Holiday Gifts

For as long as the camera has been a household item, matriarchs and custodians of family memories have sought to preserve their precious family pictures for posterity, often through the scrapbook. Many homes throughout America likely have entire shelves dedicated to these photo albums, and, as fun as they may be to examine on a rainy day, are probably not an efficient use of space. Furthermore, a picture can only survive so much air exposure and so many handlings before it begins to deteriorate.

This is where Pandigital’s PhotoLink Photo Scanner becomes invaluable. Handheld and portable, this small scanner can take regular size (4”x6”) pictures and scan them directly onto a convenient flash media card. This card is compatible with digital photo frames, which allows a simple two step process for getting old family pictures out of scrapbooks and onto digital frames. If you want to be able to view and arrange your pictures in a more familiar way, the scanner also allows you to get those pictures onto a PC at a very high 1800x1200 resolution. This, of course, allows for online uploading and sharing of pictures without regards to geographic limitations through the wonders of the Internet.

At $100, the Pandigital Portable Scanner won’t break the bank, and is sure to make a good gift for the scrapbooker in your family.

Here is a quick roundup of games from THQ this Holiday season. Keep in mind, you want to trust the ratings on games today. T = Teen, M = Mature, E = Everyone. My five-year old had the opportunity to see a scene from a T = Teen game the other day, and he was full of questions. Here we go …

Saints Row 2
Unfamiliar gangs have laid claim to your territory, rival factions have taken over your rackets, and cash-hungry corporations have laid waste to your home. What are you going to do about it? Well, you know what you have to do.

Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3 Read more

Talk about the gift that keeps on giving … the speaker is actually built right into the gift card and is super thin and functional enough to actually enjoy what you are hearing. You can plug an iPod, MP3 player, or any device that plays sound and has a plug similar to headphones into this speaker-card. It amazes me that the technology is still getting smaller! Now it is small enough, and cheap enough to be built into a pass along item like a gift card. This will surely be one card that won’t see the inside of a trashcan anytime soon.

If you are giving Best Buy gift certificates this Holiday Season, you might as well give away speakers: www.bestbuy.com