Holiday Buyer's Guide: 5 Awesome Accessories

By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla

The perfect accessory can totally enhance or complete the experience of today's most popular devices. Accessories don't have to be expensive but they can definitely show thoughtfulness and creativity. Here are 5 awesome accessories we've loved using.

Elecom Soundblock iPod/iPhone speakers - US $36-$50 Online retailers

Although the may seem kitschy at first, we found Elecom's Soundblock speakers to be the perfect accessory for the new iPod Nano (and found it to work well with most i-devices). Wearing headphones all the time isn't always comfortable and can result in the increase of bacteria. Sometimes tiny speakers that can manage decent volume are the perfect solution and great for sharing music when traveling. Simply plug in the speakers where you usually have the charging connector and you get completely usable external  audio for your device that's way louder than the built-in keyboard. Soundblock speakers can be found at Geek Stuff 4 U and JZool.com.

 Griffin Loop for iPad - $29.95 at the Apple Store

For folks that already own an iPad, the Griffin Loop for iPad is the smartest and most versatile stand we've seen for the device. This weighty rubber stand can hold the iPad  securely in various horizontal and vertical positions and is a great place to store the tablet when it is charging or being used to playback content.  This is a great solution with those using the iPad with an external Bluetooth keyboard and it can even support an upright iPad and cradle an iPod Touch or an iPhone.

Nokia BH-505 Bluetooth Stereo Headset with Mic  - $68.20 popular celfone or carrier stores

Let's face it, wired headsets aren't the most comfortable accessories around and specially when you're a sporty and active person. Nokia's BH-505 is designed to deliver great wireless sound and is rated for durability as well as comfort. It takes around an hour to charge, delivers over 24 hours of audio at 60% loudness and is compatible with most major smartphones, computers and audio players. With its built-in microphone it is a terrific handsfree solution as well as great for Skype and other chat software. What we like most abut the BH-505 is that it is lightweight, comfortable and delivers really great sound and is easy to pair with most Bluetooth devices.

HP Wireless Mini Keyboard - $38.30 electronics and big box stores

With tablets, TV streaming set-top boxes and mini-PCs becoming popular we find that a great wireless mini keyboard is an essential accessory. HP's line of wireless mini keyboards are complete solutions that incorporate a sleek spill-resistant chiclet style - keyboard in a light and compact form factor as well as the versatility of a mouse with HP's precise OFN (Optical Finger Navigation). Compatible with most Windows-based devices and running on 2 AA batteries powering the 2.4GHz wireless keyboard.

Kodak Mini Video Camera - $99.95 (online and selected retailers)

About the size of a credit card, Kodak's feature packed mini video camera brings all the technology of their successful line of PlaysPort line of active lifestyle HD video cameras, the Mini Video Camera manages to shoot 640x480 video at 30 frames per second with 3X digital zoom. Software is built right into the device so all you need to do is plug it into a PC and run the software that can format the video for the web of for your TV. Aside from its diminutive size, this small video camera can be expanded with up to 16GB of memory.

Comments

[Breeno]

Taken from my shopping.com review:

Best HTPC Keyboard I've Ever Owned
5 out of 5 Stars

PROS: Great Design, Quality Construction, Energy Efficient, Simple Setup, wireless, Cheap price - good quality, Responsive Input
CONS: No Function-key Toggle, A Few Poorly Placed Keys, No Backlight, No Toggle LEDs, Wireless Needs Line-of-sight
Recommended it? Yes

Good For: HTPC
Hello fellow couch potato surfers! I've been using various wireless keyboard/mouse combos to control my HTPC over the last 5 years, but none has been better than the HP Wireless Mini Keyboard (which I am using to type this review) that I picked up at Staples last month. This was an impulse purchase and I paid full retail for it, but it can be found on the net for under $40.

My last HTPC input device, the former champion of couch surfing, was the Logitech diNovo, an aggravating clamshell design with too-small keys, a crummy finger trackpad, and lackluster battery life (thanks to the keyboard backlighting). HP's Mini has none of these problems. By comparison, the HP Wireless Mini Keyboard can be had for 1/2 to 1/3 the price, and is a better device overall. It's so good that I've been writing reviews about the HP Mini across the net, something I've never done before!

This keyboard definitely comes packed with great features for the price. It is about the size of a netbook keyboard, stylish in a minimalist way, and fairly thin yet sturdy and well made. It's just right for on-top-of-your-lap typing. The keys have a nice feel to them and respond well to key presses. The built in optical finger navigation works very well given the size of the input surface and the high resolution of my TV (1920x1080). The keyboard uses two AA batteries and battery life has been excellent so far, a fact that is no doubt helped along by the lack of backlighting and LED toggle indicators.

On the down side, the lack of backlighting could be a problem in low light situations, and the lack of LED indicators makes it impossible to tell if a toggle key, such as Caps Lock, is engaged without actually typing. The function keys (F1 - F12) are activated by holding down the 'fn' key first and then tapping the desired function key, and there is no way for the 'fn' key to act as a toggle key (which would have been my design choice), rather than a shift modifier key. The default, unshifted mode of the function key row is to facilitate multimedia access, which is problematic in the cases of F2 and F3, as they are sleep and account lock keys, respectively. Hitting either of these keys accidentally can be bothersome, and I have read of some people physically removing the keys to avoid the problem altogether. I also had to use an extension cable to position the keyboard's USB micro receiver within line of sight, as the signal was intermittent when it was plugged into the back of my HTPC (a Shuttle SH55J2). This might have been avoided if HP had used Bluetooth instead of its own proprietary 2.4GHz wireless protocol.

One last gripe I have read about, although it is not mine, is that the optical finger sensor doubles as the right-mouse button, with a separate left-mouse-only button on the left side of the keyboard. Some complain about this arrangement, and the fact that there isn't a toggle on the keyboard to reverse the mouse button assignments. I would counter with two points: 1) any OS I've ever used allows for mouse button swapping; and 2) dragging is very difficult to perform if you are depressing the sensor that also tracks movement. To be thorough, I tried swapping the buttons in Windows for about an hour to make sure I wasn't missing something... and I wasn't. It was aggravating to use the sensor with mouse buttons swapped, and I was more than happy to go back to the way HP's designers intended it to be used.

The Bottom Line: The HP Wireless Mini Keyboard is an excellent input device for HTPC usage that works better than more costly devices. Despite flaws, I have given it top marks for being best in the HTPC input class. Highly recommended.