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Filed under: Holiday Gift Guide

Filed under: Commercial, Holiday Gift Guide

Black Friday software deals you can score online

by Lee Mathews Nov 26th 2009

This weekend signals the beginning of holiday shopping craziness in the U.S., and there's no shortage of deals to be had. We're scouring web sites around the 'net to find discount prices on games, apps, and operating systems - if you've found some, share them in the comments!

Be sure to check back, we'll be updating this post as we find more savings to pass along!

Applications and Operating Systems
PC Games iPhone Games
Gameloft is offering the following titles at $0.99 each - pick up $25 worth of games for $5!
  • Castle of Magic
  • Real Tennis 2009
  • Blades of Fury
  • Terminator Salvation
  • Brothers in Arms – Hour of Heroes
  • Shrek Kart
Thanks to Engrish.com for the awesome image!

Tags: black friday, Black Friday 2009, BlackFriday, BlackFriday2009, deals, holiday gift guide, HolidayGiftGuide, software, thanksgiving

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Filed under: Text, Utilities, Hardware, Windows, Macintosh, Web services, Holiday Gift Guide

Livescribe's Pulse smartpen store hands-on

WindowsMacby Victor Agreda, Jr. Nov 24th 2009


There's little to add to my glowing review of the Livescribe Pulse smartpen I wrote for TUAW last year. This is one of those gadgets that you show people and it looks like magic. It kinda is magic, I think. But this year's model introduces an app store for the pen (plus some nifty paper products), making it a desirable platform for anyone who takes their notes seriously.

Read my review for the hardware scoop; the newer models now have an improved cradle. You can now charge and keep your computer asleep, for example. The desktop software, which allows you to sort and annotate your notes (plus many other tricks covered in that earlier review for the Mac version of the software) is similarly the same but slightly upgraded. What matters is what's in the pen, since that's what you'll be using every day.

The pen runs Java applications specifically made *for* the Pulse smartpen. Now, earlier there had been some tech demos for 3D audio (the pen records in 3D, and it is very cool) and what amounted to built-in utility apps. Stuff like calculators and a simple piano that you draw and tap to play. Like Apple launching the iPhone with a limited set of pre-built applications, the Pulse had only a few "apps" but that was fine. The app store for the pen opens the doors to a huge variety of other applications, much like Apple's store does for its mobile platform.

The Livescribe Store also looks and feels nearly identical to Apple's -- at first. There's more than just apps here; there are paper products (you use special paper with the pen) and pens themselves. When you go to check out, you notice the lack of polish. Every purchase, even the free stuff, requires about three times as many clicks at it takes to buy something on the iTunes App Store. I'm not sure why people don't understand this seemingly obvious notion that consumers want to consume quickly. Especially for a pen, you know? But the entire store is a website, really, so perhaps app purchasing can be streamlined later. For now, it is catering to the physical side of the store by requiring shipping info with your orders.

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Tags: app store, AppStore, gadget, hgg, java, pen, platform, pulse, reviews, smartpen

Filed under: Internet, Photo, Holiday Gift Guide, Web

Gift Guide: get 50 photo holiday cards for free

by Dolores Parker Nov 10th 2009

Since we're all looking for ways to save money for the holidays, you might want to take advantage of this limited time offer from SeeHere.com where you can buy 50 (4x8) or 50 (5x7) photo holiday cards for absolutely nothing. This offer includes free standard shipping and represents a savings of $40.

SeeHere is Fuji's photosharing site where you can create cards, photo books and gifts. They have a decent holiday selection and new account users can also get 100 free (4x6) prints for registering. (Shipping not included - promo code "prints").

To get the 50 holiday cards for free, be sure to use the promo code "freebies4mom-1109." Don't procrastinate! This offer is only good until 11/30.

Tags: free, FujiFilm SeeHere, FujifilmSeehere, hgg, holiday cards, HolidayCards, photo cards, PhotoCards

Filed under: Internet, News, Mozilla, Holiday Gift Guide, Search, Browsers, Web

Track Black Friday prices with Invisible Hand add on for Firefox

by Dolores Parker Nov 3rd 2009

We've covered Invisible Hand, the discreet shopping comparison add on for Firefox, which displays prices on items you are searching on the web. Just in time for Black Friday, the hand has trotted out a new add on which along with other improvements, incorporates Google search results.

Now, you can get your price results in real time so you know you're getting the best deal. My test drive of the hand went smooth, the results loaded up within a second or two and updates were very discreet. This is a real time saver for getting price results.

