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2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Lost seasons 1-3 DVD sale alert
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Home Entertainment, Hot Deals, Movies, Family, Women, Men, Under $100,
We typically reserve the Holiday Gift Guide for items that you should be able to get your hands on throughout the shopping season, but we felt that this Lost Season 1-3 DVD deal on Amazon was way too good to pass up. For today only, you can get the first three seasons of Lost on DVD for just $58.99. That is a savings of 67%, or $120.98 off the regular price of $179.97. That is ridiculous. Ridiculously delicious, that is. If you Lost as much as we do, you’ll know that this is a true bargain.
Read More 
| Lost Season 1-3 Amazon Sale
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Holiday Gift Guide Flashback: True Christmas Spirit
Posted by Dennis Velasco Categories: Editorial, Features, Family, Kids,
Growing up the way I did - barely getting by, fully understanding what hard times meant, and dealing with some messed up family stuff - we never really made Christmas a big deal. At least, it never really was to me. For example, one year we couldn’t afford a Christmas tree (but when we did, we kept that thing for like a decade), my mom made us get some fallen twigs outside our apartment and she delicately wrapped them up in tin foil. We put it in a green vase and I think my sister actually tried decorating it by coloring the tin foil red and green. Ah, youth. Well, I couldn’t totally blame her for her attempts to make something bad into something good, afterall, she had a perm and actually thought it looked cool. But, heck, it was the mid-80s, so the poor choice made by my nine-year-old sibling could be forgiven in retrospect.
In all honesty, the last Christmas I remembered before this particular one I’m about to tell you about when I was eleven, was when I was five. I got a whole bunch of Micronauts and this huge plastic Spider-Man doll that had a grappling hook, which was supposedly a web that he could “climb.” Mind you, I don’t blame my parents for any of this lack of remembering several years in between as they always did their best, God bless their hearts, and I’m glad my sister was always in the Christmas spirit, but I knew what was up. Okay sure, I was a Holden Caufield without knowing I was at the time, but whatever. I dealt with it. You couldn’t fool me, I tell ya.
But, this particular Christmas, I got fooled.
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2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Wicked Lasers SONAR II Burner
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Misc. Tech, Science, Men, Techies,
So we’ve been trying to stay fairly frugal in our 2008 Gift Guide, but we’ve gotten a bunch of email from people asking where all the high-priced items have gone. We figured today we’d answer that with the Wicked Lasers SONAR II Burner laser. We’ve been playing around with one for a few days, and we can definitely say that it exhibits a cool factor (and geek cred!) Why? For starters, it’s a fricken laser. Secondly, the specific laser diode that’s in this one is the same as you’d find in a Blu-ray player. Yeah, a Blu-ray laser, in the palm of your hand. Sick, right? You’ve got a 405nm violet beam at your fingertips. Of course, all that power comes at a price, and if you wanna get in on the action, the Sonar II Burner will cost you $1,999.99. See? We weren’t kidding.
Read More | Wicked Lasers Sonar II Burner
Gallery: 2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Wicked Lasers SONAR II Burner
Holiday Gift Guide Flashback: A Dark Lord Christmas
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorial, Features, Toys, Kids,
I was nine years old and I was a huge Star Wars fan. I was looking forward to Christmas like every kid and I hoped to get a ton of Star Wars stuff.
Christmas morning finally came and back then I would try to sneak out of bed at four or five in the morning so I could start playing. Sometimes I would get caught and I was told to go back to bed, but I always came out later after the coast was clear.
That Christmas I woke up early and quickly ran to the living room to start opening my presents. Every gift I opened was a toy. I don’t remember all of the stuff I got, but as I said it was all toys!
I went searching to the back of the tree to see if there was anything I missed and I found a present in the shape of a rectangle. This meant it was shirt box – clothes! Ugh. I tossed it back and buried it under some of my sibling’s presents.
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2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Kodak ZI6 Pocket Video Camera
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cameras, HDTV, Movies, Portable Audio / Video, Women, Men, Under $250,
If you wanna pick up a YouTube-ready video camera for Mom, we are hard pressed to find something as good as the Kodak ZI6, for the price. This little camera shoots in 720p high-definition at 60 frames per second, and can also take regular old still images as well. Other cameras, like the Flip Mino can’t do that. It supports SD cards in sizes up to 32GB, which basically means you’ll be able to shoot video until your (rechargeable) battery dies, as opposed to worrying about how much space you have left. You can pick them up from Kodak for $153, they’re available in pink, as well as black. Get it quick though, because they are on sale now. After 12/15, they go back up to their normal price of $179.
Read More | Kodak ZI6 product page
Gallery: 2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Kodak ZI6 Pocket Video Camera
2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Monster Beats by Dr. Dre studio headphones
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Smartphones, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Men, Techies, Teens, Under $500,
We’ve been big fans of the Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones since we first got our hands on them. They’ve got a nice style, with a hip-hop vibe, and a fantastic noise-canceling feature. The earcups are surprisingly comfortable, and fold away on the inner side of the glossy black headband, which can then be stored in the included case. The Beats by Dr. Dre studio headphones do requier two AAA batteries for the noise cancellation feature, and you’ll get about 50 hours of listening time on a pair of those. They also include two audio cables, both of which even fit into the original iPhone headset jack, and one of which also includes a mic, so you can take calls. The Monster Beats by Dr. Dre stereo headphones can be found on Amazon for $349.
