Plenty of measures can tell you something about the user's state of mind: keystrokes, how many windows are open and their content, whether the user is scrolling, the time of day, the contents of a desktop calendar even background noises from a microphone and visual information from a camera.

ECONOMIST: Computing

In her white-washed office set against a pulsating Times Square background, Wintour sat sipping a lipstick-stained Starbucks and sneaking emails before the camera was on.

FORBES: Vogue's Anna Wintour: Intimidating, No. Powerful, Yes.

The lens' wide F2 maximum, 9-bladed circular aperture enable beautiful background defocus ('bokeh') effects to rival or exceed professional-class DSLR camera lenses.

ENGADGET: Sony's Cyber-shot RX1 compact camera packs a full-frame sensor, 'fits in your palm' (hands-on)

With the flash on, the camera automatically merges an image of the subject illuminated with the flash in the foreground with a separate image of the background nightscape, to produce a single, clear night photo.

ENGADGET: Olympus SH-50 iHS touts 5-axis video stabilization in a compact, $300 camera (update: hands-on pics)