Geek Gifts Guide 2011

I love Christmas, the snow is on the ground (almost), tree is up adorned with tinsel and lights. The morning brings with it the excitement of the children, followed by the gorgeous smells of that lovely home-cooked roast dinner. But wait… who am I kidding? It is all about ripping my gifts open like the big kid that I am. What follows are my wishes for Christmas, here's hoping all you Geekanoids Geeks have an awesome Christmas too.

 

Money is No Object
I am not all that fussed about 3D, but I do like to watch a good movie and the bigger the better! The Sony VPL-VW90ES (£5,299 or $7,500) delivers full HD at up to 300-inches of glorious jaw dropping movies in my own home, yes please. It just happens to do 3D too, so I might give that a try in the New Year. Oh and since this in the my 'Money is No Object' category, best buy me a Beamax 10505 A-Velvet projector screen to go with it please, it's only an extra grand.

 

Gifts Under £2,000
For him and her, whether you are in the Mac or Windows camp, either of these beauties is sure to put a smile on your face…

 

MacBook Air (£1,349 or $1,599)
For me it would be the top end 13-inch MacBook Air, with it peppy dual-core i5 processor and superb display. The elegance, power and simplicity of the Mac OSX operating system means that even a beginner can open up this beauty and start enjoying it. Give the recipient of this gift five minutes and they will be surfing the net, sending emails and exploring the included iLife suite of software. Not to mention its gorgeous design aesthetics. It is so super thin, I might just carve this years Turkey with it ;)
Buy the MacBook Air here. 

 

Asus ZenBook UX-31E (£999 or $1,449)
And for those into getting their Windows thing on, you don't have to put up with heavy slabs of plastic on your lap any more. Thanks to the uber-talented designers from Asus, we have the ZenBook UX-31E. Not only does it look super sexy, it pack a punch too with either an Intel i5 or i7 processor cooking away inside. The latest WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 will keep you connected. Plus the battery life will see you through almost two weeks of standby. Almost matching the Air's minuscule measurements, the ZenBook is just 3mm at the front, so should make a good job on that turkey too.
Buy the Asus ZenBook here. 

 

 

Under £500
Everyone loves to take photos and what better time than when all the family is together at this time of year. The latest compact from Canon, the PowerShot S100 (£382 or $429) offers up superb quality in a very small package. Not only do you get 12.1 megapixel snaps, but also full HD video for capturing all those magic moments. The lens is superb too, very good in low light situations, one of the better compact cameras for sure. It's size also manes you can take it everywhere you go. Let's just hope it hits the shops in time for the 25th.

 

Under £250
Again, this might not make it to the UK quite in time, but the Kindle Fire (£199 or $199) brings colour to your world of books and magazines. This Android based tablet offers up web browsing too, plus free cloud storage for your Amazon content. Early reviews have been pretty good, revealing the ease with which you can install other launchers to take your out of the Amazonified user interface. Take into account that this is a dual core tablet with a capacitive touch screen, capable of playing games as well as delivering you movies & music. It certainly sounds like a bit of a bargain, coming it at under £200 you could also stuff a £50 Amazon voucher for some books in my stocking too.

 

I think I can get away with saying this one is educational and for the kids. Don't tell the wife, but I have always wanted a Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0 (£189 or $250). I love lego so so much, but being able to build a robot, alligator, or even a beach buggy complete with camera is amazing. "I will let you into a little secret… I have wanted one of these for years, but could never justify the price. Maybe one year Santa will pop one down the chimney for me". Note to Santa… this will keep me entertained for weeks.
Buy your Lego Mindstorms here. 

 

Under £50
Shop around or feel a little more generous and you might just be able to pick up a Logitech Tablet Keyboard for the iPad or iPad 2 (£49.95 John Lewis or $75) within this smaller budget. There are lots of this type of device around, but the Logitech took my fancy due to its sturdy design and tactile feedback. It is really nifty too, the keyboard case converts into a nice stand for your iPad or iPad 2, how cool is that! Logitech make some stunning products, so I would just love this to appear under my tree.

 

Give me a game and I will be a happy bunny. If your loved one has not yet got his/her frag on with Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 (£39 or $50), then you will be in their good books forever for buying this. Endless fun and a surefire way of improving one's sniping skills. Remember though, rated 18, this is not one that grandma will approve of… unless she has a keen sniping eye that is !!!
Buy COD MW3 here. 

The Facebook Messenger Application for Android

Now, if you don’t know what Facebook is, you don’t deserve to be reading this article so click off and go and read something else. For the 750,000,000 users that do know what Facebook is, then carry on reading for an insight into the Facebook Messenger application for android.

Recently Facebook has been changing all over the place with a new layout to the homepage (including the stalker feed on the top right) and new options and things being moved about all over the shot. Now, I’ve been a little sceptical to these changes because I’ve always believed if something isn’t broken, don’t try and fix it and by moving things around, Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg have confused a lot of Facebook users. However, one thing that I have really liked about the recent Facebook changes is the way that messages and chats are handled. Messages have changed in that you can pop up on chat to someone and if they aren’t online, it sends them a Facebook Message instead of waiting until they’re online to send the chat Message. Now, with this service in place, the Facebook team felt that it was suitable to make a Facebook Messenger application to almost replace modern email completely.

