briefcase

BizTech

gear for the new year

By Jeffery D. Zbar

Thinking back over the past year, how productive were you? How safe was your office and data? And how much fun did you have?

Year-end isn’t just a time to review your financials and business results. It’s a chance to recall how well you worked—and whether the addition of a new tool, product or service could improve the way you perform.

PRODUCTIVITY

HEY BUD, CAN YOU SPARE A PORT?
From printers and scanners to cameras, flash drives and even VoIP phones, the small or home office often shares a variety of peripherals. Add a mobile worker whose laptop needs to tap into the network, and sharing can be a challenge. Enter the Buddy Hub. This portable seven-port USB hub allows two PCs to share devices—without ceaseless plugging and unplugging. $39.99, www.ultraproducts.com

LISTEN GOOD
Computerized voice recognition has come a long way in the past few years. Large corporations are saving millions of dollars on customer support by replacing humans with sophisticated Interactive Voice Response systems that, in many cases, do a pretty decent job at not irritating the customers. The latest edition of Naturally Speaking may also allow you to save a few dollars and a lot of time. After a few voice training sessions the dictation software will type your words with impressive accuracy. Its other features allow you to replace many frequently used operations with voice commands and can also transcribe from digital recorders. $100, www.nuance.com

COPY PASTE, REPEAT
The ubiquitous signature lines at the end of e-mail messages with the sender’s contact information are used by many to create a new entry in their Outlook addressbooks. But the cumbersome operation, which often involves several copy and paste actions can be replaced by a single keypress with the help of Anagram, a new easy-to-install application that automatically turns signatures into outlook contacts. The program captures the information in any signature formatted text and turns it into a neat Outlook contact. If you highlight an event invitation instead, Anagram will recognize it and create a calendar entry instead, filling in date and times for you. $30,
www.getanagram.com

HEY, A LITTLE HELP HERE!
We’re not all techies. Some of us frequently need a little help with our gadgets. If you know a small or home business owner who could use some occasional guidance, give the gift of a geek. Personal tech support is available remotely 24/7 or on-site from companies such as PlumChoice (www.plumchoice.com), Best Buy’s GeekSquad (www.geeksquad.com), HiWired (www.hiwired.com) or FireDog (www.firedog.com). Prices vary. Gift cards available.

BACKIN’ ON UP
Remember when a one-meg drive was all the rage—and big as a door stop? How about a one terabyte drive (that’s a thousand gigs) that’s 3.5 inches? Or a back-up drive that’s one-touch simple? Hitachi’s Deskstar 7K1000 hard drive will hold 300,000 three-meg photos (or the equivalent in files, HD videos or MP3s)—for $399. Maxtor’s OneTouch 4 line of back-ups make backing up a complete recovery of most PC hard drives one-touch simple—from $89 to $279. Want to add a little biometric security? The Aegis Bio from Apricorn uses encrypted biometric hard drive to securely access files with a fingerprint biometric sensor that unlocks drives ranging from 80GB to 250GB—starting at $179. Learn more at www.hitachigst.com, www.maxtor.com or www.apricorn.com.

VIDEO FLIP
Want to shoot a video of a new product demonstration or a website introduction? Put away the camcorder and cables. And no more converting analog to digital. With PureDigital’s ultraslim FlipVideo, you can shoot high-quality video—with equally good audio, and post to computer in seconds. View 30 or 60 minutes via onboard memory on a no-glare 1.4-inch screen. Then, pop out the swivel USB adapter and plug it in. The software launches and the .avi files transfer to the PC or YouTube or other apps. From $149, www.theflip.com

TRACKING WHERE YOU’VE BEEN
You can see some wonderful sights following the course your GPS lays out. But what about remembering where you’ve been? The new GPS from Mio Technology DigiWalker C720t comes equipped with a two-megapixel camera—and can embed GPS coordinates into images and navigate back to the photographed location. The DigiWalker comes pre-loaded with maps of the U.S., Canada and major roads in Mexico. The entry level C230 also offers voice directions. From $249, national retailers www.mio-tech.com

REMOTE WORK

OOK MA, NO HANDS!
Bluetooth headsets are seeing constant sound improvements. The latest headsets from Jawbone, with its NoiseShield technology, and Plantronics Discovery 665, with AudioQ, use digital processing to enhance the speaker’s voice and eliminate background sounds, like wind, lawn equipment and crowd noise. From $50, www.plantronics.com and www.jawbone.com.

