Tech Informer

Three Gadgets You Need for 2009
By Douglas Furiato, Ask a Librarian Web Programmer/Developer

We are constantly barraged with ads and articles for various gizmos and gadgets, and it can be overwhelming to try to determine what might actually be useful to us, versus what will end up being an expensive, wireless paperweight. Here are three gadgets that I think stand out from the rest and will help make your life a little easier. Or at least more fun.

Netbooks The netbook, a blend of the words Internet and notebook, is a class of laptop computer ranging in size from five to 13 inches and typically weighing two to three pounds. Should you spend $320 on Microsoft Windows Vista™ Ultimate with Service Pack 1 and install this operating system on your PC, or should you spend $21 less on an Asus netbook with Windows XP? While I don’t know a single person that’s parted with their money to install Vista, I know a number of happy owners of Dell, Asus, and Acer netbooks. I had my first chance to test out a netbook when my father bought an Asus Aspire One at the local Best Buy. His $300 machine has a 1000 MHz Intel Atom processor with one gig of RAM and an 8.5-inch monitor. The Atom processor uses a

fraction of the power of a regular laptop processor; so the netbook is not only environmentally “green,” but it doesn’t heat up like a standard laptop so it doesn’t scorch your lap after 30 minutes of use.

Some of these netbooks feature flash solid-state hard drives, which reduce power use further, are sturdier than mechanical hard drives, are silent, and allow the machine to wake up more quickly from a sleep state. At about 2.5 pounds the netbooks are a little over half the weight of a laptop with a 15-inch screen, and they’re small enough to carry in most lady’s purses (or men’s European carryalls, if you’re Jerry Seinfeld). It’s interesting to note that netbook buyers are not only laptop owners looking for something less expensive and/or more portable, but smartphone users who appreciate the fact that the keyboards on netbooks are easier to use than the keyboards of any smartphones.

SlingCatcher
The SlingCatcher is a digital media receiver that allows you to project video from your PC to your TV. Just as some people are getting rid of their land phones and using their mobile phones exclusively, there are those who are getting rid of their cable TV service and viewing Internet TV, movies, and other media on their computers. The $199 you spend on the SlingCatcher can save you hundreds of dollars a year if you get rid of cable. It even has an input for portable USB drives, so you can plug in your drive and watch movies, photos, and podcasts on your TV.

Smartphones So-called “smartphones” are not expensive phones: they are inexpensive hand-held computers that happen to also have telephone capability, so the $200-$300 iPhone or Google Android-powered HTC Dream can give you much of the functionality of a laptop computer at half the price. Since both of these smartphones (and some others) have wireless capability, you’re not going to spend as much money on your data plan as with a phone that doesn’t have wireless broadband – it’s estimated that most users are within range of wireless broadband 70% of the time.  It’s hard for me to remember what life was like before I had my iPhone. I now take it for granted that I’ve got access to my TBLC Outlook mail, calendar, and contacts wherever I go, and that when I’m traveling I can view Google maps to look at real-time traffic information.

Now that Blackboard is enabled for the iPhone and iPod touch, students can be in synch with classroom assignments and grades, and it’s just a matter of time before this is available for other smartphones. Now that BlackBerry has followed Apple’s iTunes Store example by opening up BlackBerry App World, BlackBerry users will have the expanded functionality that comes from downloadable apps.