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Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: for enemy
Your enemy. Who do you hate more than them? No one. So who better to direct your holiday rage towards than that pitiful excuse for a human. Sure, it's a gift, but with the selections we've picked out, the target of your scorn will wish they'd gotten something as useful as a stocking full of coal. This is the moment to unleash that torrent of backed up anger from a season of crowded malls, annoying caroling, and an ever-shrinking bank statement. Let Engadget guide you through the valleys of dislike, and bore you up onto the mountain peaks of loathing and execration. And when you're done with this hate-bath, don't forget to check into our other, less nasty guides right here!
Gift guide for amateur video producers
We all have a friend of family member obsessed with posting videos on YouTube. Their cats, dogs, babies and whatever else are all fodder for two minutes of teh funny. This holiday season, help them improve their craft and produce the next big viral hit with these gift suggestions.SoftwareQuality editing software is not cheap. So it's surprising, actually, that Final Cut Express 4 is reasonably priced ($199US) for the amount of power it packs. I recommend this over cheaper options like iMovie for two reasons. First, it's an extremely capable application that isn't missing much from its much pricer big brother. An amateur video producer won't quickly grow bored of its capabilities. Second, and more important, if the person you are giving this to has any ambitions of becoming a professional, familiarity with the Final Cut way of doing things will be a huge advantage in the marketplace. We are all too aware that the iPhone, in its unjailbroken state, doesn't record video. That doesn't mean it can't be used as a tool in video production. Slate is a simple application that replaces the iconic clapping chalk slate used for years throughout Hollywood. Reviewers in the App Store have some legit complaints about it, but it's still a fun application with a bunch of potential. HardwareLet's face it. You're not going to drop almost $5,000US on this badboy. (Note to wife: want!) But how about under $150US for a camera that captures 60 minutes of video, at decent quality, requiring no tapes or memory cards, and fits in your front pocket? Enter the Flip Video family of cameras. These little machines aren't going to do it for professionals, but for amateurs looking to record precious family moments or spontaneous news events, it'll do the trick nicely. And it's called a Flip for a reason -- it has a USB connector integrated into its design. It flips out and, with a little bit of adjusting (a dozen or so business cards tucked under one side of a MacBook) it connects easily to just about any computer. Flip Video last month announced a high-def version of the camera called the MinoHD. It sells for about $229US. There's also a competing Kodak camera, the Zi6, that has a fanbase of its own.One of the best presents you can give an aspiring video producer -- besides a gig at LucasFilm -- is more hard drive space. Digital video consumes sick amounts of storage. Luckily, hard drives in the terabyte range are coming into the realm of affordability. A quick poke around Amazon.com shows a few options for under $150US. Some of these may not cut it for actual production work, as speed is of the essence, but for nearline storage, they'll do the trick quite nicely. Stocking StuffersLast-minute shoppers rejoice. There are many cheap, easy-to-order products out there with which you can fill your aspiring video producer's stocking. Mini tripod -- Shaky video is distracting when it's not intentional. A tiny, tabletop tripod is very handy for any videographer to have in his bag of tricks; newer Flip Video cameras have a tripod mount built in. Personal telepromter -- I saw this demoed last year at a conference and I was blown away. It works great with any Mac laptop with a built-in iSight camera, it's cheap, and it's very cool. Snowball -- No, not the frozen kind. The Blue Snowball mic is one of my favorite pieces of post-production kit. It's great for laying down voiceovers, and works equally well for recording audio for video podcasts. It's a USB mic, so it's not going to hook up to a camcorder, but for studio work it gets the job done in style.
Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: for her
Buying tech for your number one lady can be pretty nerve-wracking, especially if she loves gadgets as much as you do, but we're here to help with the latest installment of Endgaget's Holiday Gift Guide. We've tried to keep it hip with the right balance of usability, design, and functionality, but only you know what she really wants -- treat this as a jumping off point and we know you'll do fine.P.S.- Don't forget, we've also got for him and lots of other guides coming up as the days roll by -- they'll all be sorted by suggested recipient and price on the main Holiday Gift Guide page.