LOOK MA, NO THUMBS!
Plug-in PDA keyboards are nothing new. What is new is the ways they’re being manufactured. Eleksen’s ElekTex smart fabric keyboard connects to BlackBerry, Nokia and Palm devices via Bluetooth. Write and edit documents comfortably with this 2.3 ounce, water-repellant roll-up pad. $79.99, Sharper Image
THINK SMALL
Don’t want to take your office on the road? Then how about your desktop? Kingston’s DataTraveler II Migo USB flashdrive synchronizes with Outlook email, favorites and wallpaper (all stored in an 8gig drive smaller than a pinky). Plug it into a PC and up pop your settings. Once removed, no trace of your settings or data remains. The Memorex TravelDrive 2007 and M-Flyer Pilot USB flash drives sport such features as retractable or swivel top, a protective sport-utility shell, and a variety of “off-road” inspired colors. From around $19.99, www.kingston.com and www.memorex.com.

FIND THAT LAPTOP!
Laptops are lost or stolen everyday. Absolute Software’s LoJack for Laptops provides a way to find them again. Once installed, the software tracks down the device via the IP address the next time it is used to log on to the Internet—and the thief doesn’t even know. $49.99, per year. www.lojackforlaptops.com

PIXELS ON THE FLY
Taking digital pictures is easy. Transferring them can be a chore. Not with the Eye-Fi Card. This wireless SD memory card first connects to a home or office wireless network via its card reader. Identify the photo sites or services you want to upload images to (like Picasa, flikr, dotphoto, FaceBook, Snapfish—even retailers like Walmart). Remove the card, insert it into the camera, and start shooting. Once it’s within range of the network, it uploads images automatically. No cables, wires, waiting or hassles. $99, most major retailers www.eye.fi

MORE TUNES, MAN
What’s an office without tunes? Add music to your space with ZAGG’s RockStic. This portable speaker system works with any later-model iPod and most MP3 players. Light and portable, it’s ideal for travel. Available in silver, black and pink, it can match any décor—even if your office is a hotel on the road. $49.95, www.shieldzone.com
Or power up the mStation Orb, a spherical iPod docking station. With a dedicated subwoofer, 30 watts of power and a 10-key remote, it syncs with iTunes. $129.95. Available at RCS Experience, J&R, B&H and CompUSA.

MY COFFEE’S COLD
AND MY CELL’S DEAD!
If you have an open USB port, you’ll never have cold coffee or warm soda again. The USB Drink Chiller & Warmer bi-temporal hot plate gets its juice from the USB to heat or cool any beverage. $19.99, www.ThinkGeek.com.

Want to power your cellphone, PDA, MP3 player or digital camera? All you need is a little sunlight. The Solio Hybrid 1000 from Better Energy Solutions gives power on the go with a powerful solar panel and battery in a slender case. Small, sleek and environmentally conscious. $99, www.solio.com

SOMEBODY’S WATCHING YOU
The Swann Digital Private Eye is a do-it-yourself surveillance system for any small or home office. Powered by either a 9V rechargeable battery or AC power, it uses motion detection to automatically record images onto an SD Memory Card. Toss in a
1GB SD card and it’ll record up to 30,000 images. View images by connecting the unit via a USB cable or by slipping the card into a card reader. $199, www.swann.com.au

MEMORIES ON A CHAIN
Digital photo frames are great. Now, they’re small, too. The Coby DP-151 is a digital photo frame keychain with a 1.5-inch LDC full-color screen and memory for up to 60 images. $29.99, www.cobyusa.com (30)