TECHIE TOYS AND GADGET GIZMOS FOR CHRISTMAS.

Techie Toys and Gadget Gizmos for Christmas as recommended by Adrian Weckler, personal technology editor with the Sunday Business Post, on Wednesday 19th December.

GAMES

The Xavix Sports, called the 'Wii-killer' by some in the games industry. It works in roughly the same as the Wii, using wireless accessories. But instead of games controllers, the handheld items are pieces of sports equipment. For tennis, you have two tennis racquets (about half the size of a normal racquet) that use wireless sensors to detect their precise swings or movements. The ball's trajectory -- or whether it's struck at all -- all depends on the timing and force of the swing. It's a similar story for Xavix golf, where a wireless golf club matches the accuracy and power of your swing with the ball's performance in the game, both on the fairway and the putting green. And there's bowling, baseball and aerobics, too. It's great fun, as much for adults as for kids.
E130 for basic unit, E120 - E150 for individual games. Available in Dunnes Stores, Tower Records and Byrne's World of Wonder.

E Books
These make very good presents for adults. These gadgets are half the size of a lap top and you can download hundreds of books for free including the Classics because these are copyright free.

The Illiad version is very good. It doesn't have a flickering LED and therefore doesn't hurt your eyes because it has a gold screen that doesn't flicker.

It retails at E600.

Amazon does a 'Kindle' version, and there's a Sony Reader.
The Sony Reader is very difficult to get in Ireland or the UK.

Phone and Watch - Sony Erikson Bluetooth Watch - the NBW 200.
This is fantastic and is particularly handy for people who have problems finding their mobile phones when buried deep in a pocket or handbag.

How it works: a phone call comes in on your mobile, and your watch lights up. You can tell who is trying to get in touch.

It costs E170 for the watch, and this is a watch that will connect to any modern mobile phone as long as it has a Bluetooth which most mobiles do have.

You can only buy these phones in one or two places **will have names tomorrow.

Revo Wi-fi/FM radio
With RTE running Dab radio trials along the east coast of the country, there is some justification for getting a Dab radio. But the choice and quality of stations so far is very limited. a better option in the short term might be this wi-fi radio. It connects wirelessly to your computer's broadband signal (within about 30 yards) and, thus, any radio station broadcasting simultaneously on the web. That includes RTE, Newstalk and a host of other stations, as well as hundreds of British channels and thousands of US stations. When you want to give the broadband a rest, the gadget has a full FM radio built-in as a fallback. This is of particular appeal to politics junkies in the run-up to next year's US election.
Price: E250 from Pete's, Parnell Street

Sony Bravia 70 inch full-HD TV
Chase your blues away with Sony's gargantuan 70 inch full-HD Bravia telly. Switch it on and you'll be transported into home cinema heaven quicker than IMF intervention call from David McWilliams. The 70X3500 has a pretty awesome 25,000-to-1 dynamic contrast and a beefed-up 6.2 megapixel something or other. The 1080p classification means that you'll get the full high definition diffusion from a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD film. (Bear in mind that this makes no difference to ordinary TV reception, though.)
For those with lots of high-definition gadgets, recorders and games consoles, it also has three HDMI ports.

Believe it or not, this titan can actually be wall-mounted, too. Although this makes excellent home furnishing for film fans, your TV reception is likely to look a little shabby on it as there is just no way to stretch a broadcast to fill 70 inches with any smoothness.
€38,000 from The Sony Centre

Creative Zen Vision M
With the escalation in sophistication and memory space of many MP3 players, plenty of earlier models have collapsed in price and can now be included as mere stocking fillers. Creative's Zen Vision M is a case in point. It has enough memory to hold about 500 songs, which is probably enough for a sizeable tranche of the population. At this price, though, it acts as an excellent secondary present, especially if you pre-load it with music you know the recipient likes before handing it over on Tuesday. An extra attraction of the player is that it is not necessary to have a computer to transfer music onto it -- it can be copied directly from a CD player.
Price: E60 in Xtravision

SAT NAVS
These have really taken off - the big ones are made by Darmen and Tom Tom, and Route 66.
There's a new beautifully designed Sony one which is great because it has a Nav View range, a widescreen and is very elegant.

Cost? E300-400, and these are available in most electrical goods stores from Harvey Norman to Pete's and Curry's.

Mobile Phones.
Some really interesting mobile phones have come on the market this year.

The Nokia 61 10 has a full Sat Nav application suite on it.
If you press the search button on the mobile and you are outside, the satellites above and beyond will find it and will connect to your screen and tell you where you are.
It's quite addictive. Cost? E375

Snappers
The Olympus new 1200. It has a 12 mega pixel which means it has a much higher clarity than other things on the market.
It costs E475 - so you are paying for the extra clarity.

Digital cameras are getting cheaper and cheaper. They have really crashed in price due to increased commodization.
They used to start at 2 mega pixels, now they are about 5 or 6.

IPOD Touch
The Ipod have a brand, new model called the Ipod Touch which uses exactly the same system as the upcoming Iphone which was the biggest story of the year in terms of technical news.
The newest and snazziest machine is the Ipod Touch. It lets you browse album art and photos with your finger on the large touchscreen. It can also access wireless broadband signals thanks to its onboard 802.11 wi-fi capability.
It looks and feels very slick, but it has one significant drawback: it can only hold a fraction of the music that other iPods can. For example, the more expensive of the two iPod Touch versions holds just a tenth of the music of the cheaper iPod Classic.if you're tempted by the more basic 8GB (2000 songs) iPod Touch, bear in mind that you can get the same song capacity in the very cute iPod Nano for 100 less.

IPHONE
You cannot get the Iphone in Ireland yet, but it's available in Britain, France and Germany.

People love the Iphone because it doesn't have any buttons. It's entirely touch screen. If you want to make a call - a key pad comes up.
If an image comes up on the screen eg a photo someone has sent you, you can manipulate/ enlarge the image using your forefinger and thumb on the screen.

It's a beautiful piece of technology but is limited in terms of its memory.
The Ipod holds much more music than an Iphone.
The mobile phone operators have lots of issues around it.
It doesn't have the same higher specification 3G connection which means that people are unlikely to use their mobiles for money earning mobile gimmicks such as downloading ringtones/ sending large pixelated messages.

The phone is also quite expensive because Apple being a very independent brand, don't accept subsidies on phones. Normally when you buy a mobile - the cost of it is subsidized by the operator.

Don't buy one abroad and hope it will work here in Ireland because at this stage it won't.

House Gadget
There are some very posh and trendy electronic - digital coffee makers.
Siemens have some very nice ones. The one at entry level is called The Espresso. It comes in a wide range of colours. You get a plastic capsule, pop in the top and the next thing you have is your cup of coffee.