GADGETS:From hi-tech phones and video games to state of the art laptops and internet radios, here are the latest gadgets to keep the techie in your life happy, writes Davin Dwyer
Speakers There are so many iPod-compatible speakers and wireless speakers and that-can't- actually-be-a-speaker-style speakers on the market that it's a tough task to pick one. A good place for reviews of many speakers is www.ilounge.com, the comprehensive iPod and accessory news site. The extraordinary-looking Zeppelin speaker from Bowers and Wilkins certainly wins points for its industrial design (and its sound is excellent, by all accounts), but it costs a pretty penny at €599 from Apple.com. Speakers with prices more in tune with the times include the On Time and Radial models from JBL.
The most fun speakers are undoubtedly the iPod building block, a tiny iPod speaker dock that looks like a Lego brick (widely available for €15-€20). They're so cute it hardly matters what they sound like - perfect for Christmas stockings.
Also trying to be cute, and failing, is the Sony Rolly Speakerbot (€325). Sony is still noted for the quality of its consumer electronics, but it does come out with some wacky products. The Rolly Speakerbot is one such design - an egg-shaped MP3 player that rolls and dances in time with the music emanating from its speakers. Maybe the perpetually rigid demeanour of most speakers was beginning to get on Japanese consumers' nerves, but this is surely one of the most pointless pieces of technology since, well, Sony's Minidisc. Consider it the new Big Mouth Billy Bass.
Phones In 2008, there was one gadget to rule them all - the Apple iPhone finally arrived in the Republic on the O2 network in March, and swiftly got an update and price reduction with the release of the iPhone 3G (from €49 with O2). As tech blogger John Gruber put it: "If I could travel back 20 years and show my then 15-year-old self just one thing from the future of today, it would be the iPhone. It is our flying cars. Star Trek-style wireless long-distance voice communicator. The content of every major newspaper and magazine in the world. An encyclopedia."
Not to mention iPod, and that's only the tip of the iPhone-berg, new applications from ingenious developers are putting far more than just a mini-computer in your pocket. You can't walk two minutes in any major US city without seeing people use iPhones for all sorts of things, from choosing a restaurant (the Urbanspoon app) to keeping track of their fitness regime (iFitness). Make no mistake, the iPhone has changed the face of mobile computing, and while the 3G's battery life isn't as generous as it should be, no other device comes close.
That doesn't stop them trying - every other mobile manufacturer has rushed out a touchscreen phone in a bid to compete, with mixed results. Consider it the "Attack of the iClones". BlackBerry, the leading manufacturer of mobile communicators, has just brought out the highly anticipated Storm (available on Vodafone), but the reception from tech pundits has been tepid, with actor, raconteur and gadget fanatic Stephen Fry calling it "embarrassingly awful". Software updates should improve the worst bugs, but the device inexplicably doesn't even boast Wi-Fi connectivity, so future releases from Blackberry might get closer to the bar raised high by Apple.
Other snazzy touchscreen phones are available from manufacturers such as LG (the Viewty) and Samsung (the Armani and Tocco) - attractive devices that perhaps lack the intuitive usability standards set by Apple, while Google's G1 is the best regarded of the competitors, but it's not available in Ireland yet. Nokia has fallen behind in the touchscreen stakes - the 5800 XpressMusic is attractive but underpowered, and not yet available on Irish networks, while their latest smartphone release, the N97, won't be available for six months.
Juice to go
All these gadgets need power, and when you're off trekking in the Amazon or getting a bus to Cahirciveen, there's a chance your device will get power thirsty. Which is where the Powermonkey eXplorer comes in - a mobile battery that comes with a bewildering array of adapters for all the usual mobile phones, MP3 players and PSPs, as well as a solar-charging unit and wall-socket adapter (€82.71 from Powertraveller.com). If you're the sort of person who juggles two or three gadgets when on the go, the Powermonkey is a valuable addition to your backpack.
