No child's play

GIZMOGEEK/ Aloke Banerjee

What's the first thing you look for in a gadget?

I look at the functionality and the usability of the product. The gadget needs to have ease of use and should not be very complex. I love gadgets that can connect to each other, the way Bluetooth helps in connecting your mobile to your laptop, making data transfer easy.

Who's your one-stop gizmo guru?

I'm yet to find one. But I do refer to a few websites for help at times, like Tech2.com and Apple.com.

What gadget have you been waiting to buy?

The Apple Macbook Air. It is sleek, light and has better wireless capabilities than others I have seen.

What gizmo distracts you from your work?

That's my fixed line at office. Can't we have better options to converse at a good cost?

Name a buy you regret having spent so much money on.

I recently bought a BlackBerry 8310. To my surprise, I have not been able to configure this device with my Nokia Communicator in spite of all the technical help I got. It's been very difficult to transfer data and use my new BlackBerry.

What gizmo do you think is overrated?

The Bose headphones are overrated. In fact, there are better options in the market. I find Sennheiser far superior.

Name a gadget you still haven't been able to figure out.

I would like to understand how a good voice-recognition communication device works. That would certainly ease my everyday life.

Is there a gadget you can't do without, apart from your cellphone?

That would be my compact IBM X81 laptop.

How much gadget literature do you actually read?

Whenever necessary, I do try to read the relevant information in the instruction manual.

What gadget should be banned?

I wish the Xbox concept could be better utilised by all. I think Xbox is very addictive and it tends to have a negative influence on kids. So, rather than just having destructive action games, we could do with some constructive educational games that involve creativity.