Fun Gadget Gifts

Archive for the ‘Anniversary Gift Ideas’ Category

If you are a fan of mobile computing but picky. You find a notebook to be too small and a full size laptop – too big. You want a thin computer that has great battery power to do basic stuff, nothing like creating or editing video. You are in luck – check out Asus UL30A thin and light laptop.

Thin & Lights are between notebooks and full-size laptops. They run ultra-low voltage processors and often have compromised performance in exchange for a slim form. But that is not true in the case of UL30A which delivers what you are looking for in thin and light.

UL30A comes with a 500G SATA Hard Drive and 4G of RAM. The processor inside is 1.3GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Ultra Low Voltage processor. UL30A measures 12.9 x 9.3 x 1 inches and weighs 3.7 pounds. It is a little less than 1 inch thin and feels really solid and compact. The back of the laptop is covered with aluminum. The keyboard has a little bit of flex, but feels nice and comfortable to type on.

The 13.3 HD LED LCD backlit display is nice and bright. HD video looks great on it. Like in all thin and light laptops, there is no optical drive. But there are plenty of ports and connections for your periferals: HDMI, USB, SD card slot, 802.11n as well as bluetooth..

The multi-gesture touchpad is made of the same glossy plastic material as the rest of the palm rest. Even though it is a little dimpled for your fingers, it does not provide as much traction as other touchpads.

The battery life is fantastic: allows for 6-7 hours of playing videos. Asus claims you can get up to 11 hours. UL30A comes with Vista Home Premium (32 bit) but you can upgrade to Windows 7.

Get Asus UL30A on Amazon for $889.99

There are literally hundreds of digital frames out there. Why this one? Well, storage size and functions. It has 1GB of memory, it can read 6 different SD card formats, and it plays avi video files. Those are the biggies for me. It has little speakers and will play music if you would like along with your picture slideshow. The picture resolution is 800×600 px (4×3 ratio). It has a touch screen. You can have a date and clocks displayed too. If you do not want to touch the screen, there is a remote control. Pretty cool frame.

This photo frame replaces the 512MB model. Get yours on Amazon for $99.48.

This is an awesome present for a person who enjoys watching movies. Roku Player is a tiny box. It works with any TV, unless it is a family earloom. Installation is very simple – connect it to your television via cable (HDMI or component) or wi-fi and you are good to go. You have to have an internet connection too, of course, because Roku box will use it to stream video directly to your television.

You need at least 1.2 Mbps to watch movies instantly on the Roku digital video player with decent quality. The faster your connection, the better the quality (although this rule-of-thumb peaks out at about 5mbps). Roku will automatically detect your bandwidth speed and adjust the streaming so there are no interruptions. The experience is like watching a DVD: you can watch, play, fast-forward, rewind, pause and resume play later.

Roku Player integrates with Amazon Video on Demand as well as Netflix. If you have a Netflix account you can watch Instant View movies. Any movie you can buy or rent on Amazon, you can buy or rent on Roku. If you buy a movie on Amazon, it is always in your library and you can watch it at any time on your Roku. Selection? 50,000+ movies and TV shows.

You have 3 buttons: Netflix, Amazon, and Major League Baseball. Yes, for $20 (currently) you can watch any game, even when the game is over. You can fastforward, rewind, or watch the game live. The unique feature though is that you can pick play-by-play announcers too – home team or away team. That is something a true fan can appreciate. And if you have enough bandwidth on your internet, you can watch games in high definition. Roku supports all HD formats except 1080.

The Wall Street Journal, CNET, WIRED, and other publications rave about Roku player. Roku plans to add video podcasts in the future. The box is PC and Mac compatible, but you knew that already becase you do not need to connect it to a computer at all. And they have great customer service, from what I hear.

If you have a Netflix account, it is no-brainer.
You can get one on Amazon for $99.00. There is $118 package that includes cables

Specifications

• Networking: Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) with WEP, WPA, and WPA2 support; 10/100 Ethernet (RJ-45)
• Video Outputs: Composite video, S-Video, Component video (Y/Pb/Pr), HDMI
• Video Modes: 16:9 HD (720p), 16:9 anamorphic (480p), 4:3 standard (480i)
• Audio Output: Stereo (L/R RCA), Digital Optical (Toslink), Digital over HDMI
• Remote Control: NEC protocol, supported by various universal remotes
• Power Input: 5V, 1.5A provided by included AC adapter
• Power Consumption: 5 watts peak, 3 watts in standby
• Size: 5 x 5 x 1.75 inches (130 x 130 x 41 mm)
• Weight: 11 oz (300 grams)