Simplifying living

THE GIFT OF TECHNOLOGY: The news? Prices are down; ebooks have gone mainstream and, well, you can buy an android instead of being one. Davin O'Dwyerwraps up this year's top gadgets

NETBOOKS

The rise of the netbook has established an entirely new category of computer – the portable, secondary machine that can be brought anywhere, hitting that sweet spot between smartphone and laptop.

If you’re in the market, there are a few rules to bear in mind. Low prices mean build quality and performance aren’t always at a premium, but for a device you’re happy to throw in your bag and barely notice, exquisite engineering probably isn’t a priority.

Steer clear of those with screens smaller than 10 inches – they are unbelievably frustrating to use, and they require miniature keyboards that are effectively useless for writing. Anything bigger than 12 inches, on the other hand, isn’t really a netbook. Also, battery life is crucial – carrying a plug with you to keep your netbook juiced up rather undermines the portability advantage.

Many netbooks use the same Intel Atom chips, so performance isn’t likely to vary much from product to product. So the sizeable price differences between models might be for cosmetic reasons, although the latest generation of netbook feature dedicated graphics chips such as the Ion, significantly boosting performance. Finally, they have until now been relying on the aged Windows XP, but will increasingly be offering Windows 7 Basic, so if you can nab one with the newer system, you’re doing yourself a big favour.

In terms of specific models, Acer and Asus were the ones who started the netbook craze. The Asus 1005HA Eee PC can be found for €299.99 at Argos, and boasts battery life best described as crazy delicious.

HP has got into the netbook thing in a big way, and the HP Compaq Mini 311  comes with an NVidia Ion graphics chip and 11.6-inch screen, making it highly desirable, and is available for €388.80 from Elara.ie.

The Samsung N310 is one of the most attractive netbooks, with a curved, textured exterior designed by Japanese designer Naoto Fukasawa, and also boasts an Ion and some rather stylish design, for €405 from Elara.ie.

Sony’s offerings have been as confusing as we’ve come to expect from the Japanese giant – the original P-series Vaio sold for eye-wateringly high prices, but it has recently brought out more conventional netbooks with more realistic price tags, from €399 from Sony stores.

Finally, Dell has a few attractive models, including the Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, at €299 from PC World. If you can get over the atrocious trackpad and Windows XP, it is great value, and the model of choice for naughty Mac-users who want to make a Hackintosh, ie non-Apple hardware running Mac OS X.

CAMERAS

There are so many point-and-shoot cameras at reasonable prices, many using the same image processors, that you can’t go too far wrong. For the serious photographer, the Panasonic Lumix G1 (€549.99 from PC World) pioneers a new Micro Four/Thirds standard. Canon’s G11 (€499 on Pixmania.ie) is the latest pocketable substitute, and gaining a lot of cooing admiration lately is the Canon Powershot S90 (€396 on Pixmania.ie), which looks a lot like the Ixus range, but packs a lot of the G11’s semi-pro features into a svelte frame. In many ways, the S90 takes its cues from Panasonic’s Lumix LX3 (€360 on Pixmania.ie), the point-and-shoot of choice for many photography enthusiasts.

PHONES

Nearly three years after its launch, the iPhone is still top dog, and with more than 100,000 applications, the device is continually reinventing not just what a phone should do, but what a computer should do. Prices vary depending on tariff (with O2), but if you hold out until spring, when the iPhone comes to Vodafone, prices may be forced down.

If for some reason you have an irrational aversion to the iPhone, O2 also offers the fetching little Palm Pre, which features a widely praised WebOS, physical keyboard and the ability to run more than one app at a time. Again, prices vary depending on the price plan, from a sweet nada to a reasonable €49.

The smartphone field is increasingly about the operating system rather than the device, and the other pioneer is Google’s Android – models include HTC Tattoo Black on Vodafone, from €9.99, or the HTC Hero on Meteor, from €99.99.

Finally, Nokia has really struggled to match the iPhone. Its latest touchscreen release is the X6, not yet available on any Irish networks. But as Apple and Android are transforming pocket computing, Nokia will need a lot more innovation to succeed.

GPS

Another category on the lonely path to obsolescence is the GPS. Shares in manufacturers TomTom and Garmin took a nosedive when Google announced it was adding turn-by-turn navigation to Google Maps on its Android 2.0 system.

However, it will take a few years before everybody has the same functionality built into their phones, and if you spend a lot of time driving and you don’t already have one of these navigators, you’ll wonder how you survived without one.

The significant price differences usually come down to screen size and map features, and while older models can be found for less than €100, Garmins start at about €140 for the Nuvi 215, and TomTom’s cheapest model is about €120 in PC World.

EBOOKS

When we tell our grandkids about the things we used to have called books, we’ll probably say 2010 was the year their replacement went mainstream.

Talk to anyone who has used one and you’ll quickly shatter any book-loving scepticism. The eInk screen really is a good paper substitute, and the advantage of having all your reading materials in one paperback-sized device cannot be overstated.

There have been so many readers released this year it’s difficult to keep track, but the two big ones are the Amazon Kindle and the Sony ebook reader.

The Kindle’s advantage is that, following Apple’s iTunes model, users can purchase books from the device, across its network connection. It’s available from Amazon for $259.99 (€172), plus VAT.

Sony’s readers are in some respects nicer machines than the Kindle, but the Sony book store is a poor imitation of Amazon’s and can’t be accessed from the device itself. As a result, it takes a lot more effort to get material on the device, but it does support a greater variety of formats.

The best value can be had in Waterstones book shops, where the small, barebones Sony Pocket Edition is €179.99, while the larger touch screen version is €319.99 in PC World.

As is often the case, this technology is already facing potential obsolescence as more multipurpose devices threaten to take over. But for the moment, the eInk technology should give dedicated ebook readers an advantage.