Whether it’s your Christmas party at home or at work, these gizmos will get nan off the eggnog or even involve Barry from accounts to end 2011 in a memorable way.

10. Karaoke Machine

What better way to subtly hint to your third cousin twice removed that you fancy them a bit than by singing along to a bit of “All I want for Christmas is You” with Mariah Carey? Or keep the kids entertained for hours by having them re-enact their favourite moments from Glee.

Karaoke Machines come in all shapes, sizes and prices with basic machines costing as little as £40, and Karaoke Box-Set CDs from £20. There are also DVDs players that have a karaoke function, so all you need to do is plug in a microphone and claim your five minutes of family fame.

9. Photo Cube Smartphone Printer

If you have a bit more budget and want something to get the kids involved in, the Photo Cube Smartphone Printer is a great idea to instantly print off pictures snapped on your phone. It only takes 60 seconds for a digital picture to leap off your phone into your hands.

No longer will you have empty promises of sending that great pic you took to everyone else in the group shot, just pop your phone into this printer and provide a picture for everyone. Christmas is sometimes the only time everyone gets together, so it’s nice to provide a memento of your gathering to keep everyone going until next year.

The Photo Cube will set you back £120, with an extra £20 for ink cartridge and paper.

8. Digital Photo Frame

Grandma and grandpa will love the novelty of watching the family through the ages flick past while they sip on punch. Digital photo frames take up little room and are a great feature for a family get-together.

You can theme photos to just show funny snaps, or take a tour through the ages starting with mum and dad as kids moving onto the latest addition of the family. If you’re hosting a work party, fill it with past party photos or as a bit of a look-back on everything that’s happened this year.

Digital photo frames have been around for awhile and as such have dropped in price since they were first released. If you’re a bit of a savvy shopper you can pick one up for £20, but it may be worth spending a bit more to up the photo resolution and memory capability so that you can keep the photo show going for hours.

7. iPod Dock

There are a few options for getting the carols pumping in your house or office this year, and one is getting an iPod dock to shuffle through your tunes through a decent pair of speakers.

Logitech has a range of docks that provide excellent quality sound and will look great on the mantelpiece. The Logitech Pure-Fi Express Plus and the Rechargeable Speaker S315i both sells for £64.99 and are portable so can even come outside should the need for a snow-picnic arise.

6. Snow Machine

For some people, this might not be such a great Christmas Party gadget with the abundance of snow already piled up outside your front door, but for those dreaming of a white Christmas and getting nothing of the sort, a snow machine can make that dream come true.

Priced from as little as £50 for a small device, a snow machine doesn’t have to cost the earth. For this price, you can get a machine that will project snow up to 6 metres, and is remote control so you don’t have to end up looking like the abominable snowman when trying to turn it off.  If you do spend more on a snow machine, you are more likely to get a quieter device that won’t sound like a chainsaw going off in your living room.

Just to be clear, a snow machine doesn’t produce real snow, and you do need some special Snow Fluid to make the magic happen, which costs around £20 for 5 litres of the stuff.

5.  Home Brew Beer Machine

Why not compliment the roast potatoes with a glass of your finest home brew, vintage 2011? Home brew kits are easily accessible, and just by mixing packets of ingredients with water you can call your living room a microbrewery.

The Beer Machine Model 2000 is just £90 with an impressive-looking bar-style tap and pressure gauge to make sure your liquid gold doesn’t explode all over the place.

There are a range of beer mixes to choose from as well so you’re not just stuck with your standard ale. Flavours include Dutch Lager, Canadian Red Lager, Nut Brown Ale and Czech Pilsner.

4. Cocktail Fountain

On the topic of innovative inebriating drinks, this is a chance to combine practicality with a stylish interesting looking centrepiece. This cocktail fountain will let the daiquiris flow from four dispensers to create a lovely water-feature for you to stick your glass under.

