Jog your family’s memory with the O2 Joggler for Christmas

There’s an O2 device that we’ve quite fancied since it came out in March, but it is £50 off, in the run up to Christmas, it’s called the Joggler and it now costs £99.99 until the New Year. We’re not quite sure what it is, but it looks like someone has blown up an iPhone to the size of a digital picture frame, and then loaded about 12 apps on it.

The idea is to create a digital home device which can act as a digital photo frame when not in use, but also double as a family calendar, a kitchen TV, a casual gaming console and play music. Funnily enough, although it has the capabilities to offer a browser, O2 doesn’t because it wants to be seen as a family provider and thinks of the internet as a bit sinister for the younger child.

It’s the kitchen calendar we like, because you can text a message to it, like from Mum telling the kids she’s late, and can they put their own dinner in the oven. They can also use it to text back, texting multiple phones at once and when on the road you can check the calendar over SMS. Also all the family members can have access to the calendar and update it over the internet.

It comes with a 179mm (7-inch) touchscreen and is plugged in, so there’s no battery to run out, and no stylus or separate keyboard, only touchscreen for input. Sky has provided some games, mostly things like Soduku, and it offers free news and weather from Sky. It has a maps mode, which shows any delays on A roads and motorways, worth checking just before you leave home, or you can check Dad’s journey and see if he’ll be back in time to read little Johnny a story.

It plays MP3, WAV and WMA music files (so no AAC) and supports MPEG-4, Divx, FLV and H.264 videos codecs, which you can either stream to it over wi-fi, or plug in with a flash memory card. It also comes with some internet radio stations pre-selected in a player.

The idea is clearly about extending that calendar so mobile devices can interrogate it when family members are out and about. It's a shame that all ebook readers are going to come with all this function in about 6 months, plus a 3G connection.

The Joggler connects to a home network via wi-fi or you can even plug an Ethernet cable into it (if you’re mad) It comes with a USB2 port for a flash drive, and has 1GB of onboard memory. While it doesn’t have a SIM, it has its messaging application which offers 50 free texts a month.

The Joggler first came out in March for April delivery and is now being cut in time for Christmas, so you can buy Granny one and pester her with it.