Friendly bunyip
Charles Wright is impressed with a digital TV recorder that does it all.
The Bunyip Digital Media Centre looks like a HiFi set, runs more quietly than a PC, and offers many more play-back options at less cost than top-of-the-line personal video recorders and media centre platforms from Microsoft and Apple. It includes a free electronic program guide updated daily via the internet, and a web interface for scheduling recordings remotely.
Assembled by a small Victorian operation called Better Access, the Bunyip is actually a powerful personal computer that can record two standard of high-definition channels at once. It's a Linux computer, so while it's recording these two channels simultaneously (and replaying a third recording), you can browse the web, stream video, play music, get your weather forecast and run thousands of free programs. It has a 160GB hard drive, and a DVD drive for ripping music and video. It comes with comprehensive guides to walk you through set-up.
Price: $999.00
The best portable music player, and then some
The sleek design of the Apple iPod touch 32GB gives you the best features of the much-hyped iPhone without its major drawback, the (slow, expensive) phone. You can go online with its brilliantly simple WiFi connection, and the fingertip gestures of the multi-touch interface allow you to flick and pinch and scroll through menus much more easily than the old touch or scroll wheel.
A vibrant 3.5 inch widescreen colour display makes portable video surprisingly enjoyable. And new applications including email, weather, notes, and Google Maps make it much more than arguably the best portable music player on the market. Email messages are remarkably easy to read, but you wouldn't want to do a lot of web browsing.
Even with double the storage of the larger of its predecessors, it holds less than a quarter of the largest iPod, but it's much more fun.
Price: $629.00
The ultimate Ultimate
Slightly larger than the average smartphone, but possibly just a touch more clever, the i-mate Ultimate 9502 smartphone could be the cream of the crop if you're on Telstra's Next G network.
The 2.8 inch 640 x 480 screen gives you a lot more viewing territory, and there's direct video out to connect to a digital projector or TV, allowing you to run presentations or video conferences.
If the slideout keyboard cramps your digits, you can hook up a wired USB keyboard to save those battery hours chewed up by external Bluetooth keyboards. Running the Windows Mobile 6.0 OS, it has a 3.0 megapixel camera with autofocus and video capture, and a second VGA camera for video calls. It has Custom i-Q for easy personalisation, and Secure i-Q to lock and wipe your device if it's ever lost or stolen.
Price: $1099.00
Speed, certainty and security
The age of digital photos and graphic files has seriously diminished the utility of email. Many ISPs block larger files, and they can go astray courtesy of email filters and the like. If not, they can be mind-numbingly slow to download, testing friendships and fraying business relations.
Sign up at the YouSendIt website, and you can send files up to 2GB each with much greater speed, certainty and security from Windows PCs or Macs. Upload the file, and enter the recipient's email address, and they receive a link for a (depending on their connection speed) blindingly fast download. The link is active for seven days, you can opt for a secure (SSL) transfer, and there are 'plug-ins' to upload directly from Outlook, Photoshop CS2/CS3, CorelDRAW X3, Aperture, and PaperPort. The free 'lite' account limits files to 100MB apiece. Paid subscriptions extend it to 2GB.
Price: free / or from $US9.99 to $US99.99 per month
Further information
Reference: April 2008, volume 78.03, p. 78-79
