 |
| Apple’s new iPod boasts, “1000 songs in your pocket.” Lets you download and store the equivilent of 100 CDs |
On the night before Christmas this time around, even the most techno-jaded among us should begin to realize that magical, storied moment when “not a creature is stirring, not even a mouse.” Our PC mice will at last be still while a dazzling array of wireless, “palmtop” PDA (personal digital assistant), and high-speed broadband devices free us from the shackles of Christmas past.
There are an amazing number of add-on modules for the bumper crop of “palm-top” devices grown in the fields of Palm, Compaq, Casio and Handspring, but perhaps none more invigorating than the Personal
Massage module for the Visor handheld. The ingenious device delivers EMS (electronic muscle stimulation) to the body parts of your choice through two gel pads (heralding the arrival of a personal, palm-size cardiac defibulator). The module provides a variety of modes (squeezing, chopping, tapping), offers predefined programs (shoulders, arms, legs) and displays animated messages on the PDA screen. (Street price $99).
SkyGolf GPS provides PDA-carrying golfers with precise course distances — and never demands a tip. The device relates readings from GPS satellites to a software description of the courses stored in memory.
 The vendor’s Web site holds an extensive database of courses, but you can also add your own by taking readings in key locations. The $399 device is available for the handspring Visor and the Palm V. Hopefully, next year’s model will help find your ball in the woods.
Users of the Pocket DigiDrive will really hold the winning hand this Christmas. The $89 device plugs into a PC USB port and can read and write CompactFlash I, CompactFlash II, Smart Memory, Memory Stick, Micro drive, MultiMediaCard, and Secure Digital flash-memory cards. That’s holding all the cards. From Addonics Technologies (www.addonics.com).
At long last, prices for digital cameras with decent resolution are coming down to earth. For example, the Photosmart 318 and 612 from HP. Both feature a 2.31-megapixel resolution, a 2X digital zoom, and a 1.75 inch LCD. The 318 ($199) stops there, but the 612 ($299) adds a 2X optical zoom (www.hp.com).
High-speed surfers may want to tune-in to the FW1000 Internet Radio from Philips (www.philipsusa.com). How many boom boxes do you know that get 1,000 international radio stations and include dual tape decks, plus a three-CD charger that also plays CD-R and CD-RW?
Want even more music? The sleek new iPod is no larger than a pack of Lucky Strikes but you can store up to 100 CDs of music (an amazing 65 hours) without having to carry any extra gear, such as discs, flash cards or memory backpacks. And the lithium polymer battery will run nearly 12 hours on a single charge. Built by Apple Computer, the iPod was conceived for Macintosh owners who possess the necessary Firewire ports for high speed data transfer (an entire CD’s worth of music can be downloaded in around 12 seconds), but Windows users are jockeying to get in on the high-speed, high-storage action.
In the grapevine, Mediafour is working on a new software package dubbed XPod, which is expected to make the iPod work with Windows ME, 98, 95, NT, 4.0, 2000 and XP. In the portable MP3 world, there is no cooler. |
