It’s that time of year again – time to sally forth in search of the perfect gift for the special and not-so-special-but-they’re-family people in your life. Given the economic situation this year, I made up a list with a few criteria in mind:
- Nothing crazy expensive. Everything on this list is under $400, and most is way under. Sure, a 48-foot LCD TV would be nice, or a 64 gigapixel DSLR, or that 128-core gaming PC you’ve been looking at for your teen, but in these uncertain times, I felt it would be best to keep things a bit more reasonable.
- Lots of style. Good design doesn’t have to be a luxury. In the past, style was what you traded for affordability, but these days it’s easy to find fashionable classics for everyday prices.
- Practicality first. With one exception, I tried to find things that your loved ones will actually be able to use regularly – things that will make their lives a little easier, a little nicer, or both.
Most items link to Amazon for quick shopping, and when I had a choice I made sure they qualified for Prime shipping (Prime members pay about $70 a year for “free” 2-day shipping on every Prime order). Prices are in US dollars.
Feel free to share your ideas in the comments – let’s help each other make the best of this holiday season!
Productivity to Go |
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Acer Aspire One netbookThis tiny laptop, barely bigger than a hardcover book, packs everything you need to work wherever you might find yourself. 1/6 GHz Atom processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, and built-in wi-fi power a laptop with one of the larger keyboards available on a netbook and a lovely 8.9” screen. Runs Windows XP (although there’s a Linux-powered model for about $20 less). ($350) |
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Fujitsu Scansnap S300 Color Mobile ScannerSmall enough to travel just about anywhere, the ScanSnap is favored by paperless office devotees for its ease of use. Powered by your computer’s USB port, the ScanSnap scans documents directly to PDF, allowing instant capture of important papers, receipts, articles, and whatever else you want to keep. ($360) |
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RichardSolo 1800 portable charger for iPhoneThe geek’s charger, the Richard Solo 1800 is stylish and functional, providing just about a full charge to your iPhone’s famously short battery life. If that strikes you as all too pedestrian, consider this: it also has a built-in LED flashlight and laser pointer. Useless, of course, but doesn’t the uber-geek in your life deserve something useless and shiny? ($70) |
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SimpleTech Signature Mini 250GB Portable Hard Drive250 gigabytes in a case smaller than your Hipster PDA? Tiny, sleek, and sexy as hell – that’s some kind of backup! ($85) |
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TomTom ONE 125 3.5-Inch Portable GPS NavigatorThe Tom Tom one is a super-affordable yet full-featured GPS, with full US maps and points of interest, turn-by-turn directions using built-in voices or downloadable “celebrity” voices, and both “official” and community-contributed updates. ($100) |
Practical Productivity |
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Livescribe 2GB Pulse SmartpenPerfect for students and people who attend a lot of meetings, the Smartpen takes taking notes to a whole new level. Sensors detect where you are on the special paper, allowing you to not only capture your analog notes in digital form but control the built-in recorder as well. Notes and recordings can be imported to your computer and even uploaded in sync, meaning that clicking a spot in your notes brings up the recording at exactly that moment. ($200) |
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Field Notes “The Kit”Field Notes pocket notebooks are thin enough for the back pocket and have great retro, Indiana Jones-y charm. “The Kit” comes with 6 notebooks, 6 wood pencils, 6 ballpoint pens, and a Field Notes mini-calendar. ($27) |
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Asus Eee Box PCAsus has crammed all the components of it’s popular Eee PC netbook (sans the screen) into this compact desktop computer, perfect for students and other casual computer users, especially when space is tight. ($320) |
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USBCELL AA Rechargable BatteriesUnchain yourself from wall chargers with these AA rechargeable batteries. To recharge, simply pop the top and plug into any USB port! Great stocking stuffers for the gadget geeks in your life. ($20) |
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Staple-Free StaplerA great stocking-stuffer for the office jockeys in your life, this cute little device attaches up to 5 sheets of paper without a staple. ($7) |
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Epson Artisan 800 Wireless Photo All-in-One PrinterEpson brings its photo printing expertise to the home in this all-in-one printer. Best of all, it’s wi-fi enabled, allowing you to set it up anywhere in your home and print – or even scan – from any computer on the network. Two paper trays allow you to switch from plain to photo paper (or between photo sizes) and Epson’s archival-quality inks produce pictures that will last for decades.($230) |
Productive Style |
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Give & Take Card BoxAnyone who has ever juggled the task of accepting a card from someone while fumbling around for your own cards will appreciate this card case – one compartment holds your cards, the other holds the cards you’re given. Of course, its modern styling doesn’t hurt, either.($20) |
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Blomus Notepaper Roll HolderKeep your thoughts straight with this ultra-modern twist on plain oldnotepads. Addingmachine rolls allow you to jot notes, make lists, and doodle as long as you want! Mounts vertically or can be used on a desk- or countertop. ($25 |
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Bubble CalendarThis giant wall (48”w x 18”h )calendar combines stylish looks with the most satisfying activity known to humankind: popping bubble wrap. Pop each day’s bubble as it passes! ($50) |
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3-Bay Charging StationAnother Vat19 product, this charging station has spaces for three gadgets with a concealed power strip underneath and space to hide all those ugly power cords and convertor “warts”. Comes in glossy black finish. ($45) |
