'Tis the Season to Give Great Gadgets – Holiday Gift Guide Vol. 4

The holiday season is quickly approaching, making it a time for one to carefully consider how to properly appease the tech fan on his list. In volume four of the Marketnews holiday gift guide, get up close and personal with everyone's favourite Mario, discover an ultra cool computing device, and a point-of-view (POV) camera that can track one's outdoor adventures.

Look, it's an Ultrabook!

Ultrabooks, a new category of laptops that marry the performance and capabilities of today's laptops with tablet-like features, are the latest toys that computer lovers will hope to find under their trees. HP's first Ultrabook, the Folio, has either an Intel Core i3 or i5 processor, and features Intel Rapid Start Technology, which is designed to boot the system up in an expedited manner. It also has a solid-state drive (SSD) with128 GB of storage. Furthermore, the system can be configured with a variety of Microsoft Windows 7 operating systems, including Windows 7 Professional. It is also an impressive 18mm thin, weighs just 3.3 lbs., and has a 13.3" diagonal HD BrightView display. It also features a nine-hour battery life, a backlit keyboard, RJ-45 and USB 3.0 ports, the HP TrueVision HD Webcam, and Dolby Advanced Audio. It is available as of December 7, so do your best to keep your ultra excited friends and family members at bay until then. $950.

Up Close and Personal with Mario

As I write this, all I can hear is that highly addictive Super Mario theme song. It may drive me nuts after awhile, but it certainly reminds me about how much I enjoy playing his games. I'm not alone in this, and certainly fellow fans of the video game franchise will be interested in checking out Super Mario 3D Land. The game was created specifically for Nintendo 3DS portable gaming device, and features new characters like enemy Goombas with tails, and Piranha Plants that are able to spit ink to obscure a player's view. There are also several help-oriented features that aid users stuck on treacherous levels to skip ahead to the next one. As a guy that often struggles in video game level progression, this kind of thing is a huge draw. $40.

Get into Your Shell

To help out the Samsung Galaxy S II user in the family from busting up his newest device, I'd like to recommend the Shell Gel (SG) case from Ballistic. This slim case features a soft Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) material on the case's outermost layer for shock absorption. The TPU layer is co-molded to the middle layer, which is constructed out of impact-resistant polycarbonate. Meanwhile, the third and innermost layer of the case is built out of soft silicone, with tough Ballistic Corners. If someone on your shopping list can benefit from such added protection, this is certainly the gift to give. If the individual still manages to bust up his device even with such protection, it's time to take away his phone privileges. US$35.

Tour the World with Contour

For the person in the family that loves to travel the land without a tripod, comes the ContourGPS. This handy and portable point-of-view (POV) camera allows the user to not only capture 1080p video of their travels, but also collect strong looking footage via a 135-degree wide angle rotating lens. Perhaps its coolest feature, however, is the device's GPS capabilities. The camera is outfitted with a GPS receiver that auto-maps location, speed, and elevation, at up to four times a second so that the user can always have a continuous track of coordinates. Once the individual's bike ride or morning run is over with, the GPS track synchronizes with the footage captured, so that he can receive a step-by-step replay of the journey through Google Maps. The ContourGPS comes with a 2 GB SD card, and a collection of mounts to ensure that the device can stay tightly fastened to the person that's always on the move. $330.

HMV is Key

Some people consider gift cards a present given by slackers or unimaginative gift givers, but I find that to be false. Personally, I love opening up an envelope to find an HMV gift card. It truly allows the music,movie, and TV buff to stock up on his favourites, as opposed to relying on the giver to guess them. They come in a variety of denominations up to $250 and are reload able. Considering that HMV has drastically discounted music and movie prices to $5, $10, and $15, one can really capitalize greatly on receiving one of these bad boys from Santa.

Get a Kick out of This!

I may disagree with those that think soccer is in fact the "beautiful game," but I can't discount how cool Speakal's mi-Soccer soccer ball-shaped iPod and iPhone docking station speaker system is. The device is licensed by Major League Soccer (MLS), and offers 360 degrees of sound via a pair of two-way enhanced speakers. The unit has sound frequencies ranging from 60HZ-20KHz, for a total output of 23+ watts. It also has a 15 W firing subwoofer. What's more, this system can also connect to TVs, CD players, computers, gaming consoles, and other MP3 players. There's also humanized touch volume control that allows the individual to adjust the system's loudness, and to navigate through the iPhone or iPod. Touch either side of the ball to turn the volume up or down, skip tracks, or pause or stop the music. mi-Soccer units come in black and white; red and white; as well as blue and white. US$100.

Give the Gift of Glide

The best way to keep tabs of someone in the new year, is by purchasing a phone that you know will certainly keep him connected all of the time. Samsung's 4G Galaxy S Glide has a super AMOLED touch screen, a 1 GHz dual-core processor, and operates on the Android 2.3 operating system. For those that like to kick it old school and type away, this device also has a side slide QWERTY keyboard. It is available now through Rogers for $150 on select three-year plans.

Some Like it Hot

For those that need their WiFi at less than an arm's reach, there are a pair of new Huawei hotspot devices now available through Mobilicity. The Huawei E538C portable WiFi hotspot ($100) is a compact unit that weighs a mere 90 grams, and can connect up to five WiFi devices, plus a single tethered one. It can support up to 8 GB of additional memory, and has password protection. Meanwhile, the D105 docking station for the Huawei E1691 datastick ($70), doubles as a WiFi hotspot, and is able to connect to more than 20 WiFi-enabled devices to the Web.

Keeping Time with Kermit

If you have one of those kids that just can't seem to get out of bed in the morning, perhaps setting him up with the Kermit the Frog themed alarm clock speaker system for iPod is the perfect holiday present to pick up. Developed by iHome, the unit features Kermit's smiling face, as well as a backlit LCD to display the time, plus easily accessible buttons on top of the system to control the alarm, volume, and playback options. Just imagine how happy little Timmy will be when he's able to wake up to his favourite song from his iPod. Furthermore, imagine how much easier this will make your morning routine. $50.

In case you missed them, please check out volumes one, two, and three of our Holiday Gift Guide.