Buzz, click, whirrrr!

Gadgets with attitude make for electrifying gifts.

By Monty Phan

 

This holiday season, why stand in line or scour the Web for that Sony PlayStation 3 or Tickle Me Elmo that everyone else is clamoring for? Try these instead.


PEZ MP3 PLAYER
Sure, you could make your own candy-themed digital music player, but who has the time? Inspired by a do-it-yourself MP3 player made from an Altoids tin, one enterprising stay-at-home dad designed a digital music player that looks exactly like a PEZ dispenser. Flip the head back to reveal the power switch. Pull the toes out to see where the AAA battery is housed. There's even a shuffle button.
Availability: Check www.pezmp3.com.



 TONY HAWK HELMETCAM-T
Here you go, anspiring stars of YouTube: a way to make first-person recordings of your skateboarding/inline skating/snowboarding exploits. The lightweight camera ($80) straps to a helmet, uses no cords and can record up to 40 minutes of video and audio. Software, included with the device, allows you to edit your footage. Availability: Online and at major retailers - check www.digitalbluecorp.com/where2buy.



 XBOX 360 SMACK TALKER
Sure, you may get carpal tunnel from those marathon sessions of playing video games online against your buddies, but why should your voice suffer too? Now it won't have to - just connect this device ($24.99) between your Xbox 360 controller and the accompanying headset, and it plays up to five pre-recorded bits of smack. Use your own voice, or find a clip of Bill Paxton from Aliens as he yells, "Game over, man!"Availability: Best Buy, Circuit City, GameStop or EB Games, or check online at www.smacktalk360.com.


DVD REWINDER
For the techie who has everything, including - hopefully - a sense of humor: the DVD rewinder. As one satisfied customer succinctly put it, "No more sitting down to watch a DVD just to find that someone has left it halfway through, leaving you to rewind it back to the beginning." Just pop it in, and the machine ($16.49) spins it backwards while making a "rewinding" sound. Also works for CDs and video games!
Availability: Online at www.dvdrewinder.com.


NINTENDO Wii
Yes, the PlayStation 3 will be the must-have game system come the holidays. But here's our case for the Wii (pronounced "we"): At $250, it'll be half the price of the PS3; unlike the PS3 or Xbox 360, it comes packaged with Wii Sports, comprising baseball, tennis, boxing, golf and bowling games; and, best of all, it uses the innovative Wii controller, which is motion-sensitive and corresponds to the action on screen (so, for a tennis game, you'd swing it like a racket, while in a shooting game you'd aim it like a gun). Availability: Beginning Nov. 19 online and at major retailers.


SANDISK SANSA e200 SERIES
For some, there are iPods, and there are the rest of the digital music players. These are some of the rest. For those who don't want an iPod, try out the Sansa, which comes in 2-, 4-, 6- and 8-gigabyte models ($139.99-$249.99). Unlike the iPod, the Sansa comes with an FM tuner and recorder and voice-recording capability, as well as photo and video playback; however, it's not compatible with songs downloaded from Apple's iTunes Music Store. Availability: Online and at major electronics retailers.


BOSE QUIET COMFORT 3 HEADPHONES
Would you pay $350 for headphones? Before answering that, consider what this particular pair does: Using miniature microphones that pick up ambient noise around you, the headphones cancel out external sounds via circuitry contained within. All that's left is you and whatever you happen to be listening to - perfect for plane flights with a screaming kid or a work space with a screaming boss. Availability: Online at Bose.com and other retail sites, or at retailers including The Sharper Image and Brookstone.

i-DOG
No, it's not an iPod-powered toy dog, but you're close: The i-Dog ($34.99) "feeds" on music, wiggling and grooving to whatever tunes happen to be playing nearby. You can plug a music player into the dog (via the included cord) to watch it dance to your own music, or simply stick it in front of a speaker or anywhere else music is playing. Although you can't take it for walks like other robotic dogs, it does change its "mood" according to what music is playing. And you don't have to clean up after it.
Availability: Online and at major retailers including Target and Toys 'R' Us.



This article appears in the November 2006 issue of Latino Perspectives Magazine.

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