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2000 Roundup: The 12 Nuggets of Christmas

With so much ace kit around, why settle for a couple of turtle doves?
Written by Graeme Wearden, Contributor

The year 2000 has seen some fantastic techno gadgets with masses of new MP3 players, lightning fast laptops, and devious removable storage kit. Not forgetting the mobile makers, who've been battling away to make phones smaller, smarter, prettier and WAPpier.

And then there were bass-tastic speakers, nifty PDAs, groovy graphics kit, sensitive mice... you get the picture

We've picked our 12 favourite Nuggets from the last year. The most drool-worthy pieces of kit around -- these are the gadgets that turn our mates green with envy, or the ones we'd love to be given for Christmas or snap up in the New Year sales.

Let's hope 2001 continues the trend!

  • Nikon CoolPix880 Wot a stunning snapper! This 3.3 digital megapixel camera flaunts a 2.5x optical zoom and plenty of fancy features.

  • Calluna MoveIT 650MB hard drive A hard drive on a Type II PC card -- it's got enough capacity to store thousands of MP3 files and images or even a whole movie, and you can still slip it into your pocket.
  • Wacom Graphire This ultra-sensitive mouse and pointer will make life easier if you're into computer art, and it's pretty affordable too.
  • Hewlett Packard Jornada 720 EDITOR'S CHOICE It's a high-end colour PDA that'll help to turn you into a mobile worker, and does email and the Internet.
  • Samsung SGH M100 Tempted by the idea of a stylish mobile phone with a built-in MP3 player? You betcha!
  • Ericsson R380 This smartphone combines the features of a mobile and a PDA, can handle GPRS, and is sure to turn a few heads...
  • Diamond Rio 600 S3's slim and sexy sequel to the 500, you're looking at great portability and sound quality with this MP3 player.
  • Creative Labs DAP Jukebox With a monster 6GB hard drive this digital audio player can hold hundreds of albums as MP3 or WMA, and also boasts sophisticated audio controls.
  • Labtec Edge-418 Need some serious boomage? Check out these two ultra-thin speakers which come with a very capable subwoofer.
  • Hewlett Packard Omnibook 6000 It's a powerful 700MHz notebook that could replace your desktop PC and double as a home cinema.
  • Transambient DVD OK, it's not a gadget, just some top-notch audio-visual artistry that'll keep you entranced and entertained.
  • Eurotech infrared keyboard and mouse Had enough of a cable-cluttered desk? Reclaim your desk space with this wireless combo.
  • And that's your lot. See you next year!


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