Businesstraveller.com brings you the latest travel gadgets and accessories to make life on the road easier. This week: The Leica V-Lux 20, Asus N61JV notebook, Verbatim portable hard drives, Garmin nüvi 3700 satnav and the new Winscribe iPhone app
Leica V-Lux 20
Finally, a Leica that is both relatively affordable and desirable, while being small enough to take out and about. The V-Lux 20 is a 12.1MP compact that comes with a 12x optical zoom thanks to the inbuilt 25-300mm lens. The GPS tagging allows each image to be assigned exact geographical co-ordinates, and if the pictures are posted to the internet, image portals or map sites such as Google Maps or Google Earth reveal exactly where they were taken. The camera also has a pre-installed list of 500,000 places of interest. As well as taking pictures, the V-Lux 20 can record HD-quality video, and features such as face recognition, automatic scene modes and smart exposure, are all available in video mode.
PRICE £495
CONTACT leica-camera.co.uk
Asus N61JV notebook with Nvidia Optimus
Asus have today announced their first notebook in the UK to feature Nvidia’s Optimus technology – the N61JV. Nvidia Optimus apparently balances high performance HD graphics with extended battery life. The fully automated technology sits in the background ready to switch between discrete and integrated graphics based on which programmes are being used - and with no user intervention required, ideal for novice users unwilling to mess around with hardware settings and with no reboot required. Apart from fancy graphics, the N61JV has a 16” HD screen, an Intel Core i5 processor, a 500GB HDD and 4096MB or RAM. While there’s no inbuilt 3G, there is inbuilt wifi and Bluetooth.
PRICE £949
CONTACT asus.co.uk
Verbatim Store `n` Go portable HDDs
Verbatim is launching a new generation of portable hard disk drives, small and light enough to carry in the pocket or briefcase. Verbatim’s new Store `n` Go Portable Hard Disk Drives also feature ‘Green Button’ software which aims to reduce energy consumption and increase the drive’s life expectancy through an energy-saving mode. The drives connect via USB 2.0 and come in 320GB, 500GB, 640GB, 750GB and 1TB capacities. Watch out for eSATA and USB 3.0 versions of the Store `n` Go drives in the near future.
PRICE £49.99 for 320GB, 129.99 for 1TB
CONTACT verbatim-europe.com
Coming soon
Garmin nüvi 3700 series
Satellite navigation specialist Garmin has hailed its new nüvi 3700 “the thinnest satnav ever.” The 3700 series’ sleek iPhone-like design houses a multi-touch screen and a raft of new navigation features such as PhotoReal View, which adds a touch of 3D realism to the directions presented. Drivers can even name their nüvi 3700, to which it will respond thanks to voice recognition. The range includes the 3760 and the 3790, and it should be noted that only the 3790 has 3D navigation and voice activation. Other clever features include speed camera alerts, lane assistance and maps covering 44 European countries. There’s also the option to tailor the 3700 towards public transport and pedestrian navigation.
AVAILABILITY Q3 2010
PRICE 3760T $399; 3790T $449
CONTACT garmin.co.uk
App of the Week
WinScribe Digital Dictation App for iPhone
WinScribe has launched an app aimed at making professional dictation and document control available to iPhone users. The app allows for voice files to be captured digitally and sent via the internet over an encrypted HTTPS connection. Other features include inserting/over-writing dictations, subject and custom fields, job listing and profiling, near real-time job status monitoring, shake to record and selectable audio quality. It also supports a range of languages including English, French and German, and scalable font size for ease of reading.
PRICE Free
CONTACT winscribe.com
