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November 23, 2004 |
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It's getting to be the time of year when your gadget interests take on a distinctly entertaining hue. You're after games, gaming devices, movie players, and spy cameras--oh, and a good deal, as always. Read on.
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Nintendo DS
Let's take a quick look at all there is to love about the Nintendo DS portable gaming device. Dual, backlit screens, one of which is a touch screen; a high-resolution display; support for older Game Boy games; simulated surround sound; and built-in wireless, so you can play with people who are up to 30 feet away from you (or, in our tests, nearly 150 feet away--teachers are dead certain to despise this device). Of course, we think the real reason for all of the buzz could be the console's surprisingly low price--just $149.
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Portable DVD players
We noticed a lot of searches for portable DVD players as a category this week, which, to be honest, came as a bit of a surprise. We often wonder why people would want a machine dedicated solely to playing DVDs when they could get a laptop dedicated to all kinds of additional fun. Then we took a closer look. Portable DVD players cost between $200 and $400--a far cry from a laptop price--and they're a pretty good diversion for kids. The argument gets even stronger if you've ever pictured a toddler banging grubby, Cheerio-encrusted fists on your precious, nearly $2,000 laptop. Now we get it.
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Halo 2
Yes, we're revisiting Halo 2, but once this game actually hit newsstands, it got even more buzzworthy. We still witnessed an insane number of searches for it over the past week, presumably because you're either hearing about it nonstop or playing it nonstop. By all accounts, Halo 2 is more than living up to its hype, doing $125 million in sales in its first 24 hours and causing work attendance dips that we've taken to calling the "Halo flu."
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Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ20
Our user surveys indicate that digital cameras will be the season's most popular gift--and this Panasonic looks to be a stocking-stuffer favorite. Why? A little thing we like to call "megazoom." We also like to call it "supertelephoto." In sum, this camera lets you get really close to stuff without dropping a grand or so on a digital SLR and without getting arrested. It has an optically stabilized 12X Leica DC Vario-Elmarit zoom--and although it's not wide-angle, you can make it look like you were darn close to that grazing black bear, even though, you know, you weren't.
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Epson PictureMate
This one had us stumped at first, but we finally found it--a $99.99 mail-in rebate from Toshiba, making this 4x6 personal photo printer just $99.01. So, as long as you're interested, here are the details: It has great print quality; it takes media cards and external storage devices but will also print directly from your camera; it's tidy, small, and easy to use; and it works with a Mac or a PC. It's a tiny bit slow, but 89 percent of users who reviewed it said that's not a problem for them. And that's your holiday shopping deal of the week.
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Got a comment or some buzz to share? Use our TalkBack feature and let me know what you think!
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