Top 5 New Gadgets of the Week
March 25, 2012 — -- intro: This week in tech saw a dramatic and disappointing end to the Bird-Man Hoax, an exciting new beginning for IBM's Watson supercomputer as an oncologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, and some heat around the new iPad. But the gadget world also saw some exciting arrivals.
From a missle-launching helicopter that you can control with your smartphone or tablet to the Amiga Mini, a revival of the well-known Commodore Amiga from the '80s, there's something for technophiles of any age. Click through to get the lowdown on all of our top gadget picks this week.
quicklist: 1title: Griffin HELO TC Assaulttext: Sure, we've all played with remote control helicopters, but this one definitely stands out from the pack. For starters, the HELO TC Assault from Griffin Technology is easy to set up: Just download the app, connect the flight deck, and take off! With two different flight modes, you can control it using the touchscreen or the phone's built in six-axis controls. You can also record and store up to three different flight plans to make a game of it. Did we mention it shoots missiles? It's available now for $59.99. (Griffin)media: 15988273
quicklist: 2title: Canon EOS 5D Mark IIItext: After the resounding success of Canon's EOS 5D Mark II, Canon's stepping back into the ring with an upgraded version, jam-packed with the latest in professional grade camera technology. Sporting a 22.3 megapixel sensor, 3.2-inch LCD, and wide range ISO setting, you can get top quality high definition video, even in the dark. And with a new feature called Silent Shutter, you won't have to worry about the familiar, loud shutter clicking that comes with high speed shooting. The Mark III's price tag sits at a whopping $3,499, and is expected to ship on Monday, March 26. (Canon)media: 15988373
quicklist: 3title: Acer Iconia Tab A510 text: With the iPad 2's new $399 price tag, it may not be the best time to release a new tablet for $450, but Acer's Iconia Tab A510 may have impressive enough specs to pull it off. The new Iconia Tab features the Tegra 3 quad-core processor from NVIDIA to make multitasking smoother than ever, not to mention 12 hours of battery life, Android 4.0, and a 5 megapixel camera. As an official sponsor of the 2012 Olympics, Acer has decorated the back of the tablet with the five Olympic rings. It's currently available for preorder on Amazon.com for $450. (Acer)media: 15988397
quicklist: 4title: Commodore Amiga Minitext: Commodore is stepping back into the personal computer game with a revival of its popular Amiga, except this time it's in the form of a small, square desktop computer. For $395, you can get the casing and a Blu-Ray player and build the rest yourself or just use it as a media device. If you want to shell out $1,495 for an Intel Core i3 processor, 4GB of memory, NVIDIA graphics, and a TB of hard drive space, that's your call. The price is a little excessive, but the size is certainly impressive. It will be available to ship in four to six weeks. (Commodore)media: 15988351
quicklist: 5title: NetZero Mobile Internettext: Yet another old player is reinventing itself. Well known for providing free dial-up, NetZero is now offering a slew of solutions for 4G mobile broadband. The NetZero Hotspot is available for $99.95, and the NetZero 4G Stick is available for $40.95, both provide 4G service and come with 200MB of free data per month. Obviously 200MB isn't enough data for anyone, so NetZero offers a variety of paid data plans ranging from $10 to $50 per month without the burden of a two-year contract. (NetZero)media: 15988247