The add on will be officially released to the Mozilla site within a few weeks, but the first 200 Download Squad readers can download the beta version. Just click on the link below and key in invisibleDLS for the access code.

http://preview.getinvisiblehand.com/




Tags: Black Friday deals, Black Friday Sales, BlackFridayDeals, BlackFridaySales, firefox-add-on, HGG, Invisible hand add on for firefox, InvisibleHandAddOnForFirefox, online price comparison, OnlinePriceComparison, shopping comparison tools, ShoppingComparisonTools

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Filed under: Internet, Photo, Video, Holiday Gift Guide, Social Software

3 photo sharing sites for your new shutterbug - Holiday Gift Guide

by Dolores Parker Nov 29th 2008



If you know someone on your gift list is getting a camera or is a new shutterbug, you might want to consider getting them a "pro" photo sharing account where they can upload all their new photos. This is a nice gift for several reasons: 1. A pro account is a must have since most free accounts have a storage limit that the average photographer will easily exceed. 2. Pro accounts are ad free. 3. Pro accounts have more features and allow the upload of larger file sizes. 4. As the giver of the account, it stands to reason you might be given access to your shutterbug's photostream, although, it's equally possible you might not.

Here are my top picks for investing in a pro account. (Many thanks to our readers for enthusiastically recommending Smugmug).

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Tags: flickr, hgg, photo sharing, photobucket, PhotoSharing, pro account features flickr, pro account features photobucket, pro account features smugbug, ProAccountFeaturesFlickr, ProAccountFeaturesPhotobucket, ProAccountFeaturesSmugbug, smugbug, smugmug

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Filed under: Fun, Games, Holiday Gift Guide, iPhone

The best apps to put on the iPhone you're giving - Holiday Gift Guide

by Jay Hathaway Nov 26th 2008

If you're giving an iPhone or an iPod Touch as a gift, like thousands of other people this season, you might want to think about personalizing it with apps that your beloved giftee would enjoy. The iPod/iPhone has become a failsafe present: you don't have to know someone particularly well to know they'll enjoy it. Throwing some music and a few choice apps on there adds a personal touch and gives them something to play with as soon as they unwrap the gift. Here are a few of my favorite picks:

RjDj (iPhone only) is a reality-hacking music experience that you have to see and hear to believe. RJDJ takes different musical "scenes" and incorporates the sounds of your surroundings into a unique, immersive composition. The developers pride themselves on creating "a digital drug which causes a mind twisting hearing sensation," and artists are creating new scenes all the time. RjDj is a great way to show off the possibilities of that new iPhone to the person you're giving it to. ($2.99)

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Tags: hgg, holiday-gift-guide, iphone-apps, ocarina, rjdj, spore

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Filed under: Fun, Games, Windows, Commercial, Holiday Gift Guide

5 Fun, casual Steam games you can give for under $20

Windowsby Lee Mathews Nov 25th 2008


If you're a gamer, chances are good you've bought something from Steam - Valve's "Nexus of PC Gaming." If not, it's a great place to purchase some inexpensive and extremely fun games. Steam, of course, offers a gift purchase option, making it an ideal spot to find a nice, cheap gift for that special someone on your list.

Steam has tons of casual, fun games in its library - here's my list of five titles under $20 that are sure to provide some maddeningly addictive fun. Hardware requirements for these are fairly light, so they should run on just about anyone's desktop or laptop (provided they're running Windows).

World of Goo ($19.99). Sure, its cartoonish 2d graphics are cute, but this is one seriously smart physics puzzle game. Stack the little goo balls to build structures and reach the goal - it sounds easy, but World of Goo is as challenging as it is whimsical. Finessing your structures into doing what you want takes patience and requires some serious thinking at times. This one's a great choice for anyone who enjoys a good challenge.

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Tags: games, gifts, hgg, holiday-gift-guide, steam

Filed under: Business, Office, Google, Microsoft, Holiday Gift Guide

Tis the Season for Small Business Gifts

by Sue Polinsky Dec 12th 2007

Every year, small businesses struggle with the customer appreciation gift. Should we give one to every client? Only to new clients? What about long-term clients? Should we order pre-printed (and clever) cards? And the big question: how much is this going to cost?

Don't use sticky note reminders! Get an app to help!Saying thanks to our clients in a better fashion is something we set out to do last winter during the re-creation of our branding model. We rebuilt our logo, changed colors, formalized templates, printed letterhead, stickers and designed mail-ready new-client packets and generally upgraded our schwag. It was time for us to have something to hand out besides business cards.

That's why we don't send out holiday gifts anymore; heck, we don't send out "winter holiday" cards anymore. Instead, we thank our clients all year long. With a simple Access database, we keep track of each client who's referred business to us and we send a handwritten note (on those new branded and printed cards we designed) and a small gift card to an omnipresent store. First referral? A five-dollar Starbucks card. Second referral? A somewhere-else gift card. If a referral turns into business? A larger Target or Paneras card is coming your way inside a handwritten custom-branded notecard. If you're local, it might be a lunch gift certificate at a restaurant (also a client).

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Tags: customer referrals, CustomerReferrals, gifts, holidash, holidays, referral database, ReferralDatabase, small business, SmallBusiness

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Filed under: Internet, Holiday Gift Guide

Forget buying toys online this year, buy a cow instead

by Dolores Parker Dec 6th 2007



We don't want to be thought of as Grinch-like this holiday season, but we have noticed a trend in some social circles where "no gifts please" is prominently posted on invitations and cards. Apparently, some children have so many toys and everything they can possibly want that too much of a good thing has turned into clutter and junk.

