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American Morning
Some High-Tech Toys to Consider For Father's Day
Aired June 10, 2002 - 09:43 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: I know, it's only Monday, and Father's Day is nearly a week away. So, the usual last minute "don't go with the matching tie and handkerchief" pitch to all you procrastinators out there does not really apply. But if you're still looking around, consider toys for dad. Well, high-tech toys. And here to show us some items ranging from the affordable to the absolutely ridiculous is "New York Times" technology correspondent David Pogue.
How are you doing this morning?
DAVID POGUE, "NEW YORK TIMES": Great, thank you.
ZAHN: All right, let's start with the affordable stuff.
POGUE: Digital cameras going crazy. Seven million people bought them last year. What do you do with the pictures? Well, you can keep them on your camera. Or for $30, you can order these beautiful, linen-covered hardback photo albums that you design yourself, you type in your own captions, you pick the design of each page.
ZAHN: And then they do the work for you.
POGUE: Yes. You get it in a week, and a beautiful slip cover. OK, so it will arrive the day after Father's Day this year. But that's mypublisher.com, or if you're a MacIntosh fan, the Iphoto software that comes with every MacIntosh has this feature built in.
ZAHN: And they'll run you $30, you say?
POGUE: Thirty dollars For the book, and that's for up to 10 pages, then it's $3 a page.
ZAHN: That's a great idea. Now you've got a camera down there, too.
POGUE: We're talking high-tech gifts, and so unfortunately, high-tech tends to be expensive. I was racking my brain for something less expensive. So anyone with a digital camera knows that the memory card that comes with it is insufficient, it's a joke, it's a starter cards that hold five pictures.
ZAHN: That's it.
POGUE: So one thing you can be sure that dad will appreciate is a bigger, better memory card. Maybe $60. And it will let him take more pictures, keep more pictures around, and it's really utilitarian, but the guy will really appreciate it.
ZAHN: Yes, it's really nice, David, but you, at some point, got to have a camera to load that into.
POGUE: Oh, yes, he'd really like that camera.
ZAHN: That would be what? The range of that is $500?
POGUE: Like $300-$600 for the really nice ones.
ZAHN: In the various resolutions, depending on which one you pick.
POGUE: Right.
ZAHN: You got some high-tech stuff in the barbecue pit.
POGUE: Yes, exactly, this is another really utilitarian, but very appreciative gadget. It's nothing more than a laptop power cord that works either in the car or for the lucky day who flies first class for the airplane, where they now have power jacks in every first-class seat, but you're required the special adapter if you want to be able to use that jack.
ZAHN: And you get enough juice to keep it running.
POGUE: Exactly. It's just like keeping your laptop charged and running. This thing just is from Brookstone. It's a remote- controlled grill thermometer. You shove this part in the meat. You put this part on your belt. You walk around, you socialize with the other guests, and it actually says in a voice "almost ready" when it's almost ready, and then "ready," when it's ready. Just don't shove this into your pants and this into your meat, no.
ZAHN: Oh, yes, that could hurt.
POGUE: Exactly.
ZAHN: How close to the beef do you need to be.
POGUE: I think it's like 150 feet.
ZAHN: That's not bad.
POGUE: So you know, if you're on the estate, you've got to watch out.
ZAHN: Exactly.
Moving on to the headsets here, what are those?
POGUE: So now we're moving up into the $200 territory. This is from Sony, and it's got the delightfully easy to remember name RF975R. Don't mistake it for the "S" version. ZAHN: Yes, that is a great marketing tool there, isn't it? I'll remember maybe the number.
POGUE: So it's wireless headphones. So the spouse is sleeping, but you want to watch CNN. So this is the wireless transmitter and charger. This is hooked up the TV. You just take the headphones. You watch them in bed, in complete silence, with no cords or anything, and on the move he goes.
ZAHN: Is that a rude thing to have your children buy that for one husband, because you get sick of watching ESPN, and I really want to...
POGUE: I think it will be one of the most welcome nags that dad will ever get.
ZAHN: Yes, it could be a very selfish gift on my part.
POGUE: Yes, exactly.
ZAHN: You've got "Shrek" and -- is this an MP3 player.
POGUE: No, this is also from Sony. It's just a DVD player -- although just a DVD player. It's $200, and what's interesting about it, first of all, the DVD comes in and out like a pop tart. It slides in and out of this slot with no tray. It's for tight spaces. You know, if you've already got enough boxes stuck around your TV, this one can go vertically, horizontally, upside down any which way you want.
ZAHN: And the picture is pretty good?
POGUE: It's great. It's DVD quality.
ZAHN: Now what are these down here?
POGUE: This is for the dad who has almost everything. You've heard of the palm organizers. This is from Handspring. It's exactly the same idea. It's an organizer. It's got your phonebook on there, you're calendar and so on. This is a color one. It's brand new. It's called the Trio 90, $300, and what's great about it is it's the smallest, thinnest, color palm organizer there is.
ZAHN: Can I just ask you, why you need the color?
POGUE: Why you need the color?
ZAHN: I've never missed not having color on those things.
POGUE: In a word, status -- that's it.
ZAHN: OK, I got that.
Now, you have -- now that puts you back how much?
POGUE: That's $300. What you're holding there, that's the Trio 270. It's the same idea, but it's also a phone. So as long as you have your address book and a gadget, you should be able to dial those numbers, and that's exactly the point of this trio phone.
ZAHN: How much does this cost?
POGUE: That's $500.
ZAHN: Five-hundred dollars.
Finally, you did come up. We're going to quickly show a shot of this hot tub. If you've really got a lot of money to blow you might want to consider this. What is this?
POGUE: Exactly. This is for the Bill Gates set. This is a hot tub. It's $12,800, but what's cool, it has that pop-up TV, built-in stereo, CD player, VCR, and that little circle, yellow floating gadget on the far end of the hot tub there, that's the waterproof remote control.
ZAHN: Oh, come on, they thought of everything.
POGUE: So for the guy who already has the rest of this gunk, there's the ultimate.
ZAHN: I just wonder how many of those they'll be selling this week.
POGUE: One would be enough.
ZAHN: David Pogue, that was great.
POGUE: Thanks a lot.
ZAHN: It's fun to go shopping with you. You save us a lot of footwork there.
POGUE: My pleasure. Take care.
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