Prime Picks Among Gizmos People Want

06.12.2006 15:42
Hartford Courant

If I hosted a talk show and could leave my studio audience with a goody bag filled with my favorite tech toys, here's what I'd include:

I'll start with the one product that should be on everyone's wish list: the Pure Digital Point & Shoot Video Camcorder.

Available in two models - 30 and 60 minutes - this nifty device allows anyone to shoot passable videos to store on a PC or Mac, upload to YouTube.com or transfer to a portable player. You also can play back the video on your TV.

I've done all of the above with very satisfactory results.

Sold online or at major retailers, such as Target, this $129 gadget (for 30 minutes) is far more portable than costly digital camcorders. It's a great gift for kids who want to explore video-making, or for parents and grandparents who don't want to hassle with a complicated camcorder.

If there's a music player on your list, I still recommend Apple's line of iPods, barely. The competitors are gaining, and if you're buying someone their first MP3 player and they use Windows XP, Microsoft's Zune ($250, widely available) is worth a listen. The more I use the Zune, the more I've come to like it.

Nonetheless, the iPod, in all of its flavors - video iPod, Nano and the Shuffle - remains the easiest to set up and use. As a secondary player, the Shuffle ($79, Apple stores and others) is a great choice.

There is no display to tell you what song is playing, nor can you control what comes next, but you can load and change as many as 240 songs with ease.

To listen to those songs, the following recommendation applies only if you're getting a big holiday bonus: the Shure E500PTH earphones for $500. These pricey earphones clearly outperformed anything I've stuck in my ears this year.

Yet the price is so absurd - almost twice the cost of the top iPod - I'm shocked that anyone would buy them.

Shure calls them high-definition earphones and compares the improvement in sound with the visual clarity one gets with high-definition TV. The E500s use three miniature high-definition drivers - a tweeter and two subwoofers - to reproduce sound.

And, wow, you'll hear details in songs you missed before. Also, they are "sound-isolating" earphones, which means that when wearing these you will not hear that chatty co-worker next to you.

Nor will you hear the screaming infant two rows behind you on a plane. Is that worth $500?

To upgrade car audio, I'm thrilled with my new stereo, the JVC KD-G720. The best feature is a USB hub built into the faceplate so you can plug in and play an iPod, Zune, another MP3 player or a USB thumb drive filed with tunes. The readout on the stereo tells you what's playing.

For iPod lovers who have used other schemes to bring their playlists on the road, such as gizmos that locate empty radio frequencies, plugging your player right into the stereo provides vastly superior sound.

For less than $200, depending on the retailer, this car stereo also plays CDs, can be adapted for satellite radio and, oh yes, plays terrestrial radio. One drawback: I've misplaced the manual and can't figure out how to reset my clock for daylight-saving time.

Another great item for the car is a GPS navigation system. Although new models seem to pop up each month, I'm fond of the TomTom Go 910. The reason is simple: It's small and portable. If you're a road warrior and find yourself renting cars across the country, the TomTom fits nicely into a bag and will plug into whatever car you rent.

The satellite identifies your location, and you're ready to hit the road. Another nice feature is the ability to store MP3 files and digital photos. Really, that's unnecessary, but you never know when showing the clients a cute picture of your kid, and your innovative use of technology, will seal the deal.

Prices vary for GPS devices, and this model can be found online from $600 to $700.

For making calls on those business trips - or checking e-mail, surfing the Web or catching up on TV - there is a new crop of smart phones available from all of the major wireless carriers.

Two that I like very much - Motorola's Q (Verizon, $99) and the Samsung BlackJack (Cingular, $199) - are light and slip into a shirt pocket. They run on Windows Mobile software, and I found both easy to learn and use.

Another option is the Pearl (T-Mobile, $199), the first BlackBerry with multimedia functions. There are some changes that dedicated BlackBerry users may not like, such as a track ball instead of a scroll wheel to move through messages, but the Pearl is much more like a stylish candy-bar phone than its squarish predecessors.

My favorite phone is one that is not so easy to find. Nor is it a bargain.

The Sony Ericsson K790 ($500, www.sonystyle.com) is a 3.2-megapixel camera phone that takes pictures comparable to those from a point-and-shoot digital camera. It also has an MP3 player and FM radio tuner.

I've printed several nice images from the K790, but it's a shame it's not available from a U.S. carrier so that buyers could get a better price. (Go to www.flickr.com/photos/benderoff for a sampling of images, plus shots from two other 3.2-megapixel camera phones.)

For pictures superior to what we've come to accept from digital point-and-shoot cameras, and some are very good, try a dSLR.

A single-lens reflex such as the Nikon D50, my top choice, can be found for $500, including a good lens, at camera retailers.

These cameras are definitely clunkier than the thinner-than-ever point-and-shoot models, but they offer avid shutterbugs a chance to learn and improve with each shot. Those smiling faces will never be brighter.