Luxury Gadgets

Gadgets We Love by Forbes

March 9th, 2006

The top made by Forbes about gadgets that we love most, reveal that Sirius S50 satellite radio it’s most wanted thing to buy.
iPod Nano - In the digital age it’s survival of the fleetest.The iPod embraces this contest with a vengeance. The Nano debuted on Sept. 7 to lots of hoopla, a blitz of iconic TV spots and the raves of iPod fans. At $250 it has 4 gigabytes of storage, a color screen and a housing that, at 1.5 cubic inches and 1.5 ounces, is only 20% the size of the original. Price $250
Highlander Hybrid The Highlander hybrid comes with a new gauge called the Energy Monitor. It tells me when the car is running on battery, when the battery is recharging and when the gas engine kicks in. You can also flip to a display that reports, moment by moment, your miles per gallon. So forget about watching the road–I’m watching my energy monitor. When I pull onto the main street of our town, I putter along at 25 miles an hour–but hey, for a moment I’m getting 60 miles to the gallon! When I stomp on the pedal, my speed spikes, but to my utter dismay my gas mileage plummets. Price $33,030
Sirius S50 The S50 can’t pick up a signal on its own; it depends on the included car cradle or a $99 home docking kit. But it’s not a big hassle to set it up to grab music from your favorite channels while you drive or cook dinner. The S50 stores 50 hours of Sirius programming, less if you toss in your own MP3s to make a hybrid playlist. If you’re desperate for walkabout live listening, try the bulkier SatelliteRadio portables from Tao and Pioneer. Price $360
Motorola High-Def DVR By combining DVR and cable receiver in one unit, Motorola got rid of the need for a kludgy infrared blaster to coordinate two boxes. Though storage is less than bounteous (15 hours of high-def shows or 60 hours of standard), integration gives me direct access to a far bigger set of hard drives: the ones back at Comcast facilities where On Demand programs are stored.
RS 140 Wireless Headphones Then again, Sennheiser is famous for great sound. Founded in 1945 by Fritz Sennheiser, the Wedemark, Germany company has been making audiophile headphones since 1968. The wireless model RS 140, introduced this year, is manufactured in China but boasts clever German design touches such as a stand that doubles as a recharging cradle and electronics that enhance the intelligibility of speech by boosting soft passages and decreasing loud ones. Price $220
Sony PSP Sony has sold 2.3 million PSPs in North America since it debuted here in March 2005. I’ve only had mine for a month and a half, but I’m already predicting mass physical therapy reimbursements claims. No one was meant to stare at and hold something this small for so long. Like an older brother of the iPod, it can store tunes, photos and home movies–assuming you pay another $100 for a roomier 1-gigabyte Memory Stick, and you should. Price $250
Thinkpad Z602T With its titanium exterior, magnesium roll cage, dual Wi-Fi antennas, fingerprint scanner and remote self-destruct option, the new Lenovo ThinkPad Z60t is reminiscent of something James Bond’s spy outfitter, Q, might whip up for 007. Price $1,979
Tibor Everglades The most beautiful machines have the fewest moving parts. Inside there are just three stainless-steel ball bearings, housed in anodized aluminum bar stock. And that smooth drag comes from the graphite-impregnated cork disc, which acts like a brake pad, slowing it down without locking. Innards are coated with corrosion-resistant ceramic. Price $610
EyeToy Camera Sony’s Eyetoy Camera may not cure obesity, but it’s one of the few electronic gizmos that absolutely requires getting up off your butt to use. Hook it up to your PlayStation 2 and you can try a flock of clever games that don’t make you spend weeks mastering arcane rules. Forget about learning to deliver a high kick by pressing the circle and the triangle and the X on the controller. With EyeToy, you just use your foot. Price $30

Entry Filed under: Gadgets & Technology