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Fetish
The Small Picture
Call it a small camera for big shots. Minox shrinks the 1950 Leica range finder to one-third the original dimensions with the IIIf. The minicam replicates the design innovations of the postwar classic, as well as its 1/250 shutter speed. The 15-mm lens focuses on objects as close as 4 feet, burning your shots onto 8 x 11-mm Minox film, printable at standard sizes by specialty photofinishers.
Minox Classic Leica IIIf: $439. Minox: (800) 222 0118, www.minox.com.
Sure Footing
If your idea of a great hike is retracing the footsteps of Steve "Crocodile Hunter" Irwin, you'd better take along some sturdy shoes. Salomon's waterproof Raid Mountain boot has a stiff plastic shell that braces the outer heel and ankle, while the shoe's external hinge permits forward flex. The boot's underside has a stabilizing rigid frame around its perimeter, and the center consists of a soft rubber that actually becomes stickier when wet - perfect for trekking through the world's most dangerous billabongs.
Raid Mountain: $200. Salomon: (877) 272 5666, www.salomonsports.com.
Speak and Spell
Motorola's new GSM phone conquers the problem of composing text for the wireless Web. The V100 puts cell, pager, and browser capabilities into one clamshell-style communicator. The wallet-sized box handles short notes sent as either email or SMS messages to a dedicated address based on your phone number; for old-fashioned yakking, just plug in the hands-free headset. Now you can shoot back voice and email replies from the hip.
V100: $250. Motorola: (800) 331 6456, www.motorola.com.
Head Games
Beta-tested at last year's Olympics, Oakley's Overthetop hingeless sunglasses use your dome instead of your ears to stay in place. The polycarbonate plastic frames curve over your head and latch onto your posterior occipital protuberance - that place where your cranium meets your neck. The design isn't suited to side-to-side jostling, but it's perfect for an intense run in the sun. The lenses, made of top-quality Plutonite™, are thickest at the center, then grow thinner toward the edges to reduce distortion.
Overthetop: $175. Oakley: (800) 403 7449, www.oakley.com.
Digital Daisy Chain
When editing footage from multiple camcorders (like the videos from your daughter's wedding), don't waste effort by dealing with one camera at a time. Belkin's FireWire 6-Port Hub houses one port for your computer and five more for camcorders, storage drives, VCRs, or other devices that use a 400-Mbps FireWire connection. The compact design saves precious desk space, and a clasp system allows you to chain 10 hubs together to create a quick local network that lets dozens of DVD-RAMs and digital camcorders exchange files.
FireWire 6-Port Hub: $99.99. Belkin: (800) 223 5546, www.belkin.com.
Juice Box
Want to keep power glitches from spoiling Andrea Bocelli's booming arias? PS Audio's P1200 Power Plant improves both stereo and TV output by regenerating electrical current for up to eight entertainment devices. The rack-sized component transforms regular AC to DC, then converts it back to 115 volts of laboratory-quality AC. The ripples on the P1200's case mimic the perfect sine waves your sensitive equipment will love.
P1200 Power Plant: $3,950. PS Audio: (877) 772 8340, www.psaudio.com.
One-Touch Access
Forget keys. Bogotech's door lock reads your fingerprint so that you can get inside the house without putting down your groceries. The scratch-resistant microprism scanner identifies your loops and whorls in a half-second with 99.9 percent accuracy. The device stores from 1 to 100 fingerprints, enough for the entire household, whether you live in a condo or on a kibbutz. Now your latchkey kid will only have to worry about losing her homework.
BFD-2001: $1,000. Bogotech: +82 (2) 513 4242, www.bogotech.com.
iMod Pod
A portable module that slides into Acqis desktops, laptops, and other machines, iMod makes it easy to use the same data and settings at work, at home, and on the road. The 1-pound device contains all the PC hardware basics, including a Mobile Celeron 600-MHz processor, a 6-gig hard drive, and 64 Mbytes of memory, making it a complete computer without any I/O. The unit already pops into iDock desktop PCs. Soon, it will be able to connect with any PC via USB, and by summer, it will work with an Acqis laptop.
iMod: from $945. Acqis: +1 (650) 938 8198, www.acqis.com.
Back Beat
Can't get enough T.Rex? Osiris' full-size, weatherproof ballistic-nylon backpack carries your laptop - and your lunch - while blasting your favorite tunes from two water-resistant 10-watt speakers located on either side of the pack. Place six AA batteries into the 120-watt amp, plug in a CD or MP3 player, and you're ready to shake your thang all the way to the office. Slip your player's remote in the shoulder-strap pocket, and you'll find it easy to lower the volume when passersby start complaining.
G-Bag: $189.95. Osiris Shoes: +1 (858) 874 4970, www.osirisgbag.com.
