Print | posted on Sunday, November 30, 2008 7:05 PM
My buddy Nick Swan went and tagged me with one of these meme things. This time I’m supposed to come up five Christmas pressie recommendations – primarily gadgets. It was a bit tricky but here goes.
1. Sony PRS700 – electronic book reader.
The Sony Reader is by far and away the best electronic book reader on the market, I’ve tried all of them. If you can live with the Sony ebook store limitations (which aren’t that bad actually, and of course you don’t have to use it!) it’s the mustard. I don’t have this one yet as it’s only just out in the US. The 505 is superb, and this model introduces a built in LED light and touch screen. What they haven’t done is loose all the great features and ergonomics of the 500/505.
2. iRobot Roomba – robot hoover
I don’t have one of these, but I want one :) It’s a hoover – or vacuum cleaner, but it does it for you when you’re out of the house :)
3. Shure SE530 Earphones – the mut’s nuts when it comes to personal monitors
I noticed both Nick and Rob raved about some headphones they like and thought I’d redress the balance by including these earphones. They are basically pro stage monitors without the custom flange. They don’t do noise cancelling (that would be silly) but with a proper fit they are simply stunning. Incredible range with immense ability at high frequency. I don’t have this exact set – I got their “pro” equivalent courtesy of the manufacturer but as far as I can tell they are identical. Throw those crappy iPod bundled “earphones” in the trash and get these.
4. Buffalo TeraStation Pro – 4Tb NAS
Got a lot of media? This is awesome – 4Tb of NAS – sure you can build out your own but why bother? This is a vey nice unit and has the capacity (at least for the time being) to store all my tunes, videos and software. Nice!
5. Wired Subscription.
OK, not a gadget, but I’m frequently amazed how many people in the IT industry I meet don’t read Wired. If you like tech it’s simply a must read. Plus it has lots of cool pictures too.
Erm, so that’s it – I managed to do it without talking about a single Apple product :) I need to tag some folks, so I choose: