Last-minute gifts: 5 high-tech toys

By JD Rinne
October 3, 2012
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Courtesy Joby

Ok, I'll admit it: I am a gift procrastinator. Every year, I wait too long to buy presents, and then I spend a few, panicked days right before Christmas running from store to store. If you're like me, you know the feeling.

Luckily, part of my job in 2010 was to coordinate our Coolest Gift Guide Ever, so I did my gift-buying early. But we simply didn't have the space to fit in all the awesome, high-tech toys that we found into two pages. So for all you last-minute buyers out there, I'm sharing with you a special, bonus edition. Here are five travel items you can still get for every techie on your list:

Gorillamobile for iPhone 4, $40. Joby electronics has plenty of useable, funky-looking items in their roster (including the cute Torch), but this new piece is ideal for obsessive iPhone 4 users. The flexible, wrappable legs make your phone an in-flight TV, a camera tripod, or a hands-free stand during facetime calls back home.

Lensbaby Muse, from $100. Love the dreamy effect of lomo and Diana cameras, but don't want to spring for the full model? This plastic optic camera lens fits onto digital SLR cameras from most major manufacturers, including Canon, Nikon, and Samsung. Focus in on subjects or create cool pinhole effects simply by scrunching the accordion-like lens with your hands. Best of all, it works right out of the box—how often can you say that at this time of year?

Brenthaven 5-in-1 iPad case, $60. We've praised Brenthaven's durability before, and I'll let you watch the handy one-minute video to get a full picture of all this ingenious case does. But in brief, the 5-in-1 protects your investment in a two-sided hardshell case that can also flip around to make a typing or viewing stand.

Scottevest SeV Revolution Jacket, $175. Specializing in apparel that replaces the need of a carry-on bag, Scottevest has gotten a lot of attention recently, what with the new TSA restrictions. One of the company's new models, the SeV Revolution, has 26 pockets for stashing everything from a bottle of water to your bluetooth headset, plus removable sleeves and a hood.

iHome Portable Speaker Case, $80. Perfect for camping or a beach-villa stay, this portable set of speakers packs a huge sound. An array of colors to choose from makes it a fun gift for the younger set.

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Travel gift ideas that won't weigh anyone down

True lovers of travel don't want to be weighed down with stuff. But what to buy a traveler who doesn't want new luggage, toiletry kits, or alarm clocks? Find some gift-giving inspiration in the following roundup of ideas. (Batteries not required). • Buy an airline gift card. The money you add to the card may be redeemed toward a plane ticket. Southwest's gift card is particularly attractive because the airline charges no bag fees or itinerary-change fees. In other words, your gift won't accidentally set up your loved one to be hit with nasty fees. For international trips, opt for an American Express gift card, to buy plane tickets on any major airline. Your gift recipient can then choose which airline has the best fares and routes for their trip. But encourage him or her to travel within a year's time. After that, monthly fees of about $2 typically kick in, depleting the value. (Expect to also pay a shipping fee of about $9.) • Buy a hotel gift card. Travelocity's Hotel Gift Card, for instance, is redeemable for stays at more than 55,000 hotels—with no expiration date. You can personalize the gift card with a photo and a message, too. The big catch: Don't overload the card with money. If the hotel costs less than the value of the card, the remaining value on the card vanishes. Ugh. • Give the gift of a walking tour. If your loved one is going to a particular urban destination within the next year, look into gift certificates redeemable for a tour or activity there. A couple of examples: Viator has a variety of options in a wide array of destinations around the world, such as dining at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Alternately, Context Tours is strongest in its array of high culture walking tours of European cities. (On the site contexttravel.com, pick the city from the drop down menu first, then search for "gift certificates" in the box at the top right.) • Use your frequent flier miles to someone else's advantage. Airlines allow you to give the ticket you earn with your miles as a gift to someone else, as long as no money changes hands. The less attractive alternative is to transfer miles into another person's account. It's unappealing because airlines charge fees for this service. • Teach them to earn their own miles faster. The Frequent Flyer Master course by Unconventional Guides costs $49. The 40-page manual is supplemented with a half-dozen e-mail updates over a six month period that alert you to points-earning opportunities. There's a guarantee, too. If the advice doesn't help your gift recipient get enough miles to fly for free at least once, there's a full refund. (I gave this as a gift to myself a year ago, and I can vouch for the high quality of the material, presented in an easy-to-digest way. And, no, the guide describes several other strategies besides signing up for airline co-branded credit cards, and roughly half of the material is about how to effectively redeem the miles for flights—not just how to rack up "non-qualifying" miles.) BUDGET TRAVEL The coolest gifts for every traveler Dec 2010/Jan 2011 Must have! A genius travel beauty tool for just $15 Travel by smartphone: Mumbai, India

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How a Kindle can help you travel

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If you're like me, which no doubt you are, you do not like the idea of having to carry huge piles of guidebooks, beach reads, and magazines with you on your trip. When you set out to pack your bags, you want to travel light. The latest Kindle is a neat solution to the weight problem for sure. It weighs a mere 8.5 ounces, or roughly the same as an in-flight magazine. KINDLE PROS AND CONS Pro: You can store up to 3,500 books and documents on it. You no longer have to decide which guidebook to bring with you, the city one or the country one or the restaurants-only guide. Take them all! Con: Amazon delivers the Kindle to you naked. Travelers will want to buy a cover for protection during a journey, and that cover will add a ridiculous $30 to the cost. Pro: Screen is easy to read both indoors and out in the bright sun. It's not reflective. Con: The affordable version lacks color for photos and maps, and it doesn't reproduce maps well. You can't zoom in on a map, which makes it nearly useless for directions. Pro: Super long battery life. I used the device for several hours a day for more than a week and didn't need a recharge. Amazon says its Kindles have one-month battery lives if you leave the Wi-Fi turned off. Con: The device never "shuts off." It continually refreshes its screen, even when you're not using it. This habit can exasperate flight attendants who don't want you to have any electronic devices operating during takeoff or landing. UPDATE: My mistake, as the commenters have pointed out. You *can* turn the Kindle off with the top button. The battery life is excellent, though, so few people probably do. Pro: Font size is adjustable. So if a book's print is too small to read, you can just make the text larger. Con: Page size isn't fixed, which means that the index to any guidebook is useless because you there is no corresponding page number. Pro: You can search text, such as guidebook, for a word or phrase you want. There's a basic English language dictionary built in, too. Con: There's no spelling suggester, unlike in Google search results. ("Did you mean to spell Iskia "Ischia"?) If you don't know how to spell the name of a town or a restaurant, you're out of luck. (Another problem: Kindle returns search results from the start of the book, not from your current page in the book onward. If you want to find a plaza in a particular town, let's say, your Kindle will search for every mention of the word plaza in your book. Ugh.) Pro: Its built-in Web browser lets you surf the Web in more than 60 countries for free. Con: The refresh rate was so s-l-o-w that I found the free Web surfing is only useful when you have absolutely no other Internet option. Pro: More than 700,000 books are available on the Kindle. Guidebook publishers are increasingly publishing individual chapters from their guidebooks. 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