Dec 2

Tech Toys for Geeky Girls and Boys
Sun Review December 9, 2000

Do you have any technophiles on your holiday shopping list? Here are some nifty gift ideas for to help keep them more organized, encourage them to stay in touch or just get in touch with their geeky side.

Designed by the creators of the original Palm Pilot, the Handspring Visor (www.handspring.com) is more than just another knockoff of its popular cousin. With at least 2MB of RAM, a fast USN connection and clear 160x160 resolution, the Visor will make any Palm owner feel a pang of jealousy. The Visor's Springboard expansion slots allow this PDA to morph into a cell phone, MP3 player or even a digital camera. With it stylish translucent colours and consumer-friendly price, the Visor could very well be the perfect stocking stuffer this holiday season.

For the technophile who has everything, a PocketPC such as the Compaq iPaq might be just the thing (www.compaq.com/products/handhelds/pocketpc/). Measuring only 0.62x3.3x5.1 inches and weighing only 6.3 ounces, the iPaq is a lot slimmer than the competition. But it's definitely not slimmer on features: with a 206MHz Intel processor and 32MB of SDRAM, the iPaq packs quite a punch. It comes fully loaded with Pocket versions of Word, Excel, and Windows Media Player, along with a voice recorder and a web browser. Its brilliant 12-bit, 4,096-colour reflective display will be sure to light up someone's eyes this holiday season.

If a PDA is just too much computer for you to lug around, check out the Casio PC-Unite watch (www.casio.com/watches). It lets you wear your Outlook address book on your wrist, along with your schedule, contact list and to-do list. The PC-Unite can store up to 340 records in its schedule, another 340 items in its To-Do list, and as many as 100 longer Contact records. But be cautioned: you will need the eyesight of an eagle to view the tiny screen, and the dexterity of a lemur to work the tiny control buttons.

Creative Lab's Nomad Jukebox (www.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox) looks like just another run-of-the-mill CD player, but it's really an MP3 player with a 6GB hard drive that stores over 100 hours of music. Transferring MP3 files is easy and quick via the supplied USB cable and PlayCenter 2 software, which doubles as a CD-track MP3 converter. With onboard music organizer, and 2 sets of rechargable batteries that let you play 4 hours straight, the Nomad Jukebox is an audiophile's dream come true.

Print wherever you are with the Canon BJC-55 (www.ccsi.canon.com/goto.shtml?/bjc/index.html). Slightly larger than a 3-hole punch, this bantamweight bubble-jet colour printer connects to any Windows 98/2000/CE, Macintosh or Palm machine, making it a convenient notebook accessory. Though it prints only one manually fed sheet at a time, it can print up to 5.5 pages per minute with black ink, and about 2 per minute in colour. An optional cartridge can transform this printer into an instant scanner.

Digital cameras are sure to be a hot item this season. If you're confused by the wide array of digital cameras currently available, remember that the first question you should ask yourself is what are you going to do with the photos, and how you will connect the camera to your computer. USB connectivity is a big plus! If you plan to use these photos on your website, send them via e-mail, or otherwise display them on a monitor, then you need only a low- or mid-level model. If you plan on printing your photos, or if you need very high quality images, you want at least a 2 million pixel (2-megapixel) model.

For those not quite ready to invest in a digital camera, a scanner is a good alternative. You can expect to pay $100-$150 for a low-end scanner that features 600 dpi resolution at 30- or 36-bit colour, which is more than sufficient for displaying your images on a computer monitor (for e-mail or the Web), and is even suitable for printing.

And to complement your scanner and digital camera, check out an ink-jet photo printer such as Epson's Stylus Photo 870 printer, which delivers 6-colour photo prints in resolutions up to 1440 dpi that looks as good as photo lab film prints and retails for approximately $420.