A festive roundup of high-tech toys for good girls and boys
Time to turn in last year's phones and upgradeby Alan Zisman (c) 2003 First published in Business in Vancouver , Issue #736 December 2- 8, 2003 GearGuide Gifts
As '60s satirist Tom Lehrer sang, "Christmas time is here, by golly. Disapproval would be folly..." so it's time for a batch of suggestions to treat others, or maybe to treat yourself. This time around, money is no object, but all these tech toys will fit in a stocking.
For
anyone wanting to take their music collection with them, Apple's iPod
($439- $729) is the MP3 music player of choice. Competitors, including
Creative, RCA-Thompson, Dell, offer music players that are cheaper and
hold more tunes, but none has managed to match the iPod's style,
convenience and ease of use. Originally offering separate models for
Mac and Windows users, now a single iPod can be set up for use with
either platform, and if your Windows PC lacks a high-speed Firewire
port for shuttling tunes back and forth, Apple will happily sell you a
USB connector for your iPod. Apple's new, freely downloadable iTunes
software for Windows makes it that much easier to have a music library
on your PC and carry it in your pocket. And if you need a business
rationale, the iPod can be used as an external hard drive and (with
various downloadable additions) as a sort of junior-grade PDA.
New
smartphones seem to do more and more. Fido customers wanting it all in
a single package can move toSony-Ericsson's P800 ($1,000), which packs
a GPS phone (with optional GPRS data services for wireless e-mail and
Web browsing) with a bright, high-resolution colour screen together
with built-in digital camera and a set of PDA functions. Not satisfied
with the extensive software package that's pre-installed on the P800?
There are lots of alternatives available for downloading, from
alternative Web browsers to music players to games. Built-in Bluetooth
networking searches out and connects to other nearby Bluetooth devices:
phones, computers, printers and more.Bell Mobility customers can't use the P800, but they can still fit a smarter-than-average superphone in their pockets. Bell is offering the Kyocera 7135 ($650), which
combines
a PDA with a cellphone, again offering e-mail and Web browsing on your
phone along with calendar, address list and more. (Sorry, no camera. At
least you can take this one into the fitness centre.) Its PDA is a
standard Palm unit, so it's an easy upgrade for current Palm-users, who
are just a HotSync away from moving all their address lists and other
data to the new phone. And there are literally thousands of optional
Palm programs to extend its usefulness, from Lonely Planet tourist
guides to business software.iPods, P800s and Kyocera 7135s all have built-in battery chargers, but too many other gadgets, including many digital cameras, rely on standard AA or AAA batteries. NiMH rechargeables are the batteries of choice for those gadgets, but charging up a set of batteries takes hours. Rayovac thinks it has the answer, with a new recharging system (about $50) that can juice up a set of batteries in as little as 15 minutes.
The new
charger requires new, compatible rechargeable batteries, though it will
charge older NiMH batteries at the old slow rates. It's a bit noisier
than you might expect, due to the built-in fan, which is needed to keep
itself and the batteries cool during super-charging. A nice bonus is a
coupon for a free car cord adapter, letting you use it while on the
go. Buy from Amazon.com:
Alan Zisman is a Vancouver educator and computer specialist. He can be reached at alan@zisman.ca