PCMag has compiled a list of 18 Apple product alternatives, from phones to media players to laptops.  Apple-lovers may turn up their noses at the selection, but others will find a number of respectable devices, often with lower pricetags.

Added bonus for ConsumerReports.org subscribers: We've tested many of PCMag's suggested products (in addition to all the Apples). See how they fared in our Ratings of MP3 players/portable media players, laptop Ratings, desktop Ratings, and smart phone Ratings.

Got any other Apple alternatives to share?

—Nick K. Mandle

There are many ways to improve your photos, but one lesser-known way is to use something called the rule of thirds. Here's the basic idea: Avoid placing your subjects in the dead center of the picture.

Instead, if your digital camera has this feature, turn on its grid setting on your LCD so that you see a Tic-Tac-Toe pattern. Then, line your subject up on one of the four spots where the vertical and horizontal lines cross (each of these spots is roughly located 1/3 of the way from the top to the bottom and from the left to the right side of the frame; hence, the term "rule of thirds"). Doing this, instead of placing the subject directly in the center of the frame, usually improves the aesthetics of your image.

Here's an illustration: In the image on the right, the subject is near one of the intersection points to create a more pleasing composition than if the subject were dead-center.

If your camera doesn't have a grid feature, you can get the same effect by eyeballing it: Place the subject roughly one third of the way from the top or bottom of the frame and from the left or right edge. You can also do this in your image-editing program after the fact.

For an added tip, see my post on how to use your camera's flash to take better pictures.

—Terry Sullivan

A new color-screen technology for e-book screens that claims power efficiency to at least match that of current e-ink technology appears promising, based on a preview I saw yesterday at an e-reading conference in New York. 

Scheduled to be out on a device with a 5.7-inch screen in the third quarter of this year, the Marisol screen technology is made by Qualcomm, a company best-known for its cell-phone processors. Speaking with me at "The E-Reading Revolution," a Magazine Publishers of America conference at which we both appeared as panelists, Qualcomm's Cheryl Goodman said the company eventually plans to roll out the technology to a wider array of devices, with screens both larger and smaller than the first Marisol device. 

Like the e-ink screens used in almost all of the current e-book readers, Marisol uses reflected ambient light. Viewed on a pre-production version of the upcoming device (shown above), the Marisol images varied in brightness depending on the viewing conditions, as would be expected. Even in fairly bright light—standing near a window, for example—the screen, like e-ink ones, lacked the backlit pop of the LCD screens found on computers and cell phones. 

Also, as with the e-ink color screen of the Skiff e-book reader prototype I saw at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, the colors were somewhat muted. The type also lacked the crisp immediacy of most e-ink screens. What I saw, however, is still a work in progress, and it looked at least passable; I'll be curious to see the finished product. 

Qualcomm claims that Marisol, like e-ink, will use dramatically less power than backlit LCD screens. But the company also claims it will have an edge on e-ink in its power handling of video content—likely to be a growing addition to e-reader content in the coming years, as a number of speakers emphasized at the conference. That, Qualcomm says, is because Marisol avoids the frequent page refreshes—up to 30 a second—required to display video on e-ink screens, each of which has a power drain comparable to a page turn. (No video content was available to view on the Marisol prototype.) 

Qualcomm isn't disclosing the manufacturer under whose nameplate the first Marisol device will be sold. Nor could they say whether 3G will be a feature of the unit, or give a firm price for it. However, their spokeswoman said the company realizes it must be priced below that of the Apple iPad, whose screen is more than twice as large and costs $499 and up. But she demurred when I asked if it might cost as little as $199—the price of the Sony Pocket, which has a 5-inch screen. 

Meantime, demos of some color e-ink screens were part of a trade show in China this week, according to PC World. The previews included some demos of video, reportedly with compromised quality, on a color e-ink screen. However, in an interview with E Ink's new CEO on Xconomy suggests that, even in its color iteration, E Ink is aiming to be a color reading technology rather than a media-rich platform for video and the like. 

Also, while some reports are suggesting that color e-ink devices will hit the market late this year, the CEO's remarks suggest that the early 2011 timing I reported after CES remains the more likely scenario.

—Paul Reynolds

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These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or
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and recommended, in our Ratings of retailers for computers and other major electronics (both available to subscribers). Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies for restocking fees and other gotchas.

For general buying advice for many of the products on sale above, check out our free Buying Guides.

Yet another password-stealing scam is making its way around the Internet, according to security-software provider McAfee. This one targets Facebook users. Fake e-mails that appear to come from the social network do something Facebook would never do: They “alert” you that Facebook has changed your password.

The e-mail asks you to click on an attachment to access the new password, but what you’ll get instead is a password stealer that can grab not only your Facebook user name and password, but potentially any other user name/password combination on your computer.

To see an example of one e-mail involved in the Facebook Password Reset Scam, take a look at this alert from McAfee. And follow the safety advice we provide in our Guide to Online Security.

—Donna Tapellini

Combing through hundreds of blog posts and news articles daily, Dirk Klingner, our technology-trend watcher, sifts through the noise to bring you the tech news most important to consumers. If you have a tip on a story you want to share, leave a comment below.

AOL Autos debuts official iPhone app for new car shoppers (Autoblog)

…It basically takes all of that research you did at home on your computer and crams it into a mobile app that goes with you. That way you can visit a dealership armed with all of that information about pricing and options at your finger tips.

Deep Discounts On Smartphones Drive U.S. Adoption Rates To Nearly A Third (paidContent.org)

…The report found that smartphones are now in the hands of about 31 percent of the U.S. population, growing from only 23 percent in the year-ago period.

Disgruntled Ex-Auto Dealer Employee Hacks Computer System To Disable Over 100 Cars (Techdirt)

…Then he discovered he could pull up a database of all 1,100 Auto Center customers whose cars were equipped with the device. He started going down the list in alphabetical order, vandalizing the records, disabling the cars and setting off the horns.

Lighter side: Letterman Tries to Make Fun of Twitter on Top Ten List (Mashable)

(The commericial isn’t ours. It’s embedded in CBS’s video player.)

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Related: TV
Ratings and buying
tips; Computer
Ratings and buying
tips; DVD
& Blu-ray player Ratings and buying
tips Video
game console buying tips
video: "Choosing a video game system".

Neither Consumer Reports nor The Consumerist receive anything in
exchange for featuring these deals; the posts are intended to be purely
informational. These deals are often fleeting, with prices changing or
products becoming unavailable as the day progresses.

These posts are not an endorsement of the featured products or
the Web sites that sell them—though some of the sites may be included,
and recommended, in our Ratings of retailers for computers and other major electronics (both available to subscribers). Price shouldn't be your only criterion. Be wary of lower-priced deals that seem too good to be true, and check return policies for restocking fees and other gotchas.

For general buying advice for many of the products on sale above, check out our free Buying Guides.

Click here to view the embedded video.