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by Chris Magyar and Anita M. |
The holidays always bring out the best and brightest in new technological innovations, particularly in the area of consumer electronics. On top of each year's must-have toy (which this year is the extremely rare Playstation 2 ... see below), several new evolutions of stereo equipment, home theater systems and television hit the shelves of the cavernous electronic warehouse near you.
Maybe it's the cresting of the millennium, but this year yielded a bumper crop of cool new trinkets for the gadget hound. We did a lot of playing and shopping to seek out the expensive toys worth getting this season, and the following is the perfect parade of items for your wish list ... and a guide to what's worth the bucks when you're fulfilling the wishes of others.
From DVDs to MP3s, the honors roll call is here. So whip out your list, check it twice, then pop open the Internet and start placing orders. The future is right now.
--Chris J. Magyar
Whoever said that games are for kids never had a Nintendo, Sega or Playstation. And now if you want to play right, you'd better get a PS2. Sony's Playstation 2 made its debut October 26 and lucky Westerners will finally be able to get their hands on this long awaited product. Sony has improved all aspects of their Playstation product, including giving it a brand new look. The console is a black unit, and when stood vertically, it looks sleek and a little futuristic. It's like a chic mini-skyscraper.
Of course, the look is the least important improvement. One of the most appealing things about the PS2 is it not only plays audio CDs, it has a built-in DVD player. For the U. S. price of $299, PS2 is going to be a steal for movie lovers. In Japan it was one of the cheapest DVD players available.
Justin Kaminicki, a U. S. citizen based in Mie, Japan said, "It's a multi-purpose tool. I mainly got it to watch movies and it works great!" Kaminicki has had his PS2 since May (the release date for Japan was March 4), and he says he has been satisfied with the product thus far and recommends it for movie lovers as well as video game players.
The Japanese PS2 included the system console, Dual Shock 2 controller, 8 MB memory card, AV cable, AC cord, and demo CD. The North American version will not include the memory card which has been made faster and bigger, allowing players to save more info from their games. The PS2 has a faster processor (300 MHz) and emotion synthesis. There is exceptional detail and clarity seen in the graphics, from lighting shades of bright to dim to facial expressions of game characters. The price for new games (depending on the title and where you buy them, i. e. stores vs. Internet) range from $49.99 to $119.99.
The Dual Shock 2 controller has analog sensitivity and can determine the pressure given to each button. In addition, the PS2 has frontloading for the disks and is backward compatible with most previous Playstation software and accessories.
The PS2 can be found in stores throughout Japan now. It sells for 4 mon (roughly close to $400 U. S. dollars) so only game junkies and smart DVD shoppers are moving it off the shelves here. There are some Westerners based in Japan who are still waiting for their PS2 Internet orders to be filled. Stephen Beerss from Mie, Japan, said he ordered his PS2 from a U. S. Internet site in May, and they said he might receive it in January! If the PS2 is as popular in the U. S. as it was when it was first released in Japan, many game lovers might be waiting around a while before they can actually get their hands on a PS2 unit.
Sony has some online plans for the future. Sometime next year, PS2 owners may be able to connect to the Internet and surf the web through their PS2 console. Also slated for 2001 is the Nintendo Gamecube and Microsoft's X-Box. But for now, enjoy the PS2 and happy gaming!
--Anita M.
This is the year we've all been waiting for. DVDs have finally hit that critical mass and are poised to replace the old VHS system of home movie watching. For a quality entry-level DVD player, the Sony S360 is the best you'll find. For only about $300, this little unit features all the perks that make DVDs so enjoyable without maxing out a credit card. Sony always seems to be at the forefront of laser technologyÑ DVDs are no exception. Plan on spending a little extra for a good S-Video cable for your television set.
For those of you who aren't satisfied with mere entry-level, and who are compulsive movie-watchers, the Sony C650D is a good step up. Featuring everything the S360 has, the C650D includes a five-disc tray, so you can have up to five movies or audio CDs ready to play at the touch of a button. Perfect if you have a fear of handling shiny round objects. The suggested retail price is $700, but you'll be able to find it for as little as $500 at most electronics stores.
Here's the real treat for this year. The Panasonic LV-75 is a high-quality portable DVD player. That's right, portable. The 7" diagonal screen has a resolution that's comparable to most TVs, and the speakers are programmed for surround sound (as long as the DVD you're playing has the proper encoding). About half the size of a small laptop, the LV-75 comes with a battery pack capable of up to four hours of playback. This is what makes DVD technology so exciting: when the unit is folded, it's not much bigger than a VHS tape! Now you won't need any large, heavy equipment to watch movies during road trips, or even on lunch breaks at work.