It lights up too to create a night-club-esque ambiance which is great for gearing the office party up for the real night clubs afterwards.

At £24, this little gem of a party feature won’t break the bank and leaves you with enough to fill it with your spirit of choice.

3. Game Consoles

How do you tire the kids out when they’ve been cooped up all day? Yes they’ll want to play with their presents for a bit, but what happens when little Johnny steals little Frankie’s transformer pack? You distract them with something to tire them out- like a bit of Wii.

With games for kids and adults alike, a Wii or PS3 is a great idea to have set-up in a corner to get everyone involved. If your work Christmas budget allows for it, a bit of Guitar Hero 5, Dance on Broadway or Just Dance 3 won’t go astray. Or maybe it will but that’s the whole point really.

For PS3 faithfuls, get all of the aunts and uncles around some Family Game Night 4, Truth or Lies or Yoostar 2.

2. Mini Projector

While you may have last used a projector to display your PowerPoint prowess, they are also a good idea for scrolling through funny photos, or for playing a heart warming movie on Christmas bringing families together or something of the like.

You can get pocket projectors for around the £80 mark, but that may not be the right device to sit through the Titanic with, mainly because the battery life just won’t last.

Mini projectors are larger than pocket projectors and some come packaged with a screen. They have better resolution but will still fit into tiny spaces. Expect to spend around  £270 for a decent one.

1. Portable Hot Tub

If the snow machine didn’t do it for you this idea will- banish the Winter chill in your very own affordable portable Hot Tub. This may not be appropriate for every office party, but it will provide a talking point if you and your co-workers decide to go tenths in one.

The Lay-Z-Spa will set you back £330 which includes a water filtration system, Lay-Z massage system, rapid heat adjustment and 12 months warranty in case someone decides to wear stilettos in it. It takes 30 minutes to set-up and will fit back in its little box when you’re done resembling a prune.

Even if you don’t end up using it on Christmas day, what better way to melt away the stresses of having all of your family factions together than by spending all of Boxing Day in your very own hot tub eating turkey sandwiches?

Top 10 Christmas Party Gadgets is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

If you own any Netflix-playing device from companies such as Memorex, Haier, Smasung, Sharp, Toshiba or Sony, then beginning later this year, you will be able to locate a Netflix button and you will be able to turn your Netflix on without any searching. Iomega, Roku and Boxee are also expected to follow the lead. Netflix is certainly happy about the development as it will help the company in integrated its services seamlessly with a consumers’ TV watching habits. And with the advent of Apple and Google TV, Netflix certainly needs all the help that it can garner.

Source: Yahoo, Image: Netflix

TV Remote Controls May Get Netflix Button is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Liverpool’s BugWorld Experience uses Sky’s 3DTV technology to project giant realistic spiders in order to provide a psychological method known as flooding or exposure which means that you confront your fears to overcome them (you learn that the spiders are harmless.)

As Zath points out what someone with a fear of spiders would be doing at ‘BugWorld Experience’ God only knows, but they you go. Plus, surely the fact that the spiders aren’t real spiders removes some of the fear rendering the therapy useless? But it is cheaper than a session of professional therapy and a little more convenient than a tank of tarantulas.

Really, it’s just a bit of fun at the moment but it does show that 3D technology can be employed beyond the entertainment sector.

This film will be shown at the BugWorld until September 5th so if you fancy viewing spiders in 3D and cure your phobia or you just want to sample Sky 3D TV technology (which will be launched suspiciously soon after the exhibition on October 1st 2010) then head over to Liverpool.

No doubt some other Sky 3D exhibitions will spring up in the run up to its release. We’ll keep you informed.

Source: Zath

Sky 3D TV to cure fear of spiders? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

According to a published report and confirmed from an industry source, the box office record breaking movie will not only be marrying up with Panasonic 3DTVs but also it has been pointed out that the launch date of the Blu-ray disc could be as early as August/September although previous rumours did suggest that it might be early 2011.

