Apple Matters Holiday Shopping Guide

There are a plethora of December based holidays, personally I’m a Festivus kind of guy, to retailers they all mean one thing: a great influx of dough. To the consumer it means trudging to the mall, dodging the phalanx of perfume spraying make up counter staffers and fighting for a seat in the food court. Pure drudgery for most of us, fortunately it pays off when it comes time to exchange gifts. For example, you have simply not lived until you’ve seen the look in someone’s eyes as they unwrap a Presto Pizzazz (cause, you know your oven is woefully inadequate for cooking icy pies and people are always looking for ways to crowd ever more junk on their kitchen counters). You can avoid the uncertainty of the so-so gift if you’ve got a Mac user on your list and you can skip the mall altogether by sticking to this guide.

Under $10
If there is one thing that really bites it is being a Secret Santa. You know the yearly rigmarole: draw names, trade presents under the preset ten dollar limit, leave new item in desk drawer forever. I mean I appreciate the sentiment but has anyone ever received something thoroughly enjoyable via the Secret Santa program? If you’re Secret Santa for someone with OS X then I’ve solved your problem: WeatherPop Advance. For Just eight bucks (that means you can keep the extra two smackers for investment in a diversified portfolio) they’ll get one of the niftiest shareware titles of all time. Plus WeatherPop just keeps on giving. Wait until spring weather rolls around and watch the lucky user squirm at their desk as the WeatherPop toolbar icon reminds them how beautiful it is outside.

Under $50

The casual observer may wonder just what you could get at the Apple Store that won’t need to be depreciated yearly when tax time rolls around. Wonder no more. If you’re looking for low cost, well received gifts Apple has you covered: iTunes gift cards. Available in $15 or $25 (and up) denominations the fortunate individual who gets the card can stock up on one artist or go completely eclectic. Well as long as they’re not after the Beatles. Also available at Target.

If the person awaiting your bundle of giving is an iMovie fan seriously consider the Contour ShuttleXpress. It’s black, it’s got buttons, a super useful knob for scrolling and it makes using iMovie or Final Cut Express (a whole bunch of programs really) much more comfortable. You’ll make them feel like Spielberg for only $49.95

Less than a $100
As much as I despise overly keyed keyboards they aren’t any harder to use than regular keyboards, provided you don’t try to actually take advantage of the “enhanced” functionality. Additionally they extra keys are a small price to pay when going wireless. I know that the wireless -v- wired keyboard doesn’t seem like a big deal but trust me when I say that anyone you bless with any of the wireless keyboards found at the Apple Store will wonder how they got along with all those annoying wires. (The Apple branded versions are superior but they bust the 100-dollar barrier).

Under $200
For a mere 129.99 you can pick up an Airport Express. Now the music streaming capabilities are a little on the clunky side but it also doubles as a wireless base station, range extender, and will wirelessly connect your computer to an attached USB printer. That’s flexible enough to make anyone who unwraps an Airport Express able to find a legitimate use for the shiny white hunk of pluggable plastic.

Under $300
Here there is only one choice: The iPod mini. If you’re giving to someone who already has an iPod they’ll still love the mini and if you’re giving it someone who is bereft of portable music in an increasingly iPod dominated world you’ll have a devotee for life. Too much has been about the iPod minis for anything useful to be added here so I leave you with this suggestion: go with the green one, it’s festive.

After that price point my shopping stops, there are plenty of folks who’ll spend way more that three hundred bucks on a single gift but I’m not one of them (if you are one of them kindly e-mail me for my mailing address, I promise a quick and no hassle reply). So this is where the list would usually stop but not this year. Why? Well because it isn’t all about the Macs anymore, heck it isn’t even mostly about the Mac any more. Nope, Apple is all about the iPod. So a quick list for iPod people.

For the Disinterested iPod guy
Does the intended giftee have an iPod? If you’re not sure it means they don’t because iPod folks wear those things everywhere. If you’ve seen the white dangling cords welcome to the land of endless choices.

Most people who have an iPod, believe it or not, haven’t gotten around to buying a case for the hard drive based repository of music. A crying shame for them, risking scratches and damage but a golden opportunity for the gift giver to come up with a truly need gift. The choices in this sector are legion and model specific so you’ll have to do some research or go with the execrable iPod sock (ever seen anything uglier to put a slick looking iPod in?). In any event a little iPod protection makes a great gift.

If the iPod has an obvious failing it is that you can’t use it in your car. Well, strictly speaking, you can use your iPod in your car but driving with the ear buds jammed deeply in your auditory receiving facilities (also known as ears) isn’t the best idea. So why not spring for an iPod transmitter. Basically these are tiny radio stations that beam a signal form the iPod to the cars antennae. Once activated the iPod can be heard over the car stereo in full FM glory. The key feature to look for: Full spectrum broadcasting. Many of these transmitters come with the ability to stream music to only one frequency and if that frequency is shared with a local station performance will be less than adequate.

And that is your complete Apple lifestyle buying guide. Trust me every single thing on the list beats a Lids Off automatic Jar Opener.

Author’s Note:
Originally this piece was set for next Thursday. At first glance that seemed to be the ideal day for publication, after all it would be posted the day before Black Friday so AppleMatters readers would be a little better armed for the Holiday onslaught. Keen eyed legal types were quick to point that my prose coupled with massive doses of L-tryptophan would probably cause readers to fall into deep comas while leaving me legally culpable. Well okay the L-tryptophan thing is an urban legend but prose induced comas are a real possibility. Plus is it really too early to think about the Holidays?