Another article that fell
victim to the demise of Cargo magazine would have been their first annual Hall
of Fame for great tech products. I wrote half of it, and here are the entries. I have spent time with these products, and they are all quite great.
Media Player: Apple iPod
So many people rave about
the iPod, you have to wonder if they are just lemmings following the Apple
marketing machine. But we say the praise is justified.
Not only is the current iPod
a fantastically sleek, sonorous music player, it has also launched the portable
video revolution. The new, wider LCD screen is impressively crisp and colorful
-- making even a miniature video fully engrossing. And only Steve Jobs had a
reality forcefieled strong enough to draw Hollywood into the portable download
business.
Unfortunately, the included
white earbuds don't match the new glossy black models. (See. We can be
critical.)
30GB $299
60GB $399
www.apple.com/ipod
MP3 Sound System: Klipsch
iFi
iPods aren't just for
commuting. Many companies (including Apple) make boom-box style speakers with
an iPod dock to boost the player's sound beyond headphone quality. But Klipsch
went all out, building a full-on stereo system with enough big, clear sound to
fill the room.
The iFi's dual-driver
satellite speakers deliver buttery, distortion-free audio for any genre from
acoustic to noise pop. (To get the most of this system, feed it
high-quality MP3 or AAC tunes ripped at a data rate of 192kbps or higher.) The
system performed equally well with the throbbing, ominous soundtrack from a Battlestar
Galactica episode downloaded from the iTunes store. And despite its imposing dimensions, the subwoofer generates subtle,
measured rumble that doesn’t overpower the finer notes.
Still, the iFi could do
more. Treble control is a conspicuous omission. And while the tiny RF remote is
cute, it's rather Spartan with just play/pause, forward, back, and volume
controls. How about iPod menu navigation?
$399.99
www.klipsch.com
[Note: Including this item
was my editors' idea. While this is a great product for what it does, I'm
dubious about the need to spend so much money on an iPod speaker set. Better
put that money toward a good audio system and plug the iPod into one of the
audio inputs, or buy an AirPort Express for wireless streaming.]
Cell Phone: Motorola Razr
V3c from Verizon
Motorola redefined cell
phones with the Razr -- transforming them from necessities to objects of desire
(for a wider audience than just uebergeeks). And unlike other fashion phones,
the Razr actually works well --delivering solid audio quality for such a slim
model.
But Verizon helped the Razr
reach its full potential, with the upgrade from VGA to a one-megapixel camera,
plus a needed software overhaul. (Now you can assign more than one phone
number to each name in your address book.)
It also liberated the Razr
from the GSM phone system -- which is painfully slow in the US --and brought it
to Verizon's zippy EV-DO data network, making fast Web browsing and streaming
video possible.
$199.99 with one-year
contract
$149.99 with two-year
contract
www.verizonwireless.com
Beginner Digital SLR: Nikon D50
Moving up from a
point-and-shoot to an SLR doesn't just make you look cooler, it makes the
photos better, too. SLR's have comparatively gargantuan image sensors that
produce crisper, cleaner images. And because they take interchangeable lenses,
SLRs can keep pace as your skills grow.
Canon and Nikon offer superb
entry-level models, but Nikon's D50 wins out. At $760 (with an 18-55 millimeter
zoom lens), it beats Canon's $999 Digital Rebel XT on price. And because it
takes SD memory cards, which you may have lying around from your point and
shoots, the Nikon could save you even more. The D50 is also easier to operate,
with its bigger handgrip, more-intuitive menu and button layout, and larger LCD
screen.
$760
www.nikonusa.com
Music Networking: Sonos
Digital Music System
Music comes from nearly
everywhere today: computers, CDs, iPods, Internet radio. And Sonos pulls it all
together elegantly.
Similar to other music
streamers like the Apple AirPort Express or Slim Devices Squeezebox, the Sonos
ZonePlayers use wireless networking to bring music from your computer to other
parts of the home. But Sonos goes far beyond the competition in both where it
gets music and where it sends it. Using a special wireless network, Sonos can
accommodate up to 32 zone players, spread around even the largest of homes. Any
player can grab not only digital music
from PCs and Macs, network hard drives, Internet radio stations, and Rhapsody's
streaming music service, but also analog input from devices like iPods and CD
players. A single remote -- with an iPod-esq scroll wheel and menu system --
lets you browse and cue up music from any source, then send it wirelessly to
any or all ZonePlayers around the house. You can play different tunes on every
device, or link any or all of them together to play in perfect synchronicity,
without any echo or delay.
The new, $349 ZP80 players
connect to self-powered audio systems, such a stereo or home theater. The ZP100
units ($499) include amps and require only basic, unpowered speakers (like a
$179 pair by Sonos).
$349 for ZP80
$499 for ZP100
$399 for Controller CR100
$999 for Controller and two
ZP80s
$1199 for Controller and two
ZP100s
www.sonos.com
Technology Standard: The
SD Card
You shouldn't have to care
about memory card formats; and Secure Digital makes that possible. In the year
2000, Panasonic, Toshiba, and SanDisk introduced the SD format to a world of
flash-memory anarchy and aggressively promoted it as a standard that today is
endorsed by over 800 technology companies and accounts for about 50 percent of
all memory cards. Resisting its archrivals Panasonic and Toshiba, Sony persists
with the Memory Stick format. And camera makers Fujifilm and Olympus push the
obscure xD card. But products from most other companies -- ranging from cameras
to PDAs to laptops to televisions -- feature SD slots. Some portables even support
SDIO, which powers SD-sized devices including GPS receivers or Wi-Fi radios.
The memory format also scales down to miniSD and microSD for ultrathin cell
phones.
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