2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Furby

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Toys, Kids, Techies, Under $100, Under $250, Under $500,

Fourteen years ago, Furby was the hot holiday sensation, and now in 2012, Hasbro has brought it back with a modern update that's good enough to be featured in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide. Changes include LED eyes, capacitive touch sensors, and an app that lets you control it remotely. Kids will love them, but so will tinkerers--the original Furby was super-hackable, which hobbyists love. You can pick up the new Furby for $60.

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Monopoly zAPPed

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Features, Toys, Family, Techies, Under $100, Under $250, Under $50, Under $500,

Next up in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide is Monopoly zAPPed, a full-fledged verion of Monopoly that can also be considered an iPad accessory. There are gonna be a lot of iPads and iPad minis under the tree this year, and if you already know someone who owns one (or who will own one this holiday season,) consider this game as a fun gift for them. The game is played with an iPhone or iPad with two to four players, and is different from tradtional Monopoly in that the device (iPad, iPod Touch or iPhone) is the bank and there are on-screen mini games. Also, there is no money, as you just swipe your credit card on the display for transactions. Included in the box are the game board with rubber pads, 6 tokens, 28 Property cards, 32 green houses, 12 red hotels, 2 dice, 4 Monopoly Touch-banking cards and instructions. You can pick up Monopoly zAPPed for $29.99, or $26.24 on Amazon (a 14% savings!)

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Star Wars Death Star tea infuser

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Smart Home, Movies, Techies, Under $100, Under $25, Under $250, Under $50, Under $500,

Techies seem to love tea, and this Death Star tea infuser bring both of those worlds together in a delicious way, so we're featuring it in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide. Made of stainless steel, this tea infuser is molded to resemble Darth Vader's Death Star. Just put some loose leaf tea in there and steep it in your favorite mug. It's dishwasher-safe and available from ThinkGeek for $19.99.

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Apple iPad mini

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Features, Handhelds, Women, Men, Techies, Teens, Under $500,

Next up in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide is the Apple iPad mini. We're sure many of you expected to see this one here, but we weren't so sure until we got our hands on one, and realized after a couple of weeks that our full-sized iPad with Retina display was collecting dust. The iPad mini lives up the the hype that it has generated for years, and it is beautifully designed, what with its anogized aluminum shell. Battery life seem to be better than any iPad before it, and the display, while not Retina quality, is not that bad at all. You get the 7.9-inch 1024 x 768 display powered by a dual-core A5 processor and 512MB RAM in a package that weighs just 0.68 pounds. Prices start at $329, and you can get one now from Apple.

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Knomo Saxby Business Tote

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Wearables, Features, Men, Techies, Under $250, Under $50, Under $500,

We've given a bunch of gadget recommendations in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, and now it's time we mention a fantastic bag to carry them all. This year we recommend the Knomo Saxby Business Tote. We've been using it over the past few months, and it's fantastic. The Saxby has a bunch of pockets, allowing you to appropriately separate things like your iPad from your notebook, and having neither of them come in contact with your keys or pens, thanks to its 4 exterior pockets, 2 interior pouch pockets, 1 interior zip pocket, and 1 interior padded laptop pocket. The size is great, and the look is really classy too (we went with the shiny navy, but you can also get it in matte black, gray, and slate.) Knomo makes high-quality, well-made bags, and this is as fine a laptop bag as you'll find. You can pick up the Knomo Saxby on Amazon starting at $119.99.

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: DarbeeVision Darbee Darblet

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, HDTV, Home Entertainment, Techies, Under $500,

If you've got a home theater nut in your life and you wanna get them a gift that they'll use on an almost daily basis with joy, you'll wanna check out the Darbee Darblet, our next recommendation in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide. So, what's so special about the oddly-named Darblet? Well, it just makes your high-definition content look amazing. No, really, this is like nothing you've ever seen before. It adds a level of depth and clarity that is unmatched, all with a simple set-it-and-forget it interface. You can pick up the Darbee Darblet on Amazon.

Still not convinced? Check out our Darbee Darblet review, and Darblet unboxing gallery.

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Sony SDHC flash memory cards

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Hot Deals, Women, Men, Techies, Teens, Under $100, Under $25, Under $250, Under $50, Under $500,

We try and feature some lust-worthy gadgets in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, but we also like to call out great deals on things that you need for those gadgets as well, and that's why we are recommending the 32GB and 16GB Sony SDHC class 10 flash memory cards. Amazon currently has an amazing deal on these cards, sellign each at a substantial discount. The 32GB cards are 67% off, while the 16GB variety are 65% off. Of course, you can use these in anything from a digital camera, to the new Wii U, to simple file storage for your computer. Check them out on Amazon now!

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Sonos PLAY:3

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Music, Portable Audio / Video, Men, Techies, Under $500,

We're music fans here at Gear Live (seriously, check out the Gear Live Rdio channel!) so we wanna make sure to include great music gadgets in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide. This year, we're kicking it off with the Sonos PLAY:3. If you're unfamiliar with Sonos, it's basically the best way to get music from just about any location (your computer, your iPhone, the web, the cloud, etc.) to play in any room in your house. It's super intuitive, and even years after using Sonos, the technology still blows us away. The Sonos PLAY:3 is a wireless all-in-one music system that lets you jump right into the Sonos experience. If you have an iOS or Android device, you can download the Sonos remote control app, and you can also control the system with a computer using the Sonos Desktop Controller. Here are some other Sonos products that go nicely with the Sonos PLAY:3, which itself you can get for $299 from Sonos, or order from Amazon and get a free Sonos Bridge included with purchase!

• Sonos Play:5
• Sonos SUB

You can use a pair of Play:3 or Play:5 units to create wide stereo sound as well!

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Amazon Kindle Fire

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Handhelds, Women, Men, Techies, Teens, Under $250, Under $500,

We continue our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide with the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. Why the Fire, and not the Kindle Fire HD? While the HD is a fine tablet in its own right, the price of the regular Kindle Fire is just right--especially if you buy quickly! As it turns out, Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire at a 20% discount for the next 3 hours (or until it runs out of stock, whichever comes first!) Amazon's looking to disrupt the tablet landscape with the Fire, and is pricing the Fire aggressively at $129 during this sale.

Purchasers of the Kindle Fire also get a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, which'll let you get a nice sampling of what the company's Video on Demand service offers. Other services you can access from the Fire include Amazon's Android Appstore, Kindle books, a host of magazines, Cloud Drive, Cloud Player, and the Amazon MP3 service.

You can pick up a Kindle Fire now for $129 on Amazon. If you miss the sale, it's still a good deal at its regular $159 price.

Honorable Mention: Kindle Fire HD - $199

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Cooking for Geeks cookbook

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Smart Home, Techies, Under $100, Under $25, Under $250, Under $50, Under $500,

We've hit you with a bunch of gadgets in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide this year, but don't think we forgot about the readers out there. One of the books that we recommend this year is Cooking for Geeks. Written by Jeff Potter, the book not only includes great tasting recipes, but it focuses on the science of cooking, and includes a bunch of kitchen hacks to actually teach cooking instead of just recipes to follow. It's loaded with info, and is worthy of being gifted to your favorite geek this hoiday season. It's available in paperback, as well as on Kindle. You can get it now from Amazon for $20.23, which is a 42% discount.

Honorable Mention: What Einstien Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained

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