Leaving reminders on the fridge door is as old a custom as, well, refrigerators. But this is the 21st century, so we need a futuristic method of message leaving. Home Base from Audiovox has a little camera and microphone and a 7-inch LCD screen so you can record short missives to the folks telling them you won't be home for dinner.

Home Base can sit on a counter or be mounted anywhere but it needs AC, which might make it a bit ugly on the fridge door. As you can see in the photo, you have to run the AC cable, although the box includes three different wire covers, white, black and clear. You can supplement the internal 512 MB of memory with a USB thumb drive, or any flash memory card format sans Memory Stick.

There's a calendar function that let's you mark for recorded reminders along with birthdays anniversaries and holidays, but there's no way to add text so you'll still need that "Hang in There, Baby" cat calendar to note social events or the PTA meetings. If you're feeling 20th century, Home Base is covered with a clear acrylic sheet that you can write on with the included marker. The surface also is refrigerator magnet friendly.

Home Base will be in stores for Mother's Day (awwwww!) priced at $200. An audio-only version is $150.