Software

Watson -- $29, Karelia Software
Watson? Elementary, my dear. If you run OS X, you should run Watson. If someone you love runs OS X, download Watson and purchase a license for him. It's sort of like Sherlock on steriods and sort of like Safari lite. "The Swiss Army Knife" of Web apps, Watson lets you search the Web for information that's broken down into categories from Recipes (from Epicurious) to Prices (on ebay) to Phone Numbers. You can, of course, run ordinary Web searches, too. Watson installs with over 20 Internet tools built-in, and more are being added all the time. Faster and more useful thank Sherlock 3, Watson is well worth the thirty dollar price tag.

Networking

USB Bluetooth Adapter -- $45, D-Link
WANs are so last year. This season, it's all about what's in your PAN -- as in Personal Area Network. OS X Macs are now Bluetooth-compliant, but you'll need a Bluetooth adapter to join in the fun. Swapping data like contact information, digital photos, and ringtones between your cell phone or PDA and Mac is easy with Bluetooth, and the D-Link DBT-120 makes Bluetooth easy. Small, bus powered, and easy to install, there's no better way to bring your Mac into the Bluetooth age. Of course, you may need to upgrade that mobile phone to put Bluetooth to use, but you were looking for an excuse to get a new phone anyway, weren't you?

Input Devices

UniMouse Optical and MiniPro -- $34.95 each, Contour Design
MAPP Mouse -- $69.95, Shinza.com
Using the trackpad on a PowerBook or iBook gets tiring after awhile. No matter how deft my pointer finger gets, I still find it easier and more comfortable to use an external mouse. If you do any precision work like graphic design or audio/video editing, a good external mouse is a must. Apple's Pro Mouse and Bluetooth Mouse look nice, but every time I see them I can't think of any good reason why they haven't added at least one more button to them already, let alone a scroll wheel.

Maybe Apple is in cahoots with third-party accessory providers like Contour Designs and Shinza, both of whom have some great USB optical mice just waiting for you to stuff them into someone's stocking. Contour's UniMouse is a comfortable three button scroll mouse with precise optical tracking and soft rubber side grips that are comfy to use all day. The MiniPro is a cool-looking two button mouse that's the right size for travelling. The MiniPro is available in two color schemes, Ti (to match the PowerBook) and Snow (for the iBook), and comes with its own hard plastic carry case to keep it safe in your briefcase. The MiniPro is also great for kid-sized hands.

Shinza's MAPP Mouse was designed by Masamune Shiro, creator of Ghost in the Shell, a legendary Japanese anime film. To be honest, I hadn't heard of him before I saw this mouse, but it really didn't matter: This is one strange, cool-looking mouse. Beyond that, it's imminently comfortable, and has both a very accurate optical tracking system and a three button, scroll wheel setup. Sure, $70 is a lot for a mouse, but you can rest safe knowing whoever you give this baby to won't already have one just like it. Available silver and white.

Which mouse should you give as a gift? Well, me, I use the MAPP mouse at home. And the UniMouse at work. And we have some of the MiniPROs in the lab at school for students to use... So I say get all three!

NaviPod -- $49.95, TEN Technology
Know someone who loves their iPod but hates getting out of their easy chair? Get 'em the NaviPod, a wireless Infrared remote control system for original and 3G iPods. This ingenious, stylish solution consists of an IR receiver that snaps into your iPods headphone and remote jacks and a small, white, disc-shaped 5-button remote. Run your music through powered speakers or a stereo system for the ultimate in sound. Play, pause, skip forward/backwards, and control the volume from the other side of the room. What more could the lazy audiophile on your gift list want?

NaviPod is available from Dr. Bott.

Video

EyeTV -- $199, El Gato Systems
EyeTV is kind of like TiVo for your Mac. The hardware part of EyeTV is a TV tuner/MPEG encoder box that takes an RF or RCA-in video signal (i.e. Cable TV or a VCR/DVD signal) and turns it into an MPEG stream that your Mac receives via a single USB cable. The software part of EyeTV is a PVR (Personal Video Recorder) program that allows you to watch, record, and pause live TV, and save recorded programs to your hard disk or CD/DVD-R media. Programs take up about 650MB of disk space per hour.

EyeTV can't quite do all that TiVo can, but it can do a lot. An integrated program guide finds TV listings online (it can work with Watson, if you like) and allows for easy programming. You can search for programs based on keywords like actor's names, and remote programming over the Web is possible. Stored programs playback on your Mac at VHS-quality resolution, and if you've got a Mac with a video-out port (like a TiBook), you can watch the shows on your television set. And yes, you can skip commercials with one mouse click.

El Gato just announced two new firewire versions of EyeTV compatible with European digital television systems, so EyeTV firewire may be coming to the States before too long. But why wait? That Three's Company fan on your holiday shopping list could be recording -- and even editing -- TV shows on his Mac right now...

EyeTV is available direct from El Gato's website, and is also available in a special bundle with the ATI Wonder Remote Control from Dr. Bott