Apple launches holiday gift guide, offers free shipping
Apple launched its annual holiday gift guide that bundles together the best gifts for the Apple owner in your life. The 2012 guide sorts gifts based on device ownership with lists for the iPad, Mac, iPhone and iPod. The iPad page showcases the newly released iPad mini, which Apple says is "the year's biggest gift, only smaller."
As was the case in past years, Apple's does not discount the products included in its gift guide, but it does offer free shipping as part of the 2012 promotion. If you are looking for discounts on Apple products, then you will have to wait for Black Friday or Cyber Monday, when Apple usually offers small discounts on select Apple products to kick off the holiday shopping season. Other third-party retailers like Target and Best Buy will also cut prices on Apple products as part of their holiday promotions.
top 6 holiday gift guide just for you
Second-gen Razer Blade gaming laptop The Razer Blade laptop is a beautiful, thin, powerful gaming laptop -- with a prohibitively high price. But if the sky's the limit when it comes to your holiday budget, we can't suggest a better way to spend a huge wad of cash on a hardcore gamer.
Price: $2,500
Digital Storm Bolt
Next-gen gaming is already here; you just have to pay a premium for it. The Bolt Gaming PC from Digital Storm is no exception, especially if you shell out for the high-end model equipped with NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 680.
Price: $1,949
Nintendo Wii U Nintendo's Wii U may still have work to do in convincing gamers of its worth, but the early adopters among us will assuredly want to snag a first-run system when it launches this November. A huge list of launch games certainly doesn't hurt, either.
Price: From $300 starting on November 18th from Nintendo
iPad mini
Yup, seriously. Here we are, suggesting you get yourself an iPad mini for gaming. There are simply too many good iOS games to overlook Apple's new, smaller tablet. (Have you playedSuper Hexagon?!) Bonus: it does a bunch of other stuff too.
Price: $329 from Apple
The Alienware X51 is just a touch larger than your average gaming console, but it's considerably more powerful. After all, it packs NVIDIA's GTX 660 graphics chip and an Intel Core i7 processor with 1TB of HDD memory. The X51 can be easily connected to a living room TV for use as a media center and Steam Big Picture Mode game box. Kitting it out all the way comes with a hefty price, of course.
Key specs: Core i7-3770 processor with 16GB of RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 graphics with 1.5GB of dedicated RAM, weighs 12.1 pounds.
Price: $1,200 from Dell
The PlayStation Vita may not be in the best place sales-wise, but there's a wealth of content available for Sony's second entry in the portable console market. The 5-inch OLED touchscreen is bright and responsive, the controls and button layout are comfortable and graphics outclass the Nintendo 3DS' performance. Yes, at $250, it's still too expensive, but at this point there are more than enough good reasons to pick one up (Gravity Rush,LittleBigPlanet and Sound Shapes come to mind).
Key specs: 5-inch multi-touch display (960 x 544), ARM Cortex A9 processor, WiFi support, weighs 260g (0.6 pound).
Price: $250 on by Sony
Holiday Gift Guide: 10 gifts for around 10 bucks
10 Gifts For About 10 Bucks
1. iTunes Gift Card - It's never the wrong gift when you allow the recipient to choose exactly the movies, music, apps and books he or she wants with a gift card. The iTunes Gift Card will never go out of style, and exactly on budget, it's the anchor for our list.
2. Macbook Mirrors - Widely available from numerous vendors on eBay, these little mirrors will set you back anywhere from $2 to $10, often with free shipping. I gave away a bunch of these last year. Steven Sande even "unboxed" his on an episode of TUAW TV Live. They aren't great mirrors, but they are great novelties. Available in both white and "MBA"-silver models. Kelly Guimont says she's ordering one for herself this year.
3. The JOYSTICK-IT Arcade Stick for iPhone - Starting at $8.99, you can add a real physical joystick to your iPhone for retro arcade fun. Wereviewed this last year and found it to be more novelty than must-buy, but it can make a cute budget gift. If you want to splurge, the superior iCade Mobile gaming system is now just $17!
4. "PU Leather" case for Pad mini - You can pick up a folding leather case from Deal Extreme for $10.20, with free shipping. We haven't tested this one out but like the built-in folding stand. Deal Extreme offers super-inexpensive items from Hong Kong. I've bought lots from them in the past -- just be aware you're buying low-end goods and adjust your expectations accordingly. A similar case at a similar price, offering a magnetic latch is also available from Monoprice.
5. Touch Screen Stylus - Oleophobic screen or not, sometimes it's nice to use a stylus with your iPad instead of your greasy sweaty finger. This Monoprice stylus three-pack clocks in at $8. You can find similarly priced offerings from a wide range of dealers.
6. iPhone Hoodies - Accessorize your iPhone with the latest fashions. The Hoodie Case shown here started at under $10, although your street cred might be enhanced with one of the more authentic versions, which range up to about $20.
7. iPhone Stand - The well-reviewed Rabbit Mini Portable Stand costs $10 on Amazon. Easy to fold, highly portable, and (most importantly) stable, you can use the unit in both portrait and landscape without blocking the screen.
8. iPhone 4 Cases - At $7.50, you can let out your inner geek as your iPhone goes where no phone case has gone before -- unless it's Dave Caolo's phone case, in which case, been there, done that. To infinity. And beyond.
9. Lens set - Change the way your iPhone sees by adding on a wide-angle or fish-eye lens. Perfect for the amateur photographer, you can play with optics for about $9.25. These lenses reportedly work with most iPhone models.
10. Cufflinks - Know someone going to a wedding? Add a little geek chic to their style. Pick up a pair of novelty iPhone-styled cufflinks for about $7 on eBay. There are a lot of vendors, with a variety of color and model choices. It's just the thing for formal occasions.