Father�s Day can be a tough one for gifting, dad�s tend to buy
themselves gear all the time.
But I�ve got a great sure-fire list
that, as long as your dad isn�t that dumb-ass in the AT&T
Wireless commercial who can�t figure out how �the cable�s
invisible�, is gonna� make him obsessively play with his new gift
the whole time you�re at brunch.
Good times.
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#5 Amazon Kindle 2011, the basic Kindle.
Bells & whistles
aren�t the point with e-Book readers and this one gets that.
Compact, light, endless battery life and and a great read-
anywhere screen, plus it accesses Amazon�s massive bookstore.
Not touch screen on this $79 model, Dad will need to be on Wi-Fi
to download books and there are a few ads, but they�re
unobstrusive.
Unless Dad�s illiterate, you can�t go wrong here.
And even if he is, you can upload PDF drawings to it.
#4 same street, different address: The Asus Transformer
Prime.
A full blown tablet, not just a reader, and one that we
love for being thin, light, HD, and 8-megapixel.
It�s like a handful
of gifts in one.
You can probably skip the keyboard dock thing
that turns it into sort of wimpy laptop.
Doing that keeps us right at
$500 for one of the best iPad challengers.
#3 staying mobile here, the HP Folio 13 ultrabook laptop.
Light,
thin without being trendy, long battery life -- just like a tablet, but
this is a full-bore laptop with a great keyboard and plenty of
power and storage.
$899 brings it in $100 below the cheapest
MacBook Air which would still need Windows installed at extra
cost if that�s dad�s OS.
#2 is a great TV.
If you�re got the scratch, get him the Panasonic
TC-PST50.
Even the jaded CNET TV editors think it has a great
picture and thanks to being a plasma you�ll get that great picture
almost anywhere you sit in the room.
Like if he�s in front of it
watching golf and you�re over on the side chair stone bored.
It
is a 3D set, but nobody cares so its fine that it doesn�t include
any 3D glasses.
You can get a 50� for about $1,500.
#1 the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx.
There�s a pretty good
chance Dad doesn�t have a smartphone yet and this one would
CATAPULT him out of the 19th century.
It�s got an alluring
combination of super fast 4G data and crazy battery life -- hence
the MAXX moniker -- along with all the other features of today�s
Android superphones.
On the downside its only on Verizon and
kind of a problem if Dad has small hands (commiserate with
Mom on that one).
Like most top phones it $200 with contract.
Check our whole CNET guide at dads.cnet.com.
I�m Brian
Cooley, thanks for watching.
