Gillian Shaw
Sun
HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Centre
Cavius Travel Alarm
HP Photosmart A826 Home Photo Centre, $270
This portable compact printer packs a lot of fun into photo printing, with a seven-inch (18 cm) touchscreen and stylus that lets you play before you print. You can edit photos, design greeting cards, and add graphics, captions and other personalized touches right on the touch screen. Also remove red-eye and enhance photos before you print. And our personal favourite, slim down your subjects before you print — now there’s a present that should win points with your mother-in-law. Kids will also love creating photo projects right on the screen. A portable printer with a distinctive egg-shape that sets it apart from the usual models, it produces 4-by-6 and 5-by-7 prints. HP’s lower-priced compact photo printer, the A626, lists at $200 and comes with a 4.8-inch (12-cm) touchscreen.
Cavius Travel Alarm, $70
palm-size gadget that warns you of everything from luggage thieves to smoke. An ear-splitting 130 decibels should shoo away would-be robbers if they make a grab for your luggage or laptop bag. You can also set off the personal alarm manually by hitting the red button on the Cavius. Sleep easy with it propped up as a door alarm and doubling as a smoke detector. The Cavius comes from New Zealand’s Travelsafe Security Products. Online at www.cavius.com.
Timex iControl Watch, $150
Track your workouts and run your iPod at the same time with the latest addition to Timex’s Ironman collection. Its wireless iPod controls let you play-pause, turn the volume up or down and track forward and back. It has a 50-lap memory recall chronograph, training log to store your workout with date, best lap and average lap. It has a multi-mode countdown timer and two interval timers for speed and endurance training. Combine that with three customizable alarms for daily, weekday and weekend seconds and a three-year battery life and you should be fit in no time. Comes in black/silver, black, blue and pink.
Nokia Bluetooth Stereo Speakers MD-5W, $170
Crank out the music from your MP3 players or Bluetooth stereo-enabled mobile phone with these portable speakers. Hooked up, they can also be used to answer, end and redial calls. Plug into power with Nokia’s travel charger AC-4 or run it on four AA batteries.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007