Viewsonic
PJ258D DLP Projector: $1,399
www.viewsonic.com

WHETHER BUYING FOR conference rooms or digital living rooms, projectors yield the best value when it comes to big screens and sharp pictures. Of course, they also make for the most versatile display devices available. Viewsonic's PJ258D adds even more appeal to your projector sales by incorporating an iPod dock, which can play back video content directly from the handheld media player.

Viewsonic's display expertise naturally remains the primary attraction, though. Enabled by .55" DLP technology and a 1024x768 pixel format, the PJ58D projects images from 30" to 300" diagonally. It boasts a 2000:1 contrast ratio and native 4:3 aspect ratio. And the PJ258D is HD-capable, officially supporting 720p and 1080i signals.

In addition to its unique iPod dock, Viewsonic packs the projector with VGA, composite video, component video, and S-Video inputs, letting you connect the PJ258D to a DVD player, PC, or game console. According to Viewsonic, the projector's lamp is good for roughly 2,000 hours. And if your customer has any problem with it, Viewsonic covers the PJ258D with a three-year parts and labor warranty, one-year Express Exchange warranty (a refurbished replacement, also covered by warranty protection), and one-year lamp warranty. If your customer is interested in additional protection, you can extend the Express Exchange program one more year for $149. That's a pretty good deal considering it covers the replacement of a $1,399 display device.

Maxtor
Shared Storage II 1TB: $799
www.maxtorsolutions.com

peer-to-peer networks are great for sharing data between systems in a small office. But what they offer in simplicity they sacrifice in efficiency. Take a small real estate brokerage as an example. Each of five agents has a workstation, the broker has a fifth, and the sixth belongs to an assistant up front. Whenever an agent needs forms, he connects to the broker's box and opens a template. Documents are saved on each machine, which have to then be backed up one at a time.

Rather than deal with tracking down data on six separate systems or bogging one PC down with file requests from the others, you can add a network storage device to help organize such a customer's office. Maxtor's Shared Storage II 1TB is an ideal solution, in part because it plays host to plenty of capacity. The enclosure also comes with Maxtor's backup and management software suite, which makes data protection an easier task.

The Shared Storage's two 500GB hard drives can be combined into 1TB or, even more favorably, mirrored into one 500GB array with redundancy. Gigabit Ethernet connectivity ensures that no matter how many clients connect to the drive, it'll continue transferring information as fast as the network can handle. And a pair of onboard USB 2.0 ports facilitates expansion, either for a printer your customer wants networked or the addition of another external storage drive. Though the Shared Storage's $799 price tag is close to what a small server might cost, factor in the enclosure's compact size, stylish looks, and valuable software bundle, which is capable of keeping entire small business networks backed up automatically.

Trend Micro
Internet Security 2007: $49
www.trendmicro.com

DOOMSAYERS TAKE ONE LOOK AT WINDOWS VISTA, WITH ITS bundled Defender software and optional OneCare virus-protection, and start foretelling the end of third-party security solutions. However, according to David Perry, director of education at Trend Micro, Microsoft seems to be going after low-impact consumers—the folks who want to install their security software and forget about it.

"There's still plenty of room to attract consumers on the go," he says. "The more technical folks with three computers, a laptop, and Windows Mobile cell phone in need of protection." Trend's Internet Security 2007 gives all of your customers—even the ones with access to Microsoft's premium services—several solid reasons to upgrade. Right off the bat, one copy of Trend comes with licenses for three computers, three cell phones, TrendSecure Web service, and access to one year of upgrades. At $49, that's already a better value than Microsoft's subscription service on a per-PC basis. TrendSecure is an online resource provided to Internet Security customers, enabling online transaction protection from unsecured terminals, Remote File Lock to envelop private files should your customer's laptop fall into a thief's hands, and Mobile Security, a cellular anti-virus app. Trend is developing even more tools to add and will make them available to Internet Security customers through TrendSecure.

A couple of other features make Trend's security package more attractive than anything else we've seen up until now: self-networking and one year's worth of updates. By setting the same password on each Internet Security installation, each machine sees the others, facilitating group updates and management. Trend's update policy gives your customer access to not only the latest virus definitions for one year, but also the latest program version.

Creative
Xmod: $79
www.creative.com

CREATIVE'S LINE OF X-FI sound cards features a lot of new technology, and much of it is aimed at accelerating audio functions. Windows Vista changes the way much of that hardware works, though, putting more emphasis on integrated audio—specifically, Intel's HD Audio standard.

But that doesn't mean the X-Fi's feature set is without merit. To the contrary, Creative's Crystalizer technology, according to its creator Mark Dolson, helps compensate for the inherent dynamic range limitations of 16-bit audio content by applying appropriate post-processing during playback. In other words, it performs as a dynamic equalizer driven by a front end that continually analyzes the input audio. The effect is to enhance the sound of MP3s or other digital file formats. Additionally, Creative's CMSS-3D technology applies special algorithms to headphone output, making two-channel audio sound more positional.

Both features—Cystalizer and CMSS-3D—are interesting components of the X-Fi product family. Creative's recently released Xmod addresses value-oriented customers by blending the Crystalizer and CMSS-3D components in a USB-driven external box. The Xmod is less expensive than a discrete card but appeals to the same customer. By leveraging two of Creative's most popular features, the Xmod delivers the sound-enhancement extras lacking from integrated audio subsystems.