Baseball Toaster: The Juice Blog : Gadget Help

Gadget Help

2005-06-13 18:22

by Will Carroll

Guh! While my brain is still trying to wrap itself around the Nationals winning streak, I have a birthday coming up and wouldn't you know it, my dad asked me what I wanted. As regular visitors here know, I'm a gadget guy. Somehow, though, there's no "must-have" gadget on my radar right now.

Am I so old that a grill is the coolest thing I can think of? If you have suggestions, leave 'em in comments.

Comments

2005-06-13 19:04:15

1. TFD

I'm way ahead of the curve on these things, but I hear that iPod is really cool.

2005-06-13 19:05:22

2. Will Carroll

Yeah, but I don't need a third one.

2005-06-13 19:15:12

3. TFD

;-)

2005-06-13 19:38:39

4. aboveavg

XM sattelite radio. The XM Myfi is the best thing I've ever bought and they just came out with two new versions. Every MLB game on radio.

2005-06-13 20:35:29

5. Will Carroll

XM ... got it. New MyFi is pretty cool, but I think for now, I'll stick with my SkyFi car and home kits. Very good suggestion though.

XM, iPod, Tivo ... got 'em. You should too.

(Especially you, TFD. I mean, damn ...)

2005-06-13 20:39:19

6. mathesond

I hear wonderful things about this new horseless carriage

2005-06-13 21:11:02

7. chris in illinois

Will,

Nothing wrong with a nice grill...

mmmmmm bratwurst...

2005-06-13 22:12:39

8. Ken Arneson

I got my eye on the Nikon D70 digital SLR camera kit, but it's been too expensive for my taste so far. But this weekend, I saw it for under $1000 for the first time. Still debating with myself whether I should go get one now, or if this means that the price is finally starting to soften on these things, and I should wait some more.

2005-06-13 22:26:46

9. photogirl

I know, I know!

1. A kick ass Canon 20D digital camera. :-)

2. A recurring gift order from Peet's Coffe and Tea.

3. An official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!

Mmmm...grill

Kerry :-D

2005-06-13 22:37:42

10. photogirl

Hey Ken,

Butterfly photo has the Nikon d70 (body only) for 837.00. If you have lenses already, that's a pretty good deal. Otherwise the d70 w/ 18-70 mm lens is 1,119.00

http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/SearchResults.aspx?kwd=nikon+d70&image.x=0&image.y=0

Depending on what you use the camera for. The Canon Digital Rebel is actually a good camera and takes decent action sports shots.
857.00 for camera and lens.

http://www.butterflyphoto.com/shop/product.aspx?sku=REBELXTKITBLAK

Kerry

2005-06-13 23:27:38

11. Ken Arneson

Kerry, that's about the price it's been stuck at forever, but now Ritz Camera has the d70 + lens for $999 (body only:$749) through Saturday, plus a free photo printer, a year's worth of photo prints (15 prints/month), and a $50 gift certificate. At that price, I'm finally seriously tempted.

2005-06-14 06:43:21

12. Joe

Kerry, you'll shot your eye out with that thing.

2005-06-14 07:10:14

13. RickM

I don't know the details, but I understand Palm has a handheld with a 4GB hard drive. And there's always the PlayStation Handheld, which I understand they are making porn movies for.

2005-06-14 07:14:48

14. Jay Jaffe

It's a pretty big gadget, but I am loving my new 20" iMac to death. A beautiful machine, and if you're somebody who tend to juggle applications, having that much screen real estate is a huge boost.

2005-06-14 07:23:37

15. Tom

Sharks with laser beams or a pinball machine-- maybe Attack From Mars.

2005-06-14 07:54:00

16. TFD

Will:

It was a JOKE!

"I'm way ahead of the curve on these things"....I thought that would be the dead giveaway.

*full disclosure* TFD does not have an iPod, Shuffle, XM, and hell, it took me two weeks to figure out how to hook-up TiVo (although at least I have that.) I'm a late-adopter, through-and-through.

