Gillian Shaw
Sun
PIXMA MX7600 All-in-One, Canon
Asimov’s Law, Alice Wang
This is the best thing that could happen to our weight since the last herbal cleanse. Created by Alice Wang, the designer whose products – like the cell phone that pretends to receive text messages to make it look like you’re popular, or the fast-typing keyboard that will save your klutzy typing from the ridicule of your cubicle colleagues – are aimed at showing up human behaviours, taboos and trends. Asimov’s Law is named for Isaac Asimov’s first law: “A robot may not harm a human being.” This is a range of scales that can make you feel good about your weight – something that the regular version doesn’t always do. White Lies lets you lie to yourself – the further back you stand on the scales, the lighter you become. Half-truth passes your weight news to your partner, which may or may not put a strain on your relationship depending on how that’s played out. And Open-secrets sends a text message to the cell phone of your choosing every time you weigh yourself. www.alice-wang.com
2 HL-2170W wireless laser printer, Brother, $180
Wireless and Ethernet networking come at an affordable price for home and SOHO use in Brother International Corp.’s new line of monochrome laser printers. Delivering at a speed up to 23 pages per minute, it has an enclosed lower paper tray to hold up to 250 sheets of paper and a manual slot for feeding through envelopes and letterhead. It has 32 megabytes of memory, 802.11b/g wireless and Ethernet and high-yield cartridges are available to cut printing costs.
3 PIXMA MX7600 All-in-One, Canon, $450
Another printing possibility for small business, the latest entrant in Canon’s PIXMA lineup is an All-in-One machine that incorporates new Pigment Reaction (PgR) technology that allows for the printing of quality colour documents on plain paper. Dealing with the problems of ink bleeding and printing through the paper that can happen with colour inkjet printing, this will deliver professional looking documents and as an All-in-One also handles other jobs around the office like copying, scanning and faxing.
4 Nova P22, ASUS desktop PC, $900
So you want the digital home but not the clunky big hardware that comes with it. The folks at ASUS share your concern and have delivered what is being billed as the smallest Intel Core 2 Duo desktop processor. Sucking up a mere 122 cubic inches of space from your kitchen or living room, the Nova P22 is one-twelfth the size and a fifth the weight of a conventional tower model computer. Powerful, quiet and with built in speakers and support for home theatre configurations, it comes in glossy pearl white or black. Smaller than most laptops it can move from room to room, adapting to various needs via a docking station port.
