Five Must Have Gadgets For the Winter Olympic Games

Check out some must-have gadgets for the Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada

Australia is a sports-mad nation at the best of times, and we pride ourselves as an active, outdoor nation. You wouldn’t think coming from a hot, dry land that the Winter Olympics would be on the Aussie public’s radar, but when it does come around, we certainly watch the skiing, speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey – and who can forget the adrenalin-pumping luge and ski jumps. We look at some of the must-have technologies you’ll need to make the most out of the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games.

Television
An obvious must-have is the television. It has been proven over and over again, when a popular world even occurs, television sales increase, so if the Winter Olympics are the starw that broke the camel’s back in terms of buying a new set, then which ones to go for? LCD? Plasma? LED? Or even, really splash out with an OLED. We’ve taken the conservative approach and taken the more expensive LED and OLED units out of the picture. So LCD or plasma? We suggest a LCD due to the technology really catching up with reality, and the lack of vision ‘blur’. ‘Blur’ is that annoying time lag that happens when you’re watching sport. The size of the screen will depend on how ‘into’ the games you are.

DVD Recorder/Personal Video Recorder
We all lead busy lives, but that doesn’t mean we can’t record our favourite event if we are out and about doing something else. There are many option out there, but there are two categories you can invest in – the DVD recorder or the personal video recorder. Choosing the right option for you probably comes down to how much you love the Winter Olympics. A DVD recorder is, well, a DVD recorder, much like the VHS recorder of old. Most come with hard disc drive storage so you can record quite a few hours of programming. A personal video recorder is pretty much the same device, however it usually has a lot more storage space. If you’re a Winter Olympic’s nut, and want to see every event, then this is probably the best choice. Most major vendors will have DVD recoders, while PVR brands include TiVo, Beyonwiz and Foxtel’s IQ.

Smartphone
A smartphone? Why would we include such a device in must have’s for the Winter Olympics? Updates! No longer is a smart phone your mobile phone, it is a multi-media device that has a whole range of applications on board, which is why it is ideal for catching up with what is going on in Vancouver. You can catch up with tweets from athletes, surf the net for results, and check videos to see who has won what on the ski slope, rink or luge run. You can also email your mates the latest results or links to all the action. Note, this is for smartphones – there are plenty of handsets out there that don’t have the applications or necessary processing power to handle these kinds of functions.

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E-Book Reader
Want to catch up on the latest news and results from the Winter Olympics, then getting an e-book reader is a good idea. If you like you news a little more indepth and on a bigger screen, then one of a number ebook readers out there should do the trick. When people think ebook reader, they think of all the latest books you can download from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or any one of a number of new players that are entering this market. However, few think about it as a source of news, but there are a tonne of newspapers and magazines that are available for download. For a subscription, you can get all kinds American-based newspapers that will give you all the latest results from Vancouver at your fingertips.

Digital Radio
With a slight time difference between Australia (especially those in South Australia, Northern Territory and Western Australia) and Vancouver quite marked, you might want to invest in an alarm clock so you don’t miss any action. We thought, “why not go one step further, get a digital radio!”. Digital radio rolled out last year, and it appears to have added a new lease of life to the airwaves. Again, you can get results through, but more importantly it can be set to wake you up at an ungodly hour so you can listen to, or watch, your favourite winter action. It’s also a good excuse to get a neat piece of technology!