Christmas gifts for tech-geeks

Christmas gifts for tech-geeks

Vishnu K. Mahmud, Contributor, Jakarta
vmahmud@yahoo.com

Christmas is the season of giving, even if you don't celebrate the holiday. In fact, the year-end holidays are a perfect excuse to buy something for yourself in order to keep up with the most up-to-date technology.

Things have changed greatly in the past five years, with more and more people embracing the latest gadgets and tech tools.

Audiocassette tapes, floppy disks and VCRs are slowly going the way of the dodo, so you'd better get a handle on the current tools. Here are some excellent, useful gifts for the season.

Instead of those terrible, scratch-prone, data-corrupting floppy disks, Universal Serial Bus (USB) drives are considered their next-generation replacements. With its light frame and no moving parts, the USB Drive -- also known as Thumb drives or Key- chain drives -- can store at least 60 to 200 times more data than a floppy. Simply plug it into your USB port and watch it work flawlessly.

Those who are still using Windows 98 and older programs would need to install special drives, ranging from 64 megabytes (MB) to 512 MB.

There once was a time when digital cameras were only for elite professional photographers. Now, thanks to the advances in digital photography, prices have fallen dramatically while quality continues to improve. Nikon, Canon and Olympus are the top three favorites, although "traditional" film companies Kodak and Fuji also provide excellent consumer-grade digital cameras.

Get a camera that has a zoom function and built-in flash. Most importantly, purchase one that offers a minimum three mega-pixel resolution, since they provide the best picture quality when printing on your Inkjet printer. On that note, Fuji, Hewlett- Packard and Canon are but a few vendors that offer high-end photo printers for printing at home.

To get an idea of the various photography hardware on the market, check out www.dpreview.com for reviews and user comments.

Notwithstanding the recent crackdown on piracy, DVD movies continue to be a major source of entertainment in Jakarta. Rent it or buy it, you can view them at home or in your car during one of the city's many traffic jams. Portable DVD players with built- in LCD screens allow you to watch Pirates Of The Caribbean wherever you are. Another alternative is to go to your local car accessories dealer and get one mounted on the ceiling or on the seat-back.

Tired of real life? Why not try a virtual one? Computer games are now bringing in more money then all of Hollywood's blockbusters put together. Contrary to old-school thinking, games are no longer just for kids -- proven by the fact that video games designed for adults are bestsellers. You can play the Hand of God in The Sims, be a wronged cop out for revenge in Max Payne, or play a total thug in Grand Theft Auto. Granted, some of these digital entertainment products have questionable moral attitudes (Postal, anyone?), but remember, it's only a game.

Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's X-Box and Nintendo's GameCube consoles are readily available at Taman Anggrek, Ratu Plaza and Mangga Dua mall, just to name a few, despite the fact that they are not officially distributed in Indonesia. This hasn't stopped thousands of people from buying them, and there is a growing number of service centers for these game consoles.

If your life is so hectic that you need a computer to put it all together, maybe it's time to get a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). You can choose between Microsoft's Pocket PC and Palm Computing's Palm OS-based PDAs.

The Pocket PC is said to be ideal for surfing the Internet and playing games, while the Palm OS is considered to be more stable with a longer lasting battery. Both offer the same kinds of features and it is up to the user to select a model based on individual needs. For beginners, Palm's Zire series is perhaps the best bet.

Finally, what's Christmas without Christmas carols? MP3 players have now replaced the Walkman as a portable music player. Depending on your needs, you can easily get one that can store a few songs to literally a year's worth of non-stop tunes. These players are either based on frictionless solid-state memory or one with a hard drive and related accessories.

Apple's iPod is perhaps the world's best MP3 player, offering a long-lasting battery and up to 40 gigabytes of memory. It also has excellent peripherals to further extend the usability of the device, such as a microphone for voice recording as well as powerful external stereo speakers. Considering the iPod's premium prices, you can also take a look at some of the digital voice recorders available on the market, such as Korea's Elson brand, as they also provide USB hard-drive storage facilities in addition to MP3 playback capabilities.

Simply select one that fits your needs and requirements. You can perhaps even charge it to the office, since it can be used to record meetings and brainstorms, too.