There were a couple of interesting articles in the Sunday paper. One stated that sales of PCs were down 25% in October, mostly due to the fact that many shoppers were waiting until next year to buy a PC with the new Windows Vista on it. By being late, as usual, Microsoft had hurt both the manufacturers and the vendors of PCs this holiday shopping season. But another article on the same page indicated that this is a great time to buy, especially for low-end PCs because of huge price discounts. If you do buy, just make sure your PC is Vista capable (there must be a statement from the manufacturer included with the PC) and that you get a free Vista upgrade certificate. A unit capable of running Vista Premium, with a Premium upgrade, would be best.
I was really on the fence this week, as I had a client that had a bad hard drive on a PC that was about two years old. But it wasn't a high-end PC to begin with and had only 256MB of RAM. To fix the PC, reinstall Windows, and upgrade the RAM would have been expensive. I recommended that they buy new, especially given the current prices.
Also on the same page of the Sunday paper was an article on how the Blu-Ray vs. HD-DVD wars were also hurting sales of DVD players and DVDs badly. Well, duh! Anybody could see this one coming a mile away. But unlike the Vista problem that will be solved at the end of January, the DVD problem won't go away for a long time.
The bottom line for now is that I wouldn't buy a PC this month unless the price is really great and you get the free Vista upgrade, and I wouldn't buy a DVD player at all. You can buy DVDs (always good stocking stuffers), but be aware that they are still the old, standard, non-HD type.
So, what to buy? For a big gift, I still think a GPS navigation device makes a smart and thoughtful gift. I really love my Garmin C330 and wouldn't be caught on the road without it. The accuracy of the spoken directions is almost uncanny.
Digital cameras aren't the great gift they used to be because they have become so ubiquitous. But if you have a serious photographer to buy for, the newer dSLR models are really great. Canon has a new version of the Rebel with a 10 megapixel photo, and Nikon has the equivalent D80. Both are very well reviewed and really do a better job than the point-and-shoot variety.
If you want to buy for someone with an iPod, there are lots of aftermarket gifts you can buy. You can get a car modulator so you can play songs through the car radio. You can get home speaker stands that you just plug the iPod into to play in the house instead of using earphones. And for a gift well under $100, the latest iPod shuffle sure is cute.
I always recommend backup storage as a thoughtful gift. You can buy very large external hard drives for well under $200, and those USB thumb drives make good stocking stuffers. But in any case, encourage them to take good backups!
If you buy audio equipment for a home theater, make sure that the receiver has HDMI capability. All the new TVs will be using HDMI interfaces as they are fully digital and handle both sound and video. Buying an older unit without HDMI capability could severely limit its useful life.
Although I am not a user, I have lots of friends and relatives who love Sirius or XM satellite radio and the new portable players for these services would complement anybody who already has a subscription.
Car DVD players for the kids on trips are all the rage. Apparently the newer units have much better displays for viewing in bright sunlight. My daughters both have units and say they were great with the grandkids on the Thanksgiving trip up North. These are available for well under $200 now.
One last gift possibility: a mobile power adapter that delivers normal 110VAC power from a 12v cigarette lighter socket in a car. These allow you to run a device such as a notebook computer. Make sure you get the capacity that your intended device will need.
Happy shopping!
(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport - Oak Island area. You can visit his Website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail questions or column ideas to him at bsc@bobseidel.com. For specific inquiries, please call Bob Seidel Consulting, LLC at 278-1007.)