With around only 7 weeks till Christmas, surely you’ve tackled your Christmas gift list by now. For those who haven’t, now’s the time to begin attacking your Christmas shopping list so as to avoid that last minute mad Xmas Eve dash, battling all the stressed out psychos who are doing exactly the same thing that you normally do, rampaging through busy stores, struggling to find that perfect gift.
Check out our gift guide.
Below, you will find a compilation of some pretty cool gift ideas – Some useful and some completely useless, but pretty to look at – for your hard to buy for beloved geek. I bought the gaming vest for mine!
The Live Action Infrared Skeet Shoot
For the shooter, the Live Action Infrared Skeet Shoot (US$49.95), challenges one to hit flying targets using a harmless infrared gun.
Targets are ejected from the “trap” at pre-determined intervals reaching a height of 7′ allowing for indoor use. When hit by the gun’s infrared beam, the plastic targets “break” apart into two pieces rewarding an accurate shot. Targets are snapped back together for immediate replay.
More of a novelty than useful, command this robot (US$69.95) to pick up objects, load them onto its cargo bed and place the contents at your desired location. The remote drives the robot left, right, forward, and backward, with skidding sounds for stops and beeps when in reverse.
It picks up small items such as balls, toys, or socks with its two articulated arms and hands. It can also operate autonomously using its four infrared “eyes” that seek and detect objects within its 8 – 12″ sight range whilst announcing “Let’s get to work!”
Star Wars’ iconic little “droid” (US$199.95), is a motorised replica which responds to voice commands. Obeying more than 40 voice commands, he plays games like tag by using an infrared sensor to search for people in a room. His sensor helps him follow behind his master, or it can be set to detect motion, turning R2 into a room sentry that sounds an alarm when a secured area is invaded.
R2 perfectly mimics the real thing, right down to his occasional stroppy mood. Should you encounter one of his bad moods, a simple command of, “R2, behave yourself!” snaps him back to being your faithful electronic pet.
R2 can also replay sounds and dialog from Star Wars movies, dance while playing cantina music can answer yes or no questions.
This next gen recreational vehicle (US$149.95) combines the foot control of snowboarding, the balanced turning of skateboarding, as well as the movements of casterboarding.
Both feet are placed onto two slip-resistant footboards and its double-jointed, twisting axle allows riders to move either of the wheels individually by twisting the feet inwards and outwards.
TN Games 3RD Space Gaming Vest
The 3rd Space Vest’s (A$205.40 Inc GST) impact generating device allows the wearer to feel what their on screen character endures. Precise pressure hits expel a force where the in game character takes a bullet. The wearer to feel a wide array of sensory experiences due to the pneumatic cells that fire at their own rate, force and duration.
Simply install the driver, plug in the vest to a USB port (For PC), strap it on and run out into the line of fire! A list of compatible games can be found on the product site under the “Specifications” tab.
Simply a novelty stocking stuffer, this replica of the EVE Hypo (US$16.99) from the video game BioShock 2 will take you back to all those fun days you had running around Rapture with a Little Sister on your shoulders.
Blue LEDs inside give it a creepy blue aura and you can finally read the text on the syringe, which was illegible in-game.
The EVE Hypo cannot actually pierce skin or shoot its contents into your body.
These COG tags (US$8.99) are made of solid metal thus having real weight. You could get a name engraved on the back if you wanted to go real hardcore. They feature the text PROPERTY OF THE COALITION OF ORDERED GOVERNMENT and are about 1.25″ in diameter.
WoW – Frostmourne Latex LARP Sword
The artisans of Windlass worked with the creative team at Blizzard, bringing the majesty of Frostmourne to life.
Excellent for swiping at people (No … No, don’t), Frostmourne (US$149.99), is constructed of a hard rubber handle and real suede wrapping for a firm grip, and complete control, and is designed and licensed for LARP and other forms of action play, so you can at least pretend to rend flesh! The tip is made of police-grade Kevlar to guarantee a non-tearing thrust.
These high quality bathrobes (£49.99) look just like regulation Jedi/Imperial wear.
These officially licensed Star Wars Bathrobes are perfect for those wannabe Jedi’s, complete with an embroidered Star Wars/Imperial logo.
