Unlike me pals here on Pundits, I can't say I've done any exhaustive searching for holiday gift ideas. I dread the season. I give my wife the same things every year: something to wear (I'm good at picking out the right size, style, and color for her), maybe some earrings (only jewelry she'll wear), stuff you can get at Aveda (soap, shampoo, bath oil, lotion), and maybe a book. The kids, well, it changes with their ages, but except for a spate of iPods a couple of years ago, electronics are not on the list. Myself, I'd rather nothing at all, as rampant commercialism drives me crazy, and I'm happy with the toys I've got.

Okay, so, with that caveat out of the way, what advice could I possibly offer anyone seriously interested in "gifting," to use the latest vocabulary, something techno this year? In the best tradition of punditry, I'll give my advice whether you want it or not, whether it's relevant or not, and whether or not I'm qualified to give it. Here goes.

The X10 Home Control System

This idea has been around for more than a decade, but these guys seem to have gotten it right. You can do everything from controlling your air conditioning to firing up your oven to setting the mood music before you come home in the evening. Inputs can be from sensors (e.g., motion, light), timers, or remote over IP. Thus, you can turn on the lights when a photo sensor detects a lack of outdoor lighting, at 6 p.m. on the nose, or when you send it a signal from your office computer or cell phone. Outputs include actuation of HVAC elements, security systems, premises cameras, entertainment systems, and more. All programmable from a simple Web interface. And you can view your home camera's images from anywhere in the world via a Web page. Handy for the paranoid at heart. Now, the full megillah is going to cost you. For the techno-nerd who has everything else.

XBox 360

This item is on everybody's list; that is, if you're under 20. Not only can you get a nearly real experience of committing murder and mayhem, but you can now download high-definition video without first running it through a PC. The platform of the future. But for us fogies, it solves another problem. Many of us (all right, a few of us) have been looking for a good Windows Media Center Extender, and you may have noticed that they're awfully hard to find, in the vanilla form, at least. At the same time, Microsoft has been promoting the XBox 360 as an extender. For those ready to pop ~$500 for what should be a $99 item, the gaming platform makes a great extender. Now, you can ship all those recorded movies taking up 180GB on your WMCE PC to the bedroom, where you really do all your media consumption — without annoying the spouse by having the ugly, noisy, space consuming PC where you sleep. Instead you can have an awesome game console there to spice up the little love nest.

Gateway 24" Widescreen Display

Now, this item is truly sweet. For a mere $679.99 you can get a gorgeous 24" LCD panel capable of high definition display. Its high resolution (1920x1200), fast response (6ms), and high contrast ratio (1000:1), combined with its low price, make it one of the best deals out there. And to think that just a few years ago, $999 would get you a 20" black and white CRT. Well, not that few years ago.

HP iPAQ rx5000 Travel Companion

This little gadget is a great prize. Measuring only 4 3/4" x 3" x 0.65" and weighing 6 oz with battery, the rx5000 is a navigation system for your pocket or car. It has GPS, 802.11, and Bluetooth, and a bright little 3.5" transmissive QVGA display. Its main job is helping you figure out where you are and where you're going with a GPS navigation system and software. You can pick either voice-guided or on-screen-prompting mode. I have been known to use Velcro to attach such devices to my dashboard, but that is a solution only a geek could love. The touchscreen has large buttons that make using the device easy. In addition, it's based on Windows Mobile 5.0 so you can do email and rudimentary productivity with it as well as enjoy a full suite of media while traveling. Listing for only $599, it's not cheap, but it is nice. Don't watch movies while driving!

HP 80GB Pocket Media Drive

And while we're on HP, check out the Pocket Media Drive. It's a tad pricy at $149.99, but does have a lot of capacity. It connects to anything with a USB cable, and slips right into certain HP Pavilion PCs equipped with Pocket Media Drive bays.

NEC P-ISM

Well, not this year, but maybe next, you'll be able to buy what NEC designers call a "Pen-style Personal Networking Gadget Package." For only $30,000, you can get one of these babies with about six months lead time. The prototype was first shown at ITU Telecom World in 2003. The P-ISM looks like a pen, but can act as a pen-shaped cell phone with a handwriting input function, a virtual keyboard, a very small projector, a camera scanner, and a personal ID key with cashless pass function (whatever that is). P-ISMs connect to each other via an unspecified short-range wireless technology and to the Internet through a cell network. Tiny pen, big computing machine, gargantuan price tag. Keep an eye out for it.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX01

For as little as $206 (shopping online), you can have the smallest camera in the world that sports a 28mm wide angle lens. This little guy packs a lot into a minimalist package. The sharp Leica DC lens has a 3.6x optical zoom, and you can get up to 14.6x with a special feature called D.Zoom. Pictures can be as dense as 6 megapixels, and the Lumix software viewer that comes with the camera makes importing into your PC for quick editing easy. You don't need the software, though, as Windows XP will recognize the camera as an external device and allow you to browse it and copy and past the photos with File Explorer. For the old fogies in the crowd, there's a jitter feature that compensates for the shakes with some amazing math. It even has two settings, one for normal hangover and one for serious delirium tremens. Or you can just lean against a handy lamppost and turn the jitter-compensator off. Also featured are bright LCD preview pane, long battery life, and, for the clueless, a "scene" mode that sets everything (e.g., flash, jitter, shutter speed, aperture) optimally for particular types of pictures (like outdoor night scenery, indoor night party) Scene mode offers not one but two "baby" modes for catching the little critter just right.

Windows Vista

Ooops! I forgot. You can't buy that. At least not until January. Meanwhile, you can get a coupon for it with a new PC. Just make sure it's got "Vista Capable" on it somewhere. Oh, that's if you want Vista Lame, the version that looks like Windows 95. Better it should carry a label that says "Premium Ready," which guarantees that it will be able to run Vista Awesome, the version with all the bells and whistles that everybody actually expects. Or was that "Vista Premium"? No, no: "Ready Capable." Well, you get the idea. With the coupon in hand, and shipping and handling (maybe $12), you can have the exciting experience of upgrading the Ready Capable PC you buy this holiday yourself. Oh, I forgot. It may cost more than shipping and handling; like $45 more if you want to go from the Windows XP Home Basic loaded on the machine you buy to Windows Vista Home Basic when it comes out. Got that? Right. And why not go from XP Home Basic to Vista Awesome? Not sure you can get there from here. Somewhere there's a matrix that explains what version of XP goes to what version of Vista, but you need an advanced degree to interpret it. Better yet, give your beloved a hand-drawn gift certificate (with a nice heart on it and pictures of dancing Santas) that says you'll buy him or her a new PC next year, and let somebody else figure out what goes with what and whether it will work or not.

Fujitsu LifeBook Q2010 Notebook

And for those for whom price is no object, but style is, there's the LifeBook Q2010. This baby is sweet. But, at $1,999, not cheap. And that's before loading up. You can trick it out in the blink of an eye for $3,199. Prices like the good old days. But what you get for the money: a 2.2 lb super-thin (3/4") executive notebook with magnesium alloy casing, titanium hinges, and a black matte finish, a 12.1" crystal view WXGA display, multi-layered security, and wireless connectivity. The dual digital microphone array is ideal for those vital VoIP sessions from the hotel room in Maui. This is one stocking-stuffer that's sure to please!

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