Sun
VONAGE V-PHONE
BELKIN WASHABLE MOUSE
CANON PIXMA MP470 ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER
KENSINGTON FLYLIGHT USB NOTEBOOK LIGHT
VONAGE V-PHONE — $30 CDN
Vonage is billing its V-Phone as the students’ pizza-priced solution for keeping in touch with anyone around the world. It’s facing tough competition from Skype but the little USB plug-and-play device fits on a keychain and lets students take their phone service and their number wherever they go. The phone plans are extra.
BELKIN WASHABLE MOUSE — $40 CDN
We’re certain our grimy computer mouse carries roughly as many germs as the real thing so perhaps a mouse that you can wash isn’t a bad idea. And the folks at Belkin aren’t just talking about a little drop of water — they put the mouse under the tap. So perhaps that little drop of coffee won’t destroy this water-resistant rodent. Plugs into a USB connection.
CANON PIXMA MP470 ALL-IN-ONE PRINTER — $150 CDN
For the photo-taking-challenged among us, Canon’s new all-in-one printers have “autoimage fix,” a feature that analyzes and categorizes scenes and optimizes them according to their type — whether it’s portraits, scenery or something else. The MP470 and the MP210, both new releases and sharing the autoimage fix and “quick start,” a feature that fires up the machine for use without a delay, are expected on store shelves this summer. The MP470, which has a 4.6-cm flip-up LCD panel making it easy to view photos straight from memory cards before printing them, has an optional Bluetooth adapter for an extra $100. The MP210 all-in-one, an even more budget-student version is $100.
KENSINGTON FLYLIGHT USB NOTEBOOK LIGHT — $20 US
It used to be we only needed a little book light to keep reading after everyone else was asleep. Now we need the laptop computer version to see the computer when the lights are out. Also helpful for those road trips where someone else has to do the nighttime driving and you want to check e-mail or play games without blinding the driver. It plugs into the USB port on your computer, delivers an LED light and doesn’t drain your battery.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
