Productopia | Jargon Buster

October means pink ribbons galore, but it can be a headache to hunt through the grocery store aisles for the products that truly make a difference. That's why we dug into the dollars and cents of breast cancer awareness products to find the most beneficial grocery store buys.

Products that bear a pink ribbon or labeling don't benefit breast cancer causes in the same way. Some companies, for example, make a set donation to a cancer charity no matter how many pink-labeled products they sell. Others will donate a portion of the purchase price of the specific item to a charity, but there may be limits; some companies will only donate proceeds during a specific time period while others cap their donation. So depending on how the company structures its donation, your purchase may or may not have an impact on the actual amount donated.  For the "pink" products below, we looked for items that listed specific donation figures and the charity that would receive the donation. Finally, we factored in any caps the company has on its donations, including the number of units it would take to reach that cap.

On November 21st, nationally-syndicated radio host and consumer advocate Clark Howard posted a screaming deal on his Facebook page: a website he'd come across was selling six-foot HDMI cables for $1 apiece. No, that's not a typo -- one dollar. Mind you, I didn't even have a TV with HDMI inputs yet (a problem I rectified during Black Friday weekend).

I knew that $1 per cable was too good to pass on, though; this made the $6 cables on Amazon seem extravagant. So I pounced and placed my order. Shipping was free, making the already great deal even better -- or so it seemed. On November 26, I got an email telling me my package had shipped via UPS Basic, a service I'd never heard of until that moment.

Imagine a digital SLR that can fit in your pocket. That's essentially what the Micro Four Thirds system is, a standard for compact cameras with interchangeable lenses, created by Olympus and Panasonic, and announced in August of 2008. Since then, Panasonic has released three Micro Four Thirds cameras and Olympus, two. In order to maintain their small size, Micro Four Thirds cameras don't have a internal mirror, like DSLRs have. These cameras also have a smaller lens mount, so you'll need an adapter in order to use full-size lenses. The name "Four Thirds" refers to the sensor size: 4/3 inches. For more on Micro Four Third systems, DPReview.com has a helpful article packed with illustrations. The official Micro Four Thirds website offers a ton of information on cameras, lenses and sensor technology.

With camera companies rolling out cameras with higher and higher resolution, and only subtle upgrades to zoom and focal length, we have to ask -- how important are megapixels?

Consumers seem to find them compelling, with 70 percent of the nearly 23 million households that upgraded cameras in 2008 seeking "more megapixels and new features," according to the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). But does a 12-megapixel camera really offer better picture quality than a 10-megapixel camera? Not necessarily. Megapixels alone will not help you take a better picture, though higher resolution enables you to make larger prints. Better image quality really comes down to sensor size, a spec that is rarely mentioned at flashy press conferences.