If you hunt around enough, you should be able to find the LV-75 for as little as $900, or its slightly less expensive (and less surround-sound capable) cousin, the LV-55, for $750.
CD burners are becoming almost standard equipment on most new computers, but stand-alone burners offer several advantages that your PC can't keep up with. For example, the Philips CDR 785 has a 3-disc changer in addition to a burning tray, which makes mix CDs a whole lot easier to produce. You can record at normal speed or double speed, and even program CD Text as you burn (which labels the album and each track in compatible players). Retails from $400-$ 500 at most stores.
Of course, functionality can sometimes take a backseat to syle. After all, this equipment is sitting on your shelves in full view ... shouldn't it look good? Enter the Harmon Kardon CDR 2, the most stylish CD burner anywhere. But it's not all looks: the dual deck burner is the first in the world to record at 4x speed, which means less time spent recording and more time spent listening. Both trays are able to play CDs, so it functions as a 2-disc changer as well. Available at Circuit City for about $600.
Just when CDs were getting really good, what with the availability of burners and all, along come MP3s. Who needs to worry about the compact size of the album when it can be down-loaded into memory chips at about the same quality? The world, however, is still searching for a way to make the extreme portability of MP3 as cool as it should be. Enter the RCA Lyra. About the size of a Game Boy, Lyra is capable of storing up to 60 minutes of MP3 music. The Lyra is fully compatible with the two biggest computer "jukeboxes" on the marketÑ Real and Music Match-- and has all the playability functions of a CD Walkman. The pocket-friendly size, lack of moveable parts, and backlit display all add up to the most hassle-free way to take your tunes with you. The sound quality isn't as good as it gets, and only 60 minutes means that plane ride better be short, but you really can't complain since the sticker price is about $75 ... cheaper than most Walkmans. Sorry Apple lovers-- compatible with PCs only.
Leave it to Sony to make the already cool MP3 technology look even better. The Vaio Music Clip is another skip-free portable player like the Lyra, but it's cased in what looks like an oversized Bic pen. Capable of playing Wav and ATRAC3 files as well as MP3s, the Vaio features 120 minutes of digital storage and runs for five full hours on a measly AA battery. This slick little unit downloads music files via the USB port on your PC, and features all the same goodies (backlit display, standard play features) as the Lyra. The Clips we tried didn't have very good sound quality, but that's a problem we found common to MP3 players at this stage in digital evolution. You can find the Vaio Clip at most electronics stores for about $300.
Yeah, we adults like to act so smug around Pokemon-crazed kiddies. We shake our heads and laugh at how easily amused they are by the "gotta-catch-em-all" mentality of a cheap marketing ploy that capitalizes on peer pressure. Then we obsess over whether Bob in accounting has a newer Palm Pilot. If you haven't grabbed one of these babies yet, you're probably also still holding out on this whole cell phone craze and baffled by the prospect of voice mail. The leader in personal organizer technology, the Palm VII has so many features it would be ludicrous to try to list them all. The best feature is built-in wireless instant messaging, which (as long as all the Joneses have caught up with you), can take the place of that new expensive cell phone you just bought. Organize, surf, chat and download, all on a machine that fits in one hand. The VII series goes for $400- $500, but you can still get the Palm III for just over $100 most places.
You've probably seen the commercials. A guy's watching his favorite football team as it's about to kick the winning field goal, when he pauses the television (?), says a quick prayer, then resumes to watch the ball sail through the uprights. Far-fetched? No, it's here, and you MUST get it.
TiVo is a subscription service (like cable) that allows you, with the correct hardware, to pause live television, digitally record shows, store a bazillion preferences and rate programs. Subscriptions run about $10 a month or $200 for a lifetime sign-up.
The key to using this exciting new technology is the PVR, or Personal Video Recorder. It's similar to MP3 players in that it records television digitally, eliminating all those VHS tapes. The most basic players can handle only 30 seconds of live pause, but better ones, such as the Philips HDR 312 shown here, can handle up to a half hour of live pause. Your two favorite sitcoms run at the same time? No problem!
The HDR 312 works on any channel you can get on your television, and stores up to 30 hours of programming, which means you can go to Europe for a year and trust your handy PVR to record the entire season of "ER." Not bad looking either. Most electronics stores carry it for about $400. Happy shopping!
