Last Minute Tips for a Very Geeky Christmas

Still struggling with your Christmas shopping? Well, you’ve come to the right place; our annual last minute gift guide will help you get over the goal line. There’s something here for every budget, and all items are readily available and guaranteed to please that special geek in your life.


Apple iPad mini

The hot gift for 2012, nuff said. $329 and up at Apple Stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, basically everywhere. Comes with the new Lightning to USB cable and a USB power adaptor.


Apple 7th gen iPod nano

As it says on their website, it’s been completely renanoed. The widescreen and video are back after a failure to report for duty in the 6th Gen version. Bluetooth, Nike + support and a pedometer function have been added. It’s got a touch screen, FM radio with live pause, 16GB of storage for your music, videos, photos and contacts, and it comes in a plethora of colors. I think this is their best version yet.

$149 at Apple stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, basically everywhere, best selection of colors is the Apple Store. Comes with a set of the new Apple EarPods and a Lightning to USB cable.


Belkin YourType Bluetooth Keyboard/Folio for iPad

Touch screens are amazing, but sometimes you just need a keyboard. There’s a bunch of them on the market this year, but I like Belkin’s best. It has a responsive, well designed removable keyboard with 60 hour active battery life, and the folio adjusts for multiple landscape and portrait iPad viewing angles. Comes with a micro USB cable for recharging.

$79 to $99 at Target, Walmart, Best Buy


Logitech Harmony® 650 Remote

Love the Harmony remotes, hate the prices. The top end models go for $250 to $350; too rich for my blood, but the 650 can be found for as low as $50. It’s got a color screen, controls up to 5 devices, and supports over 5000 brands. Connect it to your PC via USB cable and let Logitech’s online software walk you through configuring it for one click activities, and their constantly updated database ensures this remote will be able to keep up with your component changes for quite a while.

$49.99 to $79.99 at Best Buy, Home Depot


Bluetooth Speaker Systems

Forget the docks and cables; you can wirelessly stream music from your Bluetooth enabled phone, iPod or laptop to a wide variety of Bluetooth speakers and receivers available in every price range. From the HDMX Jam at $44, to my favorite, the Bose Soundlink II at $299, there’s a lot of options here.

$44 to $299 at Apple stores, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, these things are everywhere this year.


iTunes Cards

Every Christmas we pick up a couple of 3 packs of the $10 iTunes cards, they make great stocking stuffers and they’re good to have on hand for emergency gifting. Available everywhere. $10 and up.


Google Play Cards

Finally, prepaid gift cards for Android users, what a concept! Available at Target, Walmart, Staples and Radio Shack. $10 and up.


That’s it, there’s something here for every budget, and they’re all “swoop in and grab” kinda presents. It will take you longer to find a parking spot than to find and purchase any of these items, so get it in gear and let’s wrap this thing up!

Bose SoundLink Wireless Mobile Speaker

I teased you in my last post that I’d been playing around with some pretty neat technology this summer, it’s time I got down to business. Let’s start off with my favorite new audio accessory, the Bose SoundLink Bluetooth Mobile Speaker.

Forget about docks and cords, wireless accessories are where it’s at these days, and the Bose SoundLink is my personal favorite in the wireless speaker category. It’s small and compact, with a solid feel and a sleek look, and it has pretty good overall volume and sound reproduction for a device of its size and portability.

It pairs with and remembers up to 6 Bluetooth devices. After 6, every new device you pair it with bumps an old one out of its memory. I currently have it paired with my laptop, iPod touch and my Smartphone, all were a snap to pair, and all reconnect to it instantly after initial setup. Its sound is warm and impressive with nice full bass, not sonically perfect, but nice, and it has enough volume and clarity to use outdoors.

The controls are simple, just a few buttons on the top of the device for power, volume, mute and Bluetooth pairing. No remote, but that’s fine with me. The paired device performs that function quite nicely. It also has a built in cover with a magnetic latch that does triple duty. It protects the speaker when it’s closed, acts as a stand when it’s open, and turns the unit off when you close it again.

Like most Bose music systems, speaker placement is key to maximizing its sound; you want to have a solid surface a few feet behind it to reflect the bass, especially when you’re using it outdoors or at a large party. The SoundLink’s range is at least 30’, which gives you a lot of options in the placement department.

I’ve actually had the device for a few months now, but have been holding off on a review until I’d really put it through its paces, and this baby passed my summer torture test with flying colors. The only problem is, I waited so long that Bose has just released a second generation device, the SoundLink II, and a software update for the original device. The SoundLink II has been sonically improved, and now comes in 2 flavors, Bluetooth or AirPlay (Apple’s proprietary Wi-Fi).

The sonic improvements come in the form of new transducers and better digital signal processing, and the addition of an AirPlay version gives the device even more flexibility when paired with an iOS device or iTunes.

The software update for the original model is easy to install, the SoundLink has a micro USB port on the back labeled service, and it’s great to know that the device is upgradeable, seeing as the electronic landscape seems to change every nanosecond these days.

Bottom line, there are other Bluetooth sound systems out there, and most are a lot cheaper than the SoundLink, but for my money the SoundLink has just the right mix of sound, portability, function and form. Small and sturdy enough to travel with, perfect as an add-on speaker for your laptop, iPod or Smartphone, powerful enough to use as a boom box at your next party, and it pulls it all off with style.

That is all.