Nutboltu
In the modern day list of the hierarchy of needs, gadgets take place just below food, shelter and sex. For some, it might even rank a notch or two higher. This leads to our top picks of all things ‘gadgety’ from 2009.
All on your lap
Desktop computers are so yesterday. Today, we want to take our PC to the toilet and update the Facebook status accordingly. The coolest laptop right now is the 17” MacBook Pro. It has a beautiful display, multitouch trackpad and improved eight-hour battery life. And all this packed into just 6.6 pounds and less than an inch thick. Price is about $2500.
Of course, computing is one area where size really doesn’t matter. Small is just as desirable as large. The Sony VAIO P Series has world’s lightest eight-inch computer at a mere 1.4 pounds. At $900, this notebook really is the size of a notebook yet has power to spare.
While on the subject of computing, the best new tool to come in 2009 for the above mentioned tools was Microsoft Windows 7. Its predecessor Vista came out with a lot of fanfare and landed like a flatulent sumo wrestler in a karate tournament. It was slow, it was buggy and once again, it was slow. Window 7 fixed most of that, retaining the good looks of Vista, offering more stability, better security and improved voice and handwriting recognition.
And last but not least is USB 3.0. It has already started shipping with many new devices with data transfer speeds of 4.8 Gbit/s (600MB/s). Our current USB 2.0 can manage a rate of just 480 Mbit/s (60MB/s) making the jump about 10 times. It’s also back compatible so that our older USB 2.0 compliant devices can still be run.
Read a good book lately?
Once, nothing could beat a good book for captivating the mind. Then came cable TV, video games, Facebook and kitten videos on Youtube. Yet, a good book is still high on the list for many. The Amazon Kindle 2 is a thin, sleek, e-book reader that you can use to download books off the net and browse anywhere you go. The original already sold half a million units, so this could be greater considering its now got wireless 3G connectivity. Best of all, unlike books, when you leave it lying around, termites can’t make mincemeat out of it.
Calling up androids
The Apple iPhone is still reigning supreme in the cell phone market and 2009s iPhone 3GS offers greater speed, new features and extended battery life at about $300.
But the latest generation of Android phones is giving it a run for its money. Google developed the fantastic open source Android platform. Now phone manufacturers and content developers are going nuts coming up with new material based on this.
One of the best Android phones on the market now is Motorola Droid which has a fantastic display, has Android 2.0 updates and is lightning fast. Price range form $200 to $600.
Those looking for the best RIM set need go no further than the Blackberry Storm 9500 with full touch screen, 3.2 Mega pixel camera, 1GB on board storage and video support for almost all formats.
Couch potato with style
Nothing spells decadence better than sitting in front of a ridiculously large TV and spending days watching cable. And let’s face, we all want a little decadence in our lives. With the Bravia Z4500, Sony became the first in the field to create 200Hz technology. This results in a tremendous 200 frames per second. It cuts out blurring on fast moving films and is a lot easier on the eyes. The largest of these come at 52 inches.
Tune in to tune out
While the iPod still rules, last years Microsoft Zune HD at $220+ seems to be giving it a bit of a tough competition. It has an amazing OLED screen and while the iPod Touch has better apps, the Zune has superior video and audio quality.
And for state of the art music, you need similar quality headphones such as Klipsch Image S4 Headphones at $80. The ‘earbuds’ deliver tremendous bass, clear highs and near-perfect fit.
Keep on gaming on
A PS3 that’s quieter, cheaper and slimmer. Why couldn’t they make this in the first place? With 120GB hard drive space and a $300 tag, this makes a better value for money than it’s fatter cousin.
Capture that moment
While the choice of cameras here may raise arguments, they certainly have benefits worth considering as top picks of 2009. The Kodak Zi8 is a cell phone sized camcorder offering 1080p (or 720p at 60 frames per second), a standard SD memory slot, a microphone input all for less than other 720p models. It may be small, but it’s big on quality. It also shoots amazing 5MP still ‘Kodak Moments’ all for just $180.
Point-and-shoot cameras have to be extremely capable to get respect from pros. The Canon Powershot S90 offers low-light performance on par with many DSLRs but with a price of $429, it’s not cheap. But nothing beats having an amazing camera in your pocket at all times which is something DSLRs can’t do.
But if you have to go full pro, the Sony Alpha 850 full-frame DSLR has all the features of its rivals but about $700 less than most. At $2,000 for the body only, it’s still not cheap, but 24.6MP processor and a host of other features make it all that more desirable.
But if you want a full package offering fantastic picture clarity, the best prosumer DSLR to come out in 2009 would be the Canon 7D with 19-point autofocus similar to high end Nikons, 1080p video shooting and a 28-135mm kit lens. It has incredible low light performance for an 18MP camera and comes well under $2000.
Getting some utility
Ever since the wheel was invented, not much could be done to change the design. Some tried squaring it but that just made it a square, not a wheel. It’s the same case with fans. Only change people could make was with the number of blades.
Last year, James Dyson did away with the blades altogether with the Air Multiplier. ‘Air is pulled in through vents in the base and then pushed out by a hidden impeller over a circular airfoil-shaped ramp that runs inside the rim of the halo’. That’s the technical mumbo-jumbo. What you need to know is that it is a ring that blows cool, steady air with tilt, oscillation and speed controls and costs about $300. Don’t see it catching on in Bangladesh where bladed fans are less than $20.
And there you have it. The best and the coolest gadgets that could leave most of us significantly poorer but with a big smile on the face. Unless of course, we are too poor to get any of it in the first place.