Sun
Digital Photo Keychain
Stanley MaxLife2 Tripod Flashlight with Titanium Finish
HP Compaq 2710p Notebook PC
1. Digital Photo Keychain, $40 US
If you want to trump your colleagues who are always showing off baby pictures or their latest vacation shots around the water cooler, pull out this 3.6-cm keychain that holds 56 photos in its 512-Kb flash memory. It even comes in a slideshow model. It has a rechargeable lithium battery, giving you a week or two of bragging time. Comes in other shapes and sizes, with the smallest a 2.8-centimetre round version. www.taoelectronics.com.
2. Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot K850i camera phone
At five-megapixels, with an auto focus, Xenon flash, photo fix to improve light balance, and BestPic for taking action shots, this is a camera that incidentally lets you make calls. Switch to camera mode and the illuminated icons on the keyboard show you the keys that are short-cuts for the digital zoom and other photo functions. Sony Ericsson is releasing it in North America beginning in the last quarter of this year.
3. Stanley MaxLife2 Tripod Flashlight with Titanium Finish, $30
The folks at Stanley who came up with this new line of stand-up flashlights must know what it’s like to be rooting around clogged drains in a dark basement. Or trying to balance a flashlight in one hand and a book in the other when the power goes out. It has a hands-free tripod with an articulating head, and it can switch from spot to floodlight. The line also has the Mini-Tripod version at $20, and a cute little keychain model at $10.
4. HP Compaq 2710p Notebook PC, $1,999, not on store shelves yet
HP rolled out a raft of new notebooks at its mobility summit in Shanghai recently, among them the ultra-light 2710P that does double duty as a conventional notebook, with a 31-cm swiveling touch screen that turns it into a tablet PC. At 1.65 kilograms, or 3.6 pounds, and 2.8 cm thin, this skinny notebook doesn’t carry a lot of weight, but it delivers a hefty punch. It has a microphone, an optional built-in camera, and for those of you who just can’t stop working — or playing — a night light that shines on the keyboard. Add to that a business card scanner, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an optional battery pack that bumps your battery time up to 10 hours. You’ll miss a DVD drive though — dropping that weight comes with a cost — and you may want to get the optional docking station to add that.