 "Top 5 Add-Ons To Gift this Diwali")
If you are shopping for gifts for someone who has everything—well almost—this list features some of the best gift ideas. This list of great gifts will give you an idea of the best peripherals currently available for any avid PC enthusiast.
Vantec Avox-100
Slightly larger than a cigarette pack the Vantec Avox-100 is one helluva multi-functional device providing utility and entertainment alike. It’s basically a 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure which lets you fit a 2.5 inch hard drive (laptop hard drive) of any size with the added functionality of letting you play movies onto your television. It also features the USB OTG (On-The-Go) function wherein you can copy data from any other USB device without the need of a computer. A 2.5 inch or laptop hard drive is available in the market for as less as Rs. 2800 for a 40GB drive. Say, we fit it with a 40GB hard drive, the Vantec Avox can function as any of the following:
- Portable hard drive
It lets you play or transfer data to and fro your computer. Using it is very simple—just plug the cable into an empty USB port on your computer and it will show up as a drive in ‘My Computer’ on Windows XP. From there on you can use it exactly the way you access data on your computer, no drivers required!
- _A Video Player
_Just copy the movies from your computer onto the Avox, attach it to your television and you can straight-away start watching movies on your big screen television. The best thing, it also comes with a remote. All the needed cables are provided in the package. In this case the device needs to be powered by an adapter, included in the package where as when using with a computer, the device powers itself from the USB port, eliminating the need of an external power source.
- _USB OTG (On-the- Go) Device
_This is a new concept which is fast emerging on portable devices. Say you are out on a camping trip and clicking pictures and you run out of space on the memory card. All you have to do is connect your digital camera to the device and by simply pressing a button all the images on your camera will be transferred to the hard drive, without the need of a computer. As compared to a 512MB of 1GB card you might be having in your camera, the 40GB space on your hard drive will cater to all your photography requirements. It comes with a battery pack to power the device on the go.
Price: Rs. 5400 ( without the hard drive)Contact: tejas@apical.in
Plantronics Pulsar
Its a pair of Bluetooth headphones that hook up to any audio device or a Bluetooth phone wirelessly. It supports the advanced AD2P technology, where any compatible phone will stream audio in stereo mode. The headphones come with a Bluetooth adapter to sync your other non-Bluetooth audio devices like mp3 players and music systems to the headphones. Basically you can hook it up to any device with an audio-out.
Say, you are a late night TV watcher and you don’t want to disturb your sleeping family members. Just hook up the adapter to your TV and enjoy the audio on the headphones with the comfort of lying on your couch, wirelessly, anywhere within a radius of 10 meters. It can also sync with up to seven Bluetooth devices at once. Consider this—you are traveling in a bus and you have hooked up the Bluetooth adapter to your mp3 player in the bag. You have also synched the headphones to your Bluetooth phone sitting in your pocket. You are listening to music on your mp3 player when suddenly you get a call. As your phone is synched with the headphones, the music cuts out and you can hear the ringer of your phone on the headphones. Just by pressing a single button on the headset, you can take the call. After you are done, the call disconnects and the mp3 players starts playing again. How cool is that!
Both the headphones and the Bluetooth adapter have Li-Ion batteries and come with a charger.
Price: Rs. 9,000Contact: Bobby JosephEmail:
bobby.joseph@plantronics.com
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Klipsch GMX-A, 2.1 Speaker Set
Klipsch is a brand that has recently debuted in India. Back in the US, it’s a very popular brand that is well known for making high end home audio systems and THX certified cinema systems. The introduction would have eliminated your apprehensions about the brand and after listening to speakers, you sure would want to carry them back home. We are looking at Klipsch’s 2.1 speaker system, the GMX-A. As the name suggests it’s a 2.1 speaker system consisting of two satellite speakers and a woofer. The satellites are rated at 14 Watts each and the woofer is rated to output 50 Watts. All the ratings are in RMS. They are designed to accept a wide variety of inputs and can be connected to your PC as well as your Television or your Mp3 player. The sound quality is exceptional and the Klipsch 2.1 GMX A is definitely one of the best 2.1 speaker system we have ever heard. In fact we find it even better than our long time favorite 2.1 speaker system, the Altec Lansing MX-5021. Price: Rs. 10,000Contact: sales@gautamagencies.com
Sandisk Cruzer Titanium USB Flash Drive (2 GB)
How about a pen drive that is virtually indestructible and is capable of surviving a force that is up to 2000 pounds? The device in question is Sandisk’s 2GB Cruzer Titanium build with crush resistant liquid metal casing. So rest assured, once you have data on it, its not going anywhere! Unless you lose the drive, of course. The drive comes with Sandisk’s own software called the U3. It provides for easy syncing with your email client. Say, you are leaving your office and have some important emails to look at. Just plug in the drive, hit a button and all your emails are transferred onto the pen drive. You can then leisurely look at them on any other PC, later. It also carries your preferences, your profiles and even your wall paper for a familiar computing experience on any other computer.
The drive comes with a retractable USB header eliminating the need of a cap. So now, you don’t need to look through the heaps of mess on your table for that eluding cap, it doesn’t exist anymore. Price: Rs. 3200Contact: Rashi Peripherals ,
www.rptechindia.com
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Microsoft LifeCam VX-6000
Its so much more fun when you can see your friends and family while chatting. Video chatting as a medium of communication on the internet has really caught up, so much so that the market is flooded with zillions of different web cameras. The LifeCam VX-6000 however has something more to offer. Its designed to easily integrate with Microsoft’s Live Messenger but can also work with other messengers like Yahoo. The new Windows Live Messenger has a separate module for video chatting similar to Skype.
It comes with flat circular stand to stably mount it on CRT monitors. For LCD monitors and laptops the base opens up, imparting a nice tight grip. One of its best feature is its ability to record high-definition video at a maximum resolution of 1.3 megapixels (1280 x 1024). It can also take still images up to 5 megapixels. The video is captured at 30 fps giving smooth playback. Though slightly expensive, it’s the webcam of the future. Price: Rs. 5600Contact: i-ruchga@microsoft.com
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