Carroll County Times Articles
Great Tech Gadgets of 2007
by Jeannine Morber – January 3, 2008
Last year was a great year for techie gadgets and gizmos. Not only were new products released to the market in 2007 but many familiar products were made bigger (televisions), smaller (cell phones), faster (CPUs), and cheaper (laptops). There were so many new and improved products in 2007 that I actually had a difficult time limiting myself to just a few in order to fit this space.
My first top techie gadget, the Nintendo Wii, was actually released in 2006 but I'm including it here because although it was released in late 2006, most people weren't able to purchase one until 2007. The Nintendo Wii is a very innovative video game console which features game controllers that react to hand and body motions. Rather than requiring fancy finger work on a control pad in order to play a game, many Wii games are played by mimicking real-world motions such as those in bowling, fishing and boxing. Nintendo also equipped the Wii with a built-in Wi-Fi to access a "Virtual Console" where older games such as Super Mario Brothers, the Legend of Zelda and PacMan can be downloaded for a small fee and then played on the Wii console.
No 2007 techie gadget list would be complete without the combination cell phone/MP3 player, the Apple iPhone, released at the end of June 2007. Apple hyped the heck out of this gadget which resulted in long lines of potential customers forming hours before stores opened for business on the first day the iPhone was in stock. Those lucky enough to get one were not disappointed. The iPhone's touch screen is highly intuitive and very easy to learn, and doesn't require stylus to use (which is one less thing to lose). The iPhone is also equipped with a Safari web browser for easy internet surfing and has Bluetooth 2.0 capability. The iPhone also has many built-in features such as a 2-megapixel camera, a YouTube player, Google Maps and of course, an iPod.
Last but not least is the Garmin Nuvi 200 portable global positioning system (GPS) released in May 2007. Although this is not the first GPS by Garmin Nuvi, it is the most affordable yet at less than $250. It is also extremely compact and can be used on foot as well as in a vehicle. The 200 model also has voice directions so you can keep your eyes on the road and quick route recalculations in the event of a detour or to simply avoid heavy traffic. The two features it doesn't have, that the Garmin Nuvi 350 model does have, are text-to-speech capability and the ability to play MP3s. But the 350 model is also $200 more than the 200 model.
For more information on these products, more detailed reviews and where to purchase them, go to www.cnet.com and enter the product name in the search feature.
About the Author
Jeannine Morber is the Director of the Carroll Technology Council. Questions are welcome and may be addressed in future articles. Email mail@carrolltechcouncil.org or go to www.carrolltechcouncil.org to learn more.
