Technology on The Right Hook
December 12th
This is a look back at my favourite products of 2011, plus a few ideas for stocking fillers.
3D
3D phones, tablets, TV’s and game consoles were released in 2011 – the majority being very underwhelming. The only two products I would deem worth talking about are:
- Samsung Smart TV
- Nintendo 3DS
There is still a lot of progress to be made with 3D technology. The majority of the 3D gadgets that came out this year felt too gimmicky without illustrating the full capability of 3D technology.
Tablets
We saw a number of tablets released onto the market this year – brought out to compete with the iPad. Regardless of what you think of the iPad, it is the most popular and successful tablet – any tab brought on the market was brought out to compete with Apple’s first release.
March 2011 saw the release of the iPad 2 – although it wasn’t majorly different to the original iPad – demand was huge and it continues to be a high grossing product.
We also saw releases from Sony and Samsung. The Samsung Galaxy 10.1 Tab, which by the way is on sale from Three at the moment with great bundle deals for data usage – is a great looking tab which caused a bit of controversy in Germany over its design.
One tablet that stood out from the crowd design-wise was the Sony Tablet. This, in my opinion, is the best looking tablet on the market. It has what has been described as “a folded magazine style” design. It has unique features such as infrared and the Sony gaming technology.
Phones
We reviewed a huge number of phones this year. We looked at the entire spectrum – from the high-end smart-phones to the low end, standard phones.
The two that stood out for me from all of those are the Sony Ericsson Arc S and the HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio.
The Arc S was released in the final quarter of this year and was a one up from the Arc we saw released early in 2011. It had high spec, with great features, even if it did have the gimmicky 3D panorama camera.
Sony Ericsson really is a heavy weight in the phone market and one to watch next year.
My favourite phone, and quite possibly my favourite tech product of the year, was the HTC Sensation XE with Beats Audio. This phone, which is exclusive to 02 was released in October. If you’re a music lover then you will really appreciate the features on this phone and just how much the Beats audio enhances your music. Apart from that, the usability of this phone is incredible. Also, the battery life is really something. We’ve spoken time and time again about how certain phones have great features, but if you use any of them your battery will die within hours – that’s not the case with this phone. It has an 8MP camera, and a fast processor. The only thing it doesn’t have is a large internal memory. This, of course can be remedied by buying an SD memory card – you can put up to 32GB into the phone.
Printers
HP makes great printers. I have looked at a number of printers this year made by many brands, but as a 3-in-1 high quality, home, photo printer, the HP Photo-Smart Plus is one of the best I have looked at. It has copy, print and scan functionality. It can also print high-quality photos. Refills are widely available and are inexpensive in comparison to others on the market.
Another product which is in contention as one of my favourite products of the year is the Canon Selphy printer. This compact printer prints high quality photos from cameras and memory cards. The photos come out looks extremely professional. The only thing about this is that the refills are quite expensive – between the ink cartridges and the photo sheets.
Others Worth Noting
Xbox 360 with Kinect is a fantastic games console that all the family can enjoy. The Kinect is a revolutionary control system that tracks 48 points of movement in the human body – making the user the controller. There are a wide range of games on the market for this console – from Disney games for the kids, to games like Forza 4 Motorsport – which now comes with Kinect integration.
Canon IXUS range are cameras are ideal if you’re looking for a high quality, but affordable compact camera. The IXUS range in price from €150 – €300.
Stocking Fillers
Gloves – A Gloves – €24.99
USB man – €15.99 Howards World of Storage
Zagg-Folio for the iPad 2 – Zagg.com €99
Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse
Reviews:
TMA-1 headphones from AIAIAI
The story:
Designed by DJs for DJs, the TMA-1s are quality Danish designed headphones. Everything about them oozes style, from the plush packaging to the cans to the cabling. Forget about Beats headphones – these are for the discerning music lover who likes it loud. The TMA-1s also come in a limited edition Fool’s Gold colour with yellow cabling which is stunning. If you know someone who’s into djing, these are the headphones for him/her.
Pros: Beautiful design, quality build, built in mic for iPhone iPad. Separate cables for studio use, spare earpads, slick carrying bag, and quite simply the most beautiful headphones I’ve ever seen. Extremely comfortable to wear even for long periods. In terms of sound, the bass is amazing while the highs could be a tiny bit clearer for such a premium product.
Cons: Treble can be flatter than some open ear headsets in the same price bracket. Cost is prohibitive at around €250
TMA-1 headphones from AIAIAI
http://aiaiai.dk/store/headphones/tma-1
Samsung NX200 bridge camera
The story:
A few weeks ago we looked at the OLYMPUS PEN system and wondered why anyone would ever invest in a system that fell awkwardly between SLR and compact camera. This week, we may have to rethink as we look at the impressive NX200 from Samsung which delivers a whopping 20 megapixels and smooth full HD shooting, but at a price. The NX200 gave the best performance I’ve seen outside of a DSLR, with quick response focusing, 7 frames per second shooting and a host of quick and fun filters to make creative photos.
Pros: The NX200 takes beautiful pictures at huge resolution, quickly and easily. Huge amount of creativity including modes for vignettes, tilt shift video, fisheye etc. It has face detection and manual focus assist and well, we could go on forever, but it does pretty much anything a camera can do in auto and manual modes
Cons: The shape is something we just can’t get used to. It’s small enough that it’s not solid in your hands, but it’s not anywhere near small enough to fit in your pocket. The problem is, of course, that to take big pictures you need a reasonable sized lens. The other problem, and this is a big one, is the price. Units start at €799 so you’d want to be dead set against buying a DSLR as you can get a pretty good decent model at this price.
Samsung NX200 bridge camera
http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/samsung_nx200_review/
