As the gift-giving season approaches, the dizzying variety of electronic gadgets and gizmos is greater than ever, and making a choice, especially if you have a technophile in mind, has never been tougher. But something from among the items collected here might strike your fancy. They include a pen from Logitech that stores handwritten notes in flash memory; several thumb-size removable hard drives that store hefty amounts of data in a device that clips onto a key ring; a cordless headset for a Bluetooth-enabled phone; and some of the smallest cameras yet, to say nothing of a pair of the personal digital system (PDA)/cellphone hybrids that may win your attention as a cellphone but then turn out to be far more than that.
The Power of the Pen
The digital Logitech io Pen is significatly fatter than a ballpoint, but comfortable in the hand and surprisingly light (53 grams with cap). Scribble your notes, diagrams, or to-do and calendar items on special paper [see "Swedish Start-Up Puts New Spin on Pen and Paper," IEEE Spectrum, July 2001, pp. 34-36] that helps the optics orient itself in following the text. The paper comes in three varieties: in a familiar Mead notebook, as 3M Post-It notes, or in a FranklinCovey day planner.
Put the pen in its cradle for synchronization through the cradle's USB connection with your Windows 98/Me/2000/XP computer. From there your notes may be stored or e-mailed using software included in the starter package, which comes complete with pen, cradle, five ink cartridges, an 80-page notebook, and 50 Post-Its. The day planner dubbed iScribe is available online from its manufacturer. The io Pen will hit retail shelves in January but until then will be available only online.
Price: US $50 (iScribe) http://www.franklincovey.com
Do-It-All Devices at Far Different Prices
The Sidekick, developed by Danger Technologies (Palo Alto, Calif.), doesn't offer everything its competitor does, but it has many important features—and in some ways outshines its pricier rival. Both have always-on Internet connections, but the Sidekick is faster, transferring data at a rate of 53.6 kb/s, versus 14.4 kb/s for the Communicator. The devices cut down on download times, pulling up stripped-down versions of Web pages and images.
Both offer AOL Instant Messenger and wireless e-mail with support for attachments such as Word documents, JPEGs, and Adobe PDF files. The Nokia phone has an edge here because its screen displays pages in 4096 colors, while the Sidekick does its work in monochrome.
The Communicator also has multimedia capability. It comes with software that converts multiple file types, so you can send, receive, and view video clips, digital images, and music.
giftf2b.jpg On the other hand, the Sidekick's headphone jack doubles as a port for an optional camera attachment; it takes snapshots that it could then send via e-mail. Handy as it is, the Communicator does not take pictures.
For e-mail, the Communicator supports many mail protocols; the Sidekick supports comparatively few. The phones are also remarkably similar in the features and functions available for personal information management (PIM), such as an address book, to-do list, and scheduler.
The Sidekick's data-syncing capability is limited. For the initial transfer of data from a PC, the user must upload the information to T-Mobile's Web site, which then forwards it to the device. After that, all additions have to be done manually and syncing with programs such as Outlook is not an option. The Nokia Communicator, on the other hand, syncs readily with PCs using common PIM applications.
When talking, you can either hold the T-Mobile unit up to your face—rather awkwardly—or use it with a hands-free headset. Although a bit clunky compared to the average cellphone you might see on the street, when held to the ear, the Communicator feels like you're talking through a phone instead of a Nintendo GameBoy. And any misgivings about its size are sure to be squelched when it is opened lengthwise to reveal its full Qwerty keyboard and color screen. The Communicator can also send and receive faxes.
Price: US $200 http://tmobile.com/
Price: US $599 http://www.nokiausa.com/communicator
Making the Walls Talk
The Soundbug attaches to surfaces via a suction cup on its base and plugs into the standard 3.5-mm headphone socket of products like portable CD, MP3, Minidisc, and cassette players, hand-held game consoles, camcorders, and laptop computers. Two Soundbugs can be parallelled for stereo sound. As for controls, you have three options: off, quiet, and loud. A power-save mode automatically shuts the unit off when no audio source is detected, extending the life of the three AAA batteries that power it to four hours of continuous play.
Price: US $49.95 at the manufacturer's Web site, http://www.soundbug-us.com/, but it sells for $29.95 at http://www.thinkgeek.com.
Home Networking Goes Plug and Play
Setting up a wireless LAN and ensuring the network is secure can be tricky. Microsoft simplifies the experience by clearly diagramming how to wirelessly network two or more PCs using a base station and either a USB or notebook PC Wi-Fi adapter—the items in the kit. The diagram also illustrates how to link the network to a broadband modem. Those with one already connected to a PC by an Ethernet are shown on the same diagram how to connect that wired PC to the now-wireless network.
With the physical network in place, a setup wizard detects the PC's Internet service provider and modem settings and automatically configures the attached computer. The wizard copies the Wi-Fi network settings to an (included) setup disk, eliminating the need to jot down settings and lengthy encryption keys for setting up and securing the other PC. The 128-bit wired-equivalent protection (WEP) encryption is turned on by default to prevent wireless eavesdropping. A built-in firewall is also part of the package.
