But even laptops have their limitations when it comes to convenience. When you’re constantly on the go, lugging a small netbook around can still be a hassle.

The good news is, there’s a gedget that combines the intuitive ease and versatility of writing on paper with the convenience of digital data transfer – the IntelliPen.

It’s wireless device that instantly creates digital records of anything that you write or draw on any paper. It comes as a set of pen, which acts as a transmitter while working as a regular ballpoint, and a receiver clip.

When you clip the receiver onto the top of the paper, the pen tansmits coordinates to it in real-time, thus creating a “digital page” of everything you’ve written and drawn, and storing it in a built-in flashdrive. When you’re done, you just connect the receiver to your computer via USB, for quick transfer of your digitized notes. From there, you can save them as bitmap image files, or convert the handwriting into digital text using the software MyScript Notes, which is included in the set.

The IGB built-in flashdrive in the receiver can hold up to a thousand A4 sheets’ worth of notes. It can also function as a regular flash device and store other files, and even play audio files. Another advantage is that unlike other digital writing devices that require costly specially-made sheets to use with the product, you can use the IntelliPen on any kind of paper, or on any flat surface that you can clip the receiver on, for that matter, up to A4 in size.

No doubt, the IntelliPen is one of the most useful gadgets to come out in a while — one that ought to make things easier for you on the daily grind. Keep an eye out for it in all leading gadget stores and bookstores.

The Ixus 200 shares the same features as its predecessor –an impressive wide angle (28mm) 4x optical zoom lens, 12.1 Megapixel resolution and DIGIC 4 processor. It shoots movies at 720p and can be hooked up to an HDTV right away. All the same except for the touch screen that has made it so enticing to gadget freaks, not to mention the 3-inch LCD that’s also widescreen. The menu options, however, is not entirely dependent via touch because the jog dial has been retained.

I had the Ixus 110 in the gold colored version, very sleek and stylish. And one of the features I love about this camera is the 10 second, 3 shot-timer.Most cams would shoot just once, the 110 shoots three consecutively.Tweak it some more and you see that it also has face detection.

There is no doubt as to image capability of the Ixus 200 because, like I said, it shares the same features as the 110 that I use. Images are always bound to impress.

Apple’s iPhone has already made multi-touch available to the masses, albeit on a small scale. But a tablet that allows you to flip through movies, tv shows, and accessing the net, while lounging on the couch?  Amazing.
 
How cool is the ipad? For one, the 9.7 inch screen allows you to see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one page at a time. The orientation shifts from landscape to portrait depending on how you flip the tablet as you move your finger up and down the screen or pinch to zoom in and out. No matter which orientation you use, you can scroll through your mail, compose a new email using the large, onscreen keyboard, or delete messages with nothing more than a tap and a flick.You can also save the photos in an email directly to the built-in Photos app.

Weighing at a mere 1.5 pounds, the half-inch thick iPad comes with 10 hours of battery life,  16,32 or 64 gigabytes of flash memory storage and built-in WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. It works with all the most popular email providers, including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail and AOL.

Although there have been mixed reviews even before the product (initially priced at  at 499USD) is set to be made available in March, you can’t fault Apple for going the extra mile when it comes to coming up with innovative products (ipod, iphone and Macbooks).

If you’re looking for toughness, you might wanna consider these items:

Samsung B2100 Extreme Edition. If you love the outdoors and want a cellphone that can withstand the rigors of travel, this is it. It’s the only waterproof phone that can do wonders underwater;   can stay submerged underwater up to 30 minutes at a depth of one meter. You can text, take photos and videos under the sea!  It’s the kind of phone you bring to Maguindanao — it’s extremely tough that its compliant with military standards (MIL-STD-810F);  built to brave blowing rain, dust, shock, salt fog, humidity, water, immersion, solar radiation, vibration and extreme temperature. It also has a torchlight for those dark places. It has extremely loud speakers that can play your fave MP3s. You can also tune in to its FM radio plus, it has noise cancellation feature to clear out the noisiest environment.

Toshiba Portege M900. Tricom unveils a high-tech hybrid of art, style and pure genius in the Toshiba Portege M900. Weighing merely 2.5kg, its features are full — it has hard drive protection, thanks to its built-in 3-D Motion Sensor that monitors free falls, shock and vibration, and rapidly prepares the drive head for impact.  It’s equipped with a Fingerprint Security Suite to prevent unauthorized access. Plus, it has Toshiba Eco Utility and PC Health Monitor to help reduce power consumption (www.pc.toshiba-asia.com or www.tricom.com.ph).

source: Canon Image Holiday 2009 Edition

 Whether you’re a professional photographer or a budding hobbyist, there is no place like Hildago in Quiapo for high-end and low-end cameras that are priced slightly lower than those at the malls. Name it, they have it — loads of accessories from lighting, lenses, batteries, CDs, DVDs anything photo and video related — the Gilmore of cameras so to speak. The stretch of shops (Henry’s, Mayer, etc) can be a little too crowded for comfort and you need to be careful when you bring cash to buy your camera.

