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| Lightware Legend LX-8 portable digital projector |
| Lightware |
|
Price:
$2,700 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| Not so much a gift as something that might be actually useful for your traveling sales force, or anyone else on your staff who has to go on the road and give presentations. At first, I thought this was the normal size and weight for portable projectors, having never used them that much. But when I showed the travelers on our staff this projector, they practically shrieked with delight. The LX-8 weighs only three pounds, and is much smaller than normal projectors. It has several different video source ports (serial, RCA jacks, S-Video), and has an "auto" button that scans for the source quickly. It was very easy to set up, turning this novice A/V guy into an expert in no time. |
| XyLoc wireless security |
| Ensure Technologies |
 |
Price:
$180 |
| Coolness
score: 7 |
| Ease
of use: 6 |
|
| Secure your laptop by using this wireless system. A USB-enabled receiver attached to your laptop receives signals from a badge that you can wear around your neck or on a belt buckle (much like many company badges). When the receiver and badge are near each other (the range is definable by the user or administrator), the laptop will work. When the user walks away, the laptop is locked up. It's a great way to keep prying eyes from looking at your laptop (or desktop) if you're away from your screen. In addition you can configure the system to require a password in addition to the badge system for that extra level of security. |
| Franklin eBookMan EBM-911 |
| Franklin Electronics |
|
|
Price:
$230
(two other versions available for $130 and $180, but with
less memory) |
| Coolness
score: 7 |
| Ease
of use: 5 |
|
| For reading long documents, PDAs sometimes don't fit the bill. Enter Franklin Electronic's eBookMan, which lets you read documents and e-books on a larger screen size. In addition to the document reader, the device includes some contact manager functions (calendar, to-do list, address books, notepad, calculator) that can also synchronize with Microsoft Outlook 2000. It also has a music player (with added content partner audible.com) You can also listen to MP3 files, record a voice memo and play some games. The device comes with 16M bytes of RAM, and also has a MultiMedia Card slot, so you can store more books on those cards, or buy cards that have the books on them already. The software was a little hard to set up, and I had some difficulty in trying to figure out how to download some of my MP3 files to the device, but that could be improved with the software, it wasn't a downside to the device. I did have a problem with the light on the screen, it didn't generate as much light as other PDAs, and I was always fidgeting with the contrast.
Still, it's a nice device with some neat functions, worth a look for someone who wants to read books on a device. Franklin has an extensive collection of free books (mainly public domain books, so catch up on your classics!), but will also sell books from its site as well. |
| Olympus DM-1 digital voice recorder |
| Olympus |
|
|
Price:
$300 |
| Coolness
score: 7 |
| Ease
of use: 8 |
|
| A digital voice recorder that also doubles as a MP3/Windows Media file player, so you can listen to music when you're not dictating. The device comes with a 64M byte SmartMedia card, so you can get a lot of recording done as well as a lot of your music. Navigation is really simple, and the provided headset is pretty comfortable. |
| 3M Notebook Privacy Filter |
| 3M |
 |
| Price:
$57.95
(version tested, range in price depending on size)
|
| Coolness
score: 5 |
| Ease
of use: 10 |
|
| A plastic screen that fits over your laptop screen. When you look at the screen head-on, it's fine, but if you look at the screen from the side you get a black screen. Perfect for those nosy types who always want to see what you're working on. |
| Oregon Scientific ExactSet Clock |
| Oregon Scientific |
|
|
Price:
$49.95 |
| Coolness
score: 4 |
| Ease
of use: 9 |
|
| A travel alarm clock that automatically sets its time, day and date to the U.S. Atomic Clock. Sends out radio signals intermittently to get the correct time. Some areas on the East coast don't get a great signal, so it wasn't able to get the time immediately out of the box. After a night with the wrong time, the next morning it was on the correct time. Spooky. Still, seems a little pricey. |
| HP Omnibook 6100 |
| Hewlett-Packard |
|
|
Price:
$2,000 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 7 |
|
| The coolest thing about this notebook is that the wireless antenna and all associated software is integrated into the laptop. No PC cards to install, just click a few buttons and bang! I was connected to my wireless network. The keyboard felt good, as well, and it offered both a "nub" pointing device or a touchpad, so you could decide the best way to "mouse." This model would be best for staff members who want mobility and don't need the hassle of installing a wireless LAN card (and isn't that just about everyone?). |