Cameras Canon, Olympus and Nikon are still duking it out in the DSLR category (the pro and prosumer range, if you will) with a range of regularly updated and highly desirable cameras that offer terrific image quality. In the mid-range, Canon brought out the Powershot G10 (€477 on Pixmania), successor to the very well-regarded G9 (down to €349 on Pixmania), packing in 14.7 megapixels, but reducing the optical zoom to 5x, and its price puts it very much in the DSLR range, lessening its appeal. Still, if you really want something more portable than an SLR with a comparable level of control, the G10 should be a good bet.
The superzoom range (SLR in style, but smaller and with a fixed lens boasting an optical zoom of 18x to 20x) is an increasingly popular category for photo enthusiasts, and the Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 (€260 on Pixmania) is a highly regarded superzoom camera, competing with the recently announced Canon Powershot SX10 IS (€329 on Pixmania), the Olympus SP-570 UZ (€355 on Pixmania) and the Nikon P80 (€324 on Pixmania).
The point-and-shoot market has settled down in recent years, with all the leading manufacturers delivering slightly-tweaked iterations of their existing models that largely try to cram more megapixels and software features into essentially the same bodies. None of these cameras are downright bad, and some are really quite delightful - the Canon Ixus range are quality cameras with premium pricetags, while Nikon's Coolpix, Sony's Cybershot and Casio's Exilim range, in particular, offer solid snaps in a package that could squeeze into a decent-sized wallet, all for between €150 and €200.
Laptops The big development this year has been the phenomenal rise of the netbook - small, not very powerful laptops that are useful for browsing the web, doing some writing and not a lot else. They have their critics, but they have many more devotees, who find their mix of lightweight portability and usefulness outweighs their technical limitations. The Asus EeePC (from €189 for the most basic model on Pixmania) started the trend, but the two most popular models are the Advent 4211 (€335 on Pixmania) - essentially a rebadged MSI Wind, which is flying off the shelves in the US - and the Samsung NC10 (€403 on Pixmania), - apparently, it boasts better than usual battery life for a netbook. The Acer Aspire One (€247 on Pixmania) is also a well-regarded netbook. These miniature laptops normally come with Windows or Linux installed, so Mac OSX users are out of luck - the most portable Apple laptop is the gorgeous-looking MacBook Air, but at €1,699 it's overpriced for what is a secondary machine. The revamped MacBook, however, is a great laptop, and will easily reward the initial outlay of €1,199 over its lifetime due to its excellent build quality and resistance to computer viruses. See www.apple.ie.
Internet radios A recent innovation that is gaining popularity is the internet radio, which connects to your Wi-Fi network and scours the internet for online stations, meaning you have the choice of thousands of stations from all over the world with decent quality audio. They are not to be confused with digital radio, or DAB, which is basically a new type of broadcast radio. Computers, of course, are already capable of accessing all these stations, but internet radio players allow you to listen to them without opening up your PC. There are many brands out there, but the most widely praised are the Squeezebox and the Squeezebox Boom from Logitech (€240 and €253 on Pixmania), which can pick up radio, Last.fm streams and MP3s from your collection, all with excellent sound quality. Other brands worth looking at include the Roku Soundbridge.
Wireless An increasing number of gadgets will be relying on Wi-Fi for functionality, and most people's Wi-Fi will be provided by Eircom's wireless router, but if you want a Wi-Fi router with a bit more style or functionality, try the Apple AirPort Express (€89), an inconceivably dinky device that you need only to plug into a socket, then connect your internet cable, and boom, wireless network throughout the house. It is easily the most painless Wi-Fi router I've ever set up - it look less than three minutes - and is small enough to bring with you if you need to set up Wi-Fi in hotel rooms or other people's homes, and it also connects to speakers, so you can wirelessly, and effortlessly, beam your iTunes music to anywhere in the house.
If you fancy something less discreet, try the Belkin N1 Vision (€126 on Pixmania), which looks like it walked off the set of Minority Report - you won't want to keep this one hidden on a lower shelf.