One of the shops I’ve browsed in however does offer free delivery to your home or office. You just need to make a deposit of at least Php 1,000 or more. Only then will they bring out the camera and have it tested as they do not have display items (before you go there, you should have already seen and held the cam of your dreams in the mall anyway). For Canon lovers, Ms. Helen of Mayer says they guarantee three years warranty on parts and service.

 The latest drool-worthy DSLR camera is the Canon 500D (entry level series) priced at Php 49,950 at the mall and can be had for Php 42,000 at Mayer. This is not your average DSLR as it is packed with features similar to that of midrange series such as the EOS 50D (see photo). If you purchase any select Canon camera or camcorder from October 1 to December 31, 2009, you are entitled to a choice of premium items (4GB SDHC mem card, Crumpler Camera Strap, etc) from the Canon Promo Redemption Portal. Since Christmas is just around the corner, why not drop by, browse a little and maybe get that shutterbug brother/sister of yours the latest digicam or whatever his/her heart’s desire. 

There are plenty of shops to choose from. Do compare prices. Airconditioned Henry’s seems to draw in the crowd, but other shops like Mayer,Watson, 24K, Avenue and JT though not as brightly lit,  do offer better pricing. Haggle.  Prices are not etched in  stone.

photo by Omel Hernandez

Got a tip from a professional photographer  friend of mine: use a USB cable at all times when transferring data from cam to PC rather than taking out the SD card. He learned this the hard way; the SD card slot was damaged and it took weeks before the parts were replaced.

Here’s a listing of shops he regularly goes to as they have been in business for years:

Mayer Photo  – address: 111, 113, 115 C. Palanca St., Quiapo, Manila; tel: 733-7598, 733-7722 . Look for Ramon Ong; Products: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Olympus, good source for high end lenses.

Watson Photo Shop – address: 312 P. Gomez St., Quiapo, Manila;  tel: 733-7697. Look for: Philip King Tan Tang Products: Nikon, Canon, Sony, Fuji, Sunpak, Olympus

The F900 is the perfect solution for stylish Internet connectivity anywhere.

Samsung’s latest TouchWiz 2.0 user interface gives an unrivalled user experience and includes iconic new features such as motion UI, smart unlock and customizable widget screen.

Samsung’s Dolfin browser is designed to let users surf the net and access websites with ease and speed. Users can view up to five web pages simultaneously and bookmark their favourite websites as widgets on the phone’s homepage. The handset features a built in ad-blocker, multiple downloading, and multi-purpose address field, while Dolfin’s unique one finger zoom enables users to zoom in and out of web pages using only one hand.Other multimedia features include a 5 mega-pixel camera, built-in GPS, DNSe & SRS Sound Effect technology for superior sound quality, and DivX and XviD video support for video downloading and viewing.

Just face it towards sunlight or plug it to your computer using the USB port to power the lithium batteries inside and your ready to charge your gadgets using the adapters included.
 
Tritec Philippines, Inc., the company behind the first and premier solar premier charger brand in the Philippines, now comes with 10 updated adapters for your ultimate gadget compatibility. The new GreenMobile Solar Charger have the same model variants –double panel, clamshell and pop-up– but now have full Nokia compatibility, is iPhone 3G ready and LG compatible.

Just when you thought laptops can’t get any smaller or lighter, here comes Sony Vaio with its recently launched laptop pocket series, the Sony Vaio P25G, incredibly lightweight at 594 grams including battery. It is so small you can carry it in your pocket anywhere and it comes in five delightful eye candy colors namely black, white, red, green and pirate gold.

I saw the Sony Vaio P25G at Avant in Greenbelt and was blown away by how small it is; small enough to fit into a small clutch.It comes with an 8-inch wide LCD screen and isolation keyboard which makes it comfortable for the users for inputting of data without any hassle. Battery lasts up to six hours.

Sony Vaio P25G comes with a 32 bit Windows Vista business Operating System which provides the users with easy GUI interface for running application. The laptop also has Intel atom process Z540 (1.86 GHz) for its processing and has an excellent Processor Bus of 533 MHz and Memory bus of 533 MHz. The installed main memory of Sony Vaio P25G comprises Random Access Memory of 2 GB of type DDR2 for boosting the application speed and a cache memory of 512 MB for high speed access to the recent files.

The other leading features of Sony Vaio P25G consists of Intel graphic accelerator 500 for running high end graphic application, SD memory card slot, 2 slots of USB 2.0, Bluetooth connectivity v2.1, Wireless LAN for wireless internet connectivity, frontal side camera of 640 x 480 pixels for easy video conferencing.

The Sony Vaio P25G retails for Php 74,999.