Well folks, it’s that time again. Yes, good old Black Friday is here, the deals extravaganza launching us into our annual Christmas shopping frenzy. And I’ve decided to take you (almost) directly to a select group of gadgets that really are the dog’s bollocks (pardon my French). Enjoy, and let us know what you think you think!
This isn’t an iPad. It looks a lot like an iPad, works a lot like one, and most importantly, is under half the price of an iPad! Ladies and gents, this is the Kindle Fire: the MUST HAVE gadget of Christmas 2011. It’s a simple, well-crafted tablet PC that lets you read books, newspapers and magazines; watch videos; play games; and browse apps, all in the palm of your hand. It’s sharp display, intuitive touchscreen and beautiful user interface are just amazing for a price of $199.
The Arcam rCube is one for the sound enthusiast in you. This is probably one of the absolute best high-end speaker docks for your iPod in the world. It’s expensive, but not overpriced for the utterly gorgeous sound quality it gives you. It looks as stellar as the music coming out of it too, and is compact enough to fit in even the smallest space.
The handheld gaming market’s been all about Nintendo’s 3DS this year. But now Sony’s fighting back. The Sony PS Vita is all about gaming quality, and your kids (or you!) will love it. It feels nice to hold, has amazing graphics, great games, and a touch screen for easy browsing.
One for the narcissists among us. Samsung has brought out this absolutely lovely little camera, with a touch screen that flips out in a way that makes it easy to take pictures of yourself! And if self-pics aren’t your thing, you can bet every one of the $199 it costs that your teenager loves ’em. By the way, it also takes great photos of other people too!
If you like running, you need this! It’s a watch that uses TomTom GPS systems to find your location during a run; and tells you your pace, distance, time taken, and calories burned. Connect to a PC and it shows you maps of your runs and uploads your stats. It even acts like a personal trainer on your wrist, motivating you verbally while you run, and reminding you if you haven’t run for a few days!
The Casio TRYX is one of the most innovative camera designs ever. Because you can twist its body in all sorts of directions, it can be used as a tripod, hung on a hook, adjusted to allow for a camcorder-like grip, and tilted to make shooting overhead and low-angle shots much easier. There’s nothing else like it!
There’s a new way to watch HDTV, and it only costs $50! This is Roku, a box that streams music and video from a HUGE variety of high quality sources, onto your television. No longer do you even need a cable subscription: this streams tv shows and movies from sources like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Instant, Pandora, HBO Go, Crackle, Disney, NHL Gamecenter, among many others. The list is endless. And Roku is an essential purchase this Christmas!
Retro is cool. And so is this Lomography camera. Really cool in fact. It allows you to take professional-looking, classic shots, and even develop them like the ‘olden days’. And it’s relatively cheap for a camera, coming in at an affordable $80.
With this ingenious little gadget you can leave video reminders for you or your family and friends! It’s the post-it note of the digital age and does what it says on the tin. You record a video using the front camera, and leave it somewhere you’ll see it as a useful reminder to yourself. And it’s magnetic, so yes it can go on your fridge!
Ok, shocker, it’s an iPad. I’m pretty sure you don’t need me to be the billionth person of 2011 to tell you how amazing it is, but hey, it’s amazing! The Kindle may be great for the price it’s being sold at, but there really is nothing out there that beats the sheer usability of Apple’s iPad 2. My 70 year old uncle even has one, and trust me, that tells you just how easy it is to navigate around, browsing news, internet, the app store or the music player. If you haven’t got one yet, think seriously about it here.
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1 2 Next »The iPad. So your 70 year old uncle can use one? So it must be easy to use? So as your uncle is 'OLD' its amazing that even he can use one? So Apple are also super for making a machine that even a 70 year old can use?
At 72 years old I was probably using electronic equipment long before your were a twinkle in your poor father's eye. Yep, we had things like radar. You won't know about that judging by your lack of knowledge about 70 years olds but without it you might be here to enjoy your freedom to say disrespectful nonsense about anyone older that you.
This must be one of the most offensive reviews I've ever read. Get back to school kid and start to learn about respect. I assume your 70 year old uncle doesn't know you use him as an example of an inept OLD person. But hey, its alright 'cos even he can use an iPad2.
By the way, how old are you?
@Enfrance
You are incredibly rude... His seventy year old uncle may not be familiar with such advance technology like you claim to be and I should mention that my Grandad, who is in his late sixties, just barely knows how to operate a modern mobile phone, so it all boils down to personal preference, experience, and one's ability to use certain gadgets.
I am between 60 and 70 and it all boils down to how a person is willing to keep up with changing technology. If you struggle at 70 you probably struggled at 60, 50, 40 ................... If you don't use you brain to keep up you will lose it or never get it in the first place. Keep on Truck'n. Or not.
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@Enfrance, I agree with @JJ. You are a prime example of what people call a crazy, rude, impatient "old person" who can't accept that life has changed and moved on since your time.
The general consensus of the world's society is that most 'old people' generally 50-60+ have a hard time using modern day technology to the extend that the younger generations do. This is inevitable just as it is likely the younger generations will have a harder time learning future technologies and skills. The author is using a personal anecdote and a perfectly understandable and justifiable generalisation that IF elderly people have a great time whizzing and zipping around a modern-day piece of technology such as an iPad 2; then almost anyone of younger ages can use it due to having grown up more with technological skills.
If you're going to become bitter and think that the author is attacking the elderly, I suggest you wake up, smell the roses, look in the mirror and realise your own attitude and attacking views on others of younger ages is detrimental to your own argument.
MY TWO YEAR OLD CAN USE IT IS THIS INSENSITIVE TOO....
Old men were running wars with electronics before you were born, junior.
Just retired, I have worked as an industrial designer for almost 50 yrs, last 25 using computers (yes, from the days of DOS) and I find that young people fall into 2 categories- those who 'know it all' and those aware that they DON'T 'know it all'. I was young once and every bit as arrogant, in that first category, but experience and learning the meaning of the word 'hubris' cured me.
Having to master a number of CAD programs was hard; easier for the young flexible mind- but computer literacy of itself is secondary to engineering design skill. Many fail to acknowledge the old adage GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out) and I have seen too many examples of computer whiz kids' shortcomings. My last position required complete re-design of a major project done over 6 years in India and China - a complete shambles! SO- don't assume youth is the pre-requisite for computer use!
Re: Age vs. Youth --- Last summer, I took a six week trip across the States in a 1969 Morgan Plus 4 and blogged about the trip daily. When I ran into problems, say making an Internet connection, I found no correlation between the age of the person giving me assistance and the quality of the help. By the time I was back home, I was up to speed with my computer and ready to assist others with small problems. I thank all the folk who made my trip go smoothly --- both the young and the old. (p.s. The worst assistance came from young people who clearly believed that being young meant they had "grown up with the technology" and just had an innate sense of how computers worked; They didn't.)