Via HD Guru

Avatar 3D Blu-Ray: Launch in August and Bundled with Panasonic 3DTVs? is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

On one side will be the Blu-ray film and on the other the DVD. The idea is that you can buy this disc now and watch it on your DVD player and when you eventually upgrade to Blu-ray (which face it, you will in the end) then you have the Blu-ray version too. The key here (according to Universal Studios at least) is convenience and viewing flexibility.

Dubbed the ‘flipper’ disc, they will become available on January 19, 2010 (in the USA at first) with the release of The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and The Bourne Ultimatum (individually not as a trilogy/box set).

The films will be the same on both sides (along wit the bonus features), but the Blu-ray version will have extra features such as U-Control (which allows you to delve into the making of the film with the click of the remote without ever leaving the movie) and BD-Live (which allows Blu-ray players with a connection to the net to access exclusive interactive applications that allows you to communicate with friends and family while watching the film).

The big question is of course price. At the moment the top Blu-ray films costs around £16 or £17 (from Amazon.co.uk) whereas the top DVD films cost around £9 or £10. If Universal price them as the same as DVD’s then clearly this is a winning idea. But of course they can’t because then all their other Blu-ray titles look expensive. But if they price them the same as Blu-ray titles then why would I buy one?

Let me know what you think? Will you buy these titles? Also did you notice I didn’t include any puns about the 1996 Dolphin adventure ‘Flipper’… Great restraint on my part, me thinks!

New Dual Format Blu-ray/DVD Discs Announced by Universal is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Pink, pink and more pink! Love it or hate it, there are hundreds of pink gadgets around these days. Such as mobiles, laptops, sat-navs, games consoles, TV’s, stereos, MP3/4 players and many more.

So, as Gaj-Its resident ‘Pink Princess’, I’ve listed my top 5 pink products.

Sony Vaio Pink (VGN-CR42S/P)

With its stylish design and spectacular performance, this luxury Pink Notebook by Sony has a whopping 200GB hard drive – more than enough room for your music, movies, pictures, games, software and more! The 14.1” X-black LCD display makes viewing a pleasure with super sharp and bright pictures with a fantastic colour depth and contrast. With a 2.1GHz Intel Centrino Duo core processor, AT19 Mobility Radeon graphics card, Genuine Windows Visa Home Premium, Bluetooth 2.0 compatibility, integrated 1.3 megapixel web cam and an extensive media package, the Sony Vaio has everything you’d expect from a state of the art laptop.

(Image Source: Sony)

Fujifilm Finepix Z20fd Hot Pink

Fujifilm’s Finepix Z20fd is stylish and ultra-compact. With its 10 megalpixels and Fujinon 3x optical zoom, it has a range of picture taking options including close-ups and wide-angle scenes. Record those memorable occasions in MPEG 4 format and take great portraits with Fast Face Detection and red eye removal. A high ISO 1600 sensitivity and anti-blur mode ensure a professional looking quality. View everything on a large and vibrant 2.5” LCD screen and Transfer pictures and videos wirelessly to your PC via the Z20fd’s Dual Blog mode.

(Image Source: Fujifilm)

Pink Blackberry 8310 Curve

The pink Blackberry Curve is small, sexy, stylish and lightweight at just 111g. With a metallic finish and soft curved edges, this smartphone is packed full of must-have features. Take photos and video recordings on the 2.0 megapixel camera. Listen to music and watch videos on the built-in media player. Keep in touch with friends, family and colleagues with push email capacity, full QWERTY keyboard, text, picture and instant messaging. Access the internet with the web browser and add extra functions, such as third party web browsers, email clients, information services and extra games. Expand the 64MB internal memory via microSD cards. Also includes is built-in GPS for use alongside BlackBerry Maps.

