We’ve quickly been thrown into the purchasing, wrapping and other preparations that surround us at this time of year.  With each year that passes I always vow that “I’ll be better prepared next year”. A great aspiration but, by the time the next Christmas season rolls around, I’m usually back in the same crunch that I always find myself in.

Not this year! This year, I promised to make a conscious effort to make it a little less stressful and a little more magical without  the post-Christmas financial hangover. We started our shopping earlier than we normally do – allowing us to put thought into what we are buying for everyone  and spread the spending out over several months.

I also enlisted the help of technology.

Too often, we wonder around the mall with a mental list of the people to check-off the and, worse, only a mental tally of the money we’ve spent.

This year, I downloaded an application onto my iPhone called ‘Holiday Shopping List’. It’s just one of the many available in the App Store. This handy little addition has allowed me to build our list, assign individual budgets for each person, categorize folks, make notes as we shop and keep a running tally of what we’ve spent (both individually and in total).It also allows you to mark a person as ‘finished’ – one of my most favorite features!

Now, as we shop, I have a current list in my pocket. No more scribbles on paper for us! I love this application. It’s allowed me to keep a really accurate tally on our status of what’s left to do and what we have left to spend. For once, I’m in control of Christmas Shopping and not the other way around.

Such a little thing has made a big difference! With our shopping in a good place – it’s left us time to actually enjoy the time leading up to the big day. We’ve been watching holiday movies, baking cookies, checking out the Christmas lights – who knew that the pre-Christmas weeks could be so fun!

Happy preparing!

- jenn

So, what do you buy that special Geek/Gadget freak for Christmas?

1. A Smartphone – This one is a really bad gift unless you know they really want the commitment. Sure, you’re paying the up-front costs, but you’re also sticking them with a monthly bill of $60 or more. may be a good idea to offer to pay for a few months of usage. There are tons of models out there, and it will all depend on the person you’re shopping for. The safe bet is an iPhone, as it has mass appeal, is simple to use, and is also an iPod, so you can skip my next gift idea. I would buy my wife an iPhone if I was to get her a phone as a gift. For the geek out there, I think an Android phone is the way to go! If the person is all about work, and has no idea what the internet is, then go with a Blackberry.

2. MP3 Player – Yeah, I’m not even going to pretend that there are other options out there. Get them an iPod Touch.

3. GPS – This is a tough one. With most Smartphones having GPS, and some moving towards a turn-by-turn GPS function (Google Maps Navigation for Android!!!), it will eventually get to a point where it’s all in one device. Until then, a car GPS is pretty cool. Look for one with Bluetooth so they can pair it with that Smartphone and not break the hands-free law in Ontario.

4. Laptop – Depending on the need, you can go anywhere from an ultra-portable Netbook (I recommend the Asus EeePC) to a big screen workhorse. You can pay anywhere from $250 to $4000 for something like this.

5. Pretty much anything from ThinkGeek. This is the ultimate online store for everything Geek. They have a great selection of gadgets, t-shirts, and just fun stuff.

Have a great holiday season!

Brandon, the Geek

The Goods:
- Android operating system is amazing, and is only getting better
- Has wifi
- GPS is great, and ties in to Google Maps and other applications very well
- If you are a Google user (Gmail, Google Calendar), it integrates flawlessly with these. (you will need a Google account to use the phone). It’s free, and I use Gmail for almost all my e-mail. The phone will automatically sync your Contacts, e-mail, and Calendar with your online ones. It’s pretty damned seamless
- Android Marketplace has some great applications (like the iPhone, only not quite as good yet)
- The Dream has a full physical keyboard, touchscreen, and scroll-ball – which makes it a triple threat.
- Very solid web browser, and will match the iPhone’s once Android gets multi-touch.
- It is open and customizable
- Memory – you can add a microSD memory card to it for more space. They are very cheap.
- It is a solid option as a smartphone that is not an iPhone or a Blackberry.
- Not a bad camera (3.1 megapixel), which has autofocus, so you can use it to scan barcodes to see where you can buy something cheaper. Also records video. Does not have a flash though, so you, and your target must remain still.
- You can run multiple applications at once, unlike some other phone…
- You can actually customize the interface, with simple things like a custom background! Take that iPhone!
The Bads:
- No headphone jack. It comes with earphones with a built in microphone that plug into the charging port. Really crappy that it doesn’t have a generic headphone jack.
- Bad battery life. Like the iPhone, if you use it, you’ll get a day out of it (unless you turn off wifi and GPS, then it lasts longer).
- Internal memory is so small (256MB) that it may not be able to handle the next Android update. They are working to get around that, but as of now, it looks like it will be limited in updates. This is very, very disappointing, and I hope Rogers will honour its early adopters with an upgrade.
- It’s a little thick and bulky, kinda like me. But I was willing to deal with this for the keyboard.
- It is the first of the Android phones, and the hardware is unable to really take advantage of what Android can really do. I have also had to reset the phone a few times…

Here is what it came down to for me: I use this thing a lot for work, so I e-mail, text, schedule things, and use the web a lot on it, so I wanted the keyboard. And, being a geek, I LOVE the phone. I would say to anyone looking to buy a solid smartphone to check out the HCT Magic, which is the touchscreen only Android phone. I think it’s the same price, and is faster, better battery life, and has enough internal memory to handle future upgrades. Also, it’s a little smaller and sleeker. You do lose the physical keyboard for a virtual one though. So, if you’re like me, and HATE typing on something like the iPhone, then the Dream is a good choice.

As for the available Applications, right now, they are not quite as good, and polished as the iPhone’s, but they going to have to get better. Recently, Facebook had to concede and make an application for Android. With over 20 new phones coming out, they can no longer disregard Google’s Android as a fad. Now, that being said, they devoted 1 person to help with the creation of the Facebook application, while I have a feeling they team for the iPhone app was substantially larger. I have not doubt that Android is going to be a big contender to the iPhone and Blackberry.

When it comes down to it, I can’t live without this phone for work (or geeky fun), and it does the job really well. You can watch YouTube, surf the web, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, Instant Messaging…

As far as smart phones go, it’s the only choice I would have made. I really don’t like Blackberries, although their battery life is amazing, I just hate the interface, usability, and their browser is atrocious. They are a great business work-horse, yet not so much a consumer/geek phone.

If you are looking for a safe, tested phone, the iPhone is most likely the way to go, even though it’s a wee bit pretentious. It’s pretty solid, and just works. But it’s expensive, and you are getting trapped into Apple. Apple is the new Microsoft/Evil Monopolistic Corporation in my eyes, not to be overly dramatic…

To me, as a geek, there was no choice other than an Android phone.