2010 Christmas Gadgets
On the surface, Christmas is a time of good will towards men, the spirit of the holidays, giving thanks to Santa and all that rubbish. For tech heads, however, Christmas actually means just one thing: a chance to get one's hands on the latest, greatest bits of technology.
And, unlike some other trends, gadgetry moves fast. What was new one year is usually old by the next, replaced by another in a long line of successively better... and unfortunately more expensive... merchandise. On the plus side, however, it's usually easy enough to buy something for a tech head for Christmas, as they just want the latest gadget sitting under their Christmas tree come December 25th. That doesn't mean non-techies will have an easy time discovering what the latest gadget is, however, so here are some of the biggest items circulating right now.
- The iPhone. Yes, this baby might have been released a little while ago, but it's still the big buy for most phone and app lovers. Including a touch screen, a camera, Internet-browsing capabilities that rival most anything else on the market and that ever popular Apple logo, the iPhone is THE brand to get because it can do just about anything. The number of apps alone makes the iPhone a delicious acquisition. And for Applephobes, the Android is an excellent alternative that's gaining popularity.
- iPods. They're not quite as popular as they used to be, but iPods are still major players in the music playing business. Like iPhones they come with a host of apps included and can do a lot more than just play music. And if Apple's still not your cup of tea,there are lots of other brands to choose from as well, some of which prove a bit more straightforward and desirable when it comes to playing music.
- eReaders. (Everything has the capital letter as the second these days.) Again coming in a variety of formats - the Kindle is probably number one at the moment, though it faces some stiff competition from the iPad, the Nook and the Sony e-Reader. Take your books to a palette and do away with all those nasty novels that murder trees for our reading enjoyment.
- The Kinect. Attached to an Xbox, the Kinect does what the Wii did, only better: it gets players into the action by reading their movements and translating them to the screen - and does so without a controller. That's pretty sweet. It can also be purchased in an Xbox 360 bundle pack, making for an excellent overall Christmas gift.
- Digital cameras. These suckers are improving drastically every year, regardless of the brand (though this author recommends Canon cameras, personally). Taking picture quality to new heights with rising megapixel counts and easily-replaced lenses, digital SLRs in particular can make just about anyone a professional photographer, and at lower and lower prices each year - assuming you're content with the previous years model. Have a lookherefor some solid reviews before making a Christmas purchase.
- 3D TVs. Okay, so the technology is still a little under development. That doesn't make these new creations of the modern age useless. Far from it: 3D TV is quite neat to watch in action, and just the beginning of an eventual change to what, according to old science fiction movies, we should be watching by 2010.
- Last, and perhaps of more interest to the author than anyone else,a voice-activated R2-D2 toy.Aw yeah.
There's no shortage of things to buy a gadgetry fan in 2010, in short. That said, however, stores may be running out of supplies by the time you read this, so it's highly advisable to get to the shopping quickly - there aren't many days left before Christmas, and the longer you wait, the lower the chance that you'll snag some of these pricey prizes.
