It’s rare to see an age old item reinvented that stops you in your tracks and the Dyson Air Multiplier (DAM) is such an item. This reinvention of the electric fan comes from the brilliant mind of James Dyson who became famous by revolutionizing the vacuum cleaner to become more efficient.

The DAM’s most eye catching feature is the fact that it has no blades! This aspect of the design makes it very child friendly as you no longer have to worry about little Timmy getting has fingers chopped off. No blades mean no need for a grille; so it’s safe and simple to clean.

James Dyson says:

“I’ve always been disappointed by fans. Their spinning blades chop up the airflow, causing annoying buffeting. They’re hard to clean. And children always want to poke their fingers through the grille. So we’ve developed a new type of fan that doesn’t use blades.”

And because its motor is at its base, the Dyson Air Multiplier fan can be tilted with a touch, unlike a conventional top-heavy fan, which needs to be positioned with two hands and can topple easily.

The facts:

No buffeting
The blades on conventional fans cause unpleasant buffeting because they chop the air. Air Multiplier technology gives an uninterrupted stream of air that doesn’t distract or buffet you.

Hygienic
With its simple loop the Dyson Air Multiplier fan is quickly wiped clean with a cloth. Fans with blades are nigh on impossible to clean, with dust and dirt building up inside the cage. The same dust and dirt is then billowed into your face when the fan is switched on.

Stable
Unlike top-heavy conventional fans, the Dyson Air Multiplier fan has an energy-efficient motor is at its base, meaning it has a low centre of gravity and doesn’t topple over.

Touch-tilt
You have to use two hands to position a fan with blades. The Dyson Air Multiplier fan adjusts easily with a touch of the hand. It pivots on its low centre of gravity and stays put.

Variable airflow
Fans with blades have limited settings. The Dyson Air Multiplier fan uses an energy-efficient brushless motor, which means air speed can be precisely adjusted up or down. The airflow control switch control allows people to pick their perfect airflow.

Oscillation control
To oscillate a conventional fan you have to hold it steady, pull the toggle and watch it judder. Oscillating the Dyson Air Multiplier fan through 90º is simple. Press the button.

Strong
The Dyson Air Multiplier fan is constructed from tough Acrylontride butadiene styrene – ABSABS is a tough thermoplastic used to make light, rigid and molded products. It has shock absorbing properties and is used to make car bumpers, crash helmets and modern golf club heads. It’s used in Dyson vacuum cleaners and Dyson Airblade hand dryers too.

However this fan isn’t cheap! Check out the prices out below.

Suggested Retail Price:

• 10″ Dyson Air Multiplier $3,199
• 12″ Dyson Air Multiplier $3,999
• (Enquiry: Jebsen & Co. Ltd.: 2926 2300)

Admit it, this is what you thought the iPad was going to be! And because it wasn’t you were truly disappointed with Apple. But at least now you can see how they managed to get the iPad to start at US$500.

Wacom introduces their new Cintiq 21UX at a price of US$1,999 (HK$16,000) and its coming out in April. We test drove the last Cintiq model via its distributor here in Hong Kong and we loved it. What an amazing machine! We expect no less from the Japanese who take their traditional penmanship so seriously as well.

If you are an artist, designer, photographer or animator this giant 21″ LC display that has 2048 levels of pressure sensitivity is a necessity of your digital life, and Wacom does have the Bamboo line which is very economically priced for a tablet (guess they will have to change the name now to avoid confusion with the Tablet PC category). So time to call a meeting with your boss and show him how you need this to do your job properly!

Read more about the 21UX on the Asia-Pacfic Wacom site.

The Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch combines the multi-touch functionality of Apple’s MacBook line, while also preserving the intuitive pen functions. The tablet is a nice comfortable size around the dimensions of a sheet of A4 paper, and is perfect for those wanting to do more than what can be done with a mouse alone.

The tablet is nice and easy to use, just like a laptop’s track pad where dragging a finger across the sensor area moves the cursor around the screen; double tapping functions act as the left click on the mouse; while holding your index finger on the tablet and tapping once with your middle finger acts as a right mouse click. Placing two fingers on the tablet and dragging it vertically or horizontally serves to scroll the contents of windows up or down, left to right.

In certain programs, you can also enlarge or shrink images just like on the iPhone, by pinching or spreading two fingers. The tablet also allows users to rotate things if the function is available in the program, by simply placing your thumb on the tablet while another finger is dragged in an arcing movement across the tablet in the direction you want it to turn.

However, there are a few hiccups that we have encountered with the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch. The first is that the sensor pad will register any object placed on top of it, causing the cursor to jitter around the screen. If you use a mouse in conjunction with the tablet and don’t clue into this fact, you tend to assume that there’s something wrong with either your mouse or computer. This anomaly is strange since both track pads and multi-touch screens don’t have this problem.

The second thing that bugged us was the dust and dirt that our fingers picked up while sliding them across the tablet’s sensor area. Although not suffering from OCD like Adrian Monk, we soon began to! Every day while our computer started up, we found ourselves looking for wet wipes and dusters to clean the tablet. Easily rectified with a dust cover of course, but annoying nonetheless.

The graphic designers at Neonpunch.com found one major problem with the tablet that truly concerns artistic types - the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch has no plastic overlay sheet over the sensor area. Therefore, those who want to trace a sketch into Photoshop or Illustrator would have to tape their drawings down with masking tape. Not ideal.

The Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch is a nice tool for the casual computer user as it frees you from a mouse and gives you the natural feel of using your fingers and versatility of a pen. For the size and the included software, the HK$1,500 price tag makes it a really good deal. For those who are seriously looking into exploring the digital arts, the Wacom Bamboo Fun Pen & Touch is the perfect tool to makes things all that easier for you.

Included with the tablet is an installation disc and a second CD with a few software programs that include Photoshop Elements7 (Windows) 6 (Mac), Painter Essentials 4 (Windows & Mac), Bamboo Scribe 3 (Windows & Mac), Ink-Squared Deluxe (Windows) and IMDisguise (Windows). The included interactive video tutorial will show you everything you need to know to get started and make the most out of your tablet.

Find out more at the Wacom Hong Kong site in Chinese or in English back at the Wacom USA site here.

Looking to buy one? We point you to New Vision with 5 locations:

• Hong Kong Island: Central and Wanchai
• Kowloon: Kwun Tong (apm), Mongkok and Tsim Sha Tsui

Order by phone on 3156-1131