The Gadget Zone: Holiday Gift Guide #1

Even though the iPad and its clones are dominating the headlines these days, I remain a fan of laptop computers — especially those that pack a lot of performance into an affordable package. For $599, the HP Mini 5103 fits this description. It has an Intel Atom N455 processor (upgradable to an N475), comes with Windows 7, 160GB hard drive (upgradable to 320 GB) 10.1-inch diagonal LED display, the ability to play HD video content, and can be purchased with an optional touchscreen that allows lets you move things around using ‘multi-touch gestures, finger taps and swipes across the screen’, says HP’s press material. This is a very cool laptop for comparatively little money; details at www.hp.ca.

Does the person that you are buying for want a second monitor, but not have room for it on their crowded desktop? Then a Mimo Mini USB Monitor would solve this problem. The Mimo offers 7″ of screen size to display items that your ‘giftee’ wants to keep front and centre, without taking up space on their main monitor. Better yet, this device can even be purchased with full touchscreen capabilities, and all it needs is a USB port to plug into. The Mimo Mini comes in four varieties, with prices ranging from US$129.99 to $229.99 at www.thinkgeek.com.

Finally, if you want to buy someone a truly great radio – one that has solid reception yet sounds great and can operate on batteries or hydro, check out the brand-new CCrane CCRadio-EP. In an age where mediocre audio is considered the norm for most radios – especially on AM – the CCRadio-EP brings back the pleasure of listening to music off-air. Priced at US$69.95 at www.ccrane.com, the CCRadio-EP comes with separate bass, treble and voice/music selectors for optimal sound quality, a 4″ speaker, external FM whip antenna and tunable internal Ferrite bar antenna (with its own tuning knob).
http://www.toysrus.ca.

James Careless is a veteran consumer tech reporter