Beware. Your tech gear is costing you money while you sleep. Sure, the stuff looks innocent enough: cable box, HDTV, computer monitor, and sundry other electronic gadgets that consume power even when in “sleep” mode. While their energy-sucking ways may seem harmless, they cost you big bucks over time.

How much? U.S. households spend about $100 per year to power devices in low-power mode, around 8 percent of home electricity expenses, according to the government’s Energy Star program. Your water heater, lighting, air conditioner, and heater are the biggest energy hogs. The good news is that you can cut your energy bills without spending a fortune to do it.

First, you need to know which home appliances are the biggest power hogs. The P3 International P4400 Kill A Watt is an inexpensive electricity usage monitor that plugs into a standard wall outlet. Simply connect a suspected energy hog—an old refrigerator, for instance—to the Kill A Watt, which measures the appliance’s power consumption by the kilowatt-hour and shows the results on its LCD display. Priced at just over $17 online, Kill A Watt displays amps, volts, and wattage.

The twilight of the incandescent light bulb is upon us, and most versions of the venerable (and highly inefficient) bulb won’t be available in the U.S. by next year. Fluorescent, LED, and even new “hybrid” incandescent lights save energy and money but are sometimes hard to find for chandeliers, vanity lights, and other unique items. Measurements on bulb packages can be confusing when you’re unsure which size is right for your fixture. Light Bulb Finder is a free mobile app (Apple or Android) that helps you find the right energy-saving bulb. Enter your zip code, and it automatically determines the average electricity rate for your region. Then, scroll through images of lighting fixtures, and choose the type of incandescent bulb you want to replace. The app generates a list of recommended power-efficient bulbs and shows images and tech specs for each product.

Desktop computers and monitors are notorious energy wasters, particularly in home offices where tech gear is often left on 24/7. Many low-cost power-saving devices can stop the power drip and cut your electric bill. The Belkin Conserve Switch Surge Protector with Remote ($40), for instance, is a power strip with six switchable (on/off) outlets, and two additional outlets that are always on. The wall-mountable wireless remote works up to 60 feet from the power strip. To turn off up to six devices—a computer, monitor, printer, speakers, and external hard drive—simply flip the switch. The two always-on outlets are great for gadgets that need power 24/7, such as an Internet router or cordless phone.

And for the technophiles among us, there’s the amazing Nest, a programmable, power-saving thermostat you can install. The $250 Nest Learning Thermostat can cut your heating and cooling bill by up to 20 percent, the company claims. The Nest thermostat studies your heating/cooling habits and adjusts itself accordingly. For instance, if you raise the temperature in your home on a single occasion, Nest will ignore the change. But if you raise it two Mondays mornings in a row at 7 a.m., Nest will learn from your behavior and start making the change automatically. Created by a former Apple executive, Nest is sleek and stylish. And you can control Nest with your smartphone, PC, or tablet via a Wi-Fi connection.

More economical alternatives include the Honeywell Wi-Fi 7 Day Programmable Thermostat, which includes a free app for Apple and Android mobile devices. It’s more affordable at $100 to $120 online.

Of course, you don’t need new energy-saving light bulbs or power-cutting gizmos to reduce your utility bill (although they help). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency offers some simple suggestions, such as remembering to unplug mobile phones, tablets, and MP3 players once they’re charged. And remember to remove power adapters from wall outlets too. If you don’t, these insidious power drains will continue to cost you money.

Insidious Power Drains The Saturday Evening Post

Is your cellular service contract about to expire? Don’t sign a new wireless contract just yet. Rather than automatically going with one of the big four cellular carriers—AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, or Verizon Wireless—consider one of the smaller guys instead.

Prepaid mobile phone carriers offer wireless service that can save you hundreds of dollars over the life of a standard two-year cellular plan. Since prepaid plans don’t have contracts, you can walk away without paying an early-termination fee—up to $350 for Verizon Wireless customers and $325 at AT&T.

