Gadgets that made 2007 cool

The year that went by saw some gadgets that raised the bar on digital life. We take a look at some.

Sony's PS3

For gamers, Sony launched its PlayStation 3. The PS3 was the first gaming console to have a built-in high definition television (HDTV) support. Gamers will tell you that the device boasts of an immersive gameplay, thanks to high- quality graphics. The console also had a powerful processor. A 60 GB version of the device was launched in May 2007 and recently the company introduced a 40 GB version priced at ₹24,990.

Apple's Touch

After making the world go crazy about its iPhone, officially the first completely touchscreen device, Apple integrated the same design in its iPod as well. Aptly called the Touch, the music player boasted of a 3.5-inch display with a completely touch based interface. Apart from the interface, the other firsts in this player was Wi-Fi support that helps wireless Internet connectivity at home. What it means is that a user could log into the Web using the built-in Safari browser in the machine. The device is available in two versions - 8 GB and 16 GB - priced at ₹17,700 and ₹23,600 respectively.

Navigation devices

The year 2007 saw navigation coming of age in India. Early in the year, Global Positioning System (GPS) as a feature was seen on a couple of cellphones. However, the availability of maps was an issue. The second part of the year saw standalone portable navigation devices getting launched. The first one was a Delphi navigator launched by Delhi based company CE Info Systems, popular for its online portal MapMyIndia. The MapMyIndia navigator came loaded with maps of 55,000 towns and villages, 150 cities, around 200,000 points of interest. The device was launched at a price of ₹21,000.

Real camera phones

Camera phones got closer to being real cameras in 2007. Cellphone vendors like Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, all had a 5-megapixel camera phone up their sleeve. The first one to be launched was the Nokia N95 4GB version. The device boasted of powerful multimedia capabilities but the battery would not last very long.

Then came the LG's KG 920 priced at ₹19,990. The performance was nothing worth writing home about. The device had more than 20 buttons on its body and made a silent retreat.

Before year-end, Sony Ericsson and Samsung also launched their own models, K850i and Metal 5 respectively. While the former has Xenon Flash, the latter claims to be the slimmest 5-megapixel camera phone at 14.9 mm.

Nokia introduced a 8GB version of its N95, the N82, while LG launched another 5-megapixel camera phone -- with a touchscreen interface this time, called KU990 or more popularly, Viewty. In terms of video capture, most of these devices offer 30 frames per second (fps) and the Viewty takes the lead with a 120 fps.