holiday

Free playlist: Holiday Music '08

We have a diverse batch of goodies for you this year. New additions include a duet with Elvis Presley and Martina McBride; a New Kids on the Block reissue; Stephen Colbert's debut Christmas album; and a Hanukkah jam from Erran Baron Cohen. And the great thing about holiday tunes is that you can recycle them every year! So, get acquainted with the new stuff, and then dig into our archive to resurrect the classic favorites.

Holiday Music '08 feature page

Celebrate Hanukkah with a motherboard menorah

"Oh Hanukkah, oh Hanukkah, come light the LED motherboard menorah..." How's that for a twist on an old classic?

In my travels through Hanukkah-land over the years, I've encountered menorahs in glass, plexiglass, gold, silver, and clay, but never microprocessor sockets and chipsets. Designer Roni Kabessa has definitely put a unique spin on an old dreidel for this creation, which is selling on the Museum of Modern Art's Web site for $25.

In addition to being constructed from recycled motherboards, the techy nine-branch candelabrum features nine LED lights, with a discrete panel on the back … Read more

Five dirt-cheap tech gifts for the holidays

Two-week warning, folks. That's how long you've got left until the fat man sings. (Chanukah-celebrators have even less time.) If you're still shopping for stocking stuffers, secret-Santa gifts, fifth-night-of-Chanukah trinkets, or whatever, look no further: I've got five guaranteed-to-please gift ideas:

Buy.com has four HP-branded 4GB USB drives for $29.99 shipped (after a $10 mail-in rebate). That works out to about $7.50 per drive. Knock out four stockings with one purchase! Buy.com also has a refurbished 4GB SanDisk Sansa e260 media player for $37.99 shipped, though you must pay with PayPal … Read more

'Tis the season to Crave: Anne Dujmovic's picks

Editor's note: From now through the end of December, various Crave experts will be sharing their top five (mostly) tech-related wishes for the holiday season. See what we crave, and maybe you'll get some ideas!

1. Canon EOS Rebel XSi. For the past five years, my Canon PowerShot A80 has been with me for some memorable moments--from the old Olympic stadium in Athens where I sat across the aisle from the former king of Greece in 2004, to the secluded beach on the north shore of Kauai where I got engaged earlier this year. Two months ago, the ol' point-and-shoot decided it had had enough excitement. But even before then, I had been thinking about trading up to an entry-level digital SLR.

I've got my eye on the Canon EOS Rebel XSi. It gets high marks from Consumer Reports and CNET, it's in my price range (around $700), and it's a Canon. CNET's own Lori Grunin describes it as the best Canon dSLR for "most hobbyists" and "vacation shooters." Sounds like the perfect camera to tote around Australia and New Zealand in 2009.

2. Digital audio recorder. The other night my dad told me that as a young boy growing up in Yugoslavia he sought out English-language news magazines like Time to find out what was really going on in the world. It was just after World War II and his source was the reading room at the U.S. Consulate. This is just one of many stories I want to know and record so the next generation of Dujmovics will hear them.

I'm considering the Griffin iTalk Pro and the XtremeMac Micro Memo because I could use either one with my iPod. But then there's this application for the iPhone called Recorder. Problem is I don't have an iPhone and I'm just not ready to succumb. I don't like having all the answers in front of me. I like to ponder things. Besides, when I do wonder aloud about something, my fiance is often there with his iPhone, ready to Google whatever it is for me.

3. Guitar Toolkit. I've been playing guitar for three years now, and my Korg GT-3 has always seemed a little, well, imprecise. Part of it is probably user inexperience--you adjust the guitar's tuning pegs this way and that while watching the little red light bounce around on the tuner until it reaches the middle and turns green. I found a guitar tuner I like, only it's an iPhone app. (Sigh. See above item.) It's called Guitar Toolkit ($9.99). Not only does it have a chromatic tuner, but a chord finder (you can even "strum" the screen to hear what a particular chord sounds like), and a metronome. Now if only it included a recording of my former guitar teacher imploring me to "play, and play mistakes loudly." … Read more

Site educates on holiday-themed online threats

Did your brother-in-law really send you a singing holiday card? Did a long-lost friend from college really include you on this year's list?

One inexpensive way to send holiday cheer may be to send e-cards, but security vendor AVG warned on Tuesday that online criminals are taking advantage of the fact most people don't know the difference between a legitimate e-card and one hosting malware.

Last week security vendors warned of a Trojan horse masquerading as holiday-themed e-cards from McDonald's, Coca-Cola, and Hallmark.

To better educate the public, AVG has launched a site, "Slam the Holiday Scam,", … Read more

Pretzel Rod Display Stand for your pretzel display needs

Who knew? Every once in a while I come across a kitchen item that completely baffles me. Usually it is some sort of Frankenstein creation that merges two common tasks into one unit. Another popular item to find, however, is an appliance that is dedicated to one task, and one task only. These devices are likely to be large and priced to attract would-be gift-givers, but ultimately they turn out to be mostly useless. But every now and again I stumble across something that just seems to arise out of a natural need.

The Pretzel Rod Display Stand is one … Read more

Handy Netbook Holiday Gift Guide

Economy in shambles? Cutting back on expenses? Then a Netbook might be just the thing you need to round out that holiday shopping list. After all, for around $500 (or less), you can give someone the gift of Internet access, e-mail, word processing, music playback, and even online video streaming -- Netbooks do all of these things fairly well.

In this video, we check out the pluses and minuses of the most important Netbooks to arrive since our last Netbook roundup, including the Dell Inspiron Mini 9, the Lenovo S10, the Samsung NC10, the HP Mini 1000, and the Asus … Read more

'Tis the season to Crave: Sharon Vaknin's picks

Editor's note: Welcome to the first installment of the 2008 Crave holiday wish lists. From now through the end of December, various Crave experts will be sharing their top five tech-related wishes for the season. See what we crave, and maybe you'll get some ideas!

1. Nintendo DSi. Even though America will probably be one of the last countries to get this (what else is new?), I'm counting on a true friend to ship this overseas, wrap it up in a pink gift box, and put it under my tree menorah. Besides the fact that I didn'… Read more

Google's Cyber Monday jumps by double digits

Christmas came early for Google.

The Internet search giant posted double-digit year-over-year Cyber Monday gains on a select group of consumer categories, including department stores, books and magazines, home furnishings, and sports and fitness, according to its retail blog.

Paid click results rose a whopping 39 percent for department store searches, while books and magazines were up a healthy 28 percent. Bargain hunters, meanwhile, drove up comparison shopping clicks by 25 percent and sports and fitness by 24 percent, analyst Ben Schachter noted in a research report released Friday.

Home furnishings settled in with a comfortable 14 percent increase, while … Read more