Gadgets just in time for summer play
Summer means more time outside and more time to play. Electronics makers respond with gadgets that want to swim, hike, and fly with you–and help you stay in touch on the run. Here's a pick of gear to consider for your warm-weather fun.
T-Mobile Sidekick 3
For those in the young set who get more of their chats in text than voice, T-Mobile is updating its unique Sidekick–a combination phone and messaging device, with the emphasis on the latter. The Sidekick 3 (t-mobile.com, $300 with a two-year wireless plan, $350 with a one-year) adds an MP3 player, expandable memory, an improved camera, and Bluetooth support for wireless headsets.
T-Mobile wants to keep the Sidekick aimed at its niche market of 18-to-30-year-olds. That hasn't meant a huge market, but it has a loyal following, including a number of celebrities. The Sidekick still shines best at messaging, able to handle 10 IM sessions at a time and with a wide, QWERTY keyboard for typing. This version is somewhat less bulky than earlier editions, but that comfortable keyboard means it's going to be bigger than other handsets.
With a faster processor, the third-gen Sidekick can also tap T-Mobile's high-speed data network, making it better for Web browsing as well as messaging. The MP3 player is a nice addition, though it can't play songs from iTunes or Windows Media files.
Pure Digital Point & Shoot
Surprise: Digital video can be cheap and easy. The price of the new Point & Shoot (puredigitalinc.com, $130) video camera from Pure Digital, also sold as the RCA Small Wonder, is at the low end of digital cams. Unlike other camcorders, it won't take still pictures, settings can't be tweaked, and it has no optical zoom.
Ah, but there's the beauty–simplicity. It runs on AA batteries, is about the size of a compact still camera, and has only four buttons. One is for power, another is marked "play," and a third "delete." The fourth is a red button, for recording. There also is a four-way rocker pad that did take some fiddling to figure out. It's for queuing up recorded videos, adjusting playback volume, or using the digital zoom.
Skip the zoom, as it just degrades image quality, and the video isn't great to begin with. The Pure Digital version records in VGA quality, which looks decent on a standard TV set if not as good as more expensive cams. RCA's version has less memory, meaning its images look a bit less sharp than Pure Digital's when played directly on a TV (cables are included for connecting to a television)–but RCA's claims better battery life.
Either holds only 30 minutes of video, meaning this camera isn't about making high-quality epics. This gem is for grabbing a few minutes of your toddler dancing crazily and sending it quickly by E-mail.
Suunto X9i
Suunto has packed a striking mix of functions into its X9i wristwatch ($500, suunto.com/x9i), including perhaps the smallest GPS receiver sold. And while it sits high off the wrist, it's not too bad looking.
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