The holiday season is nearly upon us and you know what that means: time to start searching for those perfect gifts. Fortunately, the folks at Intel Canada have put together some suggestions to satisfy the techno-geek in all of us.
While the following stocking stuffers are not manufactured by Intel themselves, the California-based chipset manufacturer says they all potentially have Intel’s “fingerprint.” These are designed to complement and show off new PCs featuring Intel Hyper-Threading (HT) technology, a powerful innovation that allows you to multitask more efficiently.
Intel’s latest Pentium 4, 3.20 GHz processor with HT technology launched Nov. 5, appropriately called the Extreme Edition. Though it’s designed primarily for high-end gaming, professional and home users will find it more responsive to complicated, memory-intensive tasks such as image, music and video editing.
Here are some of Intel’s picks for the holidays:
Kensington Wi-Fi Finder:
This small (not much bigger than a credit card) wireless network detector means you no longer have to wait for your notebook to boot up, or start poking at your PDA while wardriving on a bicycle. Just press a button and a light instantly tells you if there is an open or commercial hotspot in the area. Now you can wirelessly surf to your heart’s content.
Price: Approximately $35-40 (All prices are Canadian)
Logitech QuickCam for Notebooks:
A compact, simple USB camera designed for notebook PC users, lets you stay in touch with friends, family and even coworkers while on the road. With 640 x 480 resolution, a built-in folding notebook mount and 360-degree rotation, it’s the perfect gift for someone constantly on the move.
Price: $79.95
Timex Data Link USB Watch:
This clever gadget is an attractive sports watch that conveniently keeps your contacts at hand (or wrist). With a large, easy-to-read digit display, the Data Link works with Microsoft Outlook to store important information like email addresses, phone numbers and your daily appointments. It weighs 1.7 oz and holds enough to memory to keep you consistently organized. Soon to be available at Zellers and Wal-Mart locations across the country.
Price: Approximately $120
Sony MicroVault 128MB:
This highly compact thumbdrive is the perfect medium for taking PowerPoint presentations from home to office, or sharing files among friends, family, coworkers and clients. It’s small, but able to hold substantial PDF, audio, video, word processing and database files. It requires no additional driver software, adaptors or cables; just plug it directly into the computer’s USB port and you’re off and running. It comes with Security Zone software that lets you protect and partition any data you’re guarding with your life.
Price: $119
Tron 2.0 (Disney Interactive):
Tron 2.0 is a stylish, computer-game sequel to the visionary 1982 cult movie, Tron. Twenty years later, you control Jet Bradley, plunked into an alternate computerverse of glowing, living circuits. Not only do you blast opponents with guns, grenades and light discs, you can allocate special “subroutines” to upgrade your attacks. Tron 2.0 enhances your game-playing pleasure by adding role-playing elements to the action, allowing you to tweak your character’s abilities — and of course, they included the Light Cycle races from the movie, featuring intense graphics, speed and sound.
Price: 59.99