Prepaid carriers such as Boost Mobile, Cricket, MetroPCS, and Straight Talk have been around for years, but their popularity is growing among U.S. consumers. Sales of smartphones at prepaid carriers rose 23 percent in the third quarter of 2012 over the prior quarter, according to the NPD Group, a consumer research firm. Meanwhile, smartphone sales fell 12 percent at the top-tier carriers during that period.

Why the change? One reason is prepaid carriers today have a much better selection of smartphones, including such favorites as the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S III. While you’ll pay full price for smartphones from prepaid carriers—not the subsidized price that comes with a two-year contract—you’ll also save big on your monthly bill.

MetroPCS, for instance, charges $500 for a Galaxy S III, but AT&T charges $200 for the same phone with a two-year plan. Yes, Metro charges $300 more up-front, but it also saves you big bucks on the back end.

Example: a $50-per-month smartphone plan from MetroPCS includes unlimited nationwide calling, text messaging, and data, the first 2.5 GB of which are at 4G LTE speeds. By comparison, AT&T customers pay $90 a month for 450 phone minutes, unlimited texting, and 3 GB of data. (AT&T charges $10 per additional 1 GB beyond 3 GB.)

Add it all up, and the MetroPCS customer pays $40 less per month for a comparable plan. Over two years—the life of a standard AT&T contract—that’s a savings of $960. Subtract the extra $300 that MetroPCS charges for the Galaxy S III, and you’re still $660 ahead.

Coverage areas do vary, so it’s always a good idea to check a carrier’s website to see if it’s available where you live. MetroPCS says its wireless service covers 90 percent of Americans.

Even Bigger Savings

If you’re not picky about the type of smartphone you use, Republic Wireless has a deal that can’t be beat: $19 per month for unlimited talk, text, and data—with a catch or two. First, Republic uses a technology it calls “hybrid calling,” which means it uses both Wi-Fi and cellular connections to make calls, send texts, or download files. Its first choice is Wi-Fi—whether at home, work, or sipping a latte at Starbucks. If your Republic Wireless phone can’t find an available Wi-Fi link, it uses Sprint’s 3G network instead. The second catch: Republic offers its customers just one smartphone, the Motorola Defy XT, a middling Android handset that costs $259, so Republic isn’t the best choice for users who crave the latest, greatest handsets. But for bargain hunters, $19 a month is hard to beat.

Ting is another prepaid carrier with an innovative idea: Rather than choosing an all-you-can-eat plan, or buying more minutes and data than you need, why not build a plan based on your actual usage? Say you use a smartphone infrequently, a few calls, a few texts, and the occasional Web search. Ting’s a la carte menu might be the ticket: 100 phone minutes cost $3; 1,000 text messages is $5; and 500 MB of data is $13. Add a $6 “device fee,” and your total monthly bill comes to $27 (plus regulatory fees and other surcharges). And Ting uses Sprint’s wireless network.

Virgin Mobile, another Sprint-based carrier, also has a variety of affordable prepaid options, including a $35 per month plan with 300 phone minutes, and unlimited text and data. And don’t overlook prepaid plans from larger carriers. T-Mobile, which plans to merge with MetroPCS, offers a $30-per-month, no-contract plan with 100 talk minutes and unlimited text and data.

So go prepaid and save big.

For a chart of prepaid phone suppliers and plan details, go to saturdayeveningpost.com/smartphone-plans.

How to Save a Bundle on Smartphone Service The Saturday Evening Post

Smartphone Plans*

*All prices and fees subject to change
**Prices and fees vary depending on location and availability of service

Your Guide to Low-Cost Smartphone Plans The Saturday Evening Post

Apple iPad Mini. Photo courtesy Apple Computer Inc.

