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Tech Gifts for the Holidays
MrCopilot pointed out that every year there are a slew of gadgets geeks desire for Christmas, and approximately 7 million web pages dedicated to compiling lists of them.
So why shouldn't we join in the fun. Here are stories from
Dallas News,
CBS News,
Seattle Times,
E Media Wire,
Detroit News and
MSNBC. So lets take a crack at your own list. There's still another day or two where things could conceivably be shipped on time for the holidays. I highly recommend Rock Band, although my aching hands might disagree.
Content:size ratio.
A paperback book with 1MB hardly fits in a pocket and is maybe 6h of reading for an average reader. A 1GB SD card is easily months of reading, pluggable into a device that is the size of the 1MB book - and thanks to the e-paper, the batteries won't die on you while you read and the readablity will be just like with a paper book.
Imagine you want to read the whole Pratchett's Discworld series on your daily way to work, 1h each direction, on a train daily. You either go to a bookstore and (with lots of luck if it's all in stock) buy some 10 pounds of paper, then remember to take one part for your travel, or two if you're about to finish the 'current' one. You pay a small fortune.
Or you rent them at a library. Good luck getting them all, good luck getting them in parts and none of the parts missing, you're bound by return schedules and you need to go to said library.
Or you visit piratebay and download the whole series in ebook format, then read it on your pocket reader. Cost: zero. You have them all, no management. You read on your own schedule. They fit on one tiny card. And so on... And if you feel like the author deserves the money, you buy the DRM'd versions from Amazon and promptly delete them, or just buy the paper version and put them on a shelf in your house, never opening them.
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Super-small laptop, with a 7-inch screen.
The thing is hardly bigger than a DS. It can fit in women's handbags. Glove compartments.
And yes it runs linux, it comes runs linux out of the box.
Mine will double as a casual laptop and as a remote for my TV which will be using my computer as a source(via logmein).
I can see both women and men loving this thing. $400 bucks or so.
If I want an e-book reader that does just that - displays the text - without web browser, wireless purchases, touchscreen, accelerometers, WiFi, EVDO, DRM, DMCA, PATRIOT, WMD and all this crap that does little to user experience and lots to the price. Not every country considers 2 salaries worth of money a good price for a device to just read books.
It would be good if it was pocket-sized too.
What would you recommend?
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Hydrodynamic building set
Chaos tower