Gadgets

Being able to casually pull the latest gadgets (or tech-cessorries) out of your designer handbag could be seen as the epitome of a true gadget girl.

A Facebook-friendly camera, super-easy portable video recorder and the world’s smartest pen are among the latest essentials in Breakfast’s Gadget Girl and Flossie editor Tee Twyford’s (gorgeous Saben) handbag…

1: The Facebook-friendly camera
Product name: Samsung ST550 Compact Camera
The first digital camera to complement its slick full-sized touchscreen on the back of the camera with a 1.5inch LCD screen on the front, putting you (clearly) into the picture! This gives the Samsung ST550 a heap of amazing additional features like being able to see yourself when you’re holding the camera in front of you, getting a visual3-2-1 countdown when you’re on self-timer and a cartoon that plays to attract the attention of babies and younger children - all of the things you wish they’d thought of earlier … and wonder why the camera world hasn’t already. 12.2 megapixel resolution, 27mm wide angle lens and 4.6x optical zoom, one touch shooting, uto-Focus, Smart Face Recognition and HD Movie Recording.

RRP: $ 599
Stockists: Call 0800 SAMSUNG for your nearest stockist.

2: The world’s smartest pen
Product name: The Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe (4GB)

Records everything you hear and links it to what you write - so you never miss a word, whether you’re in a board meeting or trying to capture your lecture notes.  Simply tap the ‘record’ button on the magic ‘dot paper’ and the infra-red pen located in the pen’s tip will capture what you write/draw and the microphone will record any conversation. You can then play back the sound, using the words you wrote as ‘triggers’, ie when I wrote ‘due Friday’ on the page, the boss was telling me about what I needed to do before Friday. Then transfer all the information as ‘pages’ to your computer (via the USB charging cord), and easily search through them to find key words and their associated recordings. You can also export each ‘page’ as a PDF without audio, or combine the visual and audio to create a ‘pencast’ for others to access. NB: This product doesn’t transcribe what you write.

RRP: $ NZ 599
Stockists: www.livescribe.co.nz

3:The super-easy personal video recorder
Product name: Flip Mino HD
A must-have gadget for the likes of Jessica Alba (pictured), Lauren Conrad and even the legendary Oprah herself, the Flip Mino HD is the world’s easiest personal video recorder (that’s my take, not the official party line of Flip). Turn it on, click the giant red button to start recording (zoom in or out if you need) then click big red again to stop. When you’re ready to watch or share the recording, simply flick a switch on the side and a USB stick appears at the top of the Flip (very Swiss Army knife!) and you plug it directly into your computer. You can edit using the Flip software or just upload directly to YouTube or email. Easy as 1 (record), 2 (put into computer) 3 (share).

RRP: $349.95
Stockists: Dick Smith and Noel Leeming from Tuesday 3 November 2009.