October - Gift Ideas

(Source:  Frappa Stout in USA Weekend, Aug 20-22, 2004)

"We tracked down America's smartest kids to gauge this year's must-have gadgets"  (They seemed to be 14 to 16 years old.)
·   Cellphone and PDA combination
·   MP3 Player
·   Laptop Computer
·   Digital Camera
·   Graphing Calculator ( TI-83 Plus, or TI-84)
 

(Source:  Michael Verdon in Modern Maturity, Nov/Dec 2004)

Nikon Coolpix 4100 - Dummies friendly, high quality photos without head scratching $299.
Cannon EOS Digital Rebel - A 6.3 megapixel, interchangeable lens camera with nearly 50 opticsal lenses including Cannon non digital cameras $899.
Pentax OptioMX - Palm sized with photos at 3.2 megapixles with 10X optical zoom and MPEG-4 movies $400
Bushnell Instant Replay Binocular - A 30 second video replay loop or 2.1 megapixle photos $388.

The November 2004 Consumer Reports has their "biggest digital issue ever" with ratings of "unbiased ratings" of over 333 products.  Including:

• Digital Cameras  (3 best buys under $140)
• Camcorders
• Plasma TVs
• LCD TVs
• Conventional TVs
• Home theater in a box

Do you have a cell phone?  How about maintaining your phone numbers on your computer?  You can do it with DataPilot.  They will provide the program and a USB cable for your phone.  Take a look at:  http://www.datapilot.com/index.htm   IF you order this program online before 11/30/4 enter promo code PCWORLD333 at checkout to get a 20% discount.  (I have never used this program.)

Are you interested in a "smart" phone, i.e. one that will let you do email, surfing the web, and maybe have a keyboard?  If so look at the October 19, 2004 issue of PC Magazine.  They have evaluated 14 of these phones.  Their editors, choices are BlackBerry 7100t ($199) and Nokia 6620 ($469.99).

Is TiVo on anyone's list?  If you already have one take a look at http://tivocommunity.com/