Gifts for the beginning developer
Whether you've just started writing your first lines of code or you've just moved over to the Mac/iPhone platform as a developer, this guide is sure to please.BooksCocoa Programming in Mac OS X ($31.49 on Amazon)There are really two excellent books that should be on every Mac developer's bookshelf. First is a book by the magnificent Aaron Hillegass. Aaron not only teaches at the Big Nerd Ranch, but he also wrote a Cocoa (Objective-C) programming book that some would consider to be the Bible of Cocoa development; he has also been programming for over 18 years. His book, Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X is an excellent place to start for anyone looking to develop on the Mac; he covers topics from the history of Cocoa, to classes, to creating custom views -- it truly is all there. iPhone Developer's Cookbook ($26.39 on Amazon)Written by former TUAW Blogger, Erica Sadun, this book helps anyone with previous Cocoa programming experience begin to program on the iPhone. This isn't the standard programming book in which the author tries to teach you something through instruction. Rather, Erica has designed this book so the reader can learn through examples. If you have been waiting to jump on the theoretical iPhone application bandwagon, then this book can definitely help you master iPhone development. HardwareIt doesn't take a developer to want Santa to bring hardware, but most of the time being a developer means you need certain hardware. One such piece of hardware is external hard drives. Who couldn't use a little extra storage now and then? I personally recommend the Western Digital MyBook hard drives for their cost and storage options. Always being able to view your code is a must, therefore most developer's like to code on a huge display. There's truly nothing bigger than the Apple 30" Cinema Display; however, if you're pressed for money, you can find Dell monitors with bigger screens for a lot less dough.Apple Developer Memberships If you are not already a member of the Apple Developer Program, then you really should consider it. While it can be a little expensive, the experience that you can get out of it might just be worth the cost. They offer memberships for online, students, select, and premier. The online and student memberships are basically the same, with the exception of the price. The online version is free and offers limited access to Apple's developer tools. The student membership costs $99 and includes a hardware discount. The select membership gives you a ton of resources including: joining in Apple's software seeding program (meaning you'll get a copy of Apple's pre-release software like Snow Leopard), code-level technical support, coding head starts, ADC videos on iTunes, and the opportunity to attend the compatibility labs. However, the select membership costs $499 (US) per year. Stocking Stuffers That Programmers Will Love. If you've been looking for geeky clothing, then look no further than the wonderfully designed T-Shirts and other clothing from ThinkGeek. It's no secret that programmers (and geeks alike) love caffeine, therefore most programmers would love to just have a gift card or bag of coffee from Starbucks or other coffee company. Also, a pack of Mountain Dew might also work just as well. Just because we're programmers doesn't mean that we can't rock out ... just like anyone else, we would gladly accept iTunes Gift Cards.
Panasonic Blu-ray players, LCD projector jumpstart your holiday gift list
Panasonic is putting a little holiday cheer into our summer with the release of its Canadian gift guide, and wouldn't you know it, there's some HD goodies in the works. Based on the product mix in the guide, we assume this stuff will make it to other regions in time for the winter holidays as well. Details on the gear are thin, but there's definitely some good stuff coming from Panasonic before the year is done. First up, we see the PT-AE3000 1080p LCD projector, a CAD $3,500 follow-up to the well-respected PT-AE2000U. Also on tap are a couple of Blu-ray players, named the DMP-BD35 and DMP-BD55. Both of those decks come with BD-Live functionality, but we're psyched about the 7.1-channel analogue outputs on the DMP-BD55 along with "audio grade components" (we assume that means "audiophile grade components"). No pricing on these Blu-ray players, but that can't stop you from starting up the not-so-subtle gift hint-dropping campaign, right? Hit the link for the full release.[Via FormatWarCentral]
TUAW Buyer's Guide: What to get a "switcher"
As a recent fully-fledged "switcher" myself, I'd like to think I have some ideas about what to get the recent Mac convert (and no, this is not just my Amazon wish list - though anyone buying me stuff is free to use it as such). If you haven't already purchased the switcher in your life a gift for Christmas or the Birth of Santa (tm. Bart Simpson) or any other winter-themed occasion, here are some items you might want to consider. Please note that the prices in this guide are in USD and current as of this writing, subject to change without notice. Check with the manufacturer's website or your favorite retailer for updated pricing. Now, onto the goodies!Books:Maybe I'm just really lame, but I'm always a fan of giving (and receiving) books geared towards a person's interests and sensibilities. Somehow, a book just seems more personal than a gift certificate, and less easy to screw up than a piece of clothing...
