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The Chinese Lunar New Year is ready to roll in with more than a squeak from the Rat, the ruling zodiac for the year. With creativity being one of the characteristics of the Rat, the Lunar New Year that begins 7 February should be your chance to do things with a little more pizzazz.
Since red is the colour of choice for the New Year, get something significantly red and feel really good about yourself for the rest of the year.
Dell and Microsoft have teamed up for a red-hot deal that's hard to resist. Whether you keep it for yourself or give it away, this is a choice 'hong bao' (red packet, usually filled with money). It's a firecracker red laptop that's part of the Dell (PRODUCT) RED range.
Each purchase will see $50 from going towards AIDS treatment in Africa for one person, for up to four months.
The exclusive PC will also feature a distinctive (PRODUCT) RED Windows Vista Ultimate which includes unique wallpapers and Sidebar gadgets. There are two Dell (PRODUCT) RED laptops include the award-winning XPS M1330 ultra-thin, 13.3 inch notebook.
Banking on the creative streak in the Rat, is Fujitsu which is telling everyone to give a break to the mouse in the new year. More importantly, since research shows that the mouse is not related scientifically to the much larger rat which is more inclined to make a meal out a mouse - it might be a good idea to put away the mouse this year!
Pick up the stylus instead, which is the main mode of navigation in the latest Fujitsu LifeBook range of tablet notebooks. The smallest in the range is the U1010, which unfortunately, doesn't come with a small price-tag.
The tablet notebook that's just over 5.6 inches large will set you back S$2388 if you choose not to get one with mobile partner M1, which offers a 3G bundle for the laptop which offers 3.5G connections instead of WiFi.
The U1010 is ultra-portable, slipping easily into my small bag along with a large,well-stuffed wallet, camera and other choice articles that never leave my bag out of sheer bad habit.
The down-side, the weight (approximately 0.63kg) for one so small and the amount of heat it generates when being run.
How the U1010 performs, I'll tell you in a few instalments on, so watch this space.
There is no doubt however, that the U1010 is well-equipped to go on the road, as is the up-sized P1610 with 8.9 inch screen and HSDPA connectivity.
Not red, but very close and very easy to slip into a red envelope for a 'hong bao' that's really different is Apple's latest pink iPod nano. Any Rat who appreciates pink, from 12 to 24 years will forgive the swop from cash to class (especially since good taste is another Rat character trait) .
If you're unlikely to be handing out hong baos, feasting or greeting unfamiliar relatives because you're far from home for the Chinese Lunar New Year, chances are you'll have to spend some time talking to family overseas.
Thanks to Skype, it doesn't have to cost the earth to speak to someone halfway across the globe for as long as you like.
If you're wishing to cut the cables on headsets and microphones, to be able to lounge around on your sofa or warm bed as your chat, the good news is Philips has rolled out in time for the new year, the VOIP841 Internet Phone.
Look into the box and it'll seem like any other cordless phone, except for the additional deep gray box that resembles a double-album CD in thickness,width and even weight. That's the base station which has to be plugged into a power socket at one end and the Ethernet LAN or router on the other.
Plug in the cradle for the light-weight and stylish looking phone and "viola" as they'd say in France, which you can call via Skype on your new phone with just a click.
Did I miss out on bits of conversation on the Philips VOIP841, you ask ? Well, visit this page again and find out.
Suffice to say, this is a device that is not complicated to use.
It took me all of three minutes to set up the phone (if you count unpacking the contents). The phone however, takes 14 hours to be fully charged, so impatient folks like me, will earn a new virtue for the new year.
I found that with this phone, users can easily switch to making normal landline calls (just plug the line into the phone jack on the base station) and with the addition of a speaker phone, it didn't matter which corner of the room I was in, I could still send out the greeting, "Happy New Year to you".
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