As the final posting date for Christmas swiftly approaches we bring you some fun quickie presents that you'll (probably) be able to get under the tree by Christmas Eve. Yes, some of them are virtual presents that you can literally buy 5 minutes before you give to the person. Okay so a printout receipt won't look quite so good under the tree.. but a 6 months Spotify subscription would be an amazing present for the right person . It just keeps on giving. Think about it.
Christmas cards maybe not be as popular as they once were, but it is still nice to both send and receive festive messages from family and friends. That is why I really like the new Cartolina holiday iPhone app.
Cartolina Cards are designed and produced in British Columbia, Canada by graphic designer Fiona Richards. The iPhone app allows you to pick from a collection of beautifully designed holiday-themed greetings. You can then email or text to your friends and family (in multiple languages) your customized greeting. They are perfect if you're hosting a holiday party or just want to send a little digital hello. The new app at the App Store for $1.99.
It seems like us Brits are a practical lot when it comes to our holiday wishlists.
According to a new study from Oral-B (yes the toothbrush people) into Christmas spending, almost 90% of us will be looking to give and receive practical presents this Christmas.
In fact 8 out 10 people would rather give someone a present which they knew was needed, with another 83% prepared to spend more on the gift if this was the case. I wonder if I can convince someone I really need a new record player for Christmas??
The survey found the top ten practical presents Brits want this year are:
1. Clothes
2. Cash
3. Gift vouchers
4. Underwear
5. Socks
6. Bed linen/towels
7. Power tools
8. Electric toothbrush
9. A set of knives
10. Saucepans
Would you prefer something more practical for Christmas or do you prefer to receive gifts you wouldn't buy for yourself?
You know what it's like. You're stuffed with food, there's nowt on TV and the inlaws are annoying you. So rather than brave the out of town shopping centre on Boxing Day, thoughts turn online to click up some bargains over the Xmas break.
According to the IMRG (Interactive Media Retail Group) a whopping £120m will be spent online by 4.3 million shoppers on Christmas Day this year with Boxing Day expected to be the busiest day of the festive break.
£102m was spent online on Christmas Day 2008, with retail sites such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis, Boots, Debenhams, Play.com and M&M Direct all starting their sales on Christmas Day. There was a 39% increase in traffic from Christmas Eve to Christmas Day 2008 and a further 22% up to Boxing Day 2008 which ended as the busiest day for traffic to online retailers.
This trend is expected to continue this Christmas as more and more shoppers turn to the internet for their shopping fix and take advantage of the Christmas Sales. The year on year growth in sales value for December 2009 is expected to be around 14% and there have been strong sales performances across the online industry in the run up to Christmas with around £5.2bn expected to be spent online this month.
Says Brian McBride, Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd: 'In 2008, we saw a 150% increase in sales on Christmas Day compared to the previous year. One of the great things about the advent of internet shopping is that you now have stores that are open 24/7, every single day of the year.
"We saw high volumes of gift certificates being redeemed on Christmas Day as well as a substantial number of MP3 tracks being purchased, with people presumably logging on to get content for the MP3 player that they had received as a gift earlier that day!"
Inspired by the Muff-phones - knitted covers for headphones, we delved into the treasure-chest of cute that is etsy and came with ten crafty gadget-accessorising gifts that would be great for Christmas. Or just for having, lying around, adding some DIY sweetness to the gleaming metal and plastic of your gadget collection.
Click on the image below to start the gallery
Gadget girls who love their fashion will be as thrilled as we are with the latest Apple announcement.
The technology company, which launched a range of products this week, has also been busy in the fashion wings.
It's teamed up with handbag favourite Mulberry to create a collection of sleek and stylish bags, especially to hold Apple's best bits. This includes the MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPod, iPhone and iPod Nano.
We can't wait to get our hands on one of the nine pieces of the collection, which are basically Apple flavoured twists on the classic Mulberry collection.
For example, Mulberry's classic Bayswater bag, has been given the Apple facelift through added padding to protect a laptop, and has eyelet holes for easy headphone access.
We know Mulberry doesn't come cheap but, as the collection comes out on 1 December, we think it may well be worth putting this on top of the Christmas list.
