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The day of the single-purpose gadget is rapidly fading. You can't just have a phone that you use to talk to other people. It has to do 50 other things. You can't just have a desk lamp that lights up your desk. You have to have one that charges your phone and gives you mood lighting, too.

The Satechi Smart LED Desk Lamp tries to fit as much functionality in as it can. It charges smartphones and has a built-in timer to power it off. It's also very touchy-feely. It's controlled through a touch panel and has different lighting modes to fit your mood.… Read more

Apologies for being a little tardy on updating our long-running list of must-have Blu-ray movies, but here it is, refreshed for 2013. This month's updates entries include "Alfred Hitchcock: The Masterpiece Collection," "The Avengers," "Finding Nemo," "Jaws," "Lawrence of Arabia," and "Titanic."

Though my face is at the top of the column, the list was compiled with input from editors John Falcone, Matthew Moskovciak, and David Katzmaier, who look at a lot of video content in their day-to-day testing of products. We also keep an eye on AVS Forum's Blu-ray picture-quality and audio-quality threads, and have always appreciated the site's tiered rating system.

This list is not set in stone, and we'll be adding and removing discs as new ones come out. As always, feel free to make comments and suggest your own personal favorites. They may get added to the list in the future. … Read more

The soap market has traditionally been geared toward women buyers. That focus may be shifting with a line of Man Soaps from ManHands. Available scents include bacon, baseball glove, brewed coffee, muscle rub, fresh-cut grass, and top soil. Democrat and Republican scents are also on offer.

The soaps all have enticing descriptions designed to beguile men into making a purchase. Here's the description for beer soap: "There is perhaps no manlier smell than the scent of a cold pint of beer. Why wait until the drunk guy dumps it over you in the packed bar?" Unfortunately, it doesn't specify which beer it smells like. I'm guessing it's more Budweiser than Stone IPA.… Read more

It's a new era for lightbulbs. Incandescents are well on their way to being obsolete. Compact fluorescents are reigning champs, but LEDs are rising through the ranks, looking to challenge CFLs with advancing technology and falling prices. As fast as the tech changes, we're still pretty hooked on the old-school incandescent shape. We still want our bulbs.

The NanoLight Kickstarter project wants to give us LEDs without sacrificing the traditional bulb shape and ability to shine light in all directions. The result is a bulb that looks like it was designed by a Cubist painter. The makers claim it is the most energy-efficient light bulb in the world.… Read more

Normally, you spend dinner over a hot bowl of instant ramen, silently weeping and watching your salty tears mix with the steaming broth. Banish that loneliness by sharing your meal with a companion that won't give you a hard time or ask when you're getting married. The anti-loneliness ramen bowl will hold your smartphone at the ready so you'll never eat alone again.

The bowl is the creation of design firm MisoSoupDesign. The bowl itself is very sculptural, but the highlight is the smartphone holder that keeps your favorite tech buddy at the ready while you're chowing down.… Read more

ThinkGeek boasts that the HAL 9000 life-size replica is the "most movie-accurate HAL 9000 replica ever created." Let's hope it's only movie-accurate enough to be entertaining and not deadly.

If you're a fan of HAL 9000 and want to bring a little bit of that relentless robotic terror into your home, you can plunk down $500 for a sentient computer of your own (minus the actual sentience.) This HAL 9000 is better-behaved than the real thing. You still get the menacing red LED eye, but he won't try to kill you.… Read more

The next superstorm could strike anytime. If you're concerned about having electricity, the MetAir Solstice packs a whopping 55,000 mAh of power.

This portable charger from QuantumSphere has power equivalent to 115 D-cell batteries under a 2 amp load.

It's being billed on a Kickstarter campaign as the world's most powerful portable device charger. … Read more

If Luke Skywalker had a living room with a big-screen TV, he would also have a hand-carved X-Wing Fighter coffee table made of wood and glass. The detailed model looks like it's in mid-flight, except instead of blasting the forces of the Dark Side, it's calmly guarding your coffee.

The table is designed so that half of the spaceship is above the glass and half is below. That means it takes up quite a bit of space that could otherwise hold mugs, half-eaten bags of Doritos, and vintage issues of "Starlog" magazine. Still, the design is so cool, you won't miss having the extra room.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--Home automation is all over CES 2013. Tucked away in a small booth is Ivee, a company known for its voice-controlled alarm clocks. The newest Ivee creation is the Sleek, a voice-controlled home automation gateway.

You can tell Sleek to turn down the temperature, report stock prices, and share the weather. A pleasant woman's voice communicates with you in turn. This really is like having a HAL for your home, only this particular device hasn't reached sentience yet. She doesn't seem to have Siri's snarky streak, but if you ask her, "Who is Siri?" Sleek will reply, "She is not important."

Sleek is already compatible with Belkin's smart plugs. Ivee also mentioned working with the Nest thermostat, but Nest says it hasn't opened up compatibilty with anyone. Sleek could potentially hook up with all sorts of home automation devices. Ivee is looking at a summer release at a price of $199. … Read more