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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Amazon Kindle Fire

Amazon Kindle Fire

We continue our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide with the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet. Why the Fire, and not the Kindle Fire HD? While the HD is a fine tablet in its own right, the price of the regular Kindle Fire is just right--especially if you buy quickly! As it turns out, Amazon is selling the Kindle Fire at a 20% discount for the next 3 hours (or until it runs out of stock, whichever comes first!) Amazon's looking to disrupt the tablet landscape with the Fire, and is pricing the Fire aggressively at $129 during this sale.

Purchasers of the Kindle Fire also get a 30-day trial of Amazon Prime, which'll let you get a nice sampling of what the company's Video on Demand service offers. Other services you can access from the Fire include Amazon's Android Appstore, Kindle books, a host of magazines, Cloud Drive, Cloud Player, and the Amazon MP3 service.

You can pick up a Kindle Fire now for $129 on Amazon. If you miss the sale, it's still a good deal at its regular $159 price.

Honorable Mention: Kindle Fire HD - $199

Read More | Amazon Kindle Fire

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Cooking for Geeks cookbook

cooking for geeks

We've hit you with a bunch of gadgets in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide this year, but don't think we forgot about the readers out there. One of the books that we recommend this year is Cooking for Geeks. Written by Jeff Potter, the book not only includes great tasting recipes, but it focuses on the science of cooking, and includes a bunch of kitchen hacks to actually teach cooking instead of just recipes to follow. It's loaded with info, and is worthy of being gifted to your favorite geek this hoiday season. It's available in paperback, as well as on Kindle. You can get it now from Amazon for $20.23, which is a 42% discount.

Honorable Mention: What Einstien Told His Cook: Kitchen Science Explained

Read More | Cooking for Geeks

2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Kindle Paperwhite

The next item in Gear Live’s 2012 Holiday Gift Guide is the Kindle Paperwhite. Why? well, as great as e-ink readers have been (and they've been pretty stellar,) since the original Amazon Kindle was released, their one tragic flaw has been that they become pretty useless in the dark. You either simply can't read them, or have to use a small light attachment accessory. Enter the Kindle Paperwhite. Amazon has designed what we consider to be the best e-ink reader to hit the market. It's flagship feature is the front-lit display, which works great when you're in the dark and want to read your latest ebook purchase without using a backlit tablet that's hard on the eyes, or an awkward clip-on light accessory. It also  supports new features like telling you how much reading time you have before you finish your current chapter, and an all-touch display with virtually no lag. Check out our Kindle Paperwhite review, unboxing gallery, and video after the break for more, and head on over to Amazon to pick up the Kindle Paperwhite for $119 for that bookworm in your life.

Honorable mention: Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight

Click to continue reading 2012 Holiday Gift Guide: Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

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2012 Holiday Gift Guide: iPod touch 5th generation

iPod touch 5th gen

Apple's focused on the iPod touch as being the "funnest iPod ever" for a while now, but the introduction of the fifth generation model put it over the top. You've got the new 4-inch Retina display, FaceTime HD video chat, 5 megapixel rear camera with 1080p video recording, and built-in gyroscope all packed into the thinnest iPod touch ever--and now it's available in a bunch of colors - silver, pink, green, blue, black red, and yellow. Of course, you need great software running on hardware like this, and the App Store fits the bill with over 700,000 apps available. A great gift for teens who don't need an iPhone, or anyone who wants a mobile iOS device that isn't a phone. Prices start at $299 (or $295 on Amazon) for the new 5th generation model, and $199 (or $195 on Amazon) for the older 4th generation version:

Be sure to check out the rest of the stuff in our 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, we're adding new suggestions every day!


Ask Andru: Eight last-minute ideas for cool tech gifts

Last minute holiday gifts

[Editor's Note: Andru Edwards of Gear Live and the Ask Andru column joined us on this week's GeekWire radio show and podcast to share his top picks for technology gifts this holiday season. Here's a rundown of his choices, just in time your last-minute shopping.]

Kindle Fire: Amazon's $199 tablet is often compared to the iPad, but in many ways it's more appropriate to compare it to the iPod touch, based on the price and feature set. If you want a cheap tablet that can ship to you by Christmas, the Kindle Fire is it. There are some bugs. In terms of responsiveness and the accuracy of its touch interface, the Kindle Fire doesn't always live up to Apple iOS devices, but for $199 you're not going to find anything else that has this feature set, and many of the bugs will be fixed by software updates.