1. Apple iPad mini
The late Steve Jobs once declared 7-inch tablets too tiny to be useful, but the company he cofounded decided otherwise when it saw consumers snapping up smaller slates made by its competitors. The result is the iPad Mini, which does nearly everything its predecessor does, but at a much lower price. The iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch screen that works well for Web browsing and streaming video, although the resolution is surprisingly lower than that of Apple’s 7-inch competitors, which cost $80 to $130 less. The iPad Mini includes optional 4G LTE service, which costs an additional $130 plus a monthly cellular charge. The tablet’s aluminum and glass exterior is sleek and slim—just what you’d expect from Apple. Its front- and rear-facing cameras capture high-definition pictures and video too. Its biggest advantage can be summed up in one word: apps. Apple’s App Store has more than 275,000 programs created for the iPad—a vastly greater selection than what you’ll find in competing app markets from Google, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. Priced from $329 for a Wi-Fi model with 16GB of storage to $659 for a Wi-Fi plus cellular unit with 64GB; the iPad Mini is the upscale option in a crowded market.

Top 4 Tiny Tablets The Saturday Evening Post

Gear up your smartphone with free apps to crush those annoying goals that show up on our top-10 lists every year:

Lose Weight: Two proven weight-loss strategies—calorie counting and peer support—team up in FitNow’s app (loseit.com). Set a daily calorie budget, track activities, and connect with friends for extra motivation.

Get Organized: Build collections of photos, recipes, and decorating ideas at pinterest.com. Think of it as a personal digital scrapbook that you just happen to share with the entire world.

Manage Money: Track and categorize spending at mint.com. Enter account information, then sit back and watch. As the year unfolds, you’ll begin to notice where to cut back and save.

Learn Something New: Bring global photo journalism into your tablet with this app from Reuters (widerimage.reuters.com). Timely, insightful, sometimes disturbing, always fascinating. (Sorry, it’s iPad only.)

Get a New Job: Access postings from job boards and company websites at indeed.com. Bonus: Personalize and send your search to your smart device.

Quit Smoking: OK, these apps aren’t free—but they’re lots cheaper than smoking. QuitNow! ($2.99, Google Play) and Livestrong MyQuit Coach ($3.99, iTunes) motivate soon-to-be-reformed-smokers with progress trackers, chats, and achievable goals.

Help Others: Find a great place to volunteer at volunteermatch.org.  Make a difference and connect with others in your community with this iPhone app.

Meet New People: Join the largest location-based social network at badoo.com. Meet new friends, chat, and share interests.

Send Cards: Find the perfect card for whenever and whomever at justwink.com. Get reminders and send personalized digital greetings via text, email, or Facebook.

Save the Planet: Go green with the One Small Act app from greenisuniversal.com. Choose from 400+ simple, eco-friendly actions; track progress; and share achievements.

Top 10 Apps for Self-Improvement The Saturday Evening Post

Microsoft Surface RT

Microsoft Surface RT. Photo courtesy Microsoft.

While the Apple iPad is the, um, apple of everyone’s eye, the Microsoft Surface RT may be the best iPad challenger to date. Featuring a tablet version of touch-oriented Windows 8 software and an innovative built-in kickstand and a screen cover that doubles as a keyboard, the Surface RT looks like a winner. As of press time, its release was scheduled for October 26. If you can wait a bit, other hardware manufacturers, including Asus,
Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung, plan to sell Windows RT tablets, too.
Price: Microsoft Surface RT $300-$800.

Nintendo 3DS XL and Wii U

Nindento 3DS XL. Photo courtesy Nintendo of America Inc.

Game consoles and games are always welcome gifts, and Nintendo has the novelty edge this season with two new products. Its 3DS XL is a larger version of its 3DS handheld console, and the Wii U console (on sale November 18) has an innovative touch-screen controller called the GamePad that works as a handheld game machine when your TV is off.
Price: 3DS XL $200; Wii U $300 (basic), $350 (deluxe).

Apple MacBook Air

Apple MacBook Air. Photo courtesy Apple Inc.

