Gizmos

A click here, a flash there and a whole new lifestyle

So you thought that whiz-bang gadgetry and razzmatazz gizmos were only for geeks. Not necessarily, my friend. Srikanth R P sifted through the catalogues and found a lot of practical products that can make work-life easier while increasing productivity and efficiency. Well, if nothing else, at least they’re pure and simple fun. But best of all they’re all available right here, right now

Product : Mouse FP Vendor : Print Electronics Price : Rs 9,500 ~

Guarding the cheese
Can a mouse keep intruders away from your assets and treasures? Well, maybe not in the ‘real’ world, but in cyberspace a new type of mouse recently introduced in the market can do just that. It’s called Mouse FP, and the device looks like any standard mouse, except for a small ‘fingerprint’ window on the left, where your right-hand thumb rests. When installed with the supplied software, the mouse reads the fingerprint and serves as your password to access the PC or an application.

Here’s how this futuristic contraption works—when a finger is placed on the transparent window, a light-sensitive chip records the image in an analogue format that registers and converts your fingerprint image based on the distance between the grooves and ridges. This data is then used to create a template that is encrypted and stored in a database. As the image of the fingerprint is never stored, it is nearly impossible to crack an application or gain access to a PC that has been protected by Mouse FP.

While a normal desktop user may find the price of the device—approximately Rs 9,500 (almost 15 times that of a regular scroll mouse)—rather steep for everyday use, some corporates could possibly find the investment worthwhile. For instance, Mouse FP can be used to validate transactions for online shopping; Banks could give it to their high-value customers to prevent fraud.
The use of the device could also help solve an age-old industry problem that arises out of misuse of user rights. Using a fingerprint-based ID device, the mouse can truly hope to become your gatekeeper.

Product : Logitech Pocket Digital Camera Vendor : Rashi Peripherals Price : Rs 9,350

Honey, I shrunk the camera
If you thought that a digital camera was beyond the reach of your wallet, think again. For there is one digital camera that is not only affordable but also small enough to fit in your wallet (and not because it’s displaced all the money!). This credit-card-sized camera from Logitech is just one-and-a-half inches thick, and is priced at Rs 9,350 and can hold around 50 images.
This camera is intended for people who want to capture spontaneous moments but don’t fancy bulky photographic equipment. An ideal accessory for the frequent traveller.

Product : iPen Vendor : Best IT World, Mumbai Price : Rs 1,800 - Rs 3,650 (3 models)

Penning dreams into reality
As an artist, if you have ever wanted your artistic dreams to take flight using the computer, but have been hampered by traditional input devices such as the mouse and the keyboard, there’s hope!

Perhaps its time for you to take a look at the iPen, a device based on Microsoft’s Tablet PC. The iPen allows one to write, draw, sketch, annotate and design in a natural manner. Scribble and doodle your thoughts on the Tablet just like you’d do on normal paper. This device has the potential to be of great use to professionals in the field of art and design as it can be used with any Windows-based application. Autocad professionals and graphic designers can benefit from it as it does not hamper their drawing abilities. Home users could use this device to write an e-mail in their own language or to sign on a card.

Another useful feature is the Pen Commander, which gives the user the flexibility to define a certain position for certain activities. This feature is quite useful in speeding up work on a computer.

Product : Jet Flash drive (JetFlashA) Vendor : Mediaman group Price : Rs 2,500 (64 MB) Rs 60,000 (2 GB)

Drive in a flash
When you’re on the move but don’t want your notebook or desktop to move with you, you can still have access to your data and presentations in a flash. All you need is a USB Flash drive to cut down the hassles of data transfer. For the jet-setting businessman, the Jet Flash drive (JetFlashA) is just what the doctor ordered. Just bung in the drive into the USB port of the nearest computer and you’re ready with your presentations on-the-fly.

About the size and weight of a cigarette lighter, Flash drives can hold data from 16 MB to 2 GB. As these drives draw power from the USB port, they are perfectly suited for notebooks. Moreover, as the Flash drive is non-volatile and does not contain any moving parts, it is highly resistant to damage and loss of data. The drive is so small that you would probably think that you are carrying a packet of gum and not your personal hard disk.

Distributors like the Mumbai- based Mediaman group claim that with the increase in usage of notebooks in India, there’s an increased demand for notebook accessories like USB Flash drives.

Product : Logitech KeyCase Keyboard Vendor : Rashi Peripherals Price : 8,950

Keyboard on your Palm
Anyone used to typing on a regular keyboard finds it difficult to adjust to using devices like PDAs efficiently. If you fall into this category and are a Palm handheld user, you would find the Logitech Palm keyboard a welcome accessory. Roughly the same size as that of a standard notebook keyboard, the Logitech KeyCase is a wraparound keyboard that can even act as a protective case for your Palm handheld device. There are even function keys that give direct access to various Palm features such as find, menu and even Graffiti keystroke entry. The distributors of this product in India, Rashi Peripherals, aver that with KeyCase, Palm users will be able to key in data as fast as they do on a normal PC.

Product : Kodak EasyShare Vendor : Neoteric Informatique Price : Rs 15,000

In France, do they say ‘fromage?’
While India is still a considerable way behind countries like Singapore and South Korea where digital cameras have outstripped traditional ones and are seen everywhere, it’s heartening to note the increasing number of companies launching such devices here. One of the most innovative products on the digicam scene is the Kodak EasyShare CX4300, which in addition to the basic features of a digital camera, offers features like e-mailing and organising. For instance, the ‘share’ button on the camera allows picture-takers to tag specific shots, which can then be used for easy printing, sharing or organising.

As the camera can store 32 e-mail addresses, users can simply tag specific pictures and mail each one to the concerned recipient after transferring it to a PC through a single-touch process. The camera comes with 16 MB of internal memory and users have the choice of expanding capacity through digital memory cards via the camera’s expansion slot. For users who are looking at quality at a good price, this camera, at a list price of Rs 15,000, is right on focus.

Making yourself more presentable

Product : Atek Cordless Presenter Vendor : J S Electronics, Mumbai Price : Rs. 7,500

Ever felt cramped while making presentations on your notebook and wishing that you had the freedom to move around, yet change slides in a snap? With wireless technologies booming, this is certainly not wishful thinking. A product named Tote-Remote from a company called Atek does just that.

This cordless device uses RF technology that allows one to roam freely around a room, up to 9 metres away from the notebook with no line-of-sight needed.

The product includes a laser point button, an F5/Esc button for entering and exiting slide shows. and a wheel button that sends ‘arrow up’ and ‘arrow down’ commands. The distributors of the product in India, J S Electronics, claim that the product has attracted attention from the corporate buyer. While the high price (Rs 7,500) may inhibit some users, corporate users will find the product extremely useful.

Business in the cards
If you’re like most people, then you probably just stash all the business cards you collect into a pile, and then rummage around the stack when you need a particular card. And since there’s some weird law of nature that states that the card you need will be the last one you will find, you end up wasting a lot of time. Enter Bizcard Finder, your time saver. Just take your stack of business cards and feed them into the device. The information from the cards is organised into specific fields like name, company name, contact number, etc, which can be retrieved by typing in a partial name using the search engine. You can even export the addresses to a database format or synchronise the database with Outlook Express address books. The product is available from Bangalore-based Sparr Electronics and is priced at around Rs 5,500.