This here is a list of some of the very best latest electronic gadgets I found in PC and Mac magazines in the US.

• Pentax K200D, DSLR for just $ 800 with excellent image quality from ISO 100 to 1600 in dark alleys and bright lit beaches
• Logitech Harmony One, universal IR remote control that is real fun configuring it
• Lenovo X300, best ultraportable notebook PC, price is now just 2,500 USD
• New Firefox 3 is available as a beta and it seems it is the best browser ever in terms of security, usability, and performance
• MacBook Pro was selected as best notebook in the $2000-2500 professional category
• Nike + SportBand let's you view calories, distance, pace, and time when you run for just $ 60, via USB you upload the results to your PC and can use it with the excellent website at www.nikeplus.com, to avoid having to use a Nike sports shoe you can simply get a shoe pouch for $7 to hold the sensor on your shoelaces from www.granteodtechnology.com
• NEC NP 100 or 200 most impressive only $500 projector with replacement lamps that are also cheap with $180 lasting 3500-4000 hours
• TomTom ONE 130S which I just bought myself is a great inexpensive GPS with a clever mount, the NAV740 seems to be even better though with larger display and 11 million points of interest db, both offer TMC traffic as an option: I use it and it works extremely well

I just came back from a 2-week trip to the US and Canada. Since the US dollar is weak and the US economy is not in the best shape either, I also checked out prices for IT stuff. The local newspaper ads were full with the usual for this time back-to-school deals that looked very promising. Checking things out then in Best Buy and Circuit City was disappointing though. Lots of PC notebooks in the $500 to $700 range were on offer (e.g. from HP, Asus, Dell, Acer, Gateway) but nothing in the higher end range that I was looking for. Looking in an Apple and Sony store did not end up any more successful. Pricing was about the same as back in Europe it seemed.
My not representative survey revealed that at least in the higher end notebook markets not much if anything can be saved going to shops. Taking international warranty issues into consideration as well, I decided for myself to not buy any notebook on this trip. Now back here I checked out pricing online and realized that I should really have done a comparison before my trip. Pricing for notebooks are nearly half the price in the US compared to what you pay in Switzerland and still 30-50% cheaper as in Germany. The Lenovo X-300 is now available for 2,500 USD in the US Lenovo online store compared with 4,600 CHF with a leading, very popular online dealer here in Switzerland.

I also heard that in the car market things were getting crazy as well. A BMW X5 goes for half the price in the US compared to what you pay in Switzerland. A relative of mine just paid 40k USD for a new X5 built in the US. Shipping them to Europe could be a highly attractive deal as well.

The August 2008 edition of the MaximumPC magazine did a nice comparison between the best PC notebooks in each of the Apple MacBook categories: MacBook Air in the ultraportable max. 2 kg, MacBook in the mainstream max 3.5 kg and MacBook Pro in the professional max 4 kg category.

Only the MacBook Pro landed a victory although it was 500 USD more expensive and had a less exciting screen compared with its contender the Dell XPS M1530 notebook.
The winners in the two other categories were Lenovo X300 (see also CNet review) as best ultraportable and the AcerTravelMate 5720 as the best mainstream notebook PC for just $1050. It seems the right time also to buy as pricing for the Lenovo notebooks dropped now in the US e.g. from 3200 to 2500 USD for the X300 model. I assume newer models (probably with a HDD instead of flash) are on the horizon. Latest comment: yes there is. Lenovo announced the X200 model and is very low priced started at 1200 USD. It is available in August.