The ultra-slim Apple MacBook Air is a top tech pick among well-heeled gift-givers, but a new crop of Windows 8 Ultrabooks merit a closer look. Thin and light like the MacBook Air but with a lower price tag, Ultrabooks are easy to carry and turn on instantly like a smartphone or tablet. One notable and affordable example is the Lenovo IdeaPad U310, which is 0.7-inch thick and weighs 3.7 pounds. Future Ultrabooks will feature touchscreens with the touch-and-swipe capabilities of mobile devices. This may raise the question, are such devices more tablet than laptop? (Fortunately that’s not your problem.)
Price: MacBook Air $1,000-$1,500; Windows 8 Ultrabooks $800 (average price); Lenovo IdeaPad U310 $704.

Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight

Nook Simple Touch GlowLight. Photo Courtesy Barnes & Noble Inc.

Bookworm on your shopping list? Barnes & Noble’s Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight solves a major shortcoming of non-backlit eReaders: Namely that the screen is very difficult to read in a dimly lit environment. As its name suggests, the product has a backlight that you turn on or off, making reading a whole heck of a lot easier in the sun or in the dark.
Price: $140.

LG Mouse Scanner

LG Mouse Scanner. Photo courtesy LG USA.

If you’re shopping for something truly unique, the LG Mouse Scanner is a computer mouse and scanner in one device: Simply click its scan button and roll the mouse across documents, magazine pages, photos, or anything else you’d like to digitize. It converts scanned text into editable Word documents, too.
Price: $130.

Canon EOS M

Canon EOS M. Photo courtesy Canon Inc.

As with all things tech, the camera market is changing rapidly. With the improved quality of smartphone cameras, there’s a drop in demand for basic point-and-shoot cameras, notes Yung Trang, president and editor-in-chief of TechBargains.com. But premium SLR cameras are still in high demand. For example, the Canon EOS M offers super high resolution, better lenses, and it allows even amateurs to take professional quality photos and video.
Price: $800.

Google Nexus 7

Google Nexus 7. Photo courtesy Google Inc.

Shopping for a tablet, but trying to stick to a budget? The Google Nexus 7 is an affordable, high-quality product with a bright 7-inch screen; a 1.2-megapixel, front-facing camera; and Android Beam, an NFC feature that’s handy for exchanging information wirelessly with compatible devices. Other 7-inch tablets to check out include new versions of the popular Amazon Kindle Fire
and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet.
Price: Google Nexus 7 $200-$250; Amazon Kindle Fire $160-$600; Nook Tablet $180-$200.

Samsung Galaxy S III

Samsung Galaxy S III. Photo courtesy Samsung.

Looking for an Android phone? The Samsung Galaxy S III boasts a gorgeous (and ginormous) 4.8-inch display, yet fits comfortably in one’s hand. Slim and stylish, the handset has a slightly curved shape, supports 4G LTE networks, and includes a great 8-megapixel, rear-facing camera.
Price: $200 with a 2-year contract from multiple carriers.

Apple iPhone 5

Apple iPhone 5. Photo courtesy Apple Inc.

Naturally the new Apple iPhone 5 will be at the top of many “Dear Santa” letters. Its 4-inch, high-resolution display is slightly longer but not wider than the 3.5-inch screens of previous iPhones. This sleek, aluminum-and-glass handset supports speedy 4G LTE cellular connections, has better front- and rear-facing cameras, and adds a few bells and whistles, such as spoken driving directions with turn-by-turn navigation.
Price: $200 with a 2-year contract from multiple carriers.

Apple iPad

Apple iPad. Photo courtesy Apple Inc.

Finally, the third-generation Apple iPad and its predecessor the iPad 2 remain at the head of the tablet pack. The latest model has a dazzling high-res screen, a better rear-facing camera, and the Siri voice assistant popularized by those ubiquitous, and, to some, annoying, TV ads. (Look for Apple to debut a smaller iPad very soon.)
Price: Apple iPad $500-$830; iPad 2 $400-$530.