This sinister bunch are either the creators of this rather dashing roll-to-roll OLED tree, or have been put under some kind of hypnotic trance from it luminous glow , transforming them into Stepford Housewives-esque robots (or both). Turns out it's both. The clever process behind it consists of process created by a newspaper style printing system that prints OLED material onto 8-inch sheets of metal foil. That's all I can tell you, but it is all very high tech and it's apparently a process the company behind it (GE) hope to roll out by 2010 to knock the light bulb off its throne and be the new king of home lighting.
Whether it's real or fake, mahoosive or teeny weeney, not everyone's all about having a Christmas tree sitting pretty in the corner of their living room, dripping in flashing lights and spangling tinsel. How about this unconventional alternative? Only certain people are advised to take the challenge - those who eat sleep and breathe geek, have buckets of free time on their hands, have around 70 decommissioned SCSI hard drives stashed away and a spare £25. Why? Because it would frickin' difficult without all the above and you'll need to purchase an integral component (a nut), that's why.
The creator of the geektastic tree (who was clearly in a festive mood) goes by the name of Trigger. Trigger decided to make the abstract decor after coming across the bunch of drives on their way to the scrap heap. It could be a good alterative - you won't even need to buy decorations because it's so sparkly. Providing you have the necessary resources, of course.
[via Engadget]
Blimey! Thirty quid, eh? Your secret santa organiser clearly hasn't heard of the Credit Crunch. Still, best to suck it up and make the most of your cash, in the hope that your Secret Santa does the same. Here's some ideas.
The Proper Geek
Here at Shiny, we salute the proper geeks. They're the ones that can complete a 48 hour MMPORG marathons, code for the next day and only sleep after solving Fermat's Last Theorum. They're the ones that are going to get *way* better paid jobs than us lot who just piss about on the internet.
Pick a letter, any letter and we'll be able to recommend a couple of gift ideas beginning with said letter, to assist you with your present decision making, in case you're running low on ideas. It'll be spread throughout the course of the week, so you'll have to wait till the end of the week if you're desperately looking for a present beginning with X, Y or Z. There'll be five a day and six on Friday, seeing as the alphabet doesn't fit into the multiple of five (ruining my plan to bring you five a day).
Enjoy and make sure you have a gadgety Geekmas.
Z:
Zac Efron iPod Nano case: Just what you always wanted for Christmas - Zac Efron. Well not quite (we know what YOU want), but seeing as what you want is, quite frankly never going to happen, you may as well go for this iPod cover. It's the closest you're probably ever going to get to him. £9.99 here.
Zune 120: The Zune isn't available over here but that's the great thing about International shipping. The Zune 120 is my favourite of the lot (there are cheaper models available), and Microsoft's just added red and blue to the pallet. So don't miss out here for $224 USD here.
Continuing in our Secret Santa series of gifts for that troublesome colleague, we're bringing you a selection of the best buys for under £15, and address just what you can get for those difficult to shop for people.
The Boss
The problem: Duh, they're the BOSS. They can raise your salary, fire you, or make you sit next to the smelly guy in accounts. How do you give them something that suggest you deserve a pay rise, acclaim and recognition as a valuable member of the team with tout being rude, offensive or making them think you're overpaid?
You either love him or find his total disregard for the rules of the English language and back to front speech infuriatingly annoying. If you're not a fan, you probably wouldn't want the green Jedi master adorning your tree, but enthusiastic Star Wars fans step this way. Yoda will shine brightly on your tree, lest you be tempted from the dark side - but don't expect to feel the force or anything like that.
These are truly geeky Christmas decorations and a Star Wars Zealot's idea of great Xmas tree decorating equipment. Be adventurous and throw tradition out the window and get yourself a set of Yoda lights here for $29 USD, to join the rest of your Star Wars Christmas Knick-knacks. You do have the Star Wars Darth Vader Head Stocking With Sound right?
[via Foolish Gadgets]
Get into the Christmas spirit here
Christmas is here, and inevitably, that involves the dreaded Secret Santa. Well, don't worry - we're here to help. We've found you a site to take the organisational pain away and we've sorted out the most hard to buy for colleagues. We've even broken it down by budget. And best of all? You don't even need to leave your desk to buy this stuff.
The Muso
The Problem
They're the person in charge of what radio station you listen to in the office, they're into bands you pretty sure don't even exist yet and they've already mastered Expert Level on Guitar Hero.
