As corporate America has reminded us, the daunting task of finding the right gift for your friends and family comes along with the holidays. While the best gifts are those from the heart, in case you’re looking for something a bit more tangible, there’s a lot of great stuff in stores this December. So, without further ado, here are a few of the top picks from my own Christmas list.
iPhone and iPod touch. Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last five months, you’ll doubtlessly have heard something about the iPhone. This classy smartphone is also remarkably well-built and sturdy; the iPhone and its little, phone-less cousin, the iPod touch, offer the best experience on a mobile device that I have ever encountered, hands-down.
iPhone has a built-in cellular radio that allows you to access the Internet from anywhere AT&T has coverage. (The service is generally good, but it can get a bit dicey, especially on North and West campuses.) Also, keep in mind the added price of cell phone service; activating iPhone (the legal way, anyhow) requires you to purchase an unlimited data plan from AT&T that will run you $20 a month, in addition to any voice plan that you purchase. For the prototypical (i.e. broke) college student, the iPod touch may be a better option. It offers expanded storage options and an even thinner form factor, but at the expense of cell phone service and some functionality, such as a built-in email client. The iPhone will run you $399 for the one and only eight gigabyte model, while the iPod touch comes in both eight and 16 GB models for $299 and $399, respectively.
Kindle. Unlike the iPod, Kindle is something you probably haven’t heard of, as Amazon introduced the product only last Monday. Kindle is a new spin on the old idea of an “e-book” reader. It sports a nifty display based on “E Ink” technology, which gives the words on the screen an appearance closely resembling the actual, printed words of books. It also allows the device to operate with low power consumption, as the screen only draws power to change the page. (This is different from ordinary LCD displays that need constant power to remain active.)
Contained within its oddly-shaped, snow-white exterior, however, is a surprisingly powerful wireless device. Amazon made a deal with wireless provider Sprint to provide free wireless broadband to all Kindle units. This is a real bargain, as similar services for laptops and smartphones can easily run anywhere from $20 to $60 a month. The drawbacks on Kindle are its hefty price tag of $399 and the limited selection of content at release; only certain titles can be purchased from Amazon. However, if anyone can succeed at selling electronic books, I’m certain it’s Amazon.
The Consoles: Wii, Xbox 360, PS3. The latest iteration of the eternal video game console war has been raging now for two years, but fortunately for you gift-givers, the war still goes on strong. Ultimately, if you decide to give a console, you need to determine what kind of games the recipient will be playing on it.
The Wii is the lowest-cost entry in the big three, coming in at an MSRP of $249.99. The console’s main selling point is its quirky new control scheme; Nintendo has passed on the usual control pad in favor of the “wiimote,” a motion-sensitive remote controller that is used to point and interact with the desired part of the screen. This paradigm shift has inspired a slew of fun new games, including the recently-released Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. Each Wii also comes with an insanely fun party game, Wii Sports, so you can start enjoying your purchase without shelling out for any other games.
Nintendo has traditionally been the “family-friendly” console company, and the Wii has inherited this legacy. People of all ages and types can find something enjoyable on this console. However, so-called hard-core gamers may be at a bit of a loss. These folks may prefer the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s offering, which was released a full year before the other two “next-gen” consoles, will run you anywhere from $279.99 to $449.99, depending on the configuration that you choose. 360 offers a very solid selection of games, and some high-powered graphics to accompany them; if you’re looking for some eye candy and solid Internet-based features to accompany a new high-definition television, this is the thing for you.
Playstation 2 was undoubtedly the strongest showing in the last generation of gaming consoles, but unfortunately for Sony, the PS3 has not followed in its predecessor’s footsteps. PS3 is the most expensive console of the three, coming in between $399 and $499. It’s also the only console that offers a Blu-ray disc player built in. (Blu-ray is one of two formats currently competing to succeed the venerable DVD.) Theoretically, PS3 has the most sophisticated technology behind it, but Sony unfortunately made it relatively complicated for developers to take advantage of its full power. In this era of multi-million dollar, multi-platform game releases, that was a huge mistake, and thus you’ll be unlikely to find many games that look better on PS3 than they do on the Xbox 360. However, if you’re looking for a (relatively) cheap Blu-ray player that has a small but growing library of games, PS3 may be the choice for you.