Objects of Desire 1
Have you large wads of cash burning holes in your pockets? Then Phil South can tell you how to spend it!
If you think about it, developers make perfect consumers. Developers work irregular hours, are traditionally fascinated by gadgets, and are usually highly paid. But nobody can spend that much disposable income without guidance - which is where we come in. Here Phil South has selected a few items you must have.
 Shockproof!
The first and some say best MP3 player just recently got updated with 64Mb of RAM for an impressive 2 hours of quality digital music, or up to 32 hours of scratchy spoken words. No moving parts mean you can run or even jump about, and the music keeps on coming. Just the thing to keep you entertained on your mountain board while commuting.
Rio 500 MP3 player (300 EUR)
www.diamondmm.com
 Chairman of the Board
Wish you could snowboard between home and office? But no snow? Then look no further than the Maxtrack Mountain Board, a cross between a snowboard and a mountain bike. You won’t find a cooler way to get around TechEd 2000 either - the corridors of the Rai Centre are just begging to be ridden on this!
Maxtrack Mountain Board (TBA)
www.maxtrack.com
  Ultimate e-Phone
The Nokia 7110, as illustrated on our cover, has limited text-based web access, thanks to the WAP protocol, and picking up your email as if it was an SMS message is another cool app. Other desirable phones from Nokia include the 8850, which takes voice commands; and the modern classic - the sexy chrome 8810 (shown) which goes with everything. It’s the ultimate male fashion accessory.
Nokia 7110 (TBA), 8850 (TBA) and 8810 (360 EUR)
www.nokia.com
 Home Cinema on the run
The excellent Sony PLM-A55E Glasstron display, in combination with the tiny PBD-V30 portable DVD Discman, must be the ultimate in personal cinema. The 150g glasses deliver a virtual 1.3m screen, and can apparently be worn for extended periods without strain - in
 fact they cut out after 6 hours continuous use. The similar spec PLM-S700E also shows video, and will accept input from your PC to create a virtual 75cm monitor.
Sony PLM-A55E Glasstron (TBA)
www.sony-europe.com
 Pocket Film Studio
What must be the world’s smallest camcorder shoots in low light, and is about the size of two decks of playing cards. It has video effects and records to tiny broadcast quality DV cassettes which you can edit on your computer thanks to an optional Firewire card. It also lets you save bite sized bits of video to little blue gum-shaped memory cards called Memory Sticks. Not the most robust or easy to find in an untidy office, but it does fit into a jacket pocket.
Sony PC3 camcorder (1,800 EUR)
www.sony-europe.com
 My Card? My CD-ROM!
What could be cooler than giving people a business card they can slot into their CD drive? IT Solutions can print your business card onto a credit card sized piece of optical plastic with a neat little CD on the reverse that can hold around 13Mb of data.
CD business card (2,750 EUR per 1000)
www.itsolutionsgb.co.uk
Desktop Hollywood
The MotoDV set provides you with everything you need to make your own movies using DV camcorders. The Firewire card slots into your computer and the cable connects to the DV camera. The video is sent digitally to the hard drive rather than being resampled, and so there’s no loss of quality. Enable the DV-in on your camcorder with the many little software and hardware widgets on the market and you can send the edited result back to DV. Are you ready for your close-up?
MotoDV (375 EUR)
www.digital-origin.com
 Really Hands Free
Headsets can be hellishly expensive, but if you spend a lot of time on the phone they can be a real boon. Which is why the Myfone from Maplin Electronics is such a good buy. It’s just a standard phone but it has a sleek chrome body and a light headset with a tiny microphone. There’s no caller display or phone directory, but you can always use another phone to dial the numbers and have this one plugged into the same socket.
Myfone (£25.52)
www.maplin.co.uk
 You Are Here
GPS is all very well, but it still can’t tell you what street you’re on unless you’re a whiz with grid references! Unless, of course, you’ve got the new Garmin GPS III Plus, because then you can download street maps that pop up on screen to show you exactly where you are! Only available in the US at the time of writing, but plans are afoot to bring it to Europe.
Garmin GPS III Plus (TBA)
www.garmin.com
 Unlimited Access
It’s late, you are under your desk trying to connect a new peripheral, and you discover that you really need to take the lid off your machine. Luckily you have your Leatherman on your belt and you can unscrew the lid and put it back again without even getting out from under the desk. The Leatherman is the ultimate personal toolkit. Don’t leave home without one.
Leatherman multi tool (69 EUR)
www.leatherman.com
 Loud and Clear
Being tied to the phone is a bad thing. Being able to wander about is really great, but those aerial phones buzz and hum like a beehive in summer. Not any more, though! Get yourself an ONIS phone, using the new DECT system, and you stray further from the base unit, and hear everything as clearly as if you were on a land line. The Memo model includes digital answering machine and speakerphone.
Philips ‘ONIS’ DECT phone
(199 EUR)
www.philips.com
 Home Movies
You need this projector to do presentations - or at least that’s what you are going to tell the boss. You need this for work. And what you do at the weekend, I don’t know, showing DVD movies on your wall - whatever - is just a happy by-product. No, really! It looks pretty good sitting in the middle of the coffee table, too.
Philips ‘Hopper’ SV10 projector (3,600 EUR)
www.philips.com
 It’s Evil but you want it
The Apple G4 is not your typical Microsoft development platform, but if you are going to go cross platform you might as well do it in style. Teamed with the drop dead gorgeous 16:9 aspect ratio 21-inch Cinema Display, the G4 is the fastest thing on two handles. On the other hand, the iBook is certainly an attention getter on aircraft, and in the home you can surf the web with ten friends in ten different rooms - thanks to the wireless Ethernet technology of the optional Airport adapter.
Apple G4 and iBook
(from 1,600 EUR each)
www.apple.com
 Danger, Will Robinson!
Robots are just a science fiction whim, right? Well, perhaps not! The Robix robot design kit allows you to build real robots on your desktop with easy-to-assemble parts. You can build a range of pre-designed robots or make up your own, and the software that comes with the package drives them anywhere you want - along the floor, across the table or up the wall!
Robix RCS-6 Robotics Construction Kit
(512 EUR)
www.robix.com
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