It's time to break out the Christmas crap. As Christmas day looms, all the Christmas tat paraphernalia starts to come out of the woodwork. Introducing the tacky festive Santa phone. This is truly a phone for Christmas nuts. You know, the kind of people who adorn their houses with hundreds of pounds worth of blindingly bright Christmas lights and oversized Father Christmas blow up dolls, elves and anything else Christmas-y they can get their hands on. It's a fact of life that some people just can't help reminding everyone who enters or walks past your abode that Christmas is taken VERY seriously in your house.
Well if you want to spread your Christmas cheer to your communication portal, the Santa Claus Corded Phone is an option. There's no mention of Christmas-y ringtones, but I think the phone is enough.
There's nothing like this time of year to make your pockets feel rather empty, add to that the fact that your spending is all for a selfish end and you'll feel more Scrooge than Mother Teresa. Well how about buying goodies and giving to charity at the same time? 100% of the profits from the Cancer Research online shop goes to a good cause and they have a nice selection of pressies as well.
CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO START THE GALLERY
This is the best Christmas tree ornament EVER. Forget balls and baubles and even the star - no one will even give those inferior ornaments a second glance when this mini electric guitar's hanging from the ends of your holiday tree. They'll be too busy appreciating your Electric Guitar Christmas ornament and trying to keep their jealousy discreet, wishing they had one for themselves (be very wary of envy and theft). It's even got six skinny strings (warning - attempts to play it may break it).
It's befitting of any Guitar Hero, World Tour, Rock Tour and On Tour super fan, or rock music enthusiast, or perhaps for people who're really into the construction of guitars? Wherever this little guitar ornament ends up, just be sure to treat it with the love and respect it deserves.
The time to step on tradition is now, the place to do it is here for $17.95 USD.
[via Buying Music Equipment]
Feeling Christmas-y? Read this: Why not stretch your loved ones' faces onto baubles this Christmas?
As you can see, this DIY 3D Christmas decoration service from JuJups isn't entirely successful - unless you happen to have a big wide face with an expanse of bald head to keep the bauble looking tidy.
You could, of course, spend a bit more time cutting your face out and then pasting that onto the bauble, but I like to keep my photo editing as amateurish as possible, and it's a miracle I even got as far as I did. Luckily, the editing team at JuJups promise that your image will be "lovingly cropped" before they send it out, which is just as well.
The 3D Christmas figurines cost $19.95 and are available in the US and Europe.
This landed in my inbox this morning:
"We wish you a merry christmas!!!
Mini Santa Claus and Christmas tree inside the crystal ball brings you joys and cheers in Christmas. It is a 4-port USB Hub which allows you to connect 4 USB devices and the colorful LED can decorate your working desk. It is a great Christmas gift for your friends and Santa Claus will go with you at every Chirstmas!!!"
FFS.
Like that? Want more? Wait until December.
The Giftee: You. Because you're great, you are. And you deserve it.
Best Site: Shiny Shiny. I've heard it's the ultimate place to be for girls that like gadgets. Some say it's written by girls who were blessed by the Wizard of Geek at their birth. Some say the pink banner is the exact shade of heaven. Some say that reading it makes you instantly eligible for the Cool Cats Club. That's all a load of tosh, but it's still pretty awesome.
Best Product: Well, quite frankly, if you haven't sorted out your presents by now, you're probably not going to be able to order online and receive it by Christmas. So how about this? As a present to your good self, we vow to bring you the latest and greatest in all things gadgety for the duration of 2008. Sound good? Gets better. We'll also post a gratuitous picture of a hot boy, just for you. Look down. See?
So, it was inevitable. Everything else has a solar-powered version these days - even your feckin' bikini, so it seemed just bleedin' obvious that one of the biggest extra drains on electricity over winter should be solar powered too.
They're $29.95 (£15) for a string of 50, which is actually cheaper than the non-solar LEDs we have wrapped around artfully arranged twigs in the living room at the moment (you try living with a designer; sparkly twigs is the least of it). They charge automatically during the day to give you eight or nine hours of pretty glowing light during the night. So now you can rival my very Christmassy neighbours at what I've christened The House of 10,000 Lights in a way that won't harm the environment beyond a little light pollution...
Hammacher Schlemmer [via Gizmodo]
Like that? Read this: Friday web fun: Christmas and Pac-Man and lights, oh my! | Nokia asking YOU to turn on their Christmas lights
From: Apple's no-nipples policy means fashion mags are censoring their iPad editions