You’ve asked, and we’ve provided: Gizmodo is proud to announce the introduction of Gizmodo Hearts, a weekly short list of the hottest gadgets and best deals around. Come on inside to see the first week’s recommendations (we take care of the big stuff this week), including a short explanation of what to expect in the weeks to come.
As much as we’d love to sit down with everyone that asks us for specific recommendations, we just don’t have the time (Daddy has to have his bourbon lunch, pookies), but these are the products we can get behind without question. For each product category we’ll offer a top-end, ‘money is no object’ option, as well as a more value-minded alternative. Some of our decisions will rile you — we’re sure you have a thousand reasons why we are wrong — but until a better option comes along, we’ll be sticking to our guns.
Each week we’ll add categories, kick out old selections in favor of new favorites, and maybe even adding a few surprise categories here and there. We hope you enjoy it as it develops — and if you have a good idea of how to make Gizmodo Hearts an even better tool, let us know.
Portable Laptop
| High End | Value |
| Sony PCG-X505/SP | Apple iBook 12" |
| | |
| The thinnest, hottest laptop yet created by man. | Badass OS, solid build, great price. |
| $4,000 | $1,100 |
Ultra-light notebooks just don’t get more lust-worthy than the Sony PCG-X505 — especially not the PCG-X505/SP, a special-edition carbon fiber version that drops the final weight down to a barely-noticeable 1.7 lbs. There’s not a gadget lover alive that wouldn’t be proud to own one.
And as for the iBook? Pushing an Apple laptop might be a controversial choice for some, but with the best desktop operating system around, great battery life, and a starting price cheaper than many comparable Windows PCs, there’s not a single person in search of a cheap workhorse laptop we wouldn’t feel comfortable recommending the iBook to — it’s like getting a Powerbook for two-thirds the price.
Hard Disk MP3 Player
| High End | Value |
| Apple iPod 40GB | Rio Karma 20GB |
| | |
| I mean, come on. What did you expect? | Features out the OGG. |
| $500 | $249 |
It’s got a few shortcomings, but it’s still the best — if for the cool kid cred alone. While others have started to offer bigger capacities, for our money, the 40GB still offers the best all-around experience in the largish-capacity players. Plus when you buy an iPod — and we’re not joking here in the least — you buy into a whole product segment. Want to buy an accessory? Okay, pick any twenty. [Impending Heart Attack: August 60GB iPod]
We’ve had a soft spot for the Rio Karma since the day she was born — decent capacity, nice battery life, great features (Ethernet dock? Awesome!), and more music formats than you can shake a memory stick at. And now with the Karma 2 looming on the horizon, the still-fantastic Rio Karma can be had for just $250; some would call that one iPod mini, but we call it five times the storage with five times the features (but it was a close call).
Smartphone
| High End | Value |
| PalmOne Treo 600 | Nokia 3650/3660 |
| | |
| Approaching perfection, but the race isn’t over. | Ugly, goofy, fun. |
| $500 (or so) | $275 (or free) |
There are two reasons why we can recommend the PalmOne Treo 600 over any other smartphone: it’s small and pocketable; and it’s powerful, without being confusing. Love it or hate it, Palm OS has the longest pedigree of any major handheld OS today, and in the Treo that power is meted out in easy-to-learn chunks. There are more powerful smartphones — and some around the bend that will likely dethrone the Treo — but for now the Treo is the phone that we tell our friends to get, geek and common man alike. [Impending Heart Attack: Motorola MPx]
After rebates and carrier promotions, the Nokia 3650 (the one with the strange circle keypad) and its updated sibling, the 3660 (with a regular keypad) can be had for next to nothing — sometimes you can even get money back. But free definitely does not mean cheap, with a powerful Symbian operating system, VGA camera, tons of fun applications, and plenty of tricks up its sleeve, especially when paired with a Bluetooth-enabled computer. A quick Googling will reveal why the Nokia 3650 has come to be called, “The Blogger’s Friend.” It does almost everything every other modern day smartphone will do, but can be picked up for free. We know of no better introduction to smartphones than that.
Oh, I would add: Thank You, Patric King, for our great new Hearts logo. It is resplendent with subtle symbolism, evoking the periodic table, love, and shining robot ass. It could not be more perfect.