Read More | Monster Beats by Dr. Dre Studio headphones
Gallery: 2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Monster Beats by Dr. Dre studio headphones
Holiday Gift Guide Flashback: A Crushed Ice Christmas
Posted by Veronica Santiago Categories: Editorial, Features, Smart Home, Women,
Purchasing gifts for a loved one is often difficult, especially when expectations are high. So, gentlemen - if you’re struggling to find the perfect present for a significant other, please let me share a story about one of my most “memorable” gifts.
Back in 2001, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I had our 1st real Christmas together. Although it was technically our second time celebrating the holiday, I didn’t really count the first. Since we had only started dating weeks beforehand, I didn’t anticipate much. But after a whole year together, I was curious to see how well he knew me. Apparently not as well as I had hoped.
To be fair, I did receive two gifts that day. The first was a beautiful green necklace. (Thankfully, it did not come attached to a Benny Bear.) And while I appreciated the tasteful choice in jewelry, the item was unfortunately not the thing I remember most about that December 25. It was a completely random selection still waiting in the wings: the ice crusher.
An ice crusher that my boyfriend/husband saw in Pottery Barn and thought was “cool” and “very pretty.” (Granted - the Metrokane Ice-O-Matic did have a nice art deco design.) An ice crusher I didn’t know I needed. An ice crusher my husband’s coworker told him NOT to buy. (She said it wasn’t exactly a “romantic” choice.) An ice crusher that said “crush my heart” and “ice queen” all at the same time. An ice crusher that up until last night (when I reminded my spouse of its existence), hadn’t seen the light of day in years.
So in case you missed the lessons from my cautionary tale, let me list them out for you:
- “Pretty” things don’t necessarily make good gifts.
- Don’t ever buy your loved one something YOU want.
- Products that require manual labor should never be given, unless it’s something they requested.
- If you ask another woman for a second opinion, please heed her advice.
- Read our Holiday Gift Guide, and let us help you.
Happy Holidays!
Gallery: Holiday Gift Guide Flashback: A Crushed Ice Christmas
2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Roku Netflix Player
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Family, Women, Men, Techies, Under $100,
Sure, Netflix has come to the Xbox 360, but if you want streaming access to the Netflix service and don’t own a game console, this is your cheapest barrier to entry. Definitely a great gift for movie buffs, the Roku Netflix player is able to stream over 12,000 movies and television shows from the Netflix Watch Instantly catalogue. The set-top box currently outputs at 480p (DVD quality), but we know that high definition streaming is on the way. The box is tiny, so it takes up barely any space, and setup takes just a couple of minutes - very simple. Of course, a Netflix subscription is required, but once you have that, everything else is a piece of cake.
Read More | Roku
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2008 Holiday Gift Guide: Apple Time Capsule
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Apple, PC / Laptop, Wireless / WiFi, Family, Women, Men, Techies, Under $500,
Yeah, we know, the Time Capsule is a router and backup device. Not that exciting, right? Well, not all gifts are meant to spur excitement - this one is practical and functional. If you know someone who owns a Mac, and doesn’t take advantage of Time Machine, then they need a Time Capsule - especially if they use a MacBook or MacBook Pro. The Time Machine sports either a 500GB or 1TB hard drive, and is a combination wired/wireless network attached storage device. Even better, it doubles as an 802.11n/g router as well. The 500GB Time Capsule sells for $299, while the 1TB version will run you $499.
Read More | Apple Time Capsule
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Holiday Gift Guide: Remembering my first DVD player
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Features, Home Entertainment,
Being both an early adopter, someone without a bunch of money, and a gadgetophile is a hard combination to pull off. Back in 1999, that was me as a teenager, and the thing I wanted most that year was a standalone DVD player. Sure, I had the DVD-ROM drive in my Sony Vaio desktop computer, but my monitor was only 15-inches back then, and I had a 28-inch television. Who wouldn’t want to watch DVDs on their awesome 28-inch television, with ghetto stereo sound?
That year, my girlfriend at the time decided she would surprise me with a Sony DVD player. If you weren’t in the market for DVD players back then, allow me to fill you in. Those $25 deals you are seeing this holiday season on players at Target and Wal-Mart? Yeah, prices have fallen exponentially. My first DVD player sold for $399.99. A serious token of her love, most certainly. I mean, I certainly wouldn’t have gotten a DVD player otherwise.
I immediately snapped up The Usual Suspects and a couple of other titles that I don’t even remember. I didn’t even care, I was just all about the slick new piece of technology.
What about you? Any fond memories of holidays past, where you gave or received an awesome gift? Let us know in the comments
Gallery: Holiday Gift Guide: Remembering my first DVD player
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