2010 Holiday Gift Guide: Icon Rogue 2 LED flashlight

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Smart Home, Men, Under $50,

Sure, we wanna cover all the cool stuff in our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide, but we also wanna hit you with some stuff that's practical as well, and the Icon Rogue 2 LED flashlight fits that bill. It's powered by two AA batteries (included int he package) that lasts for 72 hours, and has overwhelming light output. The body is an aerospace-grade aluminum that can withstand just about anything--seriously, it feels like you can prop up a car with this thing to change a tire. The handle is an open architecture design that doesn't cause your hand to get all sweaty. It's got two light output settings, and low was bright enough for anything we wanted to do with it. Setting it to high shows the power of this thing though, which we are sure is super helpful in an emergency, or just messing around in the darkness of night. They retail for $49.99, and if you've got a Radio Shack near you, you can find them there. We've also found them on Amazon for $34.99.

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2010 Holiday Gift Guide: Amazon Kindle

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

The latest release of the Amazon Kindle, the company's ebook reader, seriously changed the game in the ereader world. It's thinner and lighter than any previous model, it packs in Wi-Fi for the first time, and it is much cheaper despite being the best Kindle they've made to date, and that's why we're adding it to our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. You can get the Wi-Fi model for just $139, or if you need the Wi-Fi + 3G model, that one goes for $189. Thing is, we'd bet that most anyone would do just fine with the Wi-Fi only model, and for $139, you get a cool gadget that book lovers will...uh...love! They're available in white and graphite colors, and we'd recommend picking on up sooner rather than later, because these are gonna be a hot one this year.

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2010 Holiday Gift Guide: Alan Wake Limited Edition sale

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Features, Video Games, Men, Teens, Under $50,

Amazon's got a killer deal on the Alan Wake Limited Edition bundle, and we had to pass it on to you guys as a 2010 Holiday Gift Guide recommendation. Alan Wake is a game that plays like a psychological thriller as you take on the role of Alan, an author who seems trapped in his own tale. The game incorporates elements of an episodic television show as well, and is a nice escape from all the typical casual games and shooters out there. The Limited Collectors Edition includes:

• Game Disc in box with unique art
• Exclusive In-Game Audio Commentary and Hints by Remedy
• “The Alan Wake Files” – a 144pg book that includes a short story written by Alan Wake and compiles the FBI dossiers investigating the events in Bright Falls
• Exclusive Xbox bonus disc with special content:
• Exclusive Xbox Theme & Avatar
• PDLC #1 Token
• Video Documentaries/Behind the Scenes:
• The Theme of Alan Wake
• The World of Bright Falls
• The People of Bright Falls
• Alan’s Missions
• Exclusive Audio Disc with Soundtrack and Score

This set typically sells for $79.99, but Amazon has dropped the price substantially to just $29.99! That's an awesome price for a great game like this one - be sure to check out our Alan Wake review.

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2010 Holiday Gift Guide: Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7 digital camera

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cameras, Features, Family, Women, Men, Under $500,

If you've got someone on your gift list that needs a new point-and-shoot camera that also takes great video, we'd like to recommend checking out the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS7. This is the point-and-shoot that we've been using for the past 8 months or so, and the quality is great. Video recordings look superb in high definition, recorded in AVCHD Lite. You've got a 25mm ultra wide-angle lens with 12x optical zoom, facial recognition, and other bells and whistles. What we love about this camera, though, is that it has GPS built-in to geotag your photos and videos automatically, on the fly, as you take them. The ZS7 retails for $349.95, but Amazon is currently selling them for just $257.82 - a savings of $92.13!

