Holiday shopping is in full swing, and now that all the door busters have been had, here’s a sampling of items to help cut down shopping time. All the prices are listed as MSRP, so do some shopping and you’re sure to find ’em a whole lot cheaper.
Kensington Mini Battery Pack and Charger for iPhone and iPod
Your iPods or iPhones might be great, but it’s useless without power. This pocket-sized device solves that problem: Users can expect to extend their device’s playtime for about 30 hours of music, three hours of iPhone talk time or six hours of video playing.
A battery meter on the front of the charger warns users of how much power remains before the extra battery itself must be charged. An included USB cable can be used to charge your device as it charges the battery pack.
www.kensington.com, $49.99
Keeping that laptop in your lap can be a little uncomfortable – hot legs aside. To the rescue: the very comfortable LapOffice. The unit asks as a lap desk, with a quilted design to promote better airflow and prevent your legs from overheating. And it’s kind to more than your thighs: A wrist rest on the front end makes typing more comfortable, too.
www.eMemorex.com, $29.99, available in mocha brown and cream
Duracell DAYLITE Led Flashlight
Most people think of the copper-top company as just a battery maker, but Duracell makes much more than that. Its products include this flashlight, which gives users a heavy-duty unit along with brighter light. The light was designed and developed with Duracell’s patented TrueBeam technology, which the company says “captures, focuses and projects more light then the typical and current LED and bulb technologies in flashlights.”
With the TrueBeam technology, the unit uses a lens and a reflector to capture and project the light resulting in a brighter, white beam of light.
www.duracell.com, $24.
Griffin Technology Inc., iTrip Universal
This is the newest addition to Griffin’s never-ending lineup of iPod accessories, although this device will work with most any portable audio player.
Simply plug the iTrip into the player’s common 1/8″ (3.5mm) headphone jack. With a quick set-up, you can find an FM frequency open in your area for broadcast on a home or car stereo. A lithium-ion battery is built into the device and can be charged with any USB port, thus eliminating the need to constantly replace batteries.
As many as three programmable presets can be saved for the best reception in different areas for quick access at any time, and are viewed on a backlit LCD screen.
www.griffintechnology.com, $39.99
IOGEAR 12-in-1 and 56-in-1 Memory Cards Reader/Writers
Digital cameras have been a big hit as gifts, but getting the images from the camera to a computer is still a challenge for many. These devices from IOGEAR should solve that problem.
The 12-in-1, which measures just 2.5 inches long and less than one inch deep, will support digital memory cards in the SD, Micro SD, Mini SD, MMC, Memory Stick and MS Duo formats. These are found in many pocket-sized digital cameras and cell phones with removable memory cards.
If the 12-in-1 does not support your card, then the 56-in-1 is for sure your solution to transfer data to and from devices including multiple digital camera memory card formats, camcorders, GPS units and PDAs. Both readers plug directly into USB ports for an easy download or transfer.
www.iogear.com, 12-in-1 $11.95, 56-in-1 $19.95
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 & Premiere Elements 7 Bundle
The top-selling video and photo editing software just got upgraded, and it’s a better deal for consumers.
The Windows-based software will allow users to edit photo and videos with ease, resulting in professional-looking digital photos and movies. You can even combine still images with video in single projects.
Premiere Elements 7 is a photo-editing software used to make endless adjustments to digital photos, including adjusting colors and tones in photos or making selected crops. Many of the adjustments can be made in one simple mouse-click. Included are editing tools to turn photos into panoramas with compositing tools.
Amd for video, the elements software allows users to make top-notch, professional-looking movies. The new version supports the AVCHD format, to analyze video clips and applies Smart Tags. This will identify specific faces, sounds and quality for instant searches. A new feature to the software is InstantMovie, which allows video clips to be dragged and dropped into specific themes. These include sports, birthdays and weddings.
www.adobe.com, The Photoshop Elements 7 & Premiere Elements 7 bundle is available for $149.99; separately they sell for $99.99.
Hallmark Card Studio Deluxe 2009 software
This software is for people who want to personalize their holiday cards. Users can create cards for all occasions with over 9,000 included Hallmark cards and projects and 1,200 new designs, along with more than 16,000 premium clip art images.
