Hi-Tech Products – for business and pleasure

There's no doubt that the latest hi-tech gadgets, especially when logoed or loaded with the right promotional message, make great promotional gifts and rewards. Everyone wants the latest, nattiest gadgets, but these devilishly clever devices can also be extremely useful and we've gathered together some that will help you do business on the move and others that will enhance your leisure time.

DOING BUSINESS ON THE MOVE
One way of staying in touch with the office whilst on the move is with this Fujitsu Siemens ESPRIMO Mobile Laptop Notebook (V55350), which combines German build quality with Japanese innovation. It features a brilliant, large, high quality 15.4-inch wide screen display and an ergonomic, full-size keyboard.

The Esprimo laptop (pictured) is available from EIC and comes equipped with the powerful Intel CEL M540 (1.86GHz) processor, an 80Gb hard drive, Microsoft Vista, WiFi capabilities and a built-in super multi DVD writer. Price: £289.99 ex VAT.

www.the-eic.co.uk

Alternatively, you can take some of your office information with you using this touch screen PDA in silver with clear cover. This Pocket Electronic Databank Organiser features a large LCD Screen, a storage size of 128kb and comes equipped with a PDA stylus and battery and is available from Tomato Source. www.tomato-source.co.uk.

The arrival of the USB now means that we can convey large quantities of data in our pocket, briefcase or handbag. Like many other promotional products the USB is becoming eco-friendly and Keepme Promotions is offering a range of Eco USB sticks. Made from 100% recycled plastic these USB's can be provided in 'wood' boxes or 'leaf' pillow pack sleeves made from recycled paper boosting their eco-credentials.

They are available in green or brown to fit the eco-theme of using natural resources and Keepme Promotions also offer a free design service to help maximise impact of this product with your company name, logo or message. www.keepmepromotions.com

USB Company is a leading provider of high-end USB related promotional gifts and customised USB products. The company offers free samples dispatched same day and free visuals made on the spot. Lead time as low as 3 days! The 3.0 USB Superspeed is expected to be introduced in Q2 2009. USB 3.0 is set to be 10 times faster than the current standard and exceed the speed of most hard drives available today. www.usbcompany.co.uk

Should you want to fire some data off to another location whilst you are on the move, you are going to need a Bluetooth USB Dongle.

This model, from Keepme Promotions, enables the user to quickly and easily transfer data such as pictures to and from devices via a Bluetooth connection. Effective to range of up to 10 yards, users simply plug their Bluetooth USB Dongle (which can, of course, be branded) into their computer and transfer pictures, files and music with a simple click of a button. Ideal for transferring data from a Bluetooth enabled mobile handset to your computer or visa versa. Available in a range of seven different colours these are shaping up to be the 'must have' promotional gadget for 2008. www.keepmepromotions.com.

THE GREEN THEME
Flashbay.com, a supplier of logo branded USB Flash Drives tells us it is the first USB flash drive manufacturer to become Carbon Neutral. As of February 2008 the Flashbay factory and UK Office are both Carbon Neutral ®. The CarbonNeutral Company, together with scientific partner ECCM (Edinburgh Centre for Carbon Management), calculated Flashbay's footprint by measuring the CO2 equivalent emissions from its premises, manufacturing processes, logistics, company owned vehicles, business travel and waste to landfill. Flashbay took responsibility for unavoidable emissions by investing in renewable offset project, namely the Quzhai Waste Heat Recovery Project in China.
www.flashbay.com.

Staying with the green business machine theme, Tomato Source offers this water-powered calculator, which needs no batteries. This Environmentally Friendly 8 Digit Calculator, with a revolutionary design, simply runs on fluid. As with all promotional products sourced by Tomato Source, it can be branded and/or have branded packaging. www.tomato-source.co.uk

Another clever device that runs on free power is this Solar Power charger from Print Run, which can charge your mobile phone or MP3 player with 'eco/green' energy from the sun or via USB port, in case direct sunlight is not available. It's eminently portable and ideal for travelling and outdoor activities. www.printrun.com.

HI-TECH FOR LEISURE
Let's move from business equipment to something more akin to leisure and start with this ultra compact and wireless Bluetooth® MP3 player (pictured below) again from EIC which takes mobile listening to the next level.

It features a high quality 2.4" LCD screen, 4GB of memory, drag and drop file transfer and an amazing 36 hours battery life! Prices start from £110 ex VAT. www.the-eic.co.uk.

Procurement International offers this stylish, portable Archos 405 Portable Media Player allowing you to enjoy all your videos, photos and music, wherever you are! This player has all the latest technology, including 30 GB of memory and a 3.5" LCD screen.

The ARCHOS 405 plays videos and MPEG-4 and WMV films, as well as audio (MP3, WMA, WAV formats), photo (JPEG, BMP, PNG) and PDF files! It is extremely versatile and can be customised by adding optional accessories or software plug-ins to suit your needs. You can turn your player into an audio or video recorder, or even a camcorder, and even connect it to your television and watch MPEG-2 and video podcasts. The possibilities are endless! This amazing device also has 4 hours of battery life in video mode (12 hours in music mode). With the ARCHOS 405, all the latest advances in digital entertainment fit into your pocket! From £116.25ex vat. www.procurement.ltd.uk

OUTDOOR LEISURE
From Oldeani comes this small functional, and fun pedometer.

It's packed with useful functionality and wrapped in a nice design. Functions include steps, distance and calories burnt.

And when they've finished running and decide to stretch out on the beach, sun lovers will appreciate this handy compact device for checking the UV intensity levels. Functions include skin type and SPF settings, EET estimated Exposure time, a digital thermometer and quartz clocks. The digital readout for UV index is from 1 – 15. www.oldeani.co.uk

One of the latest 'must haves' is surely the Sony Blu Ray Dvd. This model (BDPS300B) is available from Procurement International from £253.04ex vat.
This is the latest edition to Sony's Blu Ray range with 1080p high definition picture and 7.1ch Surround Sound.

To some these latest gadgets and gizmos are a delight and to others, a challenge. Those of you who read this column regularly will know that I fall into the latter category. However, being the brave person that I am and having finally mastered the iPod, I have now ordered a Blackberry … and colleagues are now wondering which of them will have to show me how to work it. Watch out … it could be you!

Carole Bull
Editor

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