Top 5 Add-Ons To Gift this Diwali

Slightly larger than a cigarette pack the Vantec Avox-100 is one helluva multi-functional device providing utility and entertainment alike. It's basically a 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure which lets you fit a 2.5 inch hard drive (laptop hard drive) of any size with the added functionality of letting you play movies onto your television. It also features the USB OTG (On-The-Go) function wherein you can copy data from any other USB device without the need of a computer. A 2.5 inch or laptop hard drive is available in the market for as less as Rs. 2800 for a 40GB drive. Say, we fit it with a 40GB hard drive, the Vantec Avox can function as any of the following:

- Portable hard drive
It lets you play or transfer data to and fro your computer. Using it is very simple—just plug the cable into an empty USB port on your computer and it will show up as a drive in 'My Computer' on Windows XP. From there on you can use it exactly the way you access data on your computer, no drivers required!

- A Video Player
Just copy the movies from your computer onto the Avox, attach it to your television and you can straight-away start watching movies on your big screen television. The best thing, it also comes with a remote. All the needed cables are provided in the package. In this case the device needs to be powered by an adapter, included in the package where as when using with a computer, the device powers itself from the USB port, eliminating the need of an external power source.

- USB OTG (On-the- Go) Device
This is a new concept which is fast emerging on portable devices. Say you are out on a camping trip and clicking pictures and you run out of space on the memory card. All you have to do is connect your digital camera to the device and by simply pressing a button all the images on your camera will be transferred to the hard drive, without the need of a computer. As compared to a 512MB of 1GB card you might be having in your camera, the 40GB space on your hard drive will cater to all your photography requirements. It comes with a battery pack to power the device on the go.
Price: Rs. 5400 ( without the hard drive)
Contact: tejas@apical.in

Plantronics Pulsar

Its a pair of Bluetooth headphones that hook up to any audio device or a Bluetooth phone wirelessly. It supports the advanced AD2P technology, where any compatible phone will stream audio in stereo mode. The headphones come with a Bluetooth adapter to sync your other non-Bluetooth audio devices like mp3 players and music systems to the headphones. Basically you can hook it up to any device with an audio-out.

Say, you are a late night TV watcher and you don’t want to disturb your sleeping family members. Just hook up the adapter to your TV and enjoy the audio on the headphones with the comfort of lying on your couch, wirelessly, anywhere within a radius of 10 meters. It can also sync with up to seven Bluetooth devices at once. Consider this—you are traveling in a bus and you have hooked up the Bluetooth adapter to your mp3 player in the bag. You have also synched the headphones to your Bluetooth phone sitting in your pocket. You are listening to music on your mp3 player when suddenly you get a call. As your phone is synched with the headphones, the music cuts out and you can hear the ringer of your phone on the headphones. Just by pressing a single button on the headset, you can take the call. After you are done, the call disconnects and the mp3 players starts playing again. How cool is that!
Both the headphones and the Bluetooth adapter have Li-Ion batteries and come with a charger.
Price: Rs. 9,000
Contact: Bobby Joseph
Email: bobby.joseph@plantronics.com