As long as men will be boys, cool tech-whizbangery is a given, says Amit Benjamin. And he's not complaining.
Type 02 bot
Looks-wise, the Type 02 bot is pretty intimidating and not the kind you'd want to have running around your house at night. But that's OK, because you can't buy one anyway. Despite its Darth Vader-meets-Grim Reaper profile, the Type 02 isn't out to annihilate all humans. In fact, its sole purpose of existence is to spread awareness about, er, vinegar.
Created for the Tamanoi Vinegar Corporation, this six-foot and 220 pound robot is designed to give presentations on vinegar. Its other job is to entertain guests at Tamanoi's "Cyber Trip" amusement theatre in the company's offices. Although according to our rules, the Type 02 shouldn't be here since you can't buy one, but it's so exceedingly cool, we think it deserves a mention. Shout if you disagree.
- Price: Over $2 million approximately.
- Available: What did we just tell you? Pay attention guys!
Nokia N95
The Nokia N95 is what you get when you cross a mobile phone with a 5 megapixel camera, a GPS navigator and an MP3 player. While it may sound like a technophobe's worst nightmare come true, the N95 is actually one cool device. Unlike other mobile phone cameras, the N95's 5 megapixel snapper will click pictures that are actually good enough to print. The video, meanwhile, is DVD quality, claims Nokia.
It also packs a groovy MP3 player and a memory expansion capability of up to 2GB, which is good for storing up to 800 songs. However, it is the in-built GPS navigator, with maps of over 100 countries, which is the N95's party piece. You'd have to be fairly dim, or have the mental age of an amoeba to not be able to find an address with one of these in your hands.
- Price: Dh2,895.
- Available: Techmart and all leading electronics stores.
Fatal1ty Laser Gaming Mouse
Any FPS (First Person Shooter) expert will tell you, the key to winning gaming competitions is a good mouse that reacts to your inputs in a quick and predictable manner. A tacky gaming mouse can cause you to lose the all-important match or worse, make you want to shut down the computer and talk to the wife instead.
The Creative Fatal1ty Laser mouse was designed to give hardcore gamers the control they need. Developed with inputs from world's top FPS gamer, Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, it comes with its own software interface for complete customisation. Predictably, the technology on offer is an acronym-fest, and trying to understand any of it is akin to wading through a giant bowl of alphabet soup. No idea what it means but you get a GW (G-Weight modular weight system), RR (Rapid Res) and HD (High def-Laser engine) with switchable optical resolutions (400/800/1600/2000/2400 CPI) for deadly accuracy in any game.
Oh, and you also get a SW (SpeedWire) cable for the fastest connection possible. Hmm...
- Price: About Dh200.
- Available: Most electronics stores.
Creative Zen Stone
The tiny Zen Stone is Creative's answer to iPod's entry-level Shuffle.
In fact, with its perfectly contoured body, the Stone looks much cooler than the Shuffle. The 1GB flash-based player supports MP3s and WMA formats and promises a playback time of up to 10 hours on a single charge. What's more, it comes in six funky colours and boasts exceptional sound quality. Future upgrades for the Stone include a tiny twin-speaker docking system, the Creative TravelSound ZEN Stone.
However, the Stone's best feature by far is its price. While the iPod Shuffle goes for approximately Dh400, the Stone retails for a very tasty Dh199 only. We'll take two, please.
- Price: Dh199.
- Available: Emax.
Apple iPhone
The iPhone is, by the virtue of its origins, cool. It's part of the iPod, and Mac family. While gadget lovers wait with bated breath as iPhone's launch date of mid-June draws closer, the smarter ones have already pre-ordered one at websites such as eBay.com. This neat little cellphone- cum-iPod (well, actually it's not little, compared to most phones) also promises the functionality of a state-of-the-art internet device. iPhone features a rich HTML email client and Safari — one of the most advanced web browsers available for a portable device. The iPhone is also fully multi-tasking, which means you can read a web-page while listening to your favourite MP3. The iPhone will be available with different storage capacities with prices ranging from Dh2,000 to Dh2,600.
- Price: About Dh2,000-Dh2,600.
- Available: This month.
