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Top 10 high-tech holiday gift ideas
(CNN) -- Spending many hours in consumer electronics superstores can be confusing and frustrating. In the circus of deals, formats and features, you can become, as one humorist put it, "oppressed by your options." It's all very overwhelming: flavor-of-the-month technologies, convergence and configuring, PCs that play movies and TVs that interact. Take your gadget shopping in small doses, and maybe this list will help ease the strain. 1. TiVo/Replay ($200)
The Digital Video Recorder (DVR) is perhaps the most dynamic holiday gift of the season and more life-altering than your first VCR. At the very least, the DVR lives up to what was always hoped for but never quite achieved with a VCR. DVRs find shows no matter where they go (except cancellation). And pausing live TV goes way beyond a simple gimmick to change how you interact with television. TiVo and ReplayTV currently offer $100 rebates. The service will cost you a monthly fee or one-time payment, but the ability to harness the abundant choices offered on television is worth it. TiVo's $200 one-time service and ReplayTV's built-in fee (roughly $200) are your best bets.
Tivo
ReplayTV If you want to add satellite TV to your TiVo, check out the newly available Phillips DirecTV/TiVo combination box. You get the dish, receiver and 35 hours of record time in one TiVo-driven package.
• Philips DSR6000R DirecTV/TiVo 2. Handspring Visor ($149)The personal digital assistant (PDA) is hot again this season and becoming as popular socially as it is in business. A standout in the crowd is the Visor from Handspring. It's fully compatible with the Palm Pilot (the organizer that started the current revolution) and designed by the creators of the Palm. The Visor Graphite comes with 2MB memory and costs about $40 more than its Palm IIIe counterpart but comes with a Springboard expansion that lets users add features like wireless Internet and e-mail, an MP3 player, a cell phone, games and cameras. Entry-level Palms do not. The Visor Deluxe has increased memory (8MB) and an iMac-like translucent case. Two MB is sufficient memory, so unless you need to have the iMac look, save your money.
• Handspring Visor Graphite $149 (plus 19.95 for cable or 29.95 for cradle) 3. Creative Technologies Nomad Jukebox ($419)
The Nomad Jukebox was one of the first MP3 players to take massive music storage on the road with 6 gigabytes of memory. The Jukebox is easy to use and holds about 1,500 songs. It's quite possible that you could store your lifetime music collection in one movable feast. (At least your favorite 1,500 songs -- are we that fickle?) Downside: The lack of a belt clip, though one is said to be in the works, and a much shorter battery life than portable CD players. • Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox $419 (street price) If you don't need the Nomad's 100 hours of music, the Diamond Rio series of MP3 players holds two hours of music, or 28 hours audio books from www.audible.com.
• Diamond Rio 800 Digital Audio Player $279.95 (street) 4. Canon CanoScan Scanner ($99)Proof that technology is getting better and smaller all the time, the Canon CanoScan scanner has the same scan area as other consumer models at 8 1/2-by-11 inches. The difference is that the CanoScan is barely an inch high. The CanoScan takes up very little workspace and with its USB interface can easily be taken on the road. The 42-bit resolution is enough for home and small office projects. The family newsletter rocks on, along with the hotel "office" (can we talk about the workaholic thing here?). • CanoScan N650U 42-bit scanner $99 5. Vaio Slimtop PC ($2,500)
At $2,500 this catchy-looking Pentium III-800 MHz computer is almost twice the price of a similarly equipped though boring off-white desktop PC. (But how much did you pay for that great looking chair in the living room that no one's allowed to sit in?) The sleek LCD screen delivers crisp images in style and the slim tower helps save space. Built-in CD-RW and the LCD monitor might help sooth the sticker shock. For those with more design sense than common sense the Vaio is right for you. Let yourself go! • Vaio PCVLX800 Slimtop Desktop PC $2,499 For $500 less, you can get the all-in-one compact Profile 3 CX from Gateway that works well in high visibility areas without the tower and messy wires. • Gateway Profile 3 CX $1,999 For the novice or frugal among us who want to keep upgrading at a relatively low cost, try the $24.95/month plan from PeoplePC (the folks who structured the PC deals with