[December 20, 2004]

Your Technology:
Last Minute Holiday Gift Ideas

By Randy Savicky

This new monthly “Your Technology” column is designed to give you a firsthand look at some of the most interesting, exciting and useful products in the consumer electronics marketplace -- from computer hardware and software, audio and video, digital imaging to convergence products -- and everything in between. To present the most well-rounded viewpoint and input on these products, we’ll call upon our personal experiences and expertise in this field as well as the experiences of my family, which runs two home-based businesses and includes the newest generation of American consumers -- a consumer savvy teenager and a “tween.”

Before we begin, a couple of notes: All prices noted in this column are the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), not the “street price” found at many retailers; also, the company website is provided as a link for more information, including information on retail outlets if online purchasing is not available.

Now without further ado …

‘TIS THE SEASON

Hanukkah, Christmas and Kwanza -- December is truly the month of holidays! The holiday season is all about gift giving -- the “giving is better than receiving” spirit. And with that in mind, we present a list of last-minute holiday gift ideas for your family, friends, loved ones and co-workers.

Mio’s MioSPORT

How do you know if you’re exercising “in the zone” if you can’t measure your heart rate simply and easily? Having looked long and hard for a heart-rate monitor that provides an accurate reading during exercise or sports -- and without the need for a chest strap -- the MioSPORT from Mio has become my perfect workout companion. With it, you can display your heart rate simply by placing two fingers on the triangles on face of the watch and waiting a few seconds. The MioSPORT helps maximize workouts by displaying your personalized percent of maximum heart rate as well as your calories burned during exercise. Oh, and it’s a feature-packed watch, too, with time, calendar, stopwatch and alarm functions, and is water resistant to 30 meters.

Price: $99.95 (www.miowatch.com)

Roxio’s Easy Media Creator 7

With everybody in the family needing to burn CDs, we started out looking for easy-to-use CD burning software, and it was easy to get swept away by Easy Media Creator 7 from Roxio. By seamlessly combining its complete line of photo, video, music, burning and authoring applications, Roxio has created a comprehensive digital media burning suite for the PC. It integrates Easy CD & DVD Creator, best-of-breed PhotoSuite 7 Platinum, VideoWave 7 Professional and online music service Napster into an impressive all-in-one tool that makes it easy to organize, edit, protect and share a lifetime of photos, music, video files and data all within a single application.

Price: $99.95 (www.roxio.com)

Here’s another case of looking for one application – an easy and reliable method of copying VHS movies to digital media – and winding up with much, much more. Yes, the ConvertX Digital Video Converter Model PX-M402U from Plextor is a real-time personal digital video converter and editing device for personal computers. And by “video converter” I mean any video source, such as an analog or digital camcorder, DVD player, VCR or television, with the video captured to a computer for editing, storing and sharing. Analog video is automatically converted into a digital format for editing, authoring and recording in such formats as MPEG-1 (VideoCD), MPEG-2, (DVD), MPEG-4, and DivX. And by the way, if this wasn’t enough, ConvertX makes it possible to watch, pause and record live TV while supporting the major international video broadcast standards (NTSC, PAL and SECAM).

Price: $159.00 (www.plextor.com)

We do a lot of color printing at home for school projects and in our home offices for marketing collateral and have been looking for a high-quality, extremely cost-effective desktop color laser printer. With the Konica Minolta Magicolor 2300W color laser printer we have found it without breaking the bank. It delivers great picture quality with print speeds comparable to many B&W office printers -- 16 ppm in B&W and 4 ppm in full color. The Magicolor’s compact size and easy-to-use features make it easy to transition from home to small business use.

Price: $349.00 (with rebate through December 31, 2004) (www.printer.konicaminolta.com)

Motorola MD761 Cordless Phone

With every kind of phone system at home -- and from multiple carriers -- cordless phone “drop outs” or poor audio quality simply can’t be tolerated. Motorola’s new MD761 5.8 GHz digital cordless phone system combines a cool, black and silver minimalist design with frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) technology for clear digital conversations. It also has all of the essential features that make it perfect for both our home and home offices -- polyphonic ring tones, digital answering system with message forwarding capability, caller ID and enhanced lighting effects (neat!). To stay truly connected, up to eight additional handsets work off of the one base station.

Price: $99.99 (www.motorola.com)

Meedio Essentials

Keeping track of digital photos, music and movies is an on-going challenge -- and we seem to keep adding to the pile! Meedio Essentials makes it easy to organize, manage and access all of this digital information using a remote control, touchscreen or handheld PDA. Essentials starts with powerful tools that quickly and easily create a single library of this digital media and can automatically categorize these files no matter where they are stored. You can customize views, create new categories and choose how items are displayed on-screen on your TV. And if you can't find what you're looking for -- ever run into that problem? -- you can even search for it using the on-screen interface.

Price: $59.95 (www.meedio.com)

Case Closed Bag’s iPod cases

With the iPod sure to be on many wish lists this year, here’s the perfect gift for those who already have one -- or are sure to get one. Closed Case Bags features cases for all sizes of iPods -- 4G, 3G, Mini and Classic – for both Mac and PC. Styles range from classic, such as black matte, to such groovy designs as pink and chocolate swirl, and each case comes with a detachable swivel clip.

Price: $24.95 (www.caseclosedbags.com)

UNTIL NEXT TIME

Hope some of these suggestions save you some time and trouble! Please let me know if there are specific products or product categories that you would like to see covered in this column. We look forward to hearing from you and enjoy the holidays!