Sun
XO laptop
APC Universal Notebook Battery 50
Gizzy the Data Worm
Samsung m510
1. XO laptop, $400 for two in Give One Get One from One Laptop per Child
Give a very cool Christmas present to someone at home and see your largesse extend to a child in the developing world. The XO laptop is the result of an experience Nicholas Negroponte, a co-founder and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, had back in 2002 when he saw first-hand how connected laptops transformed the lives of children and their families in a remote Cambodian village. The XO will operate in remote regions with very little power — and it has the ability to recharge from a solar panel or even a hand crank. It has a sealed rubberized keyboard, scaled to fit kid-sized hands and to withstand harsh conditions. For a donation of $399 US, one XO laptop will be sent to a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child of your choosing. It is not a registered charity in Canada, according to Canada Revenue Agency, so donations wouldn’t be tax deductible on your Canadian tax return. Don’t look for a CD/DVD drive or expect it to run standard Mac or Windows programs, but if you want to combine a little social responsibility with a tech intro for a child here, click on www.laptopgiving.org.
2. APC Universal Notebook Battery 50, $100
In case your power-hungry laptop isn’t the hand cranking kind, the UPB50-CN is an external power supply that adds up to four hours of running time, depending on the model of your computer. Weighs less than half-a-kilogram and fits alongside your laptop in tight spaces, like airline tray tables.
3. Gizzy the Data Worm, $68
Looking to add a little of the warm and fuzzies to your humdrum computing day? Check out Gizzy, a USB drive that holds four gigabytes of memory in a cuddly package. At www.nifnaks.com.
4. Samsung m510, $180 from Virgin Mobile
Now Virgin Mobile, which has won top rankings among prepaid service providers in Canada, is offering monthly plans as well and this Samsung multimedia machine lets you download your favourite music from Virgin Mobile Soundbar as well as take pictures with its 1.3-megapixel camera, take videos and get streaming video and radio.
© The Vancouver Sun 2007
