The holidays are frustrating for a geek. Why? Because we know exactly what we want. And no one else does. Why? Because they're not paying attention. Here, then, is a quick summary of what's hottest for the tech geek in your life and what you'll need to spend to keep 'em quiet. Oh, and do not forget to keep the receipt, because if you're not a geek yourself, you'll probably get something wrong. Happy shopping!

Smarter Phone
The latest and greatest smartphone is—oddly enough—a Blackberry. But this is not your law partner's Blackberry. The Blackberry Pearl 8100 has a 1.3-megapixel camera, a bright display, and it's slimmer than most, using the two-letters-per-key QWERTY system that a lot of Blackberry users swear by. It supports high-speed EDGE on the T-Mobile network, it's tiny, and it looks like a phone, not a calculator. $199 with two-year contracts.

Tapeless Wonder
The Sony DCR-SR100 might seem a little overpriced for a small camcorder ($1,000 list, around $800 online) until you learn that you'll never have to buy another thingčexcept talent. The tapeless camcorder can record up to seven hours of video before you plug it into your Vaio or Mac (or other Firewire-equipped computer) and download the video straight into your editing software. With a 30GB internal drive the camera is also a 3-megapixel, 10x optical still camera, and it records stereo surround sound while you shoot, to boot.

Slick Brick
Are your photos more important than e-mail? The Sony Ericsson CyberShot K790a might be the first phone to really take photos seriously. With a 3.2-megapixel camera, built-in editing features and support for Sony's MemoryStick standard, you could almost look at it as a camera that happens also to be a phone. $499 list price for "unlocked," so you can use it with your existing GSM/GPRS/EDGE provider.

Dish-To-Go
The PocketDish players (ranging from $150 to $400) look to be re-branded Archos digital media players that just happen to play well with Dish Network DVRs. That means you can download your saved shows from your Dish Network recorder to take on the road, or you can sync up with your other peripherals to carry around music, photos or songs from the eMusic service. This is a great idea for product integration, something that it feels like Apple is behind on with iPod, iTVs and so on.

Sweet Snaps
I wrote about this camera just a few weeks ago, but it remains the high-zoom camera to beat for everything from vacation and sport snapshots to newspaper and Web photography. (Ahem.) The Panasonic DMC-F27 just works, combining its Leica glass with a 6-megapixel digital backend to keep the price right (well under $400 on the Web) considering the value. It even includes a rechargeable battery.

Previous Comments

ID

84779

Comment

I always wondered why this format never altogether replaced consumer media based camcorders. Just my humble opinion, but for the technology aficionados, the Sony HDR – SR1 should be worth a look. It records in both high and standard definition, and it has a 4 megapixel camera with the same 10x optical. Now if Blu- ray would just concede (sorry Sony), giving way to HD- DVD pc drives for everyone!

Author

K RHODES

Date

2006-12-14T14:39:09-06:00

ID

84780

Comment

One caveat I forgot about regarding the Sony HDR – SR1 is that currently (at least last I checked) there isn't any editing software support for the AVCHD recording format it uses.

Author

K RHODES

Date

2006-12-14T20:46:01-06:00