November 06, 2010
The gadget world certainly does throw in some really nice treats every few days. But here in Nepal, we hardly get a sniff of the latest and hippest gadgets that are apparently all the rave across the globe. Here are some gadgets that will make you drool and dream. And make you rush to your favorite gadget vendor demanding they import these beasts. After all, the customer is king!
Sennheiser earpieces
There are quite a few of us who want nothing more than to listen to our favorite songs over and over. Of course, we’re also looking for crisp sound and comfort. The tiresome travails in search of the best earphones/headphones could have been a lot shorter if we could lay our hands on some Sennheiser earpieces. The German company has been producing top-class consumer and high fidelity products including
microphones, headphones, telephony accessories, and avionics headsets for over 60 years. Many of their products are heftily priced, but I’m sure there’s quite a few among us who would be willing to comply, given that we receive perfect sound in return.
MPower Emergency Illuminator
To call it a “flashlight” would be the equivalent of calling a Rolex “just a watch”. The mPower Emergency Illuminator is the first mPower product available to consumers that offers Power On Command; a groundbreaking battery technology that provides power when and where you need it. Signature design, groundbreaking engineering and a battery shelf life of 20 years (yes, 20 years!) makes it a gadget aficionado’s dream. Its sexy look is attributed to engineering powerhouse Porsche Design Studio. In addition, a USB connection serves as a portable charger, powering electronic devices like cellular phones. Just a mere flashlight? I think not.
Samsung Galaxy P1000 Tablet
Rivals of the already iconic iPad are only too keen to target the tablet’s flaws, hence carving a competitive corner for themselves. One such company is Samsung, getting into the tablet business with the P1000. At 190x 120x 11mm, it is noticeably smaller then the iPad, so it is easier on the pocket. And at 380g, it’s also feather-light comparatively. A 7” WSVGA LCD touchscreen graces the
front, with multimedia options such as a 3.2 MP camera, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 3.0, Adobe Flash support, proper multitasking and it supports a regular SIM card for making calls and such. Mind you, none of the aforementioned features are there on the iPad. The P1000 runs on Android 2.2, which has plenty of apps available online (but not as many as the Apple store). iPad killer? Maybe not, but certainly a huge competitor in a small package.
PS3 Move
Of course we love gaming. And we most certainly love motion gaming. Those of us who have tried the Wii might have found it a fun and stress-busting activity, but let’s face it- we want hardcore, graphically superior games. So what delivers? The PS3 Move, of course. Its “sub-millimeter” accurate tracking means it will detect exactly where you’re pointing, even when you’re jumping for cover in your living room playing the latest shooter. With a three-axis gyroscope, accelerometer and terrestrial magnetic field sensor (phew), the controller works in three dimensions- not just left and right, up and down, but also forward and backward. Imagine the possibilities!
Onkyo Speakers
The name Onkyo translates as “sound harmony”. As you might have guessed, it’s a Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer, specializing in home cinema, A/V receivers and audio equipment. As for the quality of the products, the name says it all. The company has perfected the art of designing its systems to look easy on the eyes and pack a large, unassuming bang. For one, the TX-NR807 is an A/V network receiver that will blow your current amplifier out the window with 11.2 speaker support and “double bass”, among a plethora of features. The company has recently entered the ‘budget’ market with the HT-S3300, which is probably the cheapest and most awesome Blu-Ray playing, 3D supporting 5.1 system available. We want!
Amazon Kindle
You say you love reading books? You say you’re a tech freak? The Amazon Kindle is THE way to go. Relive your love of reading books or newspapers, stored nicely in a gadget not bigger than a paperback, lighter than the iPad, can be held in one hand and carried around easily. The Kindle3 is the latest offering, and the older versions are pretty good as well. The screen is not as bright as the Apple iPad, but e-ink is far more comfortable on the eye, so there’s less chance of strain. WiFi downloading doesn’t work outside the US, but you can download books from the internet and USB transfer them to the Kindle. There are 400,000 books and 1 million free books. So, for all the bookworms, I could say that we would love to see the Kindle introduced in The Nepali market.
UR-CC1 “Black Cobra”
Ok, so there are only 50 of these made. But it’s not a crime to desire. To design something this insane, the lads at Urwerk certainly deserve an enormous round of applause. For over 10 years now Urwerk has been playing with the idea of doing a linear time watch. After three years of development the UR CC1 movement was done, and the result is pretty cool. The bottom two rows show hours and minutes, and the seconds are displayed by a rotating disk. The whole concept of linear time is pretty simple, mastering it from a technical and visual perspective in a mechanical watch is a pain, I’m sure. You can check out more of Urwerk’s exotic timepieces at www.urwerk.com.
