The well-informed techie's holiday gift guide
Let someone else supply the savings bonds and sweaters this holiday season. You’ll be the hero with your gifts of new robots, arfid blockers, video games, and other tech nonessentials. Here’s Globe Personal Tech columnist Mark Baard’s personal wish list.
The Dirt Dog: It's a tough guy's picker-upper
Once you've burned that cord of firewood in your garage, you'll have quite a bit of dust and wood chips left on the floor. It's precisely the kind of job iRobot's Dirt Dog is designed for. The Burlington company's Roomba and Scooba are strictly indoor cleaners. But the Dirt Dog Workshop Robot (about $130) has two heavy-duty brushes that sweep sawdust and nuts and bolts into its large-capacity bin. I don't know about you, but I'd rather set the Dirt Dog loose on that mess in the garage than spend my day off pushing a Shop-Vac around.
Wii gets you off your duff
Go ahead, grab another hunk of fruitcake. With Nintendo's Wii gaming system, you'll be bowling and boxing back down to your preholiday weight class. One of my students recently brought his Wii into the classroom. Facing a projector screen, and with our wireless Wii Remotes and Nunchuk controllers in our fists, we boxed until the kid beat the tar out of me -- in one round. There has been a bit of hype around reports about "Wii elbow" and of remotes flying out of players' hands. But all real sports come with the risk of injury. Wii is not for wimps. Suggested retail price is about $250, but you'll probably have to wait until after the holidays to pay that. The system is selling for several hundreds more on many websites.
More Nintendo games to exercise your brain
Feeling a bit fuzzy at your desk? Perhaps it was last night's Christmas party eggnog. Or maybe your brain needs a little more stimulation than it's been getting. Majesco Entertainment has two new Nintendo DS games to strengthen your brainpower. Like Nintendo's own Brain Age, the new games, Brain Boost: Beta Wave and Brain Boost: Gamma Wave, are based on the research of a wacky Japanese scientist you've probably never heard of. They challenge you to recognize shapes and patterns and to solve problems. By playing, you may be able to improve your memory, concentration, and judgment.
A nice-looking WiFi handset
Belkin's WiFi Phone for Skype (about $190) is one of the nicer looking phones at the Skype online shop (us.accessories.skype.com). It's got a glossy black finish and a color screen that shows your Skype buddy's online availability. If only it worked at all WiFi hot spots, including those that require users to log in. That said, if you can find enough open hot spots in your area without stealing a signal, the Belkin phone, with free Skype-to-Skype and cheap SkypeOut calls, could save you a bundle.
New Shuffle is hip, and square(ish)
Apple has replaced its white iPod Shuffle stick with a sleeker-looking aluminum clip-on. The new shuffle is half the size of the original, and closer to a square in shape. It holds 240 songs, and costs about $80. Hopefully, the clip will mean I get to hang onto this Shuffle a little longer than my first one, which must have fallen out of some pocket, somewhere.
Fun and brighter than the rest
The Nintendo DS Lite console (about $130), introduced early last summer, has four brightness settings, and is sleeker and a tad lighter than the original DS. It plays DS games (new titles just keep coming) and has a slot for Game Boy Advance games, as well.
The little pony loves you back
My little girl is mad for My Little Pony, and my dog seems comfortable with the horses she meets in the Blue Hills. Perhaps we're ready for Butterscotch, the animatronic pony from Pawtucket, R.I.-based Hasbro, whose sensors help her "respond" to your child's touch and voice. Butterscotch (about $300) is not a member of the My Little Pony crew -- there is no sparkly brand on her backside. But she is a sweetie all right, nudging her head toward you when you comb her hair, and neighing and snorting when you rub her nose. The 3-foot tall pony is sturdy enough for your child to climb on. But Butterscotch has her limits. She does not walk -- she merely makes clopping sounds when your child is on her back. But this little pony won't cost you a penny in vet or stables fees, either.
Give a Second Life (with extra Linden dollars)
Never mind the disappearing bodies of water, the security breaches, and the confusing introductory screens. In the escapist parallel universe Second Life, you can create an idealized version of yourself (more hair, firmer abs,) and build a dream house on your own private island. And the way the U S dollar is headed these days, the game's Linden dollars may prove to be a relatively solid investment. US $1 will get you about L $269 on the LindeX currency exchange ( secondlife.com/currency -- for Second Life "residents" only ). If your teen has Second Life on his or her holiday wish list, you can buy a premium account ($72 annually), which comes with a monthly L$300 stipend.
Arfid blockers for your favorite paranoid
If you haven't got one on your windshield, then you've probably got one in your wallet or on your keychain. Arfids, or radio frequency identification tags, are proliferating in RFID "Tap N Go" credit cards and other wireless payment devices. The tags, which emit unique ID numbers -- and potentially other sensitive information -- are supposed to make commerce more convenient. The only trouble is that ID thieves with hand-held arfid readers could swipe your tags' data without you even knowing about it. The RFID Blocker pictured here is merely a mockup by Jason Tester, research and design manager at the Institute for the Future ( iftf.org). But some researchers are experimenting with real arfid blockers that jam unwelcome reader signals. Meanwhile, you can buy a $20 RFID blocking wallet, which has an RF-shielding liner, at ThinkGeek ( thinkgeek.com).
(Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story about holiday gifts in yesterday's Business section understated the number of songs an iPod Shuffle can hold. It can hold up to 240.)
