Tech Talk

Susi Weaser on the latest toys vying for a place in your stocking

Magic Muppet
Elmo Live
Where Tickle Me Elmo was cute, Elmo Live is… terrifying. There comes a point in every robot’s life when he must consider whether to defy his human overlords, and we fear Elmo Live may be rapidly approaching that point. He raps, he folds his legs when he sits, he sneezes, he does “jazz hands” — it can only be a matter of time before he takes over the world. Beware!
€75 , WWW.IWOOT.COM

Juicy fruit
BlackBerry Storm
The iPhone 3G may have hogged the spotlight for the past few months, but there’s a new kid on the block, and this one really can do email. In fact, it trumps the ubiquitous Apple device in a few other places as well, such as video recording, cut and paste, and the ability to plug it into your computer to use as a modem. If only they’d made a bit more effort to make it look as nice as the iPhone, we might have been able to call it an “iPhone killer”.
PRICE DEPENDS ON CONTRACT, WWW.VODAFONE.CO.UK

Earth song
Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player Revolution
Eco-products no longer mean substandard technology and hours of hand cranking for 30 seconds of fuzzy radio. The Revolution can handle music files, videos, FM radio and even e-books. It will also let you record your favourite shows and store up to 2,000 songs in the 4GB memory. Just one minute of cranking time will bag you 45 minutes of music, so you can leave your charger at home.Another bonus is that it can connect to your mobile to give it an extra bit of life, should the battery run-out – great for when you’re travelling.
€160, WWW.ETHICALSUPERSTORE.COM

A real turkey
Pocket Cinema
Imagine having a cinema in your pocket. Great, huh? Well, almost. Imagine having one where the picture’s kind of blurry, the sound is tinny and difficult to hear and you can only use it for an hour before the battery runs out. Plugging your media player into this will result in a 50-inch projection of your movie or pictures, but the quality is pretty shocking – it’s certainly not the kind of thing you should be watching the latest Bond flick on. A nice idea, but you’re better off down your local Odeon.
€370, WWW.FIREBOX.COM