Sennheiser earpieces
There are quite a few of us who want nothing more than to listen to our favorite songs over and over. Of course, we’re also looking for crisp sound and comfort. The tiresome travails in search of the best earphones/headphones could have been a lot shorter if we could lay our hands on some Sennheiser earpieces. The German company has been producing top-class consumer and high fidelity products including
microphones, headphones, telephony accessories, and avionics headsets for over 60 years. Many of their products are heftily priced, but I’m sure there’s quite a few among us who would be willing to comply, given that we receive perfect sound in return.
MPower Emergency Illuminator
To call it a “flashlight” would be the equivalent of calling a Rolex “just a watch”. The mPower Emergency Illuminator is the first mPower product available to consumers that offers Power On Command; a groundbreaking battery technology that provides power when and where you need it. Signature design, groundbreaking engineering and a battery shelf life of 20 years (yes, 20 years!) makes it a gadget aficionado’s dream. Its sexy look is attributed to engineering powerhouse Porsche Design Studio. In addition, a USB connection serves as a portable charger, powering electronic devices like cellular phones. Just a mere flashlight? I think not.
Samsung Galaxy P1000 Tablet
Rivals of the already iconic iPad are only too keen to target the tablet’s flaws, hence carving a competitive corner for themselves. One such company is Samsung, getting into the tablet business with the P1000. At 190x 120x 11mm, it is noticeably smaller then the iPad, so it is easier on the pocket. And at 380g, it’s also feather-light comparatively. A 7” WSVGA LCD touchscreen graces the
front, with multimedia options such as a 3.2 MP camera, microSD card slot, Bluetooth 3.0, Adobe Flash support, proper multitasking and it supports a regular SIM card for making calls and such. Mind you, none of the aforementioned features are there on the iPad. The P1000 runs on Android 2.2, which has plenty of apps available online (but not as many as the Apple store). iPad killer? Maybe not, but certainly a huge competitor in a small package.
PS3 Move
Of course we love gaming. And we most certainly love motion gaming. Those of us who have tried the Wii might have found it a fun and stress-busting activity, but let’s face it- we want hardcore, graphically superior games. So what delivers? The PS3 Move, of course. Its “sub-millimeter” accurate tracking means it will detect exactly where you’re pointing, even when you’re jumping for cover in your living room playing the latest shooter. With a three-axis gyroscope, accelerometer and terrestrial magnetic field sensor (phew), the controller works in three dimensions- not just left and right, up and down, but also forward and backward. Imagine the possibilities!
Onkyo Speakers
The name Onkyo translates as “sound harmony”. As you might have guessed, it’s a Japanese consumer electronics manufacturer, specializing in home cinema, A/V receivers and audio equipment. As for the quality of the products, the name says it all. The company has perfected the art of designing its systems to look easy on the eyes and pack a large, unassuming bang. For one, the TX-NR807 is an A/V network receiver that will blow your current amplifier out the window with 11.2 speaker support and “double bass”, among a plethora of features. The company has recently entered the ‘budget’ market with the HT-S3300, which is probably the cheapest and most awesome Blu-Ray playing, 3D supporting 5.1 system available. We want!
Amazon Kindle
You say you love reading books? You say you’re a tech freak? The Amazon Kindle is THE way to go. Relive your love of reading books or newspapers, stored nicely in a gadget not bigger than a paperback, lighter than the iPad, can be held in one hand and carried around easily. The Kindle3 is the latest offering, and the older versions are pretty good as well. The screen is not as bright as the Apple iPad, but e-ink is far more comfortable on the eye, so there’s less chance of strain. WiFi downloading doesn’t work outside the US, but you can download books from the internet and USB transfer them to the Kindle. There are 400,000 books and 1 million free books. So, for all the bookworms, I could say that we would love to see the Kindle introduced in The Nepali market.
UR-CC1 “Black Cobra”
Ok, so there are only 50 of these made. But it’s not a crime to desire. To design something this insane, the lads at Urwerk certainly deserve an enormous round of applause. For over 10 years now Urwerk has been playing with the idea of doing a linear time watch. After three years of development the UR CC1 movement was done, and the result is pretty cool. The bottom two rows show hours and minutes, and the seconds are displayed by a rotating disk. The whole concept of linear time is pretty simple, mastering it from a technical and visual perspective in a mechanical watch is a pain, I’m sure. You can check out more of Urwerk’s exotic timepieces at www.urwerk.com.
