Laptops for superheroes
When you sit down at Peet's Coffee and open your gray laptop to set up your mobile office, let's face it, no one is interested in what you're doing. But imagine all of the heads that will turn when you unfurl your Batman Power Wing laptop.
Never mind that the Power Wing is a $60 children's toy, with no storage capacity and no Internet capability. Its backlit LCD screen, glow-in-the-dark keys (on a QWERTY keyboard), keyboard lamplight, and retractable bat wings will show others there is a darker, more mysterious side to your everyday Bruce Wayne demeanor.
Just touching the laptop's lid causes wings to spring out of the base of the unit. Batman then announces, ''Bat computer online! Enter a mission code!" It's like sending up the Bat Signal and inviting comic book guys and gals to join you for a gingerbread latte.
You should let your 5-year-old try the Power Wing, of course. Oregon Scientific, known for its digital weather instruments and other high-tech gadgets for entertainment and gardening, says the Power Wing has 26 activities for kids, which deliver lessons in math, logic, language, and music.
No caped crusader, however, will be fully equipped without the addition of a ''mobile training unit," a cuff-size device worn on the arm. The Batman cuff, also from Oregon Scientific, has a speaker and LCD screen for superhero training on the go. The unit, meant to complement the Power Wing laptop, includes 13 learning games to challenge young minds.
Oregon Scientific sells similar toys under the Barbie theme and a Ferrari. The Ferrari laptop costs the same as the Power Wings unit (about $60) and has a ''European-influenced" design (sounds snobby), plus 50 games in English and 10 in Spanish. All of the toy laptops make good, cheap decoys to keep little hands occupied -- little hands that might otherwise paw at your own $1,200 machine. They are also great for introducing kids to computers.
Listening
Bluetooth headset's a retro standout
We like the idea of a headset that boasts of its state-of-the-art Bluetooth wireless support, yet looks like it should be plugged into an eight-track cassette player.
The Plantronics Pulsar 590 is a wireless headset that works with any Bluetooth device, including mobile phones. It's got a couple of fairly big ear cans, which will make it a retro standout among iPods and their signature white ear buds.
The Pulsar 590 has a couple of neat features, such as buttons to adjust the volume and skip tracks playing on your MP3 player. It also has a microphone you can extend from the headset for taking phone calls from your Bluetooth phone.
A universal adapter for the Pulsar 590 allows you to hard-wire the headset to iPods and other compatible MP3 players.
The price of the Pulsar (about $250, including the adaptor) is not bad, considering that you can use it for both the office and den. Outside, however, the Pulsar 590 might not stay on your head during your morning run, nor will it fit under your bike helmet.
Holiday Gift Idea
A multimedia drive for video junkies
A hard drive doesn't sound like a sexy stocking stuffer, but for those who like to wear their phones in hip holsters and keep USB drives on key chains, trust us: The Iomega ScreenPlay multimedia drive will make the perfect gift.
It's among the latest cheap storage device sure to give movie and record companies conniptions, because it includes the same outputs you find on the back of a DVD player or VCR, and a USB port for downloading music and movies from your computer.
The ScreenPlay's 60-gig storage capacity is enough to hold 90 hours of video or over 1,100 hours of music.
The drive has DVD-like control buttons, comes with a remote control, and plugs into most new television sets and stereos for playback.
Iomega says the ScreenPlay is ideal for ''road warriors" (formerly known as traveling salesmen) who want to bring their family home videos with them on business trips.
Yeah, right.
We see hours spent draining the hotel minibar, while watchingBitTorrent bootlegs of ''Rome" and ''Deadwood."
