Fellowes' 79C, $240
The thing that's missing from paper shredders? Celebrity endorsements. Take Fellowes' new 79Ci shredder, which costs $240. For starters, Fellowes could get guitar heroes like Eddie Van Halen or Yngwie Malmsteen to vouch for its superior shredding ability. The 79Ci is also, Fellowes claims, jam proof.
Advertising aside, Fellowes' newest consumer model does address some practical issues. Start with that jam-proof technology: What the 79Ci does is try to head off a jam before it happens. It accomplishes this by measuring how much paper is being inserted before it cranks up its jaws of death. If you try to pull a Full Enron (that's shredder-speak for overloading the machine), a green-to-yellow-to-red indicator will tell you if you've exceeded the shredder's capacity, requiring you to reload in more moderate amounts.
Once the 79Ci shreds, it doesn't leave paper in easy-to-assemble strips (that's so American-Embassy-in-Tehran-circa-1979). Like many modern shredders, it cross-cuts a single sheet of paper into 399 pieces, making it ridiculously difficult to reassemble.
ENHANCING FAMILY GAME NIGHT
Discovery Bay Games
Duo Pop $40
As tablets become ubiquitous, toy companies are seeking ways to keep the tradition of family game night alive by combining physical board games with digital apps. Discovery Bay Games, a maker of games and puzzles as well as a few iPad apps and accessories, has created an analog iPad add-on called Duo Pop, which sells for about $40 at Apple, Target and Amazon.com.
The setup for Duo Pop is simple. It comes with four handheld devices called poppers and a controller that relays signals from the poppers to the iPad. No wires or USB cables are needed (although 11 AAA batteries are).
Six downloadable games for Duo Pop are available at the App Store. Three are trivia games, two feature content from Highlights magazine and one is a word game. They are free, but some have extra content available through in-app purchases.
The games are mildly amusing.
NEW YORK TIMES