They feature large hoods, wide sleeves and a sash belt to hold your Light Saber.
The Ultimate Gaming Chair (US$400.00) features 12 vibration motors throughout the chair which are harmonised with the games action.
You can use your own headphones or plug the chair into your home stereo system to get full surround sound. The 3D stereo speakers built into the chair are adjustable.
Made of leather material, it has an adjustable headrest, leg rest, and even a beverage and remote controller holder. Oh, and this chair will give you a nice massage, too. Seriously.
A number of game consoles are compatible with the Ultimate Gaming Chair, including the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, PC, Mac, PS1, and Xbox Live.
Once your darling gamer plants their backside in it, good luck getting them out!
Every veteran Gmail aficionado downloaded the Gmail Notifier program ages ago. The only problem: It puts a tiniest mail notification icon in the status bar. How are you supposed to check your mail every second if you have to rip out your telescope or binoculars just to find the minuscule icon and to see whether it’s lit up?
Enter USB Webmail Notifier (US$17.00). This 3-by-1.9-inch envelope behaves like a real-life version of the Gmail Notifier icon, lighting up according to the status of the inbox – Blue when there’s new mail, red when the mailbox is full and green when the mailbox is empty. Compatible with Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express, and ISP with POP3 services, it’s an e-mail addict’s new best friend.
A virtual keyboard (US$169.99) that works best in total darkness is probably only useful for spies or wannabe spies.
Does your geek tout his or her ability to compute from anywhere, with the help of roll-up keyboards and jail broken iPhones or rooted Androids? Well, then I-Tech’s Virtual Keyboard will make a great gift for them.
You can project this full-size QWERTY laser keyboard onto any surface, and it even makes clicking sounds as you type. It’s compatible with PCs, Macs, and most Smartphone’s, and the physical device is just a little larger than a matchbox (3.5 inches by 1.5 inches by 1 inch).
It is pretty cool looking, I must admit. A must have for geeks who have an obscene amount of spy-like gadgets.
Perfect for the over-gadgeted on your gift list! The Callpod Chargepod is designed to charge up to six rechargeable devices at once.
The Callpod greatly simplifies your gadget supported life by cutting down the number of charger cords for your myriad collection of battery-powered electronics to only one.
The base unit bundle packs start at US$49.95 and come with 3 adapters. Extra/different adapters can be purchased separately.
The Callpod has a Web page that makes it easy to sort out what to order.
Pressies for your puppies
Here are some dog shirts, perfect for the pet of a geek! I would buy one for my cat Azrael, but he doesn’t really appreciate playing dress-ups.
‘Zombie Assassin Society’
‘Geek’
‘I <3 Geeks’
‘Evil Genius’
‘Mommy’s Little Geek’ – For a male dog
‘Girl Power’
Now, finally! … Slap some geek on that gift
ThinkGeek.com have designed some rather unique gift wrap (US$5.99 Per Roll). At present, you can choose between these designs:
Equations – Scientific equations hand-written on blue and white graph paper (Out of stock at the time of writing this post)*.
Binary – Black paper with a terminal green font and ‘Wrapping Paper’ in binary written all over it.
Zombies – Black paper with zombies in various depictions of gift-giving and receiving.
Can Has – “Can Has” in LOLcat font printed over a green background (Out of stock at the time of writing this post)*.
ChristmasBots – Light blue paper with cute little holiday robots.
Nondenominational – Dark blue paper in a traditional style emblazoned with “Have a Satisfactory, Non-denominational Capitalist, Wintertime Gift-giving Season!”
Each pack of wrapping paper contains 4 sheets. Each sheet is 20″ x 30″.
* Estimated to be restocked Nov 13th, 2011.
Some of those are really cool gadgets! The Skeet shooting game looks like it could be a lot of fun. I would like to see those laser keyboards built into all smart phones from this point forward! I would add one really cool gadget to the list. It’s called the Tailgater Portable Satellite system from my DISH Network. As an employee I have seen this little satellite dish in action. It finds its signal automatically in just a few seconds. You can have HDTV set up in minutes in practically any location. This is a great gift for any TV, sports or outdoors fan in your life.
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