2006 has been a very good year for technology. A lot of new and exciting products have come to market that would make great gifts this holiday season.

Here are my recommendations for a Very Merry Holiday!

1-Canon HV10 HD Camcorder and Sony HDR-HC3 Camcorders

Canon just released their first palm sized HD recorder and it looks like they have a real winner on their hands. In HD mode, the Canon HV10 records in 1080/60i, that’s a resolution of 1920 x 1080 at 60 interlaced fields per second. The closest competitor to this is the Sony HDR-HC3 Camcorder. While I have not tested the Canon products, the reviews of it are very good and you can find it online for under $1000 from various sites. I have been using the Sony HD camcorder and it delivers superb quality and sharp video and I highly recommend it. However, it is can be bit pricier then the Canon version but various online sites also have it under $1000.

Below is a review from Camcorderinfo.com that is worth reading:

http://www.camcorderinfo.com

2-Bluetooth Headsets

By mid 2006 California will have a law in place that all drivers can only use the hands free cell phones when driving. The State of New York and many others also have similar laws and with the prices of Bluetooth headsets going down and quality going up, demand for Bluetooth headsets are set to rise.

I have tested two devices this year and recommend the following.

-MVOX Duo

MVOX bills this as an all-in-one communicator and it is by far the most interesting and innovative Bluetooth device I saw this year. They position it as “The World's 1st All-in-One Wearable Smart Communicator with one-touch voice dialing”
Although it is a bit big as a headset, its multi function capabilities makes it a very versatile product. It has the normal voice dialing but while in its cradle it acts as a high quality speaker phone.
It also offers a ergonomically designed holster for seamless conversion between headset and speakerphone modes, one-touch voice dialing with near 100% voice recognition powered by state-of-the art speech recognition algorithms- phone-independent, local phonebook to carry contacts from phone to phone and PC to PC- patent-pending small array microphone (SAM) noise and echo cancellation technology and dvanced handsfree voice calling, supporting calling card, extension numbers, voice mail, voice commands, etc. I have been testing an early version and it performs well and in my case, because of heavy travel, it doubles as my VOIP headset. Check it out at:

http://www.mvox.com


Scala 700 Bluetooth headset

I have been testing this headset out as well and while not as advanced as the MVOX, it has its own set of features that makes is a winner. A few features separate this Cardo Scala 700 Bluetooth headset from the pack. I really like its multi-pairing capability, which allows it to pair to two different phones and switch between them at the touch of a button. And the voice quality is very good.

http://www.gizmodo.com

3-Laptops: Dell 1210, Toshiba Portege R 200 and Lenovo X 60

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of Ultralights and since I am on the road a lot, a lighter laptop is important to me. My three favorites in this category are the Dell 1210, the Toshiba Portege R 200 and the Lenovo Thinkpad X 60. The Dell 1210 is the most versatile since it has two spindles or a HD and an optical drive and on trips where I need an optical drive I take the 1210. This is a very well made laptop with an exceptional screen and enough power to handle all of my tasks on the road. It is heavier then the other two on my list but it is one of the two spindle ultralights on the market today.
I also like the Toshiba Portege R 200. This really light system, with the extra battery “slice” gives me about 7 hours of work time, enough to get me through an entire day. It sports a very good 12.1 inch screen and I really like the keyboard. And the Lenovo Thinkpad X 60 is the lightest of all three and also makes a great traveling tool.

4-Apples iPod Video and Nano.

These are still the best portable music players on the market today. They are sleek, stylish and very capable of handling music, video and photo’s and are worth the money. Their addition of a new Shuffle is also interesting since it is the smallest MP3 player I have seen and is so light that you hardly know it is there when clipped on a shirt or belt.
I am especially fond of the new Nano line and expect this to be Apple’s biggest seller this holiday season.


5-Digital SLR cameras- Canon EOS 30 D, Nikon D 200 and Sony Alpha

If you are like me, I got my feet wet with digital cameras by using small, hand held point and shoot digital cameras from various vendors over the years. But digital SLR’s are starting to gain ground for use by amateur photographers who want to take better pictures with a lot of photo options and you can even buy some now for under $500. But, I suggest the three listed above if you are really serious about digital photo’s and want the best for amateurs. At the same time, the site link below lists the little brothers of each of these cameras and they too get good ratings and sport much lower prices. My personal choice of the three is the new Sony Alpha. Sony is late to the SLR party but they have a real winner with this first entry.

http://alatest.com


6-Portable Navigation Systems-Garmin Nuvi 660

This is one of the more interesting devices in a new breed of personal navigation systems. It sports a wide color screen and is easier to read the most units on the market today. The nüvi 660, is a sleek navigator and travel assistant. This preloaded navigator brings a colorful widescreen display to the nüvi family and features hands-free calling, traffic alerts, an FM transmitter* and more. It offers hands free calling and the nüvi 660, along with its counterparts nüvi 360 and nüvi 310, integrate Bluetooth® wireless technology with a microphone and speaker that lets you make hands-free mobile phone calls. Simply dial numbers with the nüvi's touch screen keypad to make a call on a compatible phone. To answer calls, just tap nüvi's screen and speak directly into its built in microphone.

http://www.garmin.com

PC Mag has a good review here of the Nuvi 660

http://www.pcmag.com

7-Personal Gaming- Nintendo DS and BrainAge and the Wii
While Nintendo is mostly viewed as company that has products for Gen X and Gen Y, the Nintendo DS, along with a game called BrainAge is getting a lot of interest from casual gamers of all age groups. BrainAge was developed by a well known Japanese scientist to help people keep mentally sharp. We have been playing with it and it is addictive. This would make a great stocking stuffer.
And the new Nintendo Wii will usher in gaming to a broader market that is more inclined to want to play games casually as opposed to what hard core gamers want in the way of their game systems. Their new single handed wireless remote is awesome and while Kids may be the primary audience for this device, parents will find themselves drawn to it as well.

http://www.brainage.com
http://wii.nintendo.com