Bright shiny new stuff

>> From cameras to phones to a singing
triceratops, the Mirror takes stock of
what’s coming down the tech pipe

by MICHAEL CITROME

Super Tuber
The Casio EXILIM Zoom EX-Z80 is more than just another tiny camera with a big name. This smaller-than-an-Altoids-tin digicam packs a 3X optical zoom, 8.1 megapixel sensor and a smile-detecting, anti-shake shutter into a 100 gram package that comes in six colours including pink, and, wait for it, vivid pink, which would make even the most jaded Bratz doll happy. And here’s the other Bratz-friendly feature: this is one of the first cameras with a built-in YouTube capture mode, which records movies that look perfect on YouTube without any tweaking or twiddling.
Coming soon for about $180

The Vault
A few years ago, a terabyte was an unconscionably huge amount of data, like what Pixar has to crunch to make a movie, or what the New York Stock Exchange has to process in a heavy day of trading. That’s one trillion bytes, 1,000 gigabytes, or over 1,900 hours of BitTorrented video. That got your attention. Well, manufacturers are now putting out external terabyte hard drives that are compact and quiet in addition to providing huge, honking amounts of storage, perfect for obsessive-compulsive Time Machine users. Beware of cheaper drives that just cram multiple 500-gig drives in a single enclosure—Western Digital’s 1.15-kilogram, Mac-compatible, slightly-larger-than-paperback-sized My Book Essential Edition is the real deal and it’ll fit in your backpack too.
Available now for about $330

Somebody Touched Me
When the Apple iPod Touch made its debut last September, it seemed like a neutered version of its über-sexy iPhone platform-mate, and with only 16 gigabytes of storage, didn’t seem like much of a contender in the MP3 player sweepstakes. How things change. The little iTouch is now all grown up, with 32 gigabytes of storage (as much as any respectable flash-based player) and a suite of legitimate and hacker-made applications that turn this into the sweetest little wi-fi Web-YouTube-Gameboy emulator-PDA-iPhoto device you need to get RIGHT NOW.
Available now for $519

Big Bro
Like to keep an eye on things around the house? How about keeping an eye on things from your office, or from your hotel room on your honeymoon in Italy? The Linksys WVC54GC Compact Wireless-G Internet Video Camera lets you have a look at what’s going on at home, or anywhere else you stash one, from any Internet-connected computer in the world. This sneaky little bugger looks like an ordinary Web cam, except it conceals a built-in wireless Web server in the darkness of its heart, so all you need to do is place it within range of a wi-fi network and you’ll get a 320x240 video stream of whatever you put in front of it. Perfect for keeping the kids out of the cookie jar, and getting you into prison.
Available now for about $140

Beast from the East
When it comes to sleek, feature-encrusted touch-screen smartphones, the iPhone has a serious challenger hailing from the nation of South Korea, where five-year-olds would reject your brand-new handset as being hopelessly out-of-date and unable to get their favourite TV shows. The LG KU990 Viewty is the sequel to the Prada phone, and does a few tricks the iPhone doesn’t—it supports Java, there’s a MicroSD slot, and it can record video on its five-megapixel flash-equipped camera. Oh, and it can upload that video right to YouTube, giving you a friend’s embarrassing-incident-to-whole-world-knowing time of mere seconds on its 3G data connection. Ball’s in your court, Cupertino.
Available now (if you can find one) for about $465

JURASSIC ELECTRONIC: Playskool’s Kota

Dino-mite!
From the why-didn’t-they-have-these-when-I-was-a-kid department, Playskool’s Kota is a fluffy, animatronic baby Triceratops for kids to ride on. Okay, it doesn’t actually walk around on its own, you have to use your imagination for that part, but it does move its head, wiggle its horns and tail, roar and even munch down on some grass (simulated, of course). Kota has 11 sensors hidden inside its three-and-a-half-foot-long body that reacts to sound and touch, and it even sings songs and plays jungle sounds! Get ready to make pre-history!
Coming soon for about $300

Little Rock
The palm-sized Guitar Hero Carabiner by Basic Fun lets you rock out when you… are out. It’s a scaled-down version of the popular console franchise that crams loads of noisy fun into an awesome tiny red guitar with a built-in screen that you can dangle from your backpack. As if that’s not enough, some of its built-in songs include “Smoke on the Water,” “Heart Shaped Box,” “Jessica” and “Cherry Pie.” That’s right, it’s got Warrant, right in the palm of your hand.
Coming soon for about $15