TUAW Buyers Guide: mobile Mac
Next in our series of TUAW Buyer's Guides are some suggestions for the mobile Mac users on your gift list. Whether its a MacBook, MacBook Pro, or an older Mac portable we've got some ideas that should delight the road warrior or notebook aficionado. Speaking personally I often think that some of the best gifts are things that are really useful, but I'm disinclined to buy for myself for whatever reason. A number of items in this guide meet that description.
TUAW Buyers Guide: 5 little iPhone gifts
If your honey already bought himself or herself an iPhone or iPod touch, you can still brighten the holidays with these sweet little stocking stuffers. Here are a few inexpensive accessories for your iPhone-owning special someone.
TUAW Buyers Guide: Parents' picks for Apple-loving kids
Here we are in the thick of the holiday shopping season, and no matter your faith or creed you know that the kids, tweens and teens in your life will be expecting something nicely wrapped. What can you give them that will help get them going on the Macintosh Way or enhance their iPod educational options? Read on for a brief and subjective list; for more, you can check out Apple's kid-specific section of the Macintosh Product Guide or check out our Education and Gaming categories.
Popular Mechanic's game gift guide has chutzpah
There's going to be a lot of gift guides coming down the media pipes -- even we did one this year -- but every so often there's a few that stand out. For example, Popular Mechanics just posted their games to buy and avoid this season. The games to buy are a standard lot: Super Mario Galaxy, Rock Band, Mass Effect, CoD 4. They thought a little out of the box by saying a GameFly subscription, which is a good fiscally conservative idea. It's their five "avoids" which are sure to make a few people get catty. They are: Wii Zapper -- Cheap piece of plastic tarted up. OK, we're still with 'em. Ghost Squad -- Sure, sure, fine. Clive Barker's Jericho -- Not everyone's favorite cup of demonic tea. Guitar Hero III -- Hm? Really? Avoid? Assassin's Creed -- Oh no grrrl, take off the press-on nails, it's on now! There's a super-sized serving of titles out there this holiday season, and we didn't expect Popular Mechanics to go for something obscure like Hannah Montana, but Assassin's Creed and Guitar Hero III making the top games to avoid? Really? It'll certainly be interesting to get people's temperatures on Assassin's Creed a few months from now, because tensions about that game are running a little high.[Thanks Wonderflex]
MS gift guide suggests Wii controller
Ever since Peter Moore made his famous statement ostensibly encouraging people to buy a Nintendo Wii, the Wii60 ideal of Nintendo/Microsoft solidarity has become something of a phenomenon. The idea of the the two companies cooperating against Sony has persisted despite few public signs of any sort of alliance. Well, throw another log on the fire, because Microsoft Developer Network site Coding4Fun has posted a gift guide recommending a Wii remote for "your favorite engineer or technology elitist."Granted, the site recommends the Wii controller for use as a hackable, motion-sensitive Bluetooth controller for the PC and not for its console gaming capabilities. For the most part, though, the rest of the guide seems to opt for Microsoft-branded products like Visual Studio C++ and Flight Simulator X over competing products in the same categories. Then again, we suppose it would have looked a little out of touch to recommend the eight-year-old Microsoft Sidewinder Freestyle Pro for the motion-sensitive hacker on you list.[Thanks Wil]
Nintendo and CNN Money's best gifts for gamers
CNN Money's Chris Morris usually has interesting input on the gaming market, but with his Ten Best Gifts for Gamers, he seems to have missed the mark.Two titles for the DS appear on the list -- Brain Age and New Super Mario Bros. Great games? Indeed, and were this a list of suggested gifts for non-gamers or those new to the hobby, we would happily applaud. But for established gamers? Who hasn't played these games? How many of us still own them? We thought the whole idea behind gift-giving was to find something new, but maybe we've been doing it wrong all these years.Any DS games on your personal wishlists? Or are you the type who can't stand waiting and just buys them on your own?
Apple Store gift guide
Ah, it is that time of year again! The gift giving season is upon us, well it will be soon enough, and Apple is there to help you send your money. The Holiday Gift Guide at the Apple store has suggestions for iPod gifts, Mac gifts, and Gift cards (for both the iTunes Store and the Apple Store). What more could a Mac geek want? How about free shipping for anything ordered off the guide?Here's hoping that Santa leaves a Mac Pro with dual 30 inch Cinema displays under my tree this year.
