Productopia | Report Updates

Once the butt of bad holiday jokes, fruitcakes are making a comeback. Gone are the liquor-laden, rock-hard confections of yore. Today's cakes literally offer a lighter touch and contain more interesting ingredients.

For instance, Southern-style fruitcakes, like the best-reviewed Mary of Puddin Hill Pecan Fruit Cake, are typically chocked with nuts and contain no alcohol.

Monastery fruitcakes (usually bathed in booze) offer a more balanced cake-to-fruit ratio and are light on nuts. The Gethsemani Farms Kentucky Bourbon Fruitcake, made by Trappist monks, is dubbed by one reviewer to be "the cake against which all past and future fruitcakes will be judged."

While the introduction of Microsoft Windows 7 has garnered the lions' share of press in recent days, Mac fans have a few new goodies to enjoy as well. Following up on some noteworthy updates and price cuts earlier this year, Apple just completed another round of product refreshes that adds more features and power to the iMac and Mac mini desktops and the MacBook laptop. Noteworthy upgrades include a brand new 27-inch iMac with what experts say is a gorgeous display and excellent performance. To get the lowdown on the latest iMac and everything else Mac-related, be sure to visit our newly-updated report on Apple laptops and desktops.

Swine flu fears have prompted a renewed interest in hand sanitizers. We found reviews that should be interpreted cautiously, however. Why? Fraudulent products claiming to fight the H1N1 flu virus have been popping up, including some hand sanitizers. In September 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued warning letters to three companies that claimed their alcohol-free hand sanitizers could protect against H1N1. The makers of SkinWear and Viraban have since removed the claims from their websites, but although the Soapopular website says it has removed the claims, ConsumerSearch found the words "H1N1, swine flu" in white-on-white text on one of the website's pages as of November 2009 -- invisible to readers (unless you highlight the text), but not to a search engine.

With Thanksgiving just a few weeks away, many cooks will be breaking out their Dutch ovens. Don't have one? These versatile pots can bake, deep-fry, braise and even boil foods. Many cooks also conveniently use them to whip up soups and stews.

So how do these products differ from stockpots? Popular Dutch oven sizes are in the 5- to 7- quart range, while stockpots are usually 8 or 12 quarts. Unlike stockpots, Dutch ovens can be easily transferred from stovetop to oven, right to the table. Current Dutch ovens consist of uncoated cast iron, enameled cast iron or feature stainless steel construction.

If you're interested in printing 4-by-6-inch photos at home, a dedicated photo-printer is the way to go. Photo printers are great for printing shots during a party and make a great gift. The Epson PictureMate series of inkjet snapshot printers consistently earn top ratings in reviews. The line's newest addition, the PictureMate Charm (*Est. $150), offers even better photo quality than its predecessors, the Dash (*Est. $140) and the Zoom (*Est. $200).

The Canon Selphy CP780 (*Est. $90) is a good budget photo printer, though you'll pay a bit more for paper and ink. Reviewers generally rate it just behind Epson's PictureMate models. The Selphy CP780 and its siblings use dye-sublimation technology, which results in prints that have no pixelation and are more saturated than those seen from inkjets.

While they're still not the best choices for heavy-duty gamers or number crunchers, the rest of us will almost certainly find the perfect notebook among those in the latest generation of cheap laptops. Some budget picks are as small and light as a netbook on the outside, but inside contain the heart and power of a fully-capable laptop.

Others are less fun to lug around, but are admirable performers if you need a desktop replacement. Some add features, such as a 3D display (with stereoscopic glasses) or a touch-screen that's useful and fun, that are heretofore unheard of in a sub-$800 notebook computer. Some cheap laptops deliver as much as 10 hours of battery life. All use Windows 7. You can learn more in our newly-updated report on cheap laptops.

Buying a gift card is simple, but not all cards are alike. Store-issued cards generally don't have any associated fees or expiration dates. But bank-issued cards, such as the Discover gift card or Visa gift card have fees and expiration dates that can turn a good gift sour.

Your best bets are flexible store cards that are good at several different retailers like the Gap GiftCard, which can be used to shop at Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, Athleta and Piperlime.com. And among bank-issued cards, the American Express gift card is the best pick; the company recently dropped maintenance fees entirely. Our updated gift card report has the scoop on buying and using gift cards, plus best-bet picks.

Once again, the experts agree: If you're going to stick a portable GPS device to your car's windshield, your best bet is to go with a Garmin. The manufacturer's auto GPS units earn consistently high reviews from professionals and owners alike, thanks to their ease of use and attractive features such as free traffic information for the life of the device. The latter even applies to the budget-priced Garmin nuvi 265T (*Est. $185), a Best Reviewed pick in our latest report on portable automotive GPS devices.

Almost all digital photo printing websites offer the same basic options: online storage, editing tools, printing services, photo gifts and photo sharing. Photo sharing is an especially helpful feature, as users can upload photos and invite friends and family to view them online. This saves you from e-mailing large batches of image files. Anyone can then order just the prints they want, as well as photo gifts like photo mugs, coasters, magnets or entire photo albums.

Reviews say Snapfish is the best digital photo printing service overall, with the perfect balance of quality and price. Snapfish (*Est. 9 cents per print) gets recommendations from a number of review sites including PCMag.com, BusinessWeek and Which?, a British consumer magazine.

With bake, toast, broil and convection settings, today's toaster ovens are giving full-size ovens a run for their money. Unlike standard toasters, these small counter top ovens can do more than just toast bread. They can bake cookies, heat up a frozen pizza or even roast a small chicken. However, contrary to popular belief, a toaster ovens can't toast bread as evenly or as quickly as a traditional, slot-style toaster.