One of the most important purchases new parents make is their baby’s car seat. For newborns, the best bet is an infant car seat, not a convertible (infant-to-toddler) car seat. Infant carseats are specially designed for babies weighing 22 pounds or less; they are rear-facing and come with handles. The seat attaches to a base that is anchored to your car, usually via the LATCH system (LATCH stands for “Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children”), required of all cars made in the United States after 2002. Best of all, the seats also double as baby carriers, feeding seats and a place for Baby to nap. Baby Trend Silverado Flex-Loc infant car seat has a five-point adjustable harness and an adjustable head support and comes in various color combinations ($89 at Walmart). The seat fits into the Flex-Loc base, which is purchased separately ($37). The Britax companion infant car seat goes the extra mile in protection, with deep side walls and head support designed to protect your infant in side-impact collisions ($210).The Graco SafeSeat is a rear-facing car seat designed to hold a child up to 30 pounds and comes with a stay-in-the-car base (on sale for $99). In the baby products world, Peg Perego is the equivalent of the Mercedes-Benz. Thus, if you can afford it, the Peg Perego Primo Viaggio infant car seat with side-impact protection and a “comfort-dry” pad for those times when the diaper happens to leak is an excellent choice ($250). It works in cars, airplanes and fastens into Peg Perego strollers. For more advice on how to select an infant car seat, read this informative article from BabyCenter. Also, Car-Safety.org contains comprehensive tips on how to keep your children secure in the car.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave … with all of our tech gear and corresponding chargers. Get a handle on all those cords and manage your family’s cell phones, MP3 players and digital cameras with a handy charging station. Pottery Barn’s lacquer Smart Photo caddy and recharger has a back cubby for portable electronics and a six-socket power strip concealed behind. Cubbies in the front stow desk accessories and three photo openings create a desktop gallery ($99). Plug and play your iPod while charging other electronics all in one spot. The lacquer Smart all-in-one (pictured) includes built-in speakers and a six-socket power strip ($169). Kids these days often have more gadgets than their parents, which means they could probably fill their own charging station. The kids docking station comes in a rainbow of colors and features cutouts like hearts and stars ($79). Bed Bath and Beyond sells a more basic model. The black 600 Denier charging station provides a home for up to four devices ($15; power strip sold separately). Brookstone’s mini charging valet is the perfect addition to your workspace, whether it’s at the office or at home ($30).

Did you know you can watch plenty of films instantly through your high-speed Internet connection without leaving your sofa? With a set-top box (as in TV set) similar to your cable box, you can choose from thousands of films with the click of a remote. The Roku Netflix Player ($100; pictured) is a one-time purchase for Netflix subscribers. Hook it up to any TV — whether it’s the newest HD model or one you’ve had for years — and you can select movies and TV episodes from your Netflix Instant Queue to watch right away in the comfort of your bedroom or living room or wherever there’s a TV and an internet connection. (You’ll still receive DVDs via post from Netflix, in accordance with your monthly subscription.) Vudu is a competing service for those with fast Internet connections (2.2 Mbps for instant viewing). The box costs $299, with a wireless kit for $50, and even though you do not have to have a subscription, you do have to pay rental or purchase fees for each program. With Apple TV (40 GB for $229, 160GB for $329), you can rent movies from the iTunes store and watch them instantly on your computer, iPod, iPhone, or television, but you must own a widescreen enhanced-definition or high-definition television with an HDMI, DVI, or component video input port. You also must have an iTunes Store account and a broadband Internet connection. Just think: No more driving to the rental store or dealing with heavily scratched movies that freeze up during the film’s high point.

There’s an art to giving the gag gift, so necessary at those over-the-hill-themed birthday parties. Aside from eliciting at least a chuckle, the item must be impractical, not offend, fit that particular person and show how much you really care. For the boy who never grew up — and that may include a few people you know — anything that shoots will do. No one will get hurt with the Marshmallow Blaster ($25). For the man who’s watched too many episodes of The X-Files or UFO Hunters, the mini remote-controlled UFO flying saucer can glide and hover and even light up (on sale for $25). For the book lover, this set of temporary tattoos ($8) proclaim, “Read or Die,” “I [heart] Dewey Decimal System” and “Book Lust.” The Homer Simpson Chia Pet is a hoot, even without donuts ($20; pictured). The Elvis Pez Dispenser set comes with a gold Elvis record — er, CD ($20). For the Star Wars geek, there’s the Storm Trooper bobblehead ($13). Inspire a little therapeutic fun with the Freudian Slip Post-it Notes ($6.50) or the Freud and Couch finger puppets, which handily double as refrigerator magnets ($13). Or for the Type A person, Despair’s line of Demotivator merchandise might make the perfect, well, demotivator. Finally, you can breathe some life into that party by passing out boxes of AtoneMints for Each of Your Sins, EnlightenMints or Sin-o-Mints ($3).

When GPS devices first came out, I was characteristically ho-hum about them. An early adopter of tech gadgets I’m not.Well, I’m here to say that people a lot smarter and more adventurous than I have dreamed up a clever use for these units. Think of a scavenger hunt, throw in the connectivity/community of the Internet, add a GPS receiver (or a GPS-enabled mobile phone containing Geocache Navigator software, which costs around $7 per month) and you’re on your way to understanding the increasingly popular activity known as geocaching. Briefly, the term combines the words “geography” and “caching,” which, according to Geocaching.com, “is the process of hiding a cache.” The one who hides the cache is the “owner” and those who set out to find it are the players. The fun begins when the owner selects a location for his or her cache that is a challenge to reach, even with a GPS receiver. Some caches require the players to be scuba divers or rock climbers, and some are concealed on well traveled city streets. To give it a try, you’ll need a GPS unit. The site recommends the Garmin eTrex GPS ($90) or the Magellan GPS 315, We couldn’t find that model so we recommend the new Magellan Triton 300 instead ($150); it lets you add detailed maps and applications. In addition to the thrill of the hunt, players may find themselves rewarded with items left in the cache. Or maybe not. The only thing a cache has to contain is a logbook, but that doesn’t mean it won’t contain jewelry, money, tickets, or other valuables. Players must be prepared to leave something in the cache if and when they take something from it. Read the FAQ page for more about this fascinating new form of recreation.

Japan’s Rare Mono Shop sells far-out, amusing and somewhat useful gadgets, most of them involving USB devices. I only know because the company is poised to open a U.S. store in August and the English language catalog is now online. I highly recommend a visit to browse products such as “bone conduction headphones,” which transfer sound through the cheekbone rather than into the ear. If you love the unintentional results of bad Japanese-to-English translations, there’s plenty to enjoy here. (“Outside sound can be heard as it does not close your ears!” reads the copy beside a male model demonstrating the headphones with ears uncovered.) The funniest mistake in translation I found was a $2,980 price tag for a combination USB hub/tape dispenser that looks to be worth $29.80 at best (or else our currency is in much worse shape than I thought). Actually, not many of the items are priced yet and the site warns visitors, “We do not accept return of the product due to misuse or misunderstanding of the product. If you have any concern, please wait until we introduce officially for international market.” That should be in August. I can hardly wait to learn more about the gold ingot USB hub, pictured, which looks like a real gold brick into which one can plug eight USB devices. Also of interest: the compact, portable USB AC charger, which powers USB-driven devices without a computer. Just plug it into an outlet and plug-in up to two devices. The Rare Mono Shop sells all sorts of gadgets to use with it, such as a USB eye warmer and USB aroma diffuser. You get the idea.