In Brief

By Owen Thomas

LIGHT IT UP When you think of halogen bulbs, those omnipresent black floor lamps from Ikea may come to mind. But a new bulb from Philips will turn any fixture into a gale-force illuminator for $5.99. Halogena is the size of an ordinary incandescent but so intensely bright that Philips had to turn down the wattage from 75 to 40 for those bulbs that will take a star turn lighting the fabled Times Square ball on New Year's Eve.

LEAP TO IT When you tell your kid to jump, does she ask, "How high?" No matter; if she's wearing Reebok's new Traxtar shoe, the shoe will answer for her. Designed for kids ages 6 to 11, Traxtar's built-in microprocessor notes how fast its wearer runs, jumps or leaps. As kids move to new performance levels, the shoe's display "pod" flashes and plays Pomp and Circumstance. TRAXTAR.COM, a companion website, offers codes to punch into the pod to make it play other songs. A pair costs $55 for tots and $65 for teens.

CART BEFORE THE MOUSE Like to comparison-shop? While search engines and Web bots will gladly look up prices for you, they won't let you go from site to site, adding to your virtual carts before you buy. For that, REDCART.COM comes in mighty handy. If you shop at one of its partner sites, each item you click on goes into your RedCart. RedCart will remember your purchases longer than most e-commerce sites, and will even automate checkout, storing credit cards and addresses.

--By Owen Thomas