Crayola ColorStudio HD: This $29.99 accessory is a digital marker for the iPad, turning the Apple tablet into a virtual coloring book when used in conjunction with a companion app, with music and animations. With the digital marker, kids can do more with the iPad than just play games. They can be color, they can make their own coloring book pages. Input styles include crayons, markers and paint. Features include Facebook sharing and printing through Apple AirPrint.

Click to continue reading Ask Andru: Eight last-minute ideas for cool tech gifts


3 big holiday game releases to add to your wish list

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Features, Video Games,

Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

Here we are in the week before Christmas, and while we hope that everyone's got their holiday shopping completed, we know from experience that it's a little too optimistic to think that way. We put together our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide in order to help guide you, but we've heard loud and clear that some of you felt the guide was a little light in the video game area. With that in mind, we've decided to compile three big holiday game releases that we think you should add to your wish list, if you haven't already. The holiday season is chock full of major game releases, so this obviously isn't a definitive list. Instead, it's a look at three titles that we think you shouldn't miss. A big thank you goes out to Sony's Xperia Play, which sponsored this post - if you're looking for the ultimate smartphone that can also run Playstation games, you'll wanna check out the Xperia Play.

These games should all be easy to find at your local Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Gamestop, and the like - so you don't have to wait for slow shipping that might ruin an otherwise perfect Christmas gift exchange. Now, on to the list - click on through for our thoughts!

Click to continue reading 3 big holiday game releases to add to your wish list


2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB

ceton infinitv 4 usb holiday gift

The Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB is one of the cooler items we're featuing in our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide. It basically turns your computer into a fully-functional live TV DVR. We know that features like Media Center exist on PCs, but the problem is that, until now, it's been hard to get a good signal into your computer. The InfiniTV 4 USB fixes that. It's a CableCARD adapter that plugs into your machine using USB. So all you need to do is insert a CableCARD from your cable provider, plug in your cable cord, and plug in to your computer. From there, you'll have access to all of the cable channels that you subscribe to, and you can record up to four different channels at once. See? We told you this was cool. Great for rooms where you only have a computer and no television, but also great if you want to incorporate a Mac or PC into your home theater setup, as it eliminates the need for a cable box, meaning you save on that montly rental fee. The Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB sells for $299, but you can get one on Amazon for $269, saving yourself 10%.


2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Eye-Fi Pro X2

eye-fi pro x2 holiday gift

We bet a few of you are wondering what an SD card is doing on our 2011 Holiday Gift Guide, but give us a moment to explain. Eye-Fi cards are the bomb. What you're getting here is freedom and convenience, as these cards will sync and upload the content stored on them without the need for a cable. In other words, put this thing into a camera and snap away. When you get back home to your Wi-Fi network, the images will be transferred to your computer right over the network, over the air. You can also optionally tell it that you'd also like the images uploaded to your favorite social network, like, say, Facebook. Even better? Your images get geotagged too by the Eye-Fi card. These things are straight up awesome, and you can get one on Amazon for $88 (a 17% discount.)


2011 Holiday Gift Guide Giveaway: Microsoft Touch Mouse

microsoft touch mouse holiday gift

This 2011 Holiday Gift Guide entry is targeted at making computing a little more fun and futuristic - and we're even giving this one away! The Microsoft Touch Mouse is made exclusively for use with Windows 7. It's got a multitouch surface, allowing you to use natural touch gestures to perform common tasks. Basically, think of it as the Apple Magic Mouse, but for your Windows PC. It's got support for one-, two-, and three-findered gestures, and runs on 2 AA batteries. They sell for $79, but you can get one on Amazon now for $41, which is a whopping 48% discount.

Or, you can win one here! We are giving one of these Microsoft Touch Mouse prizes away as we continue our holiday giveaway series. Simply use the widget below to enter to win. We've got a lot of ways for you to enter, but don't check off any that you don't actually perform. If you do, you'll be eliminated:


2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Desk Pets TankBot

desk pets tankbot holiday gift

Here's a 2011 Holiday Gift Guide entry aimed at the office workers in your life. We know that robotic helicopters and dinosaurs win all the points for flash, but we're here to tell you that the Desk Pets TankBot helps you conquer by force. You charge up the TankBot using its USB connection, and then you use your smartphone to control it. How cool is that? You can also set it to random, letting it wreak havoc on all your co-workers with its light-up eyes and sound effects. They're available in multiple colors, and you can get one for $50 on Amazon.


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