Perfect gifts for the geek in your life

Nov 19 2009 by Andrew Mernin, The Journal

WITH just six weeks to go I’m sure most of you have already bought all your presents, gift-wrapped them and hidden them away in the loft. Right?

But just in case you’re not an uberprepared freak of nature, here’s my guide to this year’s top tech gifts.

1) CandyShell (£17.99, play.com). The must-have gadget of 2009 has undoubtedly been the iPhone. Wowed by its incredible interface, blingy looks and zillions of apps, herds of geeks and poseurs snapped them up faster than you could say, “Want to be like everybody else? There’s an app for that”.

So what better gift for the iPhile in your life than the CandyShell? Costing £18, it’s a lovely-looking case for the iPhone that’s hard on the outside, soft on the inside, meaning your loved one’s favourite thing in the world will be safer than a banker’s bonus.

2) The Siesta Flow (£94.44, hifix.co.uk). The perfect present for anyone who hates waking up to the same old noise each morning, the Siesta Flow – an internet connected bedside radio from Pure – boasts an alarm tone for every day of the year, which it downloads from Pure’s online portal. The DAB and FM radio also uses its wi-fi connection to access internet radio, podcasts and listen-again content.

3) The Flip (£79, amazon.co.uk). What better way to capture the joys of Christmas than with a mobile video camera? The Flip is a pocket-sized, ultra-simple camcorder. It holds up to 60 minutes of video footage, and you can plug it straight into a computer to view and share videos easily. By Boxing Day you’ll have made a YouTube hit out of a drunken Uncle Kenneth.

4) Cinemin Swivel (£349.99, wowwee.com). If you’re looking for something with business in mind, give the Cinemin Swivel a whirl. In a nutshell (and it would fit in one), it’s a pocketsize multimedia projector that makes it easy to show and share your videos, movies, games and presentations anywhere, without having to lug a big projector around.

5) Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (£44.99, play.com). Modern Warfare 2 is expected to be the biggest entertainment launch of all time, topping 2007’s Halo 3, another videogame which brought in $170m in the US alone during its first day of availability. At around £45 a pop it’s not cheap, but the wannabe soldier in your life will surely thank you from the bottom of their bloodthirsty heart if they find a copy in their stocking. Or at least they will if you can drag them away from the game for more than a nanosecond.

Lewis Harrison, PR & Communications Manager at Codeworks.