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2010 Holiday Gift Guide: Powermat Rechargeable Travel Mat

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, USB, Smartphones, Misc. Tech, Women, Men, Techies, Under $100,

We're big fans of what Powermat has to offer here at Gear Live HQ, and that's why we think it's appropriate to feature them in our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. What you've got here is a little panel with a built-in battery pack that lets you wirelessly charge your mobile devices. It folds up and is small enough to throw in a bag, and won't take up much space at all on a desk. On a full charge, you can charge an iPhone five times. The Powermat Travel Mat comes with adapters that allow you to charge any USB device, Nintendo DS, a few proprietary phone connectors, and iOS devices. The cool part here is that you just set your device on the mat, and it starts charging.

They typically sell for $130, but Amazon's got 'em for $69 right now.

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2010 Holiday Gift Guide: My Book AV DVR Expander

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Accessories, Home Entertainment, Storage, Men, Techies, Under $250,

Okay, let's keep it real for a moment with this next entry in our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. We know more and more people are using DVRs these days, whether it's something like a TiVo, or one of the ones leased from a cable company. The one thing that we hear time and time again is that the hard drives inside these things are simply too small to hold any substantial amount of programming, especially when dealing with HD programming. That's where the My Book AV DVR Expander comes in. You simply connect this bad boy to your DVR (it supports a ton of them from TiVo, DirecTV, Dish, Scientific Atlanta, Motorola, and the list goes on) and give it a few minutes to get calibrated, and you've instantly added 150 hours of high definition storage to your setup. If you know any TV buffs, we'd recommend something like this for the holidays.

The Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander usually sells for $127.60, but Amazon's got it for $119 right now, a savings of 7%.

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Holiday Gift Guide 2010: Sonos S5

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

As evidenced by the fact that we saw holiday decorations up at a major retailer the other day, it seems that It's that time of year again where we dig deep and give you our daily recommendations on what you should get your loved ones in our 2010 Holiday Gift Guide. This year, we're kicking it off with the Sonos S5. 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 S5 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 S5, which itself you can get for $399 from Sonos:

• Sonos ZoneBridge
• Sonos Controller 200

Oh, and if free shipping is something you appreciate, just enter the code FREESHIPSONOS during checkout!

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2009 Holiday Gift Guide: Casio Exilim Zoom EX-Z280

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cameras, Features, Family, Women, Men, Under $250,

Casio rocks it this year with the Exilim Zoom EX-Z280 digital camera, and we like it enough that we are recommending it in this years gift guide. It sports a dedicated Easy Mode, making it easy enough for pretty much anyone who enjoys pressing buttons to operate, while still maintaining the advanced features for more experienced pros, including ones that you don’t typically find on budget-priced digital cameras. One such feature is mechanical (instead of digital) image stabilization, giving you nice clear shots while you stumble around during a holiday party after one-too-many eggnogs, as well as a 4x optical zoom lens. In addition, it shoots video in 720p, so it can even take the place of your Flip-style camcorder. You can grab one now for $173 on Amazon.

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2009 Holiday Gift Guide: Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: HDTV, Home Entertainment, Family, Men, Techies, Under $100,

The Western Digital WD TV HD Media Player allows you to attach any external hard drive or USB flash drive to the device, which lets you watch videos, listen to music, or even create your own slideshows from your photos, right on your television. The WD TV HD Media Player can accept up to two external drives at once, and supports Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 sound, making it ideal to play movies stored on those devices in glorious 1080p. They typically sell for $129, but Amazon has them for $99.

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2009 Holiday Gift Guide: Sony Alpha DSLR-A330

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Cameras, Men, Techies,

This Sony Alpha A330 DSLR camera is lightweight, and pleasing to the eye what with it’s copper-and-black finish. This one hits 10 megapixels, and sits nicely in the space between uber-cameras for the pros and the dead-simple point and shoots. The Sony Alpha A330 boasts a 2.7-inch pullout LCD display that is posable (great for working with difficult angles,) and the image stabilization and autofocus are there to help with getting the perfect shot. Even cooler? You can get short tutorials of the different settings and effects right on the screen itself. A camera that teaches you, so you can learn as you go. The Sony Alpha A300 with 18-55mm lens sells for $599, but Amazon has it for just $549, a nice $50 discount.

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