5Gadgets that were supposed to be “life-changing”We’ve all indulged in spontaneous buys. And let’s face it- we’re not really proud of some of the supposedly revolutionary gadgets we splurged on. Take a look across the years; through ingenious devices that gave users migraine and some that are…well, just gathering dust in the storage room, writes Pratik VAidya.
Video Glasses
Also called “virtual glasses” or even “virtual-reality glasses”, they basically consisted of futuristic-looking eyewear. Users would be able to view even small sized videos as enormously large, because the image was brought so close to one’s eyes. Now, watching movies and videos would be a totally personal experience and nothing would come close to simulating a movie theatre experience anywhere you go. Not quite. Near blindness followed, with complaints of headache, nausea and the question of “what was I thinking?”
Karaoke Machines
They sure look cool and fun in movies, but it’s a completely different matter when it comes to purchasing one for your own living room. Unless your living room is actually a bar, and there are jolly, singing people coming around every day. If not, then that expensive karaoke machine with a reasonable repertoire of songs is just lying there, waiting to be fiddled with. A mistake, surely, but maybe when you bought it you thought you and your family would be singing together every week.
So-called Swiss Knifes
Seriously! What is the probability that one day you might be in urgent need of a wire cutter, a tiny pair of scissors, a toothpick, magnifying glass, wood saw, a small blade and –just in case that doesn’t cut it- an ever so slightly larger blade? Well, unless you’re shipwrecked on a deserted island, of course. Until then, these babies are only good for causing security scares at airport terminals.
Exercise Bikes
These machines everyone’s heard of. They’re supposed to make you slim and turn you into a six-pack wielding superhuman. Usually bought in a rush of New Year guilt, they subsequently spend most of their lives gathering dust or are used as a makeshift clothes hanger. Didn’t buy an exercise bike? That’s okay; any odd-looking exercise contraption is an equal substitute.
MD players/recorders
The MiniDisc format was launched by Sony in 1992 as a digital competitor to recordable analog cassettes. They are basically more compact, versatile recordable CDs. Before iPods, the MD player was a useful way to have portable music mixes without needing to lug around a clunky Discman. The downside: the MD player could only record in real time, meaning you had to plug the recorder into your PC’s audio output or the like, press record, and play the entire playlist. In a way, it was the same as carefully crafting mix tapes in the 80s and 90s. In a way, that was its downfall, combined with other formats gaining faster speeds and greater storage.
Video Glasses
Also called “virtual glasses” or even “virtual-reality glasses”, they basically consisted of futuristic-looking eyewear. Users would be able to view even small sized videos as enormously large, because the image was brought so close to one’s eyes. Now, watching movies and videos would be a totally personal experience and nothing would come close to simulating a movie theatre experience anywhere you go. Not quite. Near blindness followed, with complaints of headache, nausea and the question of “what was I thinking?”
Karaoke Machines
They sure look cool and fun in movies, but it’s a completely different matter when it comes to purchasing one for your own living room. Unless your living room is actually a bar, and there are jolly, singing people coming around every day. If not, then that expensive karaoke machine with a reasonable repertoire of songs is just lying there, waiting to be fiddled with. A mistake, surely, but maybe when you bought it you thought you and your family would be singing together every week.
So-called Swiss Knifes
Seriously! What is the probability that one day you might be in urgent need of a wire cutter, a tiny pair of scissors, a toothpick, magnifying glass, wood saw, a small blade and –just in case that doesn’t cut it- an ever so slightly larger blade? Well, unless you’re shipwrecked on a deserted island, of course. Until then, these babies are only good for causing security scares at airport terminals.
Exercise Bikes
These machines everyone’s heard of. They’re supposed to make you slim and turn you into a six-pack wielding superhuman. Usually bought in a rush of New Year guilt, they subsequently spend most of their lives gathering dust or are used as a makeshift clothes hanger. Didn’t buy an exercise bike? That’s okay; any odd-looking exercise contraption is an equal substitute.
MD players/recorders
The MiniDisc format was launched by Sony in 1992 as a digital competitor to recordable analog cassettes. They are basically more compact, versatile recordable CDs. Before iPods, the MD player was a useful way to have portable music mixes without needing to lug around a clunky Discman. The downside: the MD player could only record in real time, meaning you had to plug the recorder into your PC’s audio output or the like, press record, and play the entire playlist. In a way, it was the same as carefully crafting mix tapes in the 80s and 90s. In a way, that was its downfall, combined with other formats gaining faster speeds and greater storage.
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