(Image Source: Carphone Warehouse)

Pink Sony Portable DVD Player (DVP-FX720)

If you’re a frequent traveler, this stylish, glossy-pink portable DVD player by Sony will brighten up your journey. With 5 hours of playback time, you can watch a movie (or two!) on the vibrant 7” LCD widescreen. Whether you watch a movie from a DVD or from an external USB device, this player is compatible with most video formats, including DIVX. The player also supports MP3 playback, so when the movie’s over and you find yourself still traveling, sit back and relax with some of your favourite music. JPEG compatibility means you can plug in your digital camera and view your photos. The player has a powerful embedded speaker and a twin headphone jack with volume control so you can watch or listen with a friend. Included accessories are the remote control and car adapter.

Click here to purchase

(Image source: Sony)

Freeloader Pink Solar Eco Charger

One charger to charge all! Freeloader is a solar powered charger with a 12 part adapter to charge all of your gadgets. Here’s just what this nifty, pink device can charge: LG Chocolate series phones; Motorola V66 series and current V3 series phones; all Nokia current and N series phones; Samsung A288 and current D800 series phones; Sony Ericsson T28 and current K750 series phones; Sony PSP, Tom Tom sat nav, digital camera’s, PDA’s and two-way radios; Blackberry Smart phones, Bluetooth headsets, MP3 players, smart phones, Nintendo DS lite, i-Pod, i-Pod shuffle & i-Pod video. Wow – out of breath! Taking in power from the sun (kinda like Superman!), the device, when charged, can power an i-Pod for 18 hours, a mobile phone for 44 hours, a PSP for 2.5 hours, a PDA for 22 hours… you get the drift? It can also be charged by PC.

(Image Source: The Wild Store)

Now, on a more serious note, the reason behind Gaj-It.com going pink.

Breast Cancer is now the most common cancer in the UK. Each year, in the UK alone, more than 12,300 women and 70 men die from breast cancer.

There are many deaths, however breast cancer survival rates have been improving for more than twenty years and death rates have fallen by almost a fifth in the last ten years.

Research into Breast Cancer is ongoing and scientists are coming up with new treatments all the time. Your support could make all the difference, so if you would like to show your support for Breast Cancer Research, you can make a donation online here.

And if you love to shop, check out Breast Cancer Campaign’s Online Store here. Proceeds go to the charity and shopping for such a fantastic cause is bound to make you feel good!

(Image Source: Breast Cancer Campaign)

Gaj-It goes Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

CinemaOne is a fresh new design by Philips. Likened to the size of a football, this Home Theater System creates a cinema experience in the smallest of rooms so is perfect for the bedroom, office or student apartments.

The system combines a DVD player, CD player, IPOD dock, five channel amplifier, six speakers and a subwoofer. Let’s see what it can do!

Watch your movies:

CinemaOne is compatible with almost every movie format, including DIVX, MPEG, and WMV. Movies can be upscaled to 1080p HD resolution with an immaculate digital quality transfer to the TV.

Listen to your music:
It has a high-speed USB port and MP3 link that allows connection to a variety of portable media devices, supporting MP3, WMA or PCM formats. This clever system allows an IPod to be controlled via the unit’s remote control, whilst all track information is displayed and accessed on the TV screen.

View your photos:
CinemaOne also displays JPEG photos in high quality, allowing the user to flip, rotate, zoom or view their photos in slideshow mode.

So what’s the sound quality like? CinemaOne has a 4” subwoofer built into the base of the unit and six speakers, angled precisely and positioned around the body of it providing a surround sound experience.

“CinemaOne’s five channel amplifier and DSP (Digital Signal Processing) unit can process Dolby Digital, DTS, MPEG2 multichannel or stereo sound tracks and uses Philips’ proprietary sound and array processing technology to create a realistic and immersive cinema sound effect with distinct and clear dialogue, a convincingly wide sound stage and powerful deep bass” said Philip’s press release.