| Compaq Presario 800T |
| Compaq |
| |
Price:
$1,499 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 7 |
|
| This notebook is very small, very light, and very powerful. The metallic silver case gave it a sleek look and feel. The 1GHz processor blew us away. A must-have for any road warriors on your staff who wants a lighter laptop. We did have to plug in an external DVD/CD-ROM drive in order to install things, but that's what you pay for to get a lighter laptop. |
| DF4033 Six Language Translator/Travel Organizer |
| Seiko |
|
|
Price:
$29.99 |
| Coolness
score: 3 |
| Ease
of use: 4
(not intuitive) |
|
| When you see a pocket anything, you expect to be able to turn it on and go. Unfortunately, Seiko did not abide by this rule when creating its pocket translator/organizer. From trying to set the time (in my resident time zone) to testing its translation features, I had to keep referring back to the manual. Not one thing on this petite machine was intuitive. Instead, for the first time in my gizmo-loving life, I had to read the directions cover to cover. Once I got acquainted with its many features, I enjoyed the Seiko. There are a lot of features jam-packed into a small form factor (just a bit bigger than a business card case). The best way to use the Seiko is to lie it flat - anything else and you cramp your hands from the tiny keyboard and or squint to avoid the intense glare off the LCD display. I tested a few translations in the six languages (English, French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portugese) and it worked well. You can also set the time for more than 32 cities. However, you also have to scroll through all those cities to get to the ones you're interested in. You cannot delete the cities you know you're not going to use -- a definite drawback. The Seiko also features a currency converter, but you have to set the rates ahead of time. This seems cumbersome and not worth the effort, when a wireless device can download the most recent rates while you're on the road. The address book suffers from the same problem. With no way to synch it with your desktop, plugging names and numbers into the organizer seems a waste of time. So, what did I end up using the Seiko for? It makes a mighty fine traveling alarm clock. |
| The Kenkyusha English-Japanese Learner's Pocket Dictionary |
| Seiko |
 |
Price:
$179 |
| Coolness
score: 2 |
| Ease
of use: 6 |
|
| This portable translator, about the size of a PDA, can turn English into Japanese and vice versa. It only translates one word at a time, not phrases, making it more suitable for language students as opposed to casual travelers and visiting businessmen. Also contains an English thesaurus. |
| PowerQwest Sun Catcher Sport |
| PowerQwest |
 |
Price:
$100 |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 8 |
|
| This is a portable solar power collector that can be used to provide constant power (or recharging power) for PDAs, laptops and other mobile devices. If you have a cigarette lighter adapter for your device, you can use the Sun Catcher to recharge it or keep a constant connection (provided you have some sunlight available). I was doubtful about the ability of this to work, but was very wrong. This could keep my cell phone charged and running, even on a somewhat cloudy day. If you go outdoors a lot, this is a pretty handy device to take with you. The case is convenient and very portable, as well. |
| Retractable CAT5 or Mobile ISDN cable |
| Belkin |
 |
Price:
$25 |
| Coolness
score: 6 |
| Ease
of use: 10 |
|
| If you're going to take advantage of your hotel's new high-speed Internet services, you will need this retractable cable instead of going out and trying to bundle up an additional CAT5 cable. Only newbies pack up their cables with rubber bands. |
| Flair |
| AirSpeak |
 |
Price:
$1,695 for the thin client, $1,895 for full connectivity suite. |
| Coolness
score: 8 |
| Ease
of use: 8 |
|
| Whether you call it a PC tablet or a Web tablet, it doesn't matter. Many companies before have tried (and failed) to provide a device that's nestled somewhere between a notebook and a handheld computer. AirSpeak's Flair somewhat succeeds with its Flair device, a Windows CE-based tablet with 802.11b functionality. With the wireless card attached (it also has an extra PC card slot for extra storage or memory), you can surf the Internet without wires. The software also lets you assign a computer as a "host", and then you can use the Flair tablet to "take over" that machine, and use all its files. Perfect for an IT group that needs to look at systems but doesn't want to walk across campus to try to diagnose a problem. As long as the "host" computer is on the network, the Flair device can do this "takeover". In other situations, a roaming employee might want to access files from a mobile location. In this case, all the files remain on the host desktop and aren't saved to the tablet. This isn't so much a holiday gift as it is a possible tool for vertical industries like manufacturing, health care or other services-type companies (utilities, etc.). |
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