Bluetooth Headset Cuts the Cord
Matching a phone and headset is simple. The headset is "discovered" by a Bluetooth-enabled device, such as Sony Ericsson's T68i mobile phone, once the headset's control button is pushed for about 10 seconds. Thereafter, the devices automatically discover each other and connect when the phone's Bluetooth capability is enabled and the headset is in range. To prevent confusion, neither the phone nor the headset will respond to a device to which they have not been formally introduced.
If your phone supports voice dialing, you can initiate calls from the headset by pressing a button on its earpiece and saying one of the previously programmed names. The 28-gram device has a maximum standby time of up to four days and talk time of up to four hours.
Along with the headset comes a Sony Ericsson phone charger that plugs into it without a cradle. Included are a belt pouch and a small adhesive-backed holder for a car so the headset is within easy reach when driving.
Packing in Extras
Still, the Exilim is diminutive enough that a couple of breakthroughs in component manufacturing were needed in order to stuff these features inside. The camera's space-saving lens-CCD unit provides 1.3-megapixel (1280 by 960) resolution without interpolation. It also boasts a 4-cm color liquid-crystal display that allows you to review images on the spot.
The guts of the camera, including its CPU, RAM, and flash memory, are squeezed onto a single chip, leaving room for a built-in flash—another camera staple that couldn't be shoehorned into its slimmer competitor. Mode memory retains preconfigured settings (like zoom and flash) when you turn it off, restoring them when you power back up.
Like the Pocket Digital, the Exilim is powered by a lithium-ion battery whose energy is topped up whenever it is connected via its docking station to a computer for downloading image files. It also comes with remote control stereo headphones for listening to the MP3 files.
Price: US $349 http://exilim.casio.com
Covert Cameras
The CMOS sensor has only 300 000 pixels, but Pocket Digital is marketed as a 1.3-megapixel camera. The extra million or so pixels are added through software interpolation that occurs as images are being uploaded to a computer. To boost resolution, SMaL Camera Technologies, which licensed the components to Logitech, developed a proprietary technology called Autobrite. Autobrite improves the dynamic range of CMOS and CCD sensors, letting them capture images with wide variations in light levels without some elements of a photograph being too dark or too washed out to register.
Naturally, to put the camera in a body this small, some features that are standard on bigger, more expensive models had to be jettisoned. For example, an optical viewfinder replaces a liquid-crystal display, and there's no built-in flash.
The Pocket Digital comes with download software and a driver that allow the choice of which images to transfer.
Price: US $129.95. http://www.logitech.com
Time Flashes By
Thus, to represent the numeral nine in, for instance, 12:59:51, the first and fourth diodes on the fourth row would be lit up. A few seconds later, at 1:00, none of the diodes would be aglow except the first one on the second row.
The circuit board is encased in a translucent red or green plastic case that opens up to allow access to three time-set buttons. The TimeCube is available as a kit or fully assembled at the online store, Electronics USA. The store also sells a host of other gadgets such as a wireless digital audio transmitter that allows you to broadcast sound from, say, a CD player to a nearby FM radio.
Another (less expensive) version, which works essentially the same way but is reminiscent of a control panel from "Star Trek"'s Enterprise, is available from the folks at thinkgeek.com. Theirs sells for $19.99.
Tons of Storage on a Key Ring
Taking your files with you is much less of a hassle, thanks to a hot new product: portable, solid-state memories no bigger than a pack of chewing gum. The devices, which rely on nonvolatile EEPROMs of varying capacities, plug into a USB port and are recognized by the computer as just another removable drive. The dozens (or even hundreds) of megabytes some of them hold (with 1GB and 2GB models on the way), suits them better than floppy or even Zip disks for storing digital images, music files, and very long documents.
Many have a clip or ring so they may be attached to a set of keys, hence their being called memory keys. Other advantages over Zip disks include a smaller, sturdier form factor, faster access, and no moving parts subject to wear. And they come in different strokes for different folks.
Eutron SpA's PicoDisk
has the same capacity range as the ThumbDrives, relies on 128-bit encryption and your own PIN to keep data out of the wrong hands.
- Price: €82.50 (64MB model), 124 (128MB model) http://www.eutron.com/pico.asp
Nomad MuVo memory key
If you crave music, consider the Nomad MuVo memory key, which is also an MP3 player. The 64MB model will store up to 15 MP3 song files downloaded through a USB port. It plays them back (in the order downloaded) using control buttons on its face. Power for 12 hours of playback using headphones comes from a single AAA battery housed in an included cradle. From Creative Technologies Ltd., the business-card-sized unit comes in a 128MB as well as a 64MB version.
- Price: US $129.99 (64MB model) $169.99 (128MB model) http://www.nomadworld.com
ThumbDrive Touch
If security is a concern, the ThumbDrive Touch has a built-in fingerprint sensor that won't let just anyone get at the key's contents. Software included by Trek 2000 International Ltd. allows you to authorize use by two other people plus yourself. Capacity ranges from 32MB to 128MB.
- Price: US $99 (64MB model) http://www.trekstorusa.com
PenDrive Plus
For digital camera fans, the PenDrive.com's PenDrive Plus includes a slot that accepts SD and MultiMedia cards. Even if its flash memory is filled with important documents, you can free your camera's wafer-size memory cards to takemore snapshots.
- Price: €129 (128MB model), €229 (256MB model) http://www.pendriveshop.de
