theVooner's weblog

A weblog for theVooner.com where the best cool gear and gadgets get reviewed.

last modified Jul 15, 2003 at 1:45

Friday, December 9, 2005

theVooner's Christmas Wishlist

It’s Christmas time again so this is my X’mas wishlist for 2005. There are plenty of gadgets out there to choose from and many more on the way next year, but of things available now, these are my top choices:

10) Gameboy Micro. The best gift for less than US$100 has to be the Micro. It’s no PSP, but this small toy is just plain fun to have along for those spur of the moment gaming (like waiting in airports). Ok, I’d much rather have my PSP, but everyone should already have one, and sometimes, it’s just not as fun to lug around the PSP. For me, the PSP is for trips, the Micro is for day to day. A great gift for the young ones – I know my nephew will love it.

9) Crumpler Bags. This makes my list again because they are so darn cool. Need a bag for your iPod, laptop, camera, or just for fun? The Crumpler line is simply the best for fun. I have 4 now in my collection and growing.

8) Shure E-series earphones. As noted, I forgot my earphones the other day and was glancing at the E-series Shure earphones. Yeah, I’ve got way too many kinds of earphones and headphones (everything from noise canceling to wireless), but there’s just something to these ones by Shure that makes you want one. I’m leaning towards the e3c or better yet the e3g (designed for gaming) model myself. If you don’t want to spend too much, buy the e2c, and if you want to go the best, get the e5c. Plenty of options.

7) Sharp Aquos 65” LCD TV. It’s the largest LCD available today, and it definitely will look stunning. The Pioneer 50” Plasma or the Hitachi 65" Plasma is definitely a worthy alternative for those of you that prefer Plasma (like me).

6) Sony Vaio TX. I love mini laptops and my TR was fantastic. The size and battery life made it the king of laptops and I owned it for much longer than most of my past models. But the new TX is even better. The screen is slightly larger and despite what the salesman told me about the “cropping” of images on the top and bottom, it looked pretty stunning to me. I still love the long battery life, the compact size, weight, and the design. It’s my favorite traveling laptop.

5) Oakley RazrWire. The coolest and best Bluetooth headset with a fantastic looking sunglasses from Oakley, what more could you want?

4) iPod Nano. This MP3 player is the king of the hill and a good choice given its size, design, and value-for-money. I can overlook the poor finish which is susceptible to scratching as I love using those silicon “skins” anyway. In contrast, the iPod Video is definitely a PASS, as noted in my review. The video capability is a joke (given the lack of software to encode movies) especially in Asia where we can’t even buy video iPod files, not to mention the pitiful battery life. Stick with the sexy iPod Nano.

3) Slingbox. The Slingbox is a device that lets you stream TV onto a laptop or computer anywhere. I’ve been waiting for this invention for a long time and I can’t wait to get one and try it out. The implications and use are endless. I will set one up in as many places as I can! Will I finally get TV from everywhere in the world?

2) Nokia N70. Plenty of new models and lots to choose from among mobile phones, but I think this is the best value and option for this Christmas season. It is much lighter than I though, has a fantastic screen, is dual-mode (3G/2G),and even the software is pretty good. (Ok, I cheated, this was my Christmas present to myself!) Among the Smartphones, I think the Dopod 838 is a great choice (although a bit on the big side).

1) Xbox 360. No doubt the Xbox 360 is “the” gift for this Christmas Season. It’s hard to find, got great buzz/marketing, and looks fantastic. Gameplay reviews have been mixed, but with more games on the way, there’s probably plenty of power in this. Sure the Playstation 3 might end up being better, but it’s not available now. So why wait when you can have this first for the next 4-6 months before the PS3. Despite the glitches (which isn’t so uncommon with Microsoft software) and the design “flaw”, if you can find one, get one. (I like that MS has said they would replace defective machines.)

posted at 0:32 | 2 comments

Thursday, December 8, 2005

Shure headphones...

I recently was at the airport with my PSP in hand when I realized that I didn't have a set of earphones with me. While the PSP works fine without noise, it just makes it a much better experience, not to mention that I wanted to have something to be able to use on the flight. So I searched around duty-free and there really wasn't anything there that was reasonably interesting. The only good headset was the Shure e2c headphones. Now these are beautiful earphones and I was certainly tempted to buy them. The only problem was that it was way overpriced for what I know they should cost, and of course, they had the catalog which had the other models. Wow! Have you seen the e5c (both for its "ability" and it price)? I wonder if it performs as well as it is supposed to. Imagine, the earphones cost more than buying a iPod Nano and the e2c! At US$499, the e5c is definitely made for high end use and probably not my PSP. Still, I'm going to look at maybe getting one of these.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 22:11 | 0 comments

Tuesday, December 6, 2005

Sony Ericsson W900i

When the W800i was launched, I was quiet impressed. I like the design (though not the color orange) and it was quite a popular model. However, at that time, I decided NOT to get one for two reasons: 1) it was grossly overpriced compared to other models in the market and 2) it didn't have all the features I wanted in a phone (3G, decent size screen, etc.). As a result, I didn't want to pay that premium for the new W800i handset. The W800 price has fallen significantly though, especially with the new W900i now out. The W900 is a swivel design Walkman phone. It updates the W800 by incorporating a larger screen, 3G capability and a built-in 470MB capacity (versus the measly 34MB on the W800). Even the color of the W900 gets a nice upgrade with two choices of white and black (though with some slight orange accents). I recently had the chance to try it out the W900 is a very nice looking and feature packed handset. Unfortunately, it was much heavier and fatter than it appears in photos. Consequently, I can't really say if it's a phone I'd recommend. It is though probably the best "music" mobile phone out there at the moment so it will appeal to some users. Still, I think the W800 will be more popular and even more so now as it gets cheaper.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 23:26 | 1 comments

Monday, December 5, 2005

Sharp 65" LCD TV

Sharp has introduced the largest high-end 65" LCD TV! The stunning LC-65GE1 looks fantastic. Darn it, I just bought a 50" Plasma. Although I'm a huge Plasma fan (don't get me started) and like it better, the Sharp Aquous line of LCD TVs are definitely the best and I wouldn't get anything else if I had to choose a LCD. This would definitely be stunning.

theVooner@yahoo.com

posted at 17:27 | 0 comments