EDIG mention - Network World 2003 Holiday gift guide
Cool Yule Tools; Shopping for the techie who has everything? You've just struck gift guide gold! Uh, make that silver!
Keith Shaw
24 November 2003
Network World
Network World 2003 holiday gift guide
Cool Yule Tools
Shopping for the techie who has everything? You've just struck holiday gift guide gold! Uh, make that silver !
Silver belles
Santa's helpers, Titanium (above) and Platinum (below), ring in the season with these silver-toned accessories.
AOC LM729 monitor
$400
Titanium takes the AOC LM729 monitor for a spin - literally! This 17-inch flat-panel with integrated speakers easily swivels from horizontal to vertical, and at $400, even the price tag turns heads.
Veo Wireless Observer camera
$300
Platinum loves the space-ship design of the Veo Wireless Observer camera, but it's what this baby can do that's really out of this world. Set it up anywhere within range of a wireless LAN, and beam pictures across the Internet (watch the kids, your pets or do security monitoring). Pan, tilt and zoom features make this camera a winner!
" Silver toys, silver toys, - It's holiday time in the test labs . . . "
- Keith Shaw
Silver surfers
Platinum does her holiday shopping on the Web and on the go now that wireless, last year's luxury feature, has become standard in laptop and handheld computing devices like these:
1. Sharp Actius MM10
$1,500
An ultra-portable notebook that offers an impressive level of mobility. At 2.1 pounds, this is an extremely small laptop. It includes embedded wireless for Internet connectivity, but sacrifices a bit of performance to gain the mobility (only a 1-GHz Crusoe processor).
2. Palm Tungsten T3
$400
The latest and greatest Palm device, complete with a display that rotates horizontally or extends vertically to offer more screen real estate. The device has a brilliant screen resolution, the latest operating system and integrated Bluetooth for connectivity.
3. Research in Motion BlackBerry 7230
$399
We love how BlackBerry has entered the color screen age. If staying in touch is important to you, then the 7230 is your device. Wireless e-mail, a cell phone and a decent organizer all complement each other in a small package.
4. Fujitsu Lifebook P5000
$1,550
We love small and light laptops this year, and the P5000 rates among the best. It's one of the smallest notebooks that includes a DVD drive, so you still can watch that movie on the plane and not have to lug around a 7-pound beast.
5. Handspring Treo 600 from Sprint
$600
This is a rare device that actually lives up to its hype. The Treo 600 from Sprint provides road warriors with everything they need: organizer,
e-mail, cell phone, digital camera and more. All of this comes in a handy package that is only slightly bigger than a regular cell phone.
6. Toshiba Portege R100 notebook
$2,300
We love the keyboard on this extremely tiny notebook. No optical drive, but you can attach one via USB port if you want. The best part is it's very light.
On the third page of this gift guide, my true love gave to me . . .
Silver nuggets
Good things come in small, silvery packages:
1. LG VX6000 from Verizon Wireless
$200
This was the year of the camera phone, and this model was our favorite. But it also has a ton of other bells and whistles, including a really fancy external display.
2. Oregon Scientific Digital Camera
$130
Our second-favorite tiny camera is barely more than 3 inches wide, 2 inches tall and a quarter-inch thick. This is a 1.3-megapixel camera that comes with a zoom lens and flash attachment. Not the best camera for serious prints, but you can't beat the size for those moments when you need to take a quick photo to send around via e-mail.
3. Kanguru Wizard USB security key
$50
If you want to hide sensitive data on your PC from prying eyes, plug in this USB drive, transfer the files to a "virtual folder" and watch them disappear when you remove the device. One of the simplest ways to hide data we've seen in a while.
4. Logitech Pocket Digital 130 camera
$150
Tiny digital cameras came out last year, but they stunk. This year they're getting better. The 1.3-megapixel camera has a cool spy camera feel, and a flash to improve picture-taking. And it's easy to operate and carry around in your pocket.
5. Gateway DC-T50 digital camera
$400
We loved the small and sleek 6-ounce digital camera. Five big megapixels will be more than enough for your printable photos. It has great battery life, too.