Your Ultimate Hi-Tech Gift Guide The Saturday Evening Post

From left, Apple MacBook Air, Lenovo IdeaPad U310, and Samsung Series 5 14.0” Ultra.

Laptops today are undergoing a dramatic makeover. These slimmer, sleeker, portable PCs promise longer battery life, faster performance, and (yes!) less back and shoulder strain.

Any discussion of ultra-thins must start with Apple’s MacBook Air (apple.com/macbookair), the iconic, razor-thin portable that famously slides inside a manila envelope. The Air is both durable and light; and since it uses flash memory to store files rather than a spinning hard disk, it’s a lot quieter, too. The Air exemplifies Apple’s attention to detail. Its backlit keyboard, for instance, automatically illuminates in low-light conditions. The 11- and 13-inch models start at $1,000 and $1,200, respectively.

The MacBook Air’s popularity spurred Windows PC makers to create Air-like laptops called “Ultrabooks,” a term coined by chip-maker giant Intel. An Ultrabook shares many of the Air’s most desirable attributes: less than an inch thick; 3- to 4-pound weight; the ability to turn on instantly like a smartphone or tablet; and battery life of 5 to 9 hours. Top-tier laptop makers, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Samsung, Sony, and Toshiba, sell Ultrabooks today, and many more models are coming soon.

Most Ultrabooks lack a DVD drive, which isn’t a problem for most users. With the advent of streaming audio and video, as well as cloud services that back up your files online, discs are rapidly going the way of floppies.

“I think eventually all notebooks will become slim,” says Bob O’Donnell, computer analyst for IDC, a technology research firm. He predicts the average selling price for Ultrabooks will be around $800 by the end of 2012.

In fact, many Ultrabooks are already there. Lenovo’s stylish IdeaPad U310 ($800; lenovo.com) has a 13.3-inch display, weighs 3.75 pounds, and is available in a trio of fashion-forward colors, including Cherry Blossom, Aqua Blue, and Graphite Gray. The battery lasts up to 7 hours.

The Samsung Series 5 14.0” Ultra ($800; samsung.com) weighs less than 4 pounds and features a 14-inch display. This sleek notebook somehow manages to squeeze in a DVD drive, too.

The VIZIO Thin + Light ($900 to $1,250; vizio.com) has an aluminum frame and a clean, minimalist look that rivals (some might say copies) the MacBook Air’s sleek aesthetic. Available with a 14- or 15.6-inch screen, the Thin + Light weighs 3.4 or 4 pounds and runs 5.5 to 7 hours between charges, depending on the model.

The newest Ultrabooks add something most laptops don’t have: a touchscreen. Why? Because Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system, which debuts this fall, is built to run on both PCs and touchscreen tablets. New laptops such as the Acer Aspire S7 let you navigate the screen in two ways: using traditional touchpad and keyboard commands or by tapping the screen as you would with a smartphone or tablet. It remains to be seen, however, if touch commands on a laptop make sense, particularly if it means holding your arm in an elevated position for hours on end.

Meet the Ultrabooks The Saturday Evening Post

Landscaper’s Companion

With 15,000-plus pictures and information on more than 25,000 plants, this app is a virtual encyclopedia of gardening. Want the specifics on a plant’s sun exposure, water usage, growth rate, and bloom times? Comprehensive search tools make these facts easy to find. The app currently lacks information on tropicals and orchids, but we expect this to be remedied soon, as the developer periodically adds additional plants and images for free.
Price: $2.99 for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch and $4.99 for Android devices.

