So what are you getting that special PowerBook owner on your list this year? An iPod? An accessory? What do you get for the PowerBook owner with everything? The PowerPage editors have compiled their list of the best hardware, software and accessories of 2004 – now get shopping! Click through for the list…
So what are you getting that special PowerBook owner on your list this year? An iPod? An accessory? What do you get for the PowerBook owner with everything? The PowerPage editors have compiled their list of the best hardware, software and accessories of 2004 – now get shopping!
Hardware
iPod Photo – A 60GB color iPod with a 220 by 176-pixel screen can display up to 65,536 colors? Unquestionably hot on several levels. Now Apple, hurry up and add Image Capture, QuickTime Player, Flash Player, Bluetooth, WiFi, FM/satellite radio tuner and password protected libraries. (JR, EL, JO, RP)
iPod Click Wheel. For the first generation iPod owner the new “4G” iPod represents a substantial slimming and honing down of the neat little box. As K.D. Lang said time to fall in love with your music collection all over again. (NH)
Logitech X-620 (US$100) 70 watts 6.1 speakers for $100. (AJ)
Sony SDM-S73 (US$390) 17″ LCD monitor, 1280×1024, 500:1, VGA input. Sony LCD monitors are just gorgeous. Ideal for those of us who can’t afford an Apple Cinema Display 20″ or 23″ or 30″. (AJ)
Apple XRaid (~US$2 per GB) Doesn’t everyone need 5.2TB at home with Raid 50? (AJ)
PalmOne Treo 650 smartphone – Now if they would only release it on Verizon! (VO)
iMac G5 – The latest generation iMac is just too cool not to be mentioned. (OJ)
Pentax Optio s5i (SF)
Casio Exilim EX-Z50 Zoom – Ultra compact and uses cheap Secure Digital (SD) media. (JO)
MacAlly PHR 250cc aluminum 2.5-inch hard drive enclosure. This is a really, really nicely engineered product and it’s cheap! USB 2.0 and FireWire 400 plus it’s bus powered and comes with snazzy clear cables. Who doesn’t have a spare PowerBook hard drive lying around? (RP)
Software
Delicious Library – (US$40) Lickable software to import, browse, and share all your books, movies, music and video games. A gem! (JO)
Salling Clicker (US$20) – Neat and nifty little application to control your presentations, Mac and whatever else you want from a bluetooth phone. (NH)
Cleardock a free haxie from Unsanity Software removes the semi-transparent white background from the Dock so the Dock icons are “floating” on top of your desktop picture (NH)
Apple Xsan (US$999) an enterprise-class storage networking solution that lets multiple computers concurrently access terabytes of storage on Xserve RAID over high-speed Fibre Channel. This stuff rocks and I want a SAN at home so I don’t lose my MP3 collection (again). (AJ)
Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft. I’ve not taken the MMORPG plunge (yet) but this game is gorgeous. (AJ)
Ambrosia Software’s Snapz Pro 2.0 takes screen capture to a new level (AJ)
SubEthaEdit (US$35) or DEVONthink (US$40), I can’t decide. (EL)
Firefox – Rediscover the Web, indeed. (OJ)
Quicksilver – An evolving framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of personal data. (SF)
Wingnuts – Make sure you have some free time cause you’ll be up all night, Wingnut!
Accessories
Crumpler Bags, specifically the McBain Baby, a slick little canvas bag with a snug fit for a little snowybook . Guaranteed not to chuck their gut ups (their words not mine !) (NH)
Bose SoundDock. With the click of wheel you can fall asleep to and wake up to your choice tunes. A bit pricey, I know! But it makes a good duo with the iPod family and sounds tremendous. (NH)
Kensington Optical Elite Mouse. It costs US$20 and has five programmable buttons including scrollwheel horizontal and vertical. It’s left and right handed and you aren’t going to find a better deal. The software is worth it’s price alone. (AJ)
Sony Ericsson HBH-200 Bluetooth headset (EL)
Apple Airport Express. (OJ)
Micro iPod power adapter. I also have a retractable cable (FW to iPod dock connector), but have not seen these in the US (got mine in Japan). (OJ)
iPod Socks. (SF)
Motorola HS810 Bluetooth Headset – Near flawless design, incredible comfort and ease of use, ridiculously long battery life and good reliability and call quality. The gold standard of Bluetooth headsets in my humble opinion. (RP)
Best online subscription
The Phil Hendrie Show Backstage Pass – The price per month for the entire collection of classic bits plus a commercial free 30 day show archive downloadable in MP3 format is just US$6.95. That’s roughly two beers in exchange for 60 hours of outstanding iPod content per month.
The most incredible satirical radio host ever. Funny, offensive, politically incorrect and highly addictive. Every night Phil interviews several guests on a myriad of silly topics that get progressively more ridiculous. Real, unprompted, unsuspecting listeners call the show to berate these guests not knowing that Phil (the host) is performing all of the voices himself! He’s the host and the guests! This show is a true original. Here’s what was on a recent show…
A special Thank You to the PowerPage editors that contributed to this year’s Gift Guide and generally for a great year!
Neal Hoskins
Ammad Jilani
Emory Lundberg
Ole Jacobsen
Vic Orly
Rob Parker
Please add your favorite gift items to our below using the comments.
