Evan Shamoon
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Gift Guide: Blue Microphones Mikey
For those who like to get creative with sound, Blue Mikey ($79.99) is an excellent addition to your potable digital tool belt. Essentially a mic that plugs into the bottom of your iPhone or iPod, Mikey lets you capture anything from live music to lectures. You interface with the hardware as you would the iPhone's built-in mic; you can either use Apple's own voice recorder, or download some more feature-packed options as Fire and FourTrack. Since it uses your iPhone as its "computer," the Blue Mikey is infinitely smaller than most digital recorders out there (for better or worse, it's also very light). The mic is directional, and a switch on the back lets you choose between different gain levels, depending on the sound source. Field recording has never been so convenient.
Gift Guide: Dyson Limited Edition DC25 Blueprint
Dyson Limited Edition DC25 Blueprint (Homebody, Under $1000)
Vacuum cleaners are like eyeglasses and headphones -- when you buy one, it's worth paying for quality (particularly if you live with a dog and/or significant other that sheds regularly). And once you use a "serious" vacuum cleaner, it's tough to go back. Dyson's Limited Edition DC25 Blueprint ($529.99) is arguably the nicest looking Dyson yet; the combination of stormtrooper-white shiny plastic, future-industrial lines, and a purple trim is truly a sight to behold. Under the hood sits Dyson's Root Cyclone and Ball technologies, and it comes with a bonus FlatOut head, which is ideal for getting underneath low furniture and appliances. It's still expensive, but surprisingly in line with the other DC25 models. If you or someone you know is having a midlife crisis, this thing is a much better investment than a sports car.
Is 'DJ Hero' Worth the Hype?
HYPE CHECK
'DJ Hero'
What it is: Until now, rock-and-roll has dominated the rhythm-action gaming charts. 'Rock Band' and 'Guitar Hero' both provide amazing experiences for guitars-and-drums jams, but don't really address either hip hop or dance music (i.e., electronic music). Activision has tried to remedy this situation with its newest 'Hero' game, aptly titled 'DJ Hero.' Just as 'Guitar Hero' attempts to reproduce the feeling of playing in a band, 'DJ Hero' attempts to do the same for club-centric live mixing.
Why it's different: The work of a DJ is fundamentally different from that of a traditional musician. Like 'Guitar Hero,' 'DJ Hero' comes with its own hardware. The custom controller includes a free-spinning turntable with three colored buttons on one side, along with a crossfader, a knob for effects, and a button that glows when you go into "Euphoria mode" (more on that later). Though made of plastic, the controller actually feels solid, as though it could take a beating, and the feel of the turntable and mixer are spot-on. Although the buttons can be awkward to push while scratching (particularly the one on the inside), the hardware -- unlike the guitar games -- generally does a good job of making you feel like an actual DJ (or, at least, what we'd imagine it feels like to be a DJ). Oh, and it's remarkably devoid of logos, making it a surprisingly classy addition to your living room hardware lineup.
Gift Guide: Jabra Stone
Jabra Stone (Style-o-Phile, Under $250)
The Jabra Stone ($129.99) is the first significant step for the notorious Bluetooth headset in some time. The design effectively removes the annoying "boom" of other headsets off of your face/ear; in fact, it can actually be concealed under longish hair, should you so desire. The excellent sound quality, good battery life, and slick charger (when charging, it looks like a flat, rounded stone) make this one of the best Bluetooth headsets money can buy, particularly for the self-conscious headset wearers out there. (Unless you have very small ears, that is: the design of the earpiece is such that it's not adjustable, meaning it can be difficult to prevent from falling off.)
Gift Guide: Alienware Area 51 ALX Gaming PC
Alienware Area 51 ALX Gaming PC (Gamer, Cost No Object)
If you're trying to keep up with the Joneses in PC gaming, Alienware's Area 51 Gaming PC ($3,999 and up) is tough to beat. Housed inside one of the company's trademark love-'em-or-hate-'em "futuristic" cases, this rig is decked out with some of the best components money can buy: Intel Core i7 975 Extreme processors, your choice of ATI CrossFireX or NVidia SLI graphics graphics cards (making it great for the 3-D gaming with Nvidia's 3-D Vision Kit), and plenty of memory to keep things running smoothly). Oh, and it uses a fancy liquid cooling system to keep all this stuff from melting down inside. it's a hefty price to pay, certainly -- fully tricked out, this thing will set you back nearly as much as a small car, but the benchmarks are right up there near the head of the pack. And hey, you can't shoot nasty, earth-hating aliens with a Hyundai Accent, can you?
Gift Guide: NVidia 3D Vision Kit
NVidia 3-D Vision Kit (Gamer, Under $250) "3-D gaming" is one of those terms that gets bandied about quite a bit these days. And while the experience is best experienced in movie theaters, the home alternatives are finally starting to proliferate. Arguably the best option out there is NVidia's 3-D Vision Kit ($199), which connects to your PC, and displays your compatible games in three glorious ...Gift Guide: Scribblenauts
Scribblenauts (Gamer, Under $50)
Scribblenauts ($29.99) is one of those games that gets people talking. Essentially a puzzle game at its core, the experience involves inputting words (via either handwriting recognition or an onscreen keyboard) to outfit your character with different objects to solve the problem at hand. A flamethrower may be the easiest way to burn through some impassably ...Gift Guide: Glide TV
Glide TV (Homebody, Under $250)
More and more of us are watching video content from a notebook computer connected to our television sets, but efficiently interfacing with this content has proven to be something of a challenge. Keyboards and mice can be cumbersome and unwieldy (not to mention completely unusable when there's no flat surface to place them on). So what's an off-the-grid, ...Gift Guide: Videophone Touch AiGuru SV1T
Videophone Touch AiGuru SV1T (Novice, Under $500)
For the grandparent who has neither the time nor the interest in learning to use a computer, the ASUS Videophone Touch ($299) makes an amazing gift. Essentially, the all-in-one device allows the user to make unlimited video Skype calls, without using a computer or other hardware. The 7-inch touchscreen, built-in camera, and speaker make the ...Gift Guide: HP Beats Laptop
HP Beats Laptop (Media Hound, Under $2,500)
It's rare that a PC laptop makes even Mac owners look twice, but look twice at the above photo. See? The 15-inch black-and-red stunna -- essentially an HP Envy with a Beats by Dr. Dre veneer -- has a lot in common with the MacBook Pro, actually: the chiclet keyboard, the buttonless, multitouch trackpad, the slim, bezel-etched design, even the ...
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