Grow Your Own

How do I know when my blueberries are going to be ripe? How can I keep aphids away from my roses? This handy app from the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) provides essential advice for part-time farmers. Grow Your Own steps you through the growing process month-by-month, recommending the best times to plant, prune, weed, mulch, and harvest, depending on the crop. And if you need to buy seeds and supplies, the app’s “Buy Now” button links directly to the RHS Online Plant Shop. Hey, the app is free, and they’ve got to earn a living somehow.
Price: Free for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Bugs in the Garden

Blast those infernal bugs! If you need help ID’ing the creepy crawlies devouring your daffodils, Bugs in the Garden can help. With more than 40 photos and illustrations of beetles, moths, aphids, caterpillars, grubs, and other common bugs, this app helps you spot troublesome and beneficial insects alike. It also includes tips on how to attract helpful bugs (like ladybugs) and send the bad ones packing.
Price: Free for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch and Android devices.

FlowerPedia

If you’re a flower person, this app’s for you. There are three versions of FlowerPedia. The free “lite” version has 100 high-resolution flower photos and limited information on flowering plant families from around the globe. The iPhone edition is far more comprehensive: 2,800 flower images; a search tool for finding flowers by common name, Latin name, and country and state/province; and the ability to identify flowers by their anatomy. The $9.99 iPad version is the most beautiful of the trio, with larger, dazzling photos that turn your tablet into a coffee-table flower book.
Price: Free “lite” version; $4.99 for iPhone; $9.99 for iPad.

Moon Gardening

This visually appealing app is useful if you want our nearest celestial neighbor (i.e., the Moon) to guide your gardening practices. Lifeware Solutions’ Moon Gardening brings this ancient practice to modern times by offering time-tested growing tips, such as the best times to plant, prune, weed, and harvest crops based on the current Moon phase in your area. It’s a bit scant on details, though. For instance, Moon Gardening has too many links to outside sources on the topic, rather than providing the information itself. It’s fun to use, however, particularly if you’re curious about the Moon’s phases.
Price: $1.99 for iPad.

Garden Plan Pro

As gardening apps go, Growing Interactive’s Garden Plan Pro is a tad pricey, but its planting toolkit is much more comprehensive than most garden-variety guides. The app’s extensive design tools let you create a simple garden with single plants—or far more sophisticated projects with fruits and vegetables planted in multiple rows and/or squares. Garden Plan Pro has detailed growing information for more than 140 plants, and offers sage advice on how to rotate crops. The app takes a bit of practice to master, however, so be sure to watch the tutorial video before getting your hands dirty.
Price: $19.99 for iPad.

Grow 2.0 The Saturday Evening Post

Of course you don’t need cable or satellite to get basic network channels. When the U.S. transitioned to digital TV in 2009, broadcast channels got a major makeover with dramatically better picture resolution, color, and clarity. Today’s over-the-air TV is a different animal from the bygone days of fuzzy signals sent to rabbit ears that your grandfather had to hold onto to keep any picture at all. Digital TV is very good—if you can get it. To find out what your digital TV reception is like, go to the FCC’s DTV Reception Map at fcc.gov/mb/engineering/maps and enter your zip code.

Cord-cutting is an easy way to save money, but it’s not for everyone. Without cable, you’ll have to work a little harder—or wait a little longer—to watch certain shows. First, you’ll need the right equipment, including a home broadband Internet connection, a Wi-Fi router—both of which you probably already have—and a video-streaming box such as Roku ($50 to $100), which wirelessly sends HD-quality video and audio from the Internet to your TV. You may already have a media streamer in your home and not know it. Many Blu-ray players, game consoles, and other Internet-connected TV peripherals have Wi-Fi streaming built in. Other streaming options include Apple TV ($100), a hockey puck-sized device handy for renting movies and TV shows from iTunes, Netflix, YouTube, and other online services. Apple TV works much like Roku but has fewer channels. For dedicated iTunes users, Apple’s set-top box is handy because it streams your iTunes music, movies, and TV shows to an HDTV.
Google TV is another option. Unlike Apple TV and Roku, Google TV isn’t a set-top box but software that brings online content including Netflix, Hulu Plus,and even full websites (which you navigate with a wireless keyboard, tablet, or other mobile device) to your television. A handful of TVs and peripherals including the Sony Internet TV (starting at around $900) and Sony Internet TV 3D Blu-ray player ($230) have Google TV built-in.

