Category: Holiday Gift Guide

Even Santa gets cold feet sometimes, and we're not talking about when he married Mrs. Claus. Japanese gadget trove Thanko has introduced a pair of USB Santa Boots, a gadgetized way to keep the feet warm during the frigid winter months. These slippers, which look suspiciously like footwear belonging to a certain white-bearded, rotund Christmas hero, are heated by a USB connection from the ...

If you watched the news before Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year for American retailers, you surely heard tales of doom and gloom with predictions of downward trends in consumer spending and all that jazz. As it turns out, sales in-store were just fine, and according to reports about online shopping, many chose to wait and do their shopping on the following "Cyber Monday," ...

The new Katalyst from Samsung is the latest phone to get paired with the Wi-Fi powered T-Mobile HotSpot@Home VoIP service. This slim slider has all the standard features you'd expect from a mid-range phone, Bluetooth, a 1.3-megapixel camera, instant messaging, media playback, and more. The Katalyst also comes with a Wi-Fi radio, a necessity for working with T-Mobile's HotSpot@home service. ...

As far as computer ports go -- and technologies in general -- USB has got to be the friendliest. Not only does it lovingly accept almost any kind of gadget imaginable, it also generously parcels out power to those gadgets so that they don't need to be plugged into a wall. As a result, it's quickly become the de facto interface for our printers, scanners, digital cameras, iPods, thumb drives and ...

Verizon Wireless recently released the FlipShot by Samsung, a snazzy new 3-megapixel (MP) camera phone with swivel 'technology.' The crisp 240x320 pixel phone display swivels 180 degrees to allow for different viewing angles and easy sharing of multimedia with friends. To activate the camera, you just open the clamshell halfway and swivel the display 90-degrees towards you and begin shooting ...

So the sporty person in your life already has everything: the jersey, the hat, even the football-shaped phone. But does he (she?) have a computerized golf putter? What about a bicycle speaker? We didn't think so. Check out our Holiday Gift Guide for jocks and sports fans for some tech gift ideas you probably haven't already considered. Click Here --> ...

Hype Check: Gibson Robot Guitar On December 7, guitar enthusiasts around the nation will be able to get their callused hands on the Gibson Robot Guitar, a first-of-its-kind, self-tuning instrument packed with a computer and motorized tuners. This special edition Les Paul will initially only be available in limited quantities -- 10 guitars for each of 400 retailers across the nation. What it ...

We always thought there was something off about a fat, red-faced guy, who gave kids gifts for just "being good," and took to sitting the good boys and girls on his lap. This week some other people started realizing that maybe good ol' Saint Nick has a few screws loose -- including those who tried to speak to Santa via his northpole@live.com address on MSN Messenger. It seems the Microsoft run ...

According to none other than Wired magazine, T-shirts have come into their own as a form of media, one that uniquely documents messages and stories, not to mention emergent technologies and companies changing the way we use the Internet. Here at Switched, we write a lot about these next-gen, "Web 2.0" companies and technologies, which include everyone from MySpace and Facebook to Twitter ...

Slash is a busy guy. In fact, we're not sure he's had any down time since recording what may be the greatest debut album in the history of Rock 'n' Roll, the Guns n' Roses classic 'Appetite for Destruction.' After the disintegration of the band and the hijacking of the name by a corn-rowed Axl Rose and a band of impostors ( whose next album 'Chinese Democracy' should be out some time before ...

Marketing geniuses at Japan's Aqua Toto Gifu Aquarium have caught the attention of both the marine-life lovers and the media with a holiday display that uses a unique source of clean renewable energy -- an electric eel, otherwise known to us geeks here at Switched as Electrophorus Electricus. The aquarium placed its "E-Tree" next to tan electric eel in a tank. Inside the tank, copper wiring has ...

Proving yet again that we haven't run out of good ideas (as a species), the folks at Charles and Marie (we'll call them "Charles and Marie") have released one of the most logical items we've seen in some time. Like Sunday mornings, it's easy: The mug turns from off to on when filled with hot liquid, and then goes back to off when your beverage is drinkable again. 25 bucks is a bit on the pricey ...

This new game for the PlayStation 3 gives gamers a little bit of everything: some adventure, some gun play, and a whole lot of tropical adventure. Call it a happy meal, but not so small, and without that grody feeling you get after eating it. Imagine the perfect mix of Gears of War, Tomb Raider, and a little Mario and you have Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Pick this one up for the gamer who has ...

Even though listening to the Backstreet Boys version of 'Christmas Time' every hour on the hour -- at least while we're out shopping -- makes us want to seal our eyes and ears with a caulking gun, we still like to get into the holiday spirit... we just want to do it on our own terms. So, for those of us who want to spruce up our cubicles for the holidays and would rather skip those lame snow ...

A perfect bedside item, this all-in-wonder functions as a clock radio, alarm clock, and 7" digital picture frame. It's nice and small and cleanly-designed; the dual alarm clock radio will wake you with your favorite FM radio station, or your own MP3s -- all while slowly flipping through digital photos of your loved ones (it has a SD/MMC card slot and USB connection for actually getting the ...