• Dell Lightning, Smoke, Thunder Phones Leak; Tablet, Too – It appears most of Dell's gadget roadmap leaked out Wednesday, as Engadget obtained details of many of the electronics maker's upcoming products.<br />
  <br />
  The blog provided details of four products: the Looking Glass tablet, as well as the Smoke, Thunder, and Lightning phones.
• Hulu rumors: $9.95 subscription, but with expanded ads – Hulu's upcoming subscription service has been rumored for so long, it's almost hard to imagine it becoming reality. That may, however, happen as soon as May 24, when the company reportedly plans to begin testing the service.
• First HD Images Of The Sun Captured — InformationWeek – NASA's recently launched Solar Dynamics Observatory is returning the first, ultra-high resolution images of solar gases and other materials emanating from the sun.
• How Facebook Could Organize The Internet -The Atlantic – The idea for such a reorganization has been around for a long time. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, years ago envisioned the next stage in the web's evolution, calling it the Semantic Web. It would, he wrote, "bring structure to the meaningful content of Web pages," enabling computers to understand that content and how it relates to other sites and information across the internet. Change has been slow because standards are hard to set and enforce, but Facebook's scale could accelerate the transformation.
• PlayStation 3 to Stream Pro Baseball Live – PCWorld – Mark your calendars baseball buffs, because Sony's bringing Major League Baseball to the PlayStation 3 and you'll be able to sign up for the service by the end of this week. According to the New York Times, Sony and Major League Baseball are joining hands to offer out-of-market baseball games live over the Internet courtesy the PS3. The move comes just a few months after rumors that rival Microsoft was courting ESPN to stream live sporting events on the Xbox 360.

• 10 Things We Want to See in Internet Explorer 9 – "Although its work started just a few weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled some new ideas it's bringing to Internet Explorer 9 this week. The company said that it plans to make the browser more Web- and developer-friendly, while still maintaining the familiar Internet Explorer identity. That sounds nice, but in the end, Microsoft said very little about what it plans to offer in Internet Explorer 9."
• YouTube automatic captioning: one more reason GOOG’s not evil – "Google has introduced some more useful YouTube technology: automatic captioning."
• Sony planning new online store – "Sony is planning a new online store a la Apple's iTunes, but with a few twists.

  Announced at a strategy meeting in Tokyo on Thursday, the new service will hawk music, movies, books, and other downloadable content geared for its various electronics, including TVs, mobile phones, music players, and computers."

• Nook sold out for the holidays – "If you were interested in buying the Barnes & Noble Nook as a holiday gift, strike it off your list. The e-reader is now officially sold out through 2009, according to the B&N Web site."
• Why Google Should Cool It With Chrome OS – "Sometimes you have to take a step down to step up. That’s what Google should’ve done with its open-source PC operating system Chrome OS, which the corporation demonstrated Thursday.

  Instead, Google is positioning Google Chrome OS against Microsoft with a lightweight OS shipping with netbooks next year. Chrome OS will function as a modified browser, enabling netbooks to handle everyday computing with web-based applications. That’s right: No native software, just the web."

photo: Michael Mistretta

Every month new gadgets and widgets and woozits are put on the market. It sometimes seems as though before we can get our new purchase out of the box, a new version has come out.

Because of the constantly changing inventory on the store shelves, it is important do do your research prior to making your purchase, so that you can avoid buyers remorse.

The list below is a starting point for conducting your research. Read up and buy smarter!

Amazon Electronics Knowledge Center – information is provided on electronics from TVs, to keyboards, to monitors

Digital Tips- This site is so thorough; it even has a section for 60+ year old looking to make digital purchase. There is even a place to enter you zip and locate a place to recycle the electronics you are replacing.

About.com Electronics and Gadgets – In addition to information on gadgets, there is a section for video games and equipment.

and of course, there is Consumer Reports - a subscription is required to view a lot of the reviews, but there is still plenty of free content to help your research.