Watching Internet TV is much the same as the cable/broadcast experience, with a few differences. Say you have a Roku box and a Netflix subscription ($8 per month for unlimited movies and TV shows) and want to watch Mad Men. Using your included Roku remote you launch Netflix and select Mad Men from a drop down menu. The catch with Netflix is that it offers only past seasons of shows. The service has seasons 1 through 4 of Mad Men but not the current season 5. And Netflix typically doesn’t have theatrical films just out on DVD. What to do? Using your Roku remote, change the channel to Amazon Instant Video, which rents individual episodes of TV shows and just-released movies at prices ranging from $1 to $5. These costs are an annoyance, for sure, but for most viewers they’ll add up to a lot less than the monthly cable bill.

Caveats? None of these approaches match the convenience of live cable TV. You’ll be relying on a smorgasbord of programming from different sources, which takes planning and thought. If you like to sit back and flip through channels, cutting the cord is not for you. But if you’re willing to take a more active role in searching for programs, you may be ready to take the leap.

Get tips on how to buy a TV today at saturdayeveningpost.com/television.

Save $1,000 Per Year on Cable The Saturday Evening Post

Essentially the choice is between LCD and Plasma. (LED is a subset of LCD, but we’ll get to that in a minute.) LCD (liquid crystal display) screens are brighter and reflect considerably less light than plasma TVs, making them better for sunlit rooms. They’re the more popular choice and, for that reason, slightly more expensive. Plasma TVs, on the other hand, show more vibrant colors and deeper shades of black, and are often preferred by home theater buffs.

LED TVs are really just LCDs, but with LED backlighting. LED stands for light-emitting diode, but the practical bottom line is that LED TVs can be wafer-thin, often less than an inch thick. LED TVs also use less energy than regular LCDs. If cost is a factor—and when isn’t it?—you can get some great deals on LED TVs.

When shopping, you’ll also want to consider the “refresh rate,” measured in Hz (for hertz or cycles per second). A higher refresh rate means less blurring in action sequences. You want the highest refresh rate possible for sports, but it’s not so important for watching talking heads. Shoot for at least 120 Hz.

How to Buy a TV Today The Saturday Evening Post

The technology enabling tap-and-pay is called Near Field Communication (NFC). An NFC-enabled phone has a dedicated processor that communicates wirelessly between two compatible devices such as tablets, laptops, and point-of-sale terminals.

Currently only a handful of phones feature NFC including such popular Android models as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus ($300 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract) and Google Nexus S 4G ($100 with a two-year Sprint contract). But more NFC-ready handsets will arrive this year including the BlackBerry Bold 9790 and phones that run Microsoft’s Windows Phone software. What about the iPhone? The famously secretive Apple has yet to reveal its mobile payment plans. However, the next-generation iPhone, expected to ship by the end of 2012, is rumored to include NFC capabilities.

Tap-and-pay options will be limited at first as wireless carriers, banks, credit card providers, and tech industry titans roll out competing mobile-wallet offerings.

First out of the gate is Google Wallet, the search giant’s new payment service that currently works with the Nexus S 4G phone on Sprint’s network. The free service is compatible with the MasterCard PayPass system, which you’ll find at more than 140,000 merchants in the U.S. At press time, Google Wallet supported only two credit cards: Citi MasterCard and the Google Prepaid Card.

How does a typical transaction work? When the cashier tallies your purchase, you tap your Nexus S 4G on the PayPass terminal. The phone’s Google Wallet app then wirelessly transfers your payment information to the terminal and receives a digital receipt. Presto!

Another mobile-wallet offering, Isis, will be available later this year from three U.S. wireless carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile USA, and Verizon Wireless) in Austin, Texas; Salt Lake City; and a few other places. More competitors are on the way. “Google Wallet and Isis are bringing the players together, but I think you’ll see separate efforts by VISA, MasterCard, and American Express,” says Debbie Arnold, director of NFC Forum, an industry consortium.

