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Reviews
The Five
Gifts of Christmas
By Timothy R.
Butler
Editor-in-Chief, Open for Business
December
16, 2004, 01:26:55 EST
With just a
short time before Christmas, you may be wondering what little
stocking stuffer you can get for your technically obsessed
co-worker, computer savvy boss or geeky family member. It is
not too late to pick out a gift that will stay out of the
closet of useless gifts after the party's over. OfB's
Timothy R. Butler looks at five great gift ideas
below.
Waterfield
Design's iPod Case: This case, better known as the
"SuperDooper iPod Case" protects iPods with nice, thick padded
sides made of durable fabric on the outside and soft fabric on
the inside, where the case actually touches the iPod.
Surprisingly, this case is in a minority of designs that
actually protect the screen rather than leaving it wide open
-- something that ought to be appreciated by anyone who plans
to wear the case using the included heavy-duty belt clip.
The case sounds great on paper, but how well does it
work? Very well. We tried it out on a 4G 20-gigabyte iPod and
found that it fit it very securely, but in a way that kept all
of the buttons and ports of the music player accessible. The
flap (with velcro) that goes over the screen is easily lifted
up with a little built in tab at the bottom of it. The iPod's
synchronization port is accessible through a small opening in
the bottom of the case, and the case can even be left on when
the iPod is in its docking cradle by folding open the bottom
of the case. The swivel belt clip is surprisingly robust
feeling compared to the relatively flimsy ones that come with
many cell phone cases. A small pocket on the front flap can
hold the iPod ear buds when not in use.
For the style
conscious iPod wearer, the case can be obtained in four colors
-- red, blue, white and "lead" gray -- although the
predominate color is black in each variant. Our unit was of
the lead colored design, which matches nicely with any of
Apple's aluminum encased computers, such as a PowerBook G4 or
PowerMac G5. The case's snug fit translates into a design that
adds as little bulk as possible without putting the iPod at
risk of damage. Any iPod user not already fortunate enough to
be enjoying this case will surely thank-you for the gift ($40,
http://www.sfbags.com/).
Mandrake Move: Most computer users know the
frustration of being away from their computer and feeling lost
if forced to borrow someone else's -- all of one's data and
programs are missing. Sure a laptop solves this problem, but
if your budget is too tight or if lugging around a delicate
piece of machinery doesn't fit one's job, Mandrakesoft has an
ideal solution. Move combines the basic conveniences of a
read-only "live CD" GNU/Linux distribution, a distribution
that can boot to a fully usable desktop on any computer with
an optical drive in just seconds, with a memory key to provide
a way to save one's documents and settings in a portable
fashion. Suddenly a live-cd need not have short-term memory
loss any longer. Simply pop in the CD and key and you have
your desktop available at the nearest PC.
MandrakeStore offers several variations of Move, one
without a bundled CD key and others that bundle keys ranging
in size from 128 MB to a whopping 1.5 GB key. While the latter
will set you back several hundred greenbacks, but the
unbundled Move CD that will work with many existing USB keys
is much friendlier on the wallet. ($32.90 without bundled USB
key, http://www.mandrakestore.com/).
RadTech ScreensavRz: We first reviewed the
ScreensavRz screen protector a few months ago. Using RadTech's
exclusive Optex micro fiber material, ScreensavRz is perfect
for anyone you know who is protective of his laptop or all in
one -- PC or Mac. The cloth comes in a number of sizes,
including specially tailored editions for Apple PowerBooks,
iBooks and iMac G4's. Simply pick the proper color and size
for the recipient's computer to get a gift guaranteed to be a
pleasant surprise. You can find our complete review of
ScreensavRz here
(starting at $13.95, http://www.radtech.us/).
RadTech eyelighter: RadTech has another product
that will surely please almost anyone (even those who aren't
necessarily technically inclined): the eyelighter. The
eyelighter is a LED spotlight that fits onto one's ear and
projects a very bright beam of light forward in front of the
wearer. The possibilities for this light are almost infinite.
It is, of course, perfect for working on computers located
under desks and peering inside of tight equipment cases, but
it also serves quite well as a flashlight in a dark corner of
a storage closet or basement. Book enthusiasts will also
rejoice at the eyelighter's ability to serve as quite possibly
the world's best book light -- it is bright enough to read by
without any eyestrain, but it is also focused enough that the
avid reader with a spouse will not disturb their significant
other's sleep.
The eyelighter comes in models with
white, blue or red, of which we tested the ultra-bright white
LED unit. It uses two 3v replaceable lithium battery "buttons"
to provide hours worth of light. To insure a proper fit on
anyone's ears, RadTech used bendable, heavy gage, plastic
coated wire for the part of the unit that fits over the ear,
which can be molded to provide the right fit. This is a sure
favorite gift for just about anyone this Christmas season, and
it is affordable enough that you can always purchase one for
yourself as well. We can tell you ahead of time that ordering
one for yourself should be mandatory; if you do not, the gift
recipient may be in danger of not receiving his or her gift
($9.95-$11.95, http://www.radtech.us/).
Rapid Application Development with Mozilla:
Give your favorite developer something to chew on over the
holiday with Nigel McFarlane's entry into the Bruce Perens'
Open Source series of books, published by Prentice Hall PTR.
Using clear language that even a relative programming klutz,
such as yours truly, can understand, McFarlane gives a good
overview of the programming options available to developers
wanting to tap into the powerful tools created by the Mozilla
Foundation for its namesake Internet suite ($44.90, http://www.radtech.us/).
Timothy R. Butler is Editor-in-Chief of Open for Business.
You can reach him at mailto:tbutler@uninetsolutions.com
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