Last-Minute Gadget Gifts for Small Businesses
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- With the holiday season right at hand, many entrepreneurs run the risk of ruin and heartbreak by just not getting the right sort of last-minute presents. Yes, ties, bourbon and Chardonnay are fine, but we who inhabit planet small-biz look to December as the all-too-brief time people might actually give us something, rather than wanting to get paid all the time.
If you have been struggling to find the perfect, last-minute gift for that special go-getter in your life, let me humbly recommend these four gadgets:
Matias Folding Keyboard for the iPhone
($100)
Yes, we all love our iPhones, but let's face it: The touch keyboard gets old if real work needs to be done. That's when a legit, old-school qwerty keyboard is what's called for. Canada-based Matias has created a folding keyboard that can actually support reasonably fast typing and data entry. Though you will not set any speed records with this peripheral, real reports, stories and memos can be created with relative ease. And the value prop is solid: For $100 you can transform almost any touch-based tablet or smartphone into a real work tool.
Whirl Mini Laser Mouse from Smartfish
($50)
Of all the add-on peripherals for a business laptop, my favorite right now is the Whirl Mini Laser Mouse from Englewood, N.J.-based Smartfish Technologies. The mouse sits atop a pivoting stand that adjusts the angle of the mouse to the position of your hands as you slide it around the desk. Push it forward and the mouse pivots down as your for arm extends. Slide it back and it pivots up as your wrist does. The result is less tendon stress and a longer, more comfortable workday. The Whirl takes a bit of getting used to -- you are using what amounts to mouse sitting atop a golf tee. But once you get the hang of it, your hands, forearms and finger will feel less stressed and more energized.
($350)
Though Boost Mobile does a great job of keeping its cool phones secret -- is there is worse marketer in mobile right now? -- the company's no-contract i1 Motorola smartphone is heck of a small-business value. The i1 is an Android-powered phone featuring the ultimate small-business weapon: push-to-talk. This feature lets you communicate with your crew instantly even in places with terrible cell coverage. The i1 might seem expensive, but you get a powerful work tool without the hassle of a long-term contract, which makes it worth the cost. If your special small-business someone needs a new way to communicate, give the i1 a look. It is a stocking stuffer he or she can actually use all year.
(2.75% + $.15 per transaction.)
The Square card reader, which allows just about anybody to pay you with plastic, has gotten a lot of hype as a business tool -- and deservedly so. Simply order up the plug-in scanner, a device the size of a chocolate square that plugs into an iPhone, iPad, Motorola Droid X and a handful of other phones, and voila, your handset is transmogrified into an instant point-of-sale terminal! But be warned: This level of hipness can get pricey. Some transactions on this network take a full 3.5% out of each deal, which hurts. And the device is not nearly as fast or robust as a purpose-built POS terminal. But considering the Square can also pass for a darn nice holiday ornament, this thing is the ultimate last-minute gift: functional and beautiful.
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