What’s the pick of the best gadgets to land on our desk this past year? Read on and see. Welcome to the dream factory, pilgrims.
THE PHONE
iPhone 3G
The fragility of the screen is still a worry, but the iPhone is still the model that every company is driving their handsets towards. Just for sheer ease of use, the Mac has it down. The HTC Diamond Touch comes in a close second, an ideal purchase for the anti-Apple brigade – it’s slicker and more luxe than the iPhone, but still can’t match the interface.
iPhone 3G costs around £342 for an 8GB pay as you go model, and £98 for an 8GB contract model. www.o2.com
THE CAMERA
Disgo video camera
While the iPhone is strong in so many ways, it’s far from mighty in the lens department. We’ve spent hours shooting random events with a Disgo this year – a truly pocket sized – and pocket-money priced digital video camera. It’s got so few buttons that a monkey could shoot Lawrence of Arabia on it. It’s that simple. And it sprouts a USB connector from the side to download stuff instantly. Comes with 1GB SD, shoots 60 minutes on it.
£39.99 from www.mydisgo.com
THE OUTING
Palmer Sport Race Day
For around £1000, you get to race against other drivers on a selection of four purpose-buit racetracks at the Palmer Autodrome in Bedford. The icing on the bun is the awesome Formula Jaguar cars: the closest thing you can get to driving real F1 without serious training. Just twenty minutes watching a safety DVD and you’re in the car, no trainer, no headphones, nothing but pure, pure, fear. This is the grittiest driving experience you can have in the UK.
Track days start at £500 per person.
THE SAT NAV
Tom Tom Go 930
We’ve flirted with other brands. We’ve even tried using an iPhone as a replacement. But we’ve come back, and it feels good again.
The Go 930 kicks the icing off the competition: for ease of use, intuitive placement of features, and the technology inside is the best we’ve played with – without being so damn difficult to use that you just reach for a dog-hair festooned atlas from under the chair. Intelligent route finding adjusts journey plans according to time of day and real speeds, not speed limits. It works. And also makes your regular drives a whole lot interesting.
Pick one up for around £250.
THE HANDS FREE
Jawbone
Most hands-free kits make you look a bit like a taxi driver – not with the new range from Jawbone. Smaller than their previous designs, they pack in unique noise cancelling technology that’s been developed to US military standards. That means it can block out 90% of the background chatter, traffic noise and heavy gunfire that other headsets transmit – very Jack Bauer indeed. Though if you wear the gold one you could end up more like Mr T.
£80
THE COMPUTER
Acer Predator
Spankingly up-to-date gaming PC with a loud and lairy appearance : the front rises up to reveal the rewritable DVD and Blu-Ray drives with LEDs adding to the overall volume. And while it’s no slouch in the processing department, the real innovation is a liquid-based cooling system that can keep the Predator chilled for up to 5.7 years of hardcore, constant gaming. Now try to imagine what nearly 6 years of non-stop Second Life is going to do to some poor bugger. Christ alive.
From £1360
THE APPLIANCE
Dyson Baby
Part vacuum and part aircraft engine, the Baby is the latest sucking device from the engineers at Dyson, and manages to squeeze the same power as their normal models in to a 30% smaller body – so it’s tiny enough to sling in a cupboard and forget about until you’re wading through drifts of dust again. When it works, it’s a beast, not a baby – using 150,000Gs of force to devour particles as small as bacteria. That’s smaller than a Chrimbo pixie’s pinky.
From £239
THE TV
HANNSPREE TIMES SQUARE
Designer 12” LCD television that’s clad in various gadgets to make your life easier – from a clock to a weather station. Handy when you’re watching the cricket in the garden and the rain’s about to begin! The hinged arms holding these gizmos fold over the screen to be viewed, and fold back when not in use. OK, it’s not a new model, but worth it because the prices have gone through the floor this year – down from £450, a snip for a neat, almost charmingly masculine TV.
£99.99
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