TMO Gift Guide - Gifts for Macheads and Podheads

by , 7:00 AM EST, December 9th, 2004

What better way to bring joy to all of the little Macheads and Podheads (gotta be careful saying that one) around you than to give them a great addition to the love of their life? Here are some of my faves.

Product: iTrip
Manufacturer: Griffin Technology
Price: US$35 ($33.10 - Amazon)

My favorite iPod accessory is my Griffin iTrip. It lets you broadcast the music on your iPod to any nearby FM radio. I use my iTrip and my wife uses her iTrip mini constantly in our cars. It is cleverly designed with no wires, requires no batteries of its own and it matches the look of your iPod. They even have a black one. And the price is right. US$35. Griffin Technology.

Product: Delicious Library
Manufacturer: Delicious Monster
Price: US$40

Got a friend with an iSight camera, but tired of seeing his ugly mug every time you boot your Mac? Then get him Delicious Library, a database that's fun. Seriously. I'm not kidding. Delicious Library lets you keep track of books, music, movies and games simply by holding the bar code up to your iSight. The item is almost magically entered into the database. Since it uses Amazon to get its info, I was able to scan lots of other types of items as well. US$40. Delicious Monster.

Product: AirPort Express
Manufacturer: Apple
Price: US$129.99 ($118.74 - Amazon)

We have all heard about the cool AirPort Express that lets you stream your iTunes music to any stereo in your house. But that's not all it does. It also is a portable (slightly bigger than an iBook power supply) wireless base station for hotel rooms or any other place you might find yourself tethered. But my family loves the fact that it can act as a wireless print server, so that all of our Macs have full-time access to our USB printer. Woohoo! US$129. Apple Computer.

Product: Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther
Manufacturer: O'Reilly
Price: US$19.95 ($13.57 - Amazon)

Is a friend interested in OS X's under the hood Unix power, but when you told them to go fsck their disk, he kicked you in the crotch? Put away your codpieces, Unix nerds, and get him Learning Unix for Mac OS X Panther. This book is a great intro to Unix, including the Terminal, windowing systems, and applications. He'll find himself launching Terminal to do things almost every day. US$20. O'Reilly.

Product: World of Warcraft
Manufacturer: Blizzard Entertainment
Price: US$49.99 ($49.99 - Amazon)

What would fun on your Mac be without games? Set up a friend for hours and hours of fun with World of Warcraft. This works well for friends you don't want to see a lot of. World of Warcraft is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) with thousands of players. He'll choose a race and class and explore entire countries for the foreseeable future. There's even an in-game ebay-like auction system so he can sell those magic items that he can't use to the highest bidder, wherever they may be. US$50. Blizzard.

Check out our other 2004 Gift Guide's, too!

• TMO Gift Guide - Gifts for Macheads and Podheads, by Gary Randazzo
• TMO Gift Guide - Five Gadgets for your Mac, by John F. Braun
• TMO Gift Guide - Gifts Cheap on Price; High in Value, by Brad Gibson
• TMO Gift Guide - Gifts For The Technarian In Your Life, by Vern Seward
• Computing with Bifocals - Software to Put Under the Tree, Part II, by Nancy Gravley
• Computing with Bifcoals - Software to Put Under the Tree, Part I, by Nancy Gravley