The chair has elves! Lounger gives memorable back rub at CES

Back rubs and batteries were some of my most interesting nondigital finds at the recent International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

I got to sample one of those reclining massage chairs that are co-stars of a commercial for an efficient shipping company. You've probably seen it. A bunch of executives are reclining and vibrating in high-tech chairs, an apparent reward for their smarts to use the right courier giant.

The chairs are the HT-7450 Zero-Gravity massage chair from Human Touch (www.humantouch.com) and fetch a handsome price of $3,999. As much as I'd like to, I don't think I can sneak that past the boss on the expense report. The five minutes I spent in one were the best five minutes of the week, considering all the hoofing that's required during CES.

I swear there were tiny people inside the chair poking and rubbing at all the right pressure points that needed poking and rubbing. The company touts its "Acupoint Detection" system as the genius behind the mechanical massage. All I know is that it felt glorious.

I didn't leave the Human Touch booth without an alternative, as I also tried their HT-1470 Back Massage Pad, touted as the "thinnest portable kneading and rolling massage robot" on the planet. The results were nearly as wonderful as its big brother full-sized chair, with a price of just $250.

The company sent one for me to test-drive, and I'm now passing it around the office for my co-workers to sample. The 11-pound pad turns any chair or sofa into a back-rub oasis, but be sure to have an electric outlet handy.

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

• Energizer Duo

(www.energizer.com/usbcharger/)

Keeping a set of charged batteries handy has never been easier. Plug the Duo charger into a universal serial bus port on your computer or use the AC wall adapter, and you'll have fully charged AA or AAA cells in about two to four hours, depending on the size of the batteries.

The charger sells for about $15 and includes a pair of AAA batteries. You can also download a desktop widget to monitor the charging progress, or just rely on the green light to stop blinking to indicate a full charge.

• Update on Imbee.com

It's with sadness that I report the deaths of Jeanette and Balan Symons, who died in a plane crash Feb. 1.

Symons, 45, was founder of Imbee.com, a social networking site for kids I wrote about last year. She was piloting a Cessna when it crashed shortly after taking off from the Augusta, Maine, airport.

Her 10-year-old son Balan had been in a skiing camp. He and his mother were returning to their Colorado home.

Symons is survived by her daughter, Jennie, 7; her parents and two brothers.

Share your Internet story with me at agibes@reviewjournal.com.