Work it

Women now account for 40 percent of all consumer electronics spending, according to a recent study by the NPD Group. Although men spend an average of $902 on gadgetry each year, women spend $558, says the Consumer Electronics Association.

"If you look at the stats, women either make the purchase or influence it in more than half of consumer electronics items," says Suzanne Kantra, former technology editor of Popular Science magazine and more recently technology editor for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

Techlicious (www.techlicious.com), a "tech made simple" Web site that Kantra started in June, addresses women's lifestyle issues with articles and videos about improving home movies, building a backyard summer theater and choosing a heart-rate monitor or robotic lawn mower.

Despite its vastness, the Internet is home to few technology sites devoted to women, most of them blogs such as Chip Chick (www.chipchick.com). Chip Chick is more fashion-conscious and product-profile heavy, while Techlicious favors advice and instruction over product reviews.

The Techlicious home page, for instance, recently featured new videos from Kantra on hooking up an HDTV, making photos e-mail friendly, taking better baby photos and cleaning an HDTV screen.

"When you go to Gizmodo or Engadget," says Kantra, "it's shine, sizzle, pizazz. It's not the service."

-The Hartford Courant