Ford and Delta Air Lines). You get an IBM Celeron 566Mhz computer, with 64 MB ram and a 10 GIG hard drive and 24/7 tech support and on-site service. After three years, you upgrade to a new PC for the same monthly charge. A little help to ease the accelerated obsolescence of computers. • PeoplePC Computer $24.95/month For those who want just the "killer apps" of e-mail and the Internet, check into the i-opener 2001. There's nothing to mess up and no arcane steps to follow. Just start up and go. Internet access and e-mail is $21.95 per month. For someone who doesn't want to deal with computer hassles, this is the price you pay, but it's worth it. • i-opener 2001 Internet Appliance $299 And for the really techno-newbies there is the Cidco Mailstation, a very easy-to-use e-mail phone. If the recipient of this gift can't get with the program with this device, they probably couldn't figure out how to pick up the phone. If they can get that far, they can send e-mail. • Cidco Mailstation $99.99 ($9.95/month for e-mail service) 6. Monsoon Flat Panel Speakers ($149)If the Sony Vaio was too high-concept for you, then add some great design and serious sound to your plain Jane desktop. For the price of a mid- to low-end speaker system, you can have the clear 44-watt sound of these flat panel speakers (dipole radiating planar magnetic transducers, if you want to get technical). They could also become a part of your new personal stereo system by hooking up your PC, MP3 and CD players. • Monsoon MM700 speakers $149 7. Olympus C3030 Zoom 3.4 MegaPixel Digital Camera ($799)
For good reason, the C-3030 digital camera has been picked by several magazines as an editor's choice. It was one of the first 3 MegaPixel cameras to actually look and feel like a consumer film camera. The 3 MegaPixel cameras are the first consumer cameras to match 35mm film in print quality. The included software is very helpful in organizing photos as well. Downside: the pop-out lens feels a bit cheap. But this camera takes great shots in high and low resolution and lets you zoom in after you take the picture to make sure it came out. • Olympus C-3030 Zoom Digital Camera $799 (retail) 8. Sony Mini DV Digital Video Camera ($1,699)The camcorder has been the highly coveted holiday gift for years. The Sony Mini DV TRV-20 fits easily in one hand. This is a big factor on long trips and it's small enough not to stilt the action since you tend to get more candid shots. Sony's Super Steadyshot is like walking around with a tripod and the InfoLithium "smart" batteries tell you exactly when you will run out of battery power, eliminating a surprise shutdown. Video quality is very good at 520 lines of resolution and this camera also serves as a 1 MegaPixel still camera with the included Memory stick. The TRV-20 also has an iLink (IEEE-1394) connection for easy editing and cloning footage quickly to your hard drive. • Sony DCR TRV-20 mini DV camcorder $ 1,699 (list) 9. Microsoft SideWinder Precision Racing Wheel ($69.95)OK, so I had to add a real toy to the list for good measure. The Racing Wheel uses force feedback technology to add punch to hard turning curves on the high-end 3-D racing car games. You get everything but the wind in your face. • Microsoft C22-00003 SideWinder Precision Racing Wheel $69.95 (retail) 10. Olympus Digital Recorder ($99.99)Lastly, a small gadget that made a big impression: the Olympus VN-180 digital voice recorder. It's small and weighs less than 3 ounces, so it can be taken anywhere. If you're an "idea person" looking for your 180 minutes of "notes to self" in organized folders, then buy this unit. The 90-minute mode has great recording quality. • Olympus VN-180 Digital Voice Recorder $99.99 Some other ideas:
• Panasonic Cordless Phone ($199)
• Sounds Good Audioplayer for Handspring Visor ($269 -- $20 rebate currently offered) • Jensen JW901 MATRIX Wireless Internet Audio Transmitter ($99.99) Listen to Internet radio, streaming audio and any sound from your PC on your home stereo.
• Sennheiser RS40 Wireless Headphones ($93.89 street)
• Stowaway Portable Keyboard For Handspring Visor ($99.95) Then of course there's the software solution: buy the favorite person on your list a DVD movie, CD or video game. And don't forget the batteries and memory cards. Jack Poorman is executive producer for CNN Inflight, a Turner Private Networks program featured on Delta Air Lines flights RELATED STORIES: Review: Gateway Profile 3 computer packs compact punch RELATED SITES: Phillips | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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