To begin with, you may feel that by me saying that it will replace modern email completely is a bit of an over exaggeration, but if you think about it, nearly everybody you know has Facebook don’t they? However, do you know all of their email addresses? Probably not. I admit that Facebook is possibly for the younger generation, but that just enhances my argument Facebook messages will replace modern email. The current population of 12-20 year olds will communicate over Facebook; if they want to talk to their friends they will leave them a comment on their wall, or if they are online will chat to them that way. In addition, with all Smartphones having push notifications these days, every one with a smartphone can receive the message almost as instantly as if they were sitting at home on their Facebook page. Another thing is that with the new messaging system, if the person that you wish to contact does not have a smartphone, Facebook will text them the message that you have sent (assuming they have their number on their profile) and they can reply by simply replying to the text. One last thing that helps my argument that this form of messaging will replace email is the simple fact, everyone now has an email address that if you are in an email application, you can email and it will send them that message in their Messages; genius!

I’ve rambled on about the new messaging service for Facebook enough, let’s get down to the actual application for Android. The application is set out so simply, but so well! When you open the application you simply have your feed of recent messages with each contact which you can access by clicking on the name of the person you wish to chat or respond to; you also have a compose message button.

When you click the button to compose a message, you are brought to a screen with a very similar design to the previous, but now you have an option in the top left (signalled with the trademark facebook ‘f’ logo) to take you back to the messages screen. When choosing the recipient you wish to send the message to, you simply start typing in the name and it brings up your friends with that name. One addition I like to this is that if they aren’t online it will show a little mobile symbol next to it, signifying that it will send it to their mobile app. Also, you can choose to send the person a text message from Facebook instead of leaving a message in their inbox. Just like the new Facebook chat and Facebook messaging service, you also have the ability to start group conversations with multiple friends on Facebook. Furthermore, in this screen, you have the option to add an image by choosing one of the following options: Take Photo, Choose Photo or Image Search. Another final feature is that you can add your location to the messages that you send (bit creepy and I’ve never used it, but nice to know it’s there.)

In the options you get the ability to alter the notifications with such things as whether it vibrates, whether it makes a sound, what sound it makes, that type of thing. Other helpful information to know is that you can either refresh by pulling down and releasing, or you can hit the menu button on your phone and choose refresh. Simples.

I have found myself using this application on countless times, in fact recently I received a message from my Network asking if I was still using my mobile as I had only sent like three texts in a month. I use this application more than I use any other form of messaging service. Even though you do get a message option within the Official Facebook app, I find this just quicker; you simply open the app, click compose, type the name, type your message and boom, you send it away. Such a simple application, yet such a useful one and a genius move by Facebook if you ask me; it just needs more publicity and maybe iOS and Blackberry versions to properly excel this application into one of the highest in the market.

Written by Luke. Twitter @l_harkness • YouTube Channel

 

Zomm - unleash your mobile phone!

Hey guys it’s TheDelusionzHD here doing a guest review for the geekanoids website. Today I will be reviewing the Zomm, World’s first wireless leash for mobile phones.
Now on to the review there are things I do not like about this product, but let’s start with the positives the Zomm is a very light in weight and yet still packs a big punch. Also the Zomm was invented by a Mother and won the 2010 innovation award at CES. Next the Zomm is charged via a micro USB which is a nice touch instead of a proprietary port. One of the things that isn’t so good about the Zomm is that it connects to your mobile phone via Bluetooth technology so if your mobile phone does not have Bluetooth v1.2 or higher this product is no use to you.
So what does the Zomm do? It is a wireless alarm that connects via Bluetooth, and if you leave you mobile phone 30 feet or more behind it will make an extremely annoying chirping  sound, and there for that will notify you to go back and pick up your device. In a sense the Zomm will prevent you from ever losing your mobile phone again, as long as you have it connect via Bluetooth and the Zomm itself is charged.
Onto the next feature of the Zomm is it has a mobile speakerphone built in, so for example if you’re driving home from work you can answer the call by clicking the Z button once or double click it to cancel. If you are ever hurt or in a situation where you can hold down the Z button until the panic alarms sounds and continue holding the button until the alarm stops.  The Zomm also comes with a plastic belt clip and a keychain attachment that connects via a little cut out on the top of the Zomm. And in the box you get a Micro-USB wall charger to charge your Zomm and to get a full charge it will take about 4 hours, and a full charge will last about 3 days in my experience. Also in the box you will receive a micro-USB update cable to get your Zomm updated to the latest firmware, and a quick start guide as well.
The feature I do not like about the Zomm… it will drain you mobile phone a lot faster. If you would like to pick a Zomm up yourself you can do so at their website and is currently $79.99 USD or for about 59 EUR, the Zomm come in 3 different colors white with blue accents, black with blue accents, and pink with white accents. Guys this was a guest review of the Zomm Wireless Leash for your Mobile Phone for the geekanoids website if you’re interested in seeing more content from me you can do so on this link.
Until next time peace and love to all!