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db clay Version 3.1 Walletdb clay wallets combine function and artistry, with beautiful imagery printed onto each waterproof, eco-friendly wallet. They’re already sold out online, but they’re now available in stores; check out their store locator to find a location near you. ($45 – $85) |
Just for Fun |
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iPod Building Block SpeakerOur friends at Vat19 sell these funky, fun little additions to your iPod accessory case – tiny clip-on speakers for your iPod. They require no batteries, look like Legos, and sound decent given their size. ($20) |
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xkcd “Actual Size” stickersHighlight the obvious or mock the small with these snarky stickers from the snarky folks who bring us the xkcd comic strip. (5 ea. 1”, 2”,and 3”, $5) |
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Samsumg YP-S2 1GB MP3 PlayerSamsung takes on the iPod shuffle with these cute-as-a-button (and almost as small) 1 GB mp3 players. Available in 5 colors,the S2 plays mp3, wma (including protected wma) and ogg files. Bookmarking allows you to pick up where you left off, making this a nice player for listening to podcasts and audiobooks. ($34) |
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Sony Cybershot T70010 megapixels, 4x optical zoom, image stabilization – everything you’d expect from a digital point-and-shoot these days. What sets the T700 apart is two things: it’s super-slim body, of course, and 4 gigs of internal memory, enough to hold thousands of pictures. You can display all those pictures on the big 3 1/2” high-resolution screen. ($350) |
About the LiveScribe pen – it’s a bit misleading, because the pen comes with no OCR. So while you can still technically upload your notes to the computer, they are essentially an image file that can’t be edited. Might be ok for taking notes – not so great for writing anything you may want to use in an essay later.
Also not so great for creative writing while away from home and laptop, which is what I bought it for in the first place.
Jai: The world is still waiting for a pen that will capture what you write and convert it into digital text. The LiveScribe seems to be for a pretty mall niche of people who regularly attend events worth recording and take notes while doing so. It would have been a real help to me years ago when I was doing meeting minutes, for example. That said, it’s still pretty neat, and I’m hoping that they will introduce some kind of handwriting recognition, or we’ll be able to pipe its output into something like Evernote (which does some handwriting recogntion, though not full-fledged conversion) or RitePen (which does handwriting-to-text conversion). THat’s my holy grail…
I recently bought both the Acer Aspire One and the Simple Tech HD (mine was a smaller size) to go with it…less than $350 total and they work splendidly. Definitely a recommended buy with one caveat: the Linux installation is a highly customized (read: dumbed down) version of Linpus Linux. The good news is that you can install another OS fairly easily using a USB memory stick. Read up before you pick an OS – drivers can be an issue.
Try the Dane-Elec Zpen
Jai and Dustin: Livescribe now offers a ink-to-text transcription software, so you can convert your handwritten notes into editable text. It costs $29.99 – there’s more info about it at livescribe.com/store.
@Dustin – I’m sure it’s great for taking meeting notes and recording lectures. Someone bought it for me as a gift thinking I could write in a special journal anywhere and then upload it into a word processor. Which (at that time) it didn’t do – BUT my nephew’s LeapFrog Fly pen did an ok job of.
@Karen – I’ll check it out. I really, really wanted one, but re-transcribing notes so I can make revisions is a bit of a pain.
I’d use the Notepaper Roll Holder the other way round, so you can keep on writing downwards, which is more natural than writing upwards.
@Niels Born – The way that notepaper device is built, the roll would get in the way if used upside down. :o( My grandparents had a wooden device almost exactly like you describe, however. It, too, held an adding machine tape, but concealed the tape within an angled box which also provided a writing surface that was comfortable to use when the box was hung on the wall. It was in the kitchen to capture grocery list items. I’m glad you made me remember that – I think I’ll make one for myself.
We’re glad you like the Charger Station and iPod Building Block Speaker! We just added Green and Yellow.
1) Instead of the Fujitsu Scanner, I would have recommended the NeatCo NeatReceipts Scanner instead
http://www.neatco.com/products
it lists for $200 (and can be found for $150), it is a 600 dpi color scanner usable in any Windows app like Picasa, and it generates PDF files just like the Fujitsu, PLUS it comes with digital filing system “NeatReceipts” that automatically OCRs your receipts and other documents.
2) Why the RichardSolo 1800 with a useless laser pointer? Get the 1200 with the Flashlight for $15 less! (just $54.95 instead of $69.95) You do get a slightly stronger battery, of course.
3) $45 for a charging station? Target offers almost the same thing for $27.99:
http://www.target.com/dp/B00134HEVA
And I’ve seen Chinese clones in Big Lots! for like $10 or so (without the powerstrip).
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Aspire One, eh? I just ordered myself the MSI Wind… Well, a rebranded model, but it’s the same machine. I chose Wind over Aspire because of a fractionally bigger keyboard and a larger display… And for the price, since I haven’t seen any Aspire One clones around.
There are suprisingly many well-received netbooks around. Check out the Asus models as well.
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Bookmarking allows you to pick up where you left off, making this a nice player for listening to podcasts and audiobooks.
Bookmarking allows you to pick up where you left off, making this a nice player for listening to podcasts and audiobooks.
Bookmarking allows you to pick up where you left off, making this a nice player for listening to podcasts and audiobooks.
Bookmarking allows you to pick up where you left off, making this a nice player for listening to podcasts and audiobooks.