2005-06-14 07:56:51

17. TFD

Oops, I re-read your comment. I see now you were saying I should have them. (Probably right.)

I thought you were razzing me for not knowing that YOU had them. D'oh!

2005-06-14 09:31:12

18. dianagramr

The DVD set of the first 13 episodes of "Harvey Birdman: Attorney-at-Law" ...

you'll laugh yourself silly!

2005-06-14 09:37:37

19. Jeff P

If you're going to get a pinball machine (which you're probably not), it's got to be Midievil Madness. Best. Pinball machine. Ever.

2005-06-14 09:46:46

20. photogirl

Ken:

Holy Crap! That's a really good deal!!!

Kerry :-)

2005-06-14 09:47:30

21. metz

Get an Aibo. $1000 of useless gadgetry...or for cheaper you can get a robosapian. If you want something practical get a roomba robotic vacuum.

Will...you must spend a lot of time on the phone so how about treating yourself to a bluetooth headset?

2005-06-14 11:51:55

22. gswitter

http://www.kk.org/cooltools/

Spend a few minutes browsing here, and it'll be a long time before you're stumped for a gift idea again.

2005-06-14 11:56:47

23. Byron Todd

This might be too geeky, and I might be a bit biased (as a member of the open source development team) but look at the Linksys NSLU2 with an external USB2 hard drive. Linksys intended for the device to only be a file server for homes, but using alternative firmware (http://www.nslu2-linux.org) you can do much, much more with it. Such as stream audio to a Roku Soundbridge, act as a iTunes server on your local network, stream video from it, etc.

Again, it's very geeky but very useful (and silent).

2005-06-14 14:53:09

24. Will Carroll

metz: Sidekick's dont have Bluetooth (tho the speakerphone on it is so good, I've never missed it.)

2005-06-14 21:47:07

25. bstenger

There 2 kinds of people who dig gadgets. People who use them and people who hack them. My recommendation: start being a hacker ... a good first step is a subscription to Make Magazine (http://makezine.com).

2005-06-16 14:27:22

26. Richard Gadsden

A really nice mobile. I just got myself a Nokia 6680. :-)

Or some Skype stuff. Skype is really good, really cheap (especially for international calls) and if you buy something that actually looks like a phone for it then you might be able to talk non-geeks into using it.

2005-06-16 23:19:21

27. Smed

Will-

The best present I got was on June 9 - when Kristen Leah came into the world!

2005-06-17 10:09:48

28. MikeK

There are some incredible multizone-receivers/home theatre storage devices on the market these days. Think of a tivo on steroids--you archive all of your dvds and music on one of these and you have instant access to them. You can play different sources in different rooms of your house. You can have music follow you from room to room. One I saw will even allow you to access your connection over the internet, so you could listen or watch anything you own on vacation or at a 2nd home.

Or you can't go wrong with a hdtv projector. My dad's got one of these things and hasn't gone out to the movies since.

2005-06-17 13:58:13

29. LoneChicken

Would a JVC hard disk camcorder be too expensive as a gift?

Man, it seems like forever that I've been waiting for companies to start putting hard drives into consumer camcorders. No word on battery life though.

Lots of gadgets here... http://www.i4u.com/
And gadget girls.:)

2005-06-17 14:08:47

30. LoneChicken

Oh. No gadget has been more of a boon to my quality of life than the Home Theater Master remote control I've had for 3 or 4 years. Any of their mid level combination hard button / LCD screen ones will do.

I really mean, no gadget. Not an mp3 player. Not the rest of my Energy / Anthem home theater system. Not a Philips Pronto fully LCD remote control. None of my cell phones. PDA. DirecTV. Nope, not Tivo. Probably not even my 50 inch WS TV has been more satisfying pound-for-pound.

Is that enough of an endorsement for HTM remotes?

2005-06-23 01:30:38

31. Joe

I may be out of the loop on this one, but I thought I'd pass this gadget blog onto you.

http://www.gadgetmadness.com/

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