Cool little tech Gadgets for Christmas

Here is a smattering of gift ideas for the geeks in your life this Christmas season.

When I was growing up my dad had the absolute coolest Christmas music collection of any parent I knew. Our relatives always wanted him to bring his music over to play at their houses during the holiday get-togethers. Unfortunately, he used a cardboard box not an ipod to cart it around. His music was on vinyl albums. Yes that’s what I said…albums. I’m the one who inherited the collection a few years back. I don’t have a turntable and until recently didn’t know how to get these albums digitized. Several companies are marketing turntables that plug into your PC this holiday season. Check out the Audio Technica version at Costco (online at www.costco.com or in stores for about $70).

I have an iPod that I listen to in the car on the way back and forth to work. When my cell phone rings it is always a pain to fumble around getting the iPod ear bud out of so I can either answer the phone or lord forbid, I need to fumble even more to find my Bluetooth headset. We now are in off Daylight Savings Time so this means the drive and hence the fumbling is usually always done in the dark. Voila! The Anycom BluNa attaches to the end of your iPod Nano and will broadcast to any Bluetooth Headset. Retails for about $120 but can be found online for as little as $45. Checkout www.buy.com or www.anycom.com.

Finally, if you’re sick and tired of turning on your notebook just to find out if the restaurant or building your in has Wi-Fi or not the next gift is definitely for you. Try this new T-shirt from ThinkGeek. It automatically detects the presence of 802.11 wireless networks. The radio waves from the tower light up according to the strength of the signal. OK, 802.11 is not the fastest of speeds but better than nothing. Look for the Wi-Fi Detector shirt at www.thinkgeek.com for about $30.

If Mrs. Claus is reading this she’ll have a pretty good idea what Mr. Claus would like for Christmas. If not, would somebody send her a link and remind her that I take a 2XL in t-shirts.

Mike Morawski, CDO