Furthermore, Philip’s unique Fullsound technology uses CinemaOne’s DSP to bring compressed MP3 music tracks back to life, restoring emotion, warmth and dynamics. So all in all, pretty good sound quality then!

The CinemaOne Home Theatre System is compact, sleek, stylish and the perfect fit in our simplistic, modern world. It was launched in Berlin, Germany at the end of August and is hoped to be on sale in the UK in January 2009. A bit late for Christmas, but a great New Year treat!

Check out some more photos over at Pocket-lint.

Philips CinemaOne: It’s not the size that counts is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

GOTO ASDA.co.uk.

Asda started selling Britains cheapest DVD players today. The Duraband DVD player is now on sale for a shocking £9, this is cheaper than the average price of a DVD. This is great news for bargain hunters and lets just hope we can get more gadgets for these prices this year.

This offer is only available instore however you can check their website for other deals (click here*) and also check Kelkoofor the cheapest DVD players.

Links:
ASDA*
Kelkoo*

Asda starts selling DVD players for less than a tenner – £9 for a Duraband DVD player is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

• Kelkoo.co.uk
• Amazon.co.uk

Overview

Rather than giving into the hype with the recent frenzy of DVD manufacturers fighting to produce either the latest HD-DVD or Blue-ray technology, Denon have certainly stuck to what they know best by improving on the standard definition performance system using integrated video scaling.

The Denon 1930 offers you the possibility to up-convert to hi-def signals, including the 1080p. This will improve the quality of your existing DVD collection using integrated video scaling which creates detailed images.

Review

With all them DVD’s you got as presents for Xmas, I have found a great DVD player, the Denon 1930, to watch them on, and with the festive season leaving you short on the pennies, this won’t break the bank balance either!

Firstly, the Denon 1930 wins on the style stake with its robust design and stylish aluminium front panel. I like the fact the DVD player is larger and arranged at the front panel, so its easier for you to search for the right buttons.

The digital connection carries all hi-def signals and multi-channel audio by a single cable to upscale video signal, as long as you have a digital display with corresponding HDMI connectivity. It also offers several audio outputs which can be connected to an external amplifier to carry multi-channel film and music soundtracks for surround setups which I found to be extremely handy.

The player will up-convert standard DVD’s to hi-def 720p, 1080i and the latest 1080p formats. I found that it was one of the best players to offer the highest 1080p standard and the images are impressive.

You can play a variety of discs including standard DVDs and CDs and -R/-RW recording formats carrying encoded JPEG, WMA, MP3 and compressed video DivX files. There’s also support for both DVD-Audio and SACD multi-channel music formats.

It has an excellent internal specification and uses the highest quality components which clearly reflect in it excellent performance. The icon-based menu system is easy to navigate and uncomplicated.

When switching to video scaling, images were more detailed and this was controlled with the Black Enhancer from the set-up menu system. Even images with dark backgrounds gave an excellent picture quality. The audio performance offered a lot more than your typical DVD players, such as Multi-channel music discs and standard CDs.

However, although up-scaling improves detail and fluidity, which comes close to hi-def performance I found that it still fell short of playing true hi-def content using next-generation players like Blu-ray and HD-DVD. Also, another main problem was that you needed a compatible display with a full hi-def resolution (1,920×1,080 pixels) to display it. I found that on older displays it didn’t support video scaling, and although it can be connected to a RGB Scart terminal the performance still wasn’t great.

Specification

The Gaj-it Verdict

• Design: 8/10
• Usability: 7/10
• Features: 8/10

• Love: 1080p video scaling, easy to use and excellent picture and sound performance
• Loathe: Basic menu system and not compatible with older dvds

We say: We like the Denon’s DVD-1930 features video upscaling. It’s excellent for someone who wants to improve the performance of your existing DVDs without wanting to spend too much. It doesn’t have best image quality compared to the next generation dvd players, but then again for the price we can’t have it all!

Denon DVD-1930 DVD Player And Upscaler Review is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com