|
 Gadgets
& Gizmos
This year’s tech toys help you organize your life, enjoy
your hobbies—and get in touch with that inner 12-year-old
Gadgets that are fun to use, look snazzy and actually enhance
whatever it is you’re doing are tough to find in one package.
Some of my coolest-seeming acquisitions end up proving too
annoying (like the fax machine that’s supposed to share my
voice phone line) or wind up too quickly outmoded (but I still
have a DAT machine).
So it’s nice to lead off this list with a gadget that meets
the above requirements. Microsoft’s Fingerprint Reader is
smaller than your computer mouse, plugs into a USB port, and
replaces all that username-password data entry with the touch
of a finger—a finger with a print you’ve previously registered
with the unit’s DigitalPersona software. Visit the Web sites
on which you’re registered and enter your info once more to
teach the reader your passwords, and after that you merely
press your fingertip against the sticky, red-lighted recognition
window. A beep sounds and you’re in. It works seamlessly with
Microsoft’s own Internet Explorer and AOL (which uses IE technology);
not surprisingly, given a long-standing animosity, it works
only occasionally with Netscape. Be sure to keep a written
list of those username-password combos tucked away, too. No
sense trusting computers more than we have to.
The hottest item on everybody’s list would seem to be an MP3
player, such as the Apple iPod, but this category is now so
popular that it’s been cluttered with a dizzying array of
specs and stylings. The smallest and cheapest players, like
the Creative Nomad MuVo NX, use flash memory for data storage.
They don’t store much and have the most expensive byte-for-byte
cost, but they won’t skip when you are. Next up in size are
the mini hard-drive units, like the iPod Mini and the Rio
Carbon, which sacrifice disk space for size—but they’re not
really all that much smaller than players with large hard
drives (10 gigabytes or greater), like the Creative Nomad
Jukebox Zen Xtra, which boasts a capacity of about 17,000
songs. Be sure you’re happy with whatever system your player
uses to obtain its music, and hold out for a reasonable display.
It takes a lot of downloading and configuration to put your
tunes at hand. Me? I’m still using a little minidisc player.
For the well-heeled photography buff, single-lens-reflex (SLR)
digital cameras replicate the look and handling of the classic
35mm cameras. The Canon EOS 20D, with an 8 megapixel resolution,
costs about $1,400, but wins a high rating on the many reviews
I checked. But when I decided recently to upgrade, I stayed
with the LCD screen format and chose the Casio Exilim EX-P600,
which is available for less than $400. It features a 6 megapixel
resolution, 4X optical zoom, very long life on its proprietary
battery, and a surprising number of options that can take
you anywhere from a range of preconfigured shots to fully
manual operation. And, unlike many cameras in its class, it
sports an external flash connector, which I often need to
use.
Moving from pictures to sound, consider your computer’s crappy
speakers, then consider a worthy replacement. Like Logitech’s
Z-2300 set of two small speakers and a subwoofer. It’s one
of the first sets of computer speakers I’ve heard that begins
to approach the sound of a good stereo system, and you need
the best you can get if this is where you choose to listen
to music. They’re also THX certified for movie-watching use
and shouldn’t cost you more than $100, although you may find
yourself investing in a better sound card as well.
Another approach is a pair of headphones. For over-the-ear
listening, the Grado SR60 is a low-cost standard-setter. They’ve
been around for years, but they haven’t been bested. For in-ear
use, add the luxury of noise cancellation (especially helpful
on an airplane) with the Etymotic ER-6 Isolator. These little
guys have the same technology Bose boasts about, to sense
constant noise in your environment and filter it out. It feels
a bit weird at first, like you’re in a small room with a heavy
door that just swung shut, but they’re great when you get
used to them.
Given the choice between sharing a train ride with someone
canoodling on a cell phone and someone simply noodling on
a PDA, give me the latter. So I recommend that you give your
loved ones an HP iPaq Pocket PC H1940, which is a classic,
deck-of-cards-sized unit that includes a beautiful display,
Bluetooth, a secure digital card slot and the usual software
suite. If you find data entry with that tiny stylus annoying,
try the Think Outside Stowaway Universal Bluetooth keyboard,
which, as its name suggests, is a full-sized keyboard that
folds to 5½ by 4 by ½ inches.
I’m not going to deal here with cell phones, which are more
of a personal choice, but if you’re attached to your camera
phone and want to share with the world your artistry, consider
the Nokia Medallion II. Wear it around your neck or on your
wrist; it displays a clock or any of the eight images you
beam from your Nokia phone’s infrared port.
These are still the halcyon days for TV recording, and the
TiVo Series 2 DVR gives you a choice of 40, 80 or 140 minutes
of recording time, although that time decreases with higher
quality settings. For now, you’ll still be able to skip over
commercials, although something is in the wind to make sure
you’re hit with some kind of ads. But having seen TiVo in
action, I’m assured that it’s the only way to take control
of your TV set.
Finally, a gift for the true gearhead, especially one with
more than one computer, look for an IDE to USB enclosure and
converter. Mine was a no-brand-name package I found on eBay,
and it works like a charm, letting me mount a 3.5-inch hard
drive in the enclosure and attach it as a peripheral to my
notebook or desktop computer. I use it as a backup storage
device, and it’s come in handy more than once.
—B.A.
Nilsson
2004
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