Gadget Master

Time, I think, for another Gadget of the Week! Fishing some likely contenders from the swelling ocean of gadget and technology blogs...

As always, let's get a few eye-catching-but-rather-frivolous non-contenders out of the way...

For example, how about a Kee Desk Phone Dock for iPhone (pictured right) to grace your executive desk? The dock even has a handset attached and also takes care of charging, says Technabob. Or maybe a Circuit Tie is more to Sir's taste? But this innovative Booktree also caught my eye.

Moving closer to the Gadget of the Week award, but still rounding up the outsiders, what about a Motorola XBMC remote control. One for those who have a Smart TV or another connected device that requires onscreen entering of data, reports SlashGear.

Or, returning to iPhones, how about an Altec Lansing's Octiv 650 iPhone / iPod speaker dock. It does video out and "brings new meaning to Mood lighting," says Engadget.

Circling closer to our goal we reach the worthy-but-rather-dull landmarks. For example, how about a Radeon HD 6790, sneaking in at under $150 reports Engadget again. Or a Pogoplug Video (pictured left), which "automatically transcodes video streaming on-the-fly so that no matter what device you're using to remotely access the content, you should be able to play it". Or Linksys E-Series wireless routers, or the D-Link ShareCenter DNS-320 and DNS-325 which are joining the NAS party, points out SlashGear...

And so we come to the "Almost" region. Almost contenders, this week, are the Nikon Coolpix P500 and an upgraded Samsung Galaxy S II.

The Nikon camera follows its predecessor, the P100, though the ability to mount an external flash, and dedicated ISO and white balance buttons are still missing, reports Engadget:

"With rather modest changes, the P500 gives you another dose of what the P100 served up -- convenience in a compact package. Besides being able to zoom 10x more with that 22.5-810mm monstrous lens, and take larger pictures due to a 2 megapixel increase, the P100 is still faster (with a f/2.8 lens) and smaller, not to mention $100 cheaper. It's difficult to say that the P500 is ready to grab the reins from the P100 entirely, but that miniature telescope of a lens sure makes it a contender."

Meanwhile, regarding the latest Samsung phone, Engadget has some good and bad news for those holding out for a Galaxy S II:

"GSM Arena is reporting that Samsung has decided to upgrade the phone's dual-core processor from 1GHz to 1.2GHz, something that was first revealed on Samsung Estonia's Facebook page and has apparently be confirmed by GSM Arena itself from an 'internal source'. The bad news is that it seems you'll also have to deal with a bit of a delay. Some UK retailers are now listing a release date of May 6th, while Samsung India has tweeted that the phone's global launch has been delayed by "at least" a month, and that it won't roll out before June."

Finally, time for a drum roll as we reach the giddy gadget heights: Gadget of the Week is the Acer Aspire Z5761 all-in-one touchscreen PC (pictured below).Thanks to Slashgear for highlighting this most desirable piece of kit, which features a massive 1.5TB of storage, a choice of hybrid analogue/digital TV tuners, gigabit Ethernet, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and a 2-megapixel webcam. Not to mention a Blu-ray reader/DVD burner.

"Acer has outed its latest all-in-one, the 24-inch Acer Aspire Z5761. Built around a choice of Intel Core i5-2400S, i5-2500S or Core i7-2600S processors along with up to 8GB of RAM, the touchscreen desktop promises home entertainment and even some gaming potential thanks to a range of discrete NVIDIA GPUs to choose from."

The Acer Aspire Z5761 is expected to go on sale in the UK in early May, priced from £799.