6. Belkin Hi-Speed USB 2.0 7-port hub
$50
The more stuff you get to connect to your PC, the more you're going to need a USB hub. This version lets you connect up to seven devices and is stackable so you can connect even more. It's smiling, silver face will brighten up your desktop and your day.
Silver where?
Lost in the holiday shuffle? Find your way to giving gifts like these:
1. iPaq Navigation System
$330
End all your in-car arguments about whether you're lost. This tiny GPS receiver uses Bluetooth to talk to an iPaq (newer devices) and gives you step-by-step driving directions.
2. HP iPaq h4150 Pocket PC
$450
Make your colleagues go "oooh and aaah" when they see this small and light Pocket PC. Integrated Bluetooth and 802.11b gives connectivity options galore.
3. Magellan SporTrak Color
$380
A tiny handheld that tells you exactly where you are and where you want to go on a crisp, color screen. Use as a stand-alone GPS device or connect to a laptop and use with mapping software.
Platinum hits
No matter what their musical tastes, give gifts like these and you'll be No. 1 on their top 40 chart.
4. Digital Vinyl CD-R discs
$6 to $10
We still remember records. If you do too, then take all the digital music you've been gathering and burn it onto one of these. We love the style - nostalgia rocks!
5. E.Digital Odyssey 1000 digital player
$350
The alterna-iPod. More than just an MP3 player, the Odyssey 1000 is a 20G-byte hard drive with a large backlit display, support for MP3, WMA and WAV files; voice recording; and an FM player - all stuffed into a shiny metallic box about the size of a sardine can.
6. Gateway DMB-200 audio player
$130
Gateway's foray into consumer electronics hits a home run with this model, the perfect device for listening to music while working out. With 128M bytes of music storage and a triple-A battery as its power source, the device is perfect for those on the go.
7. Freecom Beatman Flash MP3 Recorder
$180
A hip little device that offers MP3 playing and recording abilities. The stereo line-in recording feature lets you convert music into MP3s on the fly. One-touch FM radio recording lets you instantly record any song that the DJ feels like playing.
We won't go until we get these,
we won't go until we get these,
we won't go until we get these,
so buy us some now!
Silver screen
Record holiday memories big and small, and then share them in style with these great gift ideas:
1. SmartDisk FlashTrax
$500
A must for a digital photographer. Take your images, plug them into the FlashTrax and see them on a 3.5-inch LCD screen. Oh yeah, it has a great MP3 player and video player, too.
2. SiPix StyleCam DV100
$130
A miniature digital camera that can capture still photos, short videos with audio or audio only that you can post on a Web site, send via e-mail or use in presentations. The unit includes software that's fun and easy to use.
3. Philips FlatTV LCD TV
$1,000
At first we thought this 17-inch flat panel was a monitor, then discovered how cool it was as a TV. A widescreen picture for even the smallest spaces.
4. Hy-Tek Tek Panel 300
$6,500
Get the big picture with a 30-inch widescreen LCD monitor, a DVD
player and a high-speed computer in one package. We cried when we had to return this. Convergence brought to the logical extreme.
5. Auravision's EluminX keyboard
$80
Perfect for your digital home theater, the 104 illuminated rubber plunger-style keys keep your keyboard seen but not heard in the dark.
6. Epson PowerLite S1 projector
$1,000
When a 30-inch widescreen still isn't big enough, you need one of these. 1,200 lumens of brightness packed into a 7.3-pound package that's easy enough for anyone on your list to use.
Credits
Project Editor: Keith Shaw
Designer: Brian Gaidry
Photographer: Walter Silver
Santa's Little Testers: Brett Cough, Greg Cusack, Ryan Francis, Adam Gaffin, Sandra Gittlen, Monica Hamilton, Peter Hebenstreit, Tom Kroon, Jason Meserve, Keith Shaw, Melissa Shaw, Zach Sullivan, Matt Tucker, Alex Weinberg, Elizabeth Weinberg, Neal Weinberg, Brian Wood.
AI
