upon to save the land of Artalom from the clutches of the evil mage Xitrof—alone. Without any help whatsoever. That's the gist of Fortix 2, an unexpectedly nifty puzzle title—think of it as a "reverse tower defense" game. You have to control all the units on the map (gates, keys, towers, power-ups, catapults, and so on) by boxing off terrain, which captures anything within it. What's more, you have to box off the units without disrupting the lines you're creating—any interruptions will immediately kill your character.

VENOM 12-VOICE VIRTUAL ANALOG SYNTHESIZER

Unlike the internet, analog synthesizers really are made of tubes. Well, not all of them, but the really nice ones do contain vacuum tubes. They range from ugly green metal boxes to incredibly beautiful pieces of art with wood cases. Someone looking to buy one of these instruments better be willing to pay a pretty penny—analog gear is not cheap. So while we'd all like a Moog, it's hard to justify the premium price unless you're a rock star. That's why we're impressed that M-Audio's Venom brings the warmth of analog into the digital age at a price even enthusiast players can afford—and frankly, it does an incredible job.