While creating a card, users can write their own text messages or select wording included in the software. And you can make so much more than cards: Think calendars, gift tags, stationery, scrapbook pages and invitations.
www.hallmark.com $49.99
GameChanger Audio Bone 1.0 headphones
This is truly an innovative set of headphones, using bone conduction technology. This transmits the music or sounds you’re listening to through the listener’s bones directly to the inner ear. Sounds kind of crazy, but they work great and are a great solution if your boss lets you listen to some tunes while working.
Because the headphones don’t go into the ears, users can listen to the music but also hear what’s going on around them. They’re ideal for biking, running or any other outdoor activity where you would still want to hear the surroundings.
In addition, users can enjoy using them underwater or even in environments where earplugs are needed. They are available in colors including orange, black, blue or white.
www.auidoboneheadphones.com, $189
NewerTech 11 Piece Portable Toolkit
For some, simple repairs on a computer such as adding memory or replacing a hard drive can be difficult simply because they lack the right tools. This toolkit will take the difficulty out of this choice and save you a lot of money by avoiding the installation costs many companies charge for upgrades and repairs.
The 11-piece kit includes all you need to service and upgrade computers and devices such as iPods. You’ll find Torx drivers, tweezers, Phillips and standard screwdrivers and 2 plastic iPod pry tools – all in a nylon carrying case.
www.newertech.com, $17.99
Lowepro Terraclime Series of Soft-Sided Camera/Accessory Pouches
The small carrying pouches, including the hardware, are made of 95 percent recycled materials and are ideal for storing portable electronic devices in style. These can include digital cameras, GPS units, cell phones or MP3 players.
Users have a choice of four different sized bags and three colors: black, plum or grass. A portion of proceeds goes directly to Polar Bears International, helping to save polar bear habitats from the impact of climate change.
www.lowepro.com, $19.99 - $79.99
Kingston DataTraveler Mini Slim USB drive
These colorful USB drives – no larger than a postage stamp – offer lots of storage and look good, too. The MiniSlims fit on a keychain and are ideal to hold anything from music, movies, work documents or even a student’s homework.
These are one of the few tech items that can make a gift for most anyone. They come in sizes 2GB ($11.00) 4GB ($19.00) and 8GB ($32.00) and in colors of black, pink and blue.
Pandigital 8-inch PanTouch Digital Photo Frame
There are a lot of digital photo frames on the market today, and it’s difficult to tell one from another. But Pandigital has always stood above the rest.
The features on this frame include 512MB of internal memory to store thousands of images on a unique, touch screen-controlled interface. The frame compresses their images stored on the internal memory to match the resolution of the frame, allowing the large number of images to be stored without cutting down the quality.
And the frame is WiFi compatible, (after purchasing a Pandigital Wireless USB Adapter), features a 6-in-1-memory card reader to insert images from your own media, and USB 2.0 ports to connect directly to a camera or computer for accepting images.
The frame can also play music and movie files, which can be controlled on the frame or with the included wireless remote control.
www.pandigital.net, $169.99
Get the young ones into the tech world early with this stuffed teddy bear. Its removable media player features a belt clip and comes loaded with games and videos. A USB cable is included to download other video, music, photos and games into the bear.
All this is viewable on a built-in 1.8-inch screen, which sits right in the bear’s belly and is coverable with the included T-shirt, and audible thanks to built-in speakers. A rechargeable battery powers the unit. Content can be stored in the 512MB of built-in storage, which can be expanded to 2GB with an SD memory card.
www.iTeddy.com, $89.99
This is for sure to be a hit for any woman who doesn’t know what to buy her husband. The Road Mice are a series of wireless optical cars that function as computer mice. Sitting on my desk, it looks great and works just as well. Co-workers often ask what the car is, and most are stunned when I show them it’s a mouse for my computer.
The Road Mice are great replicas of these models: Chevrolet Camaro Concept, Corvette Z06, Dodge Charger SRT8 and SRT8 Super Bee, Dodge Viper SRT10 and the Ford Mustang GT.
To use the mouse, all you have to do it plug in the USB receiver in any USB port on the computer and hit the gas. They work on Windows and Mac operating systems, in desktops or laptops.
www.roadmice.com. $44.95
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