…And an iPod Touch or Three

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Per usual, Christmas with my family was a CE lover’s dream. Among the gifts given and received:

  • 1 Slacker G2 (to replace the one I had to give away)
  • 1 Skooba checkpoint-friendly laptop bag
  • 1 Asus Eee 1000HA (okay, I bought it for myself right before X’mas; it’s a tax write-off)
  • 1 Logitech diNovo Edge keyboard
  • 1 PS3 console
  • 2 Garmins and a TomTom
  • 3 iPods Touch

Sadly, not all of them came home to my house, but a healthy number did. As for the iPods, we were not unique in our gift giving. The iPod Touch was one of the hottest selling items on Amazon this season, and a huge jump in App Store purchases proves the new gifts were put to good use. Why the mainstream popularity? Aside from the obvious portable music/video access, I have a theory that a lot of adults who used to steal their kids’ Gameboys to play Tetris are discovering the iPod as an “adult” portable gaming machine. Wurdle, anyone?

So far the gadget I’ve spent the most time with has been my new Asus. The Eee is delicious after lugging around my >15″ Dell for the last two years, and the response time compared to my loaded-down Dell is ridiculously fast. I also discovered an unexpected benefit of the Eee: It props up nicely on my treadmill for a little Hulu watching during workouts.

How did your CE wish list fare this holiday season?

13 thoughts on “…And an iPod Touch or Three”

  1. It was pretty quiet on my front – out of my family it was pretty much just one piece of CE that was purchased (from my wife to me): Mio’s Knight Rider GPS. I’ve had that for two months already (she gave it to me before an 8-day roadtrip in Texas in late October), but it was a Christmas gift.

    Otherwise it was subdued here – I completely avoided all of the malls. I should note, though, that we also live in metro Detroit and everyone around here was subdued this Christmas.

  2. Yep. Got myself an iPod Touch also. Works great as a mobile internet device, video playback device and game machine and handles music playing okay but I’m enjoying it all the same.

    Our family also got a Wii Fit which is surprisingly entertaining, and I got a bluetooth earpiece for my blackberry.

  3. As I mentioned on Brent’s blog, no one’s really permitted to buy me tech since I’m pretty specific in what I want and I may turn it around quickly. We did pick up two no-name brand digital photo frames for the grandmothers though. Our niece ended up with a Wii and some games, which also coincided with a new Samsung LCD for the family. They weren’t funded by us, but I acted as a tech consultant. We got my mom that new Foreman multipurpose grill thingy and Mad Men on DVD, figured she’d appreciate the era. Although our big gift/expenditure is flying two places this week to visit my mom and both grandmothers. Fixing all my mom’s tech is probably a gift too. ;) (Installing software & updates, new DVD player, new digital-to-analog converter, etc.)

  6. Rec’d:

    eye-fi — never really thought it was that big a pain to download photos but as a gift I’m happy to have it just so I can show my friends how f*ing cool it is from a tech point.

    Bose noise-cancelling headphones. I think some cheaper headsets may have sufficed but I gotta say I loved them on the plane!

    Thinking about:

    Ditching the iphone for an ipod touch and pay-as-you-go phone (since I don’t use the phone features much) but not sure I’m willing to carry around both items and still thinking about trying pandora in lieu of XM in the car per DZ’s post.

    Finally, vudu is getting to my price point so may pick

  7. Gifted:

    – iPod Nano (8GB) to our two oldest daughters to replace their 512MB Shuffles (the USB stick model)
    – iPod Touch (8GB) for my wife to replace her 3G iPod Nano that is acting wonky
    – iMac 20″ (refurb) for our kids from the grandparents to replace their broken iBook G3/900 (known video failure)
    – Canon Rebel XTi DSLR for my wife
    – Digital Frame that I made for my parents out of an old iBook G3/500. Runs Mac OS X Tiger 10.4 and with its 40GB HD can hold plenty of pics of all the grandkids

    Received:

    – MSI Wind Netbook which I have installed Mac OS X Leopard 10.5 onto and have it dual boot with XP Home

  8. Sadly nothing of note. I am giving an old IBM X31 an enema. It might qualify as a netbook.

    I hope to look into a Cowon 02 or similar PMP with at least RCA video and R/L audio out.
    Anyone have one?
    Bob

  9. @Todd Ha! I think my autograph would knock the value down. But no dice anyway- we only have one Touch in our house and I’m too addicted to Wurdle and Frenzic to see it go anywhere.

  11. This Christmas, the only techie thing I got was Band of Brothers on Blu-Ray. I’ve been good to myself this year so I really didn’t need anything else.

    I gave my mom an Apple TV (w/ boxee) and my dad a Blu-Ray player though. Dave acted as a tech consultant on one of those and I remain appreciative.

    Funny you would mention the Tetris addicted moms though; that’s my mom 100% and for my parents’ anniversary this year (Dec 20) my dad got her an ipod touch JUST for the games. She’s addicted to a game called Rolando at the moment, but I’ll give her a heads up on Wurdle and Frenzic (can’t beat the double recommendation here from Mari and Brent!).

  12. dave, i have the same problems you do. either i assist others in getting me something or i get gift cards…

    given:
    kodak 10″ digital frame
    canon selphy es30
    photomosaic from designamosaic
    automoblox c9-r (coolest toy car ever!!!)
    lexar jumpdrive w/ eInk capacity meter

    i/we got:
    panasonic BL-C1A PetCam
    guitare hero WT guitar kit for wii
    alpine cda-9886
    wusthof knife set
    livestrong stuff

    going to buy w/ gf:
    canon rebel xsi DSLR w/ 2 lenses. yay for share presents!

  13. Dave, I’m low tech when it comes to Christmas. Socks and Undies, was all I wanted. I did treat myself to a new Onkyo 5.1 receiver a couple of weeks ago. The kids watched The Empire Strikes Back (for the 1000 time not in 5.1) in 5.1 and said “Dad this is awesome” to which I said, yes I know.

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