PostPoints tips: Three good gadgets for blizzards

Last weekend's snowstorm left more than 200,000 homes without power, but three items helped some snowbound residents get through those outages--and are worth obtaining before the next bout of adverse weather. The first is a smartphone that can display full-sized Web pages and get your e-mail, such as an iPhone, an Android phone or Palm's Pre or Pixi devices; with that, you're not cut off from the Internet if your regular connection drops. The second is a corded landline phone that can run off jack power alone (although if you have Verizon's Fios service, you'll only have eight hours of service before your line's battery runs down). The third is an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) for a desktop computer, which will supply enough power to ride out brief interruptions--and allow an orderly shutdown during longer outages.