There’s more to NFC than simply tap-and-pay. Have an NFC-ready Android phone or tablet? The free Add Friend app allows you to add a new Facebook friend by opening the application and touching the back of your device to the back of your new friend’s. Tap-and-friend may replace the napkin scribble in the not-too-distant future.

Every new technology brings security concerns. Could hackers steal your NFC payment information? Not likely. In most cases, you’ll need to enter a password or PIN to complete a payment. And information sent to and from your NFC phone and a point-of-sale terminal is encrypted—which will block digital snoops from swiping your data. And the same rules and regulations that apply to credit card theft apply to tap-and-pay transactions. “If you lose your credit card, and somebody else gets it, the bank has to pretty much eat the charge, and the consumer doesn’t have any liability,” says Arnold.

Tap-and-Pay Smart Phones The Saturday Evening Post

So what is “the cloud,” exactly? And can you trust online storage providers with gigabytes (GB) of your personal contacts, health and financial records, and maybe even your collection of unfinished Elizabethan love sonnets?

To answer that question a little background is required. First, the cloud isn’t literally up in the sky. Instead, it consists of a massive farm of “servers,” or computers. The name derives from the fact that data and software are all delivered as a service over the Internet rather than as a product that sits in your hard drive. Cloud technology isn’t new. Businesses and governments have warehoused information on Internet-connected servers for years. The big shift taking place now is that consumers—you and me—are getting our heads in the clouds as well.

This change is possible because of the exponential increase in Internet speed. Thanks to high-speed broadband to the home via cable, DSL, and fiber optic services—as well as speedy 3G and 4G cellular for mobile phones and tablets—you no longer need files to be near you to access them.

The beauty of this technological advance is that you can get stuff down from the cloud from anywhere. Want to hear a song that’s not in your phone’s meager storage? Punch in your password and there it is. Same with your tax information, email, and those Elizabethan-style poems. Another benefit—your files are easy to recover, even if your phone, tablet, or laptop is lost or stolen. And some cloud services automatically transfer, or sync, files between your various digital devices including phones and PCs.

Take iCloud, for instance. Not only does it back up your files to Apple’s massive farm of servers, the service also directs digital media to other Apple devices you own, provided they’re running either OS X Lion (on a Mac) or iOS 5 (iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch) software. For example, let’s say you own an iPhone and an iPad. When you buy an ebook from Apple, iCloud automatically sends a copy of the book to each device.

As you would imagine, there’s a price tag for such benefits. Apple users start with five GB of free storage. That could fill up quickly. Extra capacity costs $20 for 10 GB, $40 for 20 GB, or $100 for 50 GB per year. Other cloud providers offer free storage, too. Online retailer Amazon provides 5 GB, and Microsoft’s SkyDrive offers a more generous 25 GB. Dropbox, a popular cloud service that automatically syncs files between digital devices—including Mac and Windows PCs as well as many smartphones and tablets—offers 2 GB. Box, a Dropbox competitor, gives you 5 GB. Of course, you can always buy more storage if you need it. And Carbonite, an online backup service, warehouses an unlimited amount of your data for a flat fee of $59 per year.

But can cloud providers prevent data-stealing hackers and other ne’er-do-wells from accessing your files?

All of these services use strong, industry-standard encryption to encode your data, a security measure that makes your files incomprehensible to any snoops trying to access them. Of course, your account is password-protected, too.

Cloud company workers can’t access your data. As you might expect (and hope), cloud vendors take privacy very seriously. If they suffer a major security breach, their customers will flee. The bottom line: Yes, cloud storage is safe, provided you warehouse your sensitive information with a reputable firm.

The future is indeed cloudy—and that’s good news.

Life in the Cloud The Saturday Evening Post