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Once again our resident product-testing elf has been checking out all the latest digital goodies to find out which ones are worthy of being put at the top of your Christmas list. Here are some items guaranteed to knock your Christmas socks off.
A PDA With Panache
If you like the idea of the Pocket PC with its built-in multimedia and entertainment capabilities, but you just have too much invested in the Palm PDA platform, consider this new Palm OS-based Sony Clie PEG-N760C. It's clearly meant to be a Pocket PC Killer.
The N760C boasts a high-resolution, 320x320-pixel screen capable of displaying millions of colours - great for viewing pictures and movies. This compares with the Compaq iPaq H3635 Pocket PC, for example, with a 320x240-pixel 4,086-colour display. On the audio side, the Clie comes not only with a built-in MP3 player, but also superior Sony clip-on ear phones and a little wired remote that you can keep in your pocket or your hand to change tunes as you jog.
The audio quality is remarkably good as any portable MP3 playback device I've tried, certainly as good as first-generation Pocket PCs. On small glitch: The Clie won't let you multi-task. You can't listen to music and do other things on the Clie at the same time - something the Pocket PC does allow.
Photo and movie viewing are equally impressive. The sample photos were surprisingly clear and bright. You may not often go to the trouble of downloading a movie from the Web, then uploading it to you Clie-but it can be done. There are Web sites that offer compatible sample films. You can also buy software to make your own Clie-compatible movies - so you could carry clips of the kids, or even product demos.
Based on the Palm OS v.4.1, the Clie does all the usual Palm tricks - calendar, contacts, todos, memos - right out of the box. And it also lets you use any of the hundreds of third-party Palm OS applications. About $800 .
The Monitor Of Your Dreams
The Samsung 171MP is the monitor you always dreamed about. It's a miraculously slender 17-inch TFT LCD screen - 2.3 inches thick and only 10 lbs. It comes with an...