Learning games are moving targets

Call it the Wii effect -- video games using motion-sensitive wireless controllers like the ones that come with Nintendo's Wii game console. Vtech Electronics uses a similar device in its educational gaming console that came out this week, the V.Smile V-Motion Active Learning System.

The battery-powered device's controller detects motion on three axes. (For the traditionalist, a joystick is included.) The child leans left or right, for instance, to play counting and spelling games like Street Race, Bobsled or Bouncing Ball. It comes with one game; additional games are $25, and titles from earlier V.Smile machines can be used. A $10 power cord adapter is recommended. This year's model includes a USB drive that parents plug into their Windows computer. Once logged in, they can track their children's scores for bragging rights. The games are tedious but addicting, serving as a reminder that when learning facts, a spoonful of sugar (with a lean to the left, then to the right) can help the medicine go down.

Anyone with dreams of a home theater also has a nightmare: running wires across the floor or inside the walls to connect the audio equipment near the television with the speakers around the room.

Polk Audio is selling a $1,200 sound bar -- an array of speakers in a single 44-inch case that is mounted under the TV -- that might be easier, if not a little cheaper, than hiring a drywall contractor. Its SurroundBar 360 plays acoustic tricks to simulate the multiple-speaker surround-sound sensation without the need for a subwoofer. The drivers inside the speaker array emanate a mix of in- and out-of-synch sound waves to clearly separate right, left and rear audio. The console connected to the sound bar has an AM-FM tuner, plays CDs and DVDs, and has hookups for multiple video and audio inputs, including the HDMI connection used with high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players. By channeling high-pressure, high-velocity air inside the speaker bar to the still air outside, the resulting turbulence creates a low-frequency sound wave. If the plaster cracks, you may need the contractor after all.