Well, rather than come empty handed, you can give a gift that provides meaning and possibly the means to a living, by buying cows, sheep, chicks, and other nice critters for families in impoverished areas to give them food and become self reliant.

Heifer International is an organization dedicated to helping people obtain a sustainable source of food and income. And they have a very powerful online gift catalog where you can buy all kinds of livestock to benefit those who need it most.

Re-gifting at Heifer is actually something expected. Your gift truly does keep giving. The offspring of the animal(s) you give, are in turn given to others in need.

Heifer has projects all over the world, including several In the United States. They are well respected and have won several humanitarian awards, as well as earning a respectable 20.7% return on their endowment.

After you select your gift, you can send a nice email card, or print a card with an insert to give so you can show up with something after all but not feel guilty about it.

Tags: gifts for those who have everything, Heifer International, holidash, livestock agricultural gifts

Filed under: Windows Mobile, Palm, Holiday Gift Guide

December PDA software sales

by Brad Linder Dec 18th 2006

20 percent offIt's December, and that means crazy sales on everything, even PDA software. Not that I really expect you to buy a copy of Conduits Pocket Player or eSoft Interactive's Word Challenge for that special somebody in your life. But if you do, you can save a few bucks this month.

Here's a few bargains we dug up. Feel free to post others in the comments section.
  1. Conduits has a coupon code for 35% off of anything in the Conduits Store. The code is holidaysale2006 and it's good through January 31st, 2007.
  2. eSoft Interactive is going a bit further, slashing prices on all the games in their store by 50%. The coupon code ESOFTHOLIDAYS is good through Januardy 1st, 2007.
  3. PocketGear is offering 20% of any purchase. The code holiday20 will only work for a limited time, but it's not clear when it expires. In the past, PocketGear codes have been known to work long after the promotion had ended, so keep this one handy and see if it works even after PocketGear takes the banner ad down from their site.
  4. This one's not software based, but Pocket PC Techs makes cables, screen protectors, and power accessories for PDAs. They also do PDA upgrades and repairs. The coupon code PPCTCAMPXMAS02 will save you 20% on any purchase made through January 15th, 2007.

Tags: bargains, coupons, deals, discounts, specials

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Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Commercial, Freeware, Holiday Gift Guide

Gifts for your Geek this year

WindowsMacLinuxby Ryan Carter Dec 10th 2006

GiftsSome people can't seem to get this idea out of their heads that gifts have to be something physical. When I began to think about the holidays this year, I thought about all the things I wouldn't mind having, and I thought of mostly physical hold-it-in-your-hand gifts I want. Most of the gifts I hope to get happen to be virtual. Here is a nice rundown of some of the things you might think about buying for your own geek (both virtual gifts and physical gifts):

  • Flickr Pro account $25/year
  • Basecamp accounts ranging from $12/month to $149/month
  • Skype credit for free calls
  • Any other kind of pro account or account upgrade your geek may want from an online service
  • Anything from ThinkGeek.com (USB gadgets, like a rocket launcher or a bluetooth laser keyboard)
  • iTunes prepaid music card (as big as you can afford find)
  • World of Warcraft prepaid gameplay card (for any aspiring geeks who don't already play the game)
Now I know this list is not extensive or by any means complete, but that's why I need your help to complete it! Tell me what is on your geeky wish list this season in the comments below. What should be on this list? You tell me.

A note for non-geeks and newbies: if you want to get something like a pro account from an online service for your geek, you don't have to know how to use it, find it, or anything. If you know they want it, either enlist a geeky friend to help you in the process or simply write the name of the service on an index card or print it out all pretty like. Wrap it up to give to your geek, trust me they won't care what the gift card looks like, depending on the gift. Oh, and you get extra points if you write the message on the card in binary. I remember when my wife wrapped up a brochure for high-speed internet in the early days...best gift ever. See what I mean?

Tags: basecamp, flickr, geek, gift, guide, thinkgeek

Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Freeware, Holiday Gift Guide

GiftHat, don't look it in the mouth

WindowsMacLinuxby Ryan Carter Nov 14th 2006

GiftHat
Nevermind the other guy, what about what you want for the holidays? So you can't keep track of all those gifts you want? Sick of explaining the difference between an Intel Core Duo and and AMD 64 X2 to your loved ones? GiftHat gives you a place to store all your desires for the holidays and helps you justify being the greedy selfish little kid we all are inside, all the while maintaining the charade that it is a good thing for your loved ones, since they will know what you want without having to ask you, therefore maintaining that holiday tact no one seems to have. It will even allow you to load page images from Amazon to pick the right pix for your item, and grab the price too. The cool thing about GiftHat is that it will let you either automatically detect settings from a site or manually type in the details, so it works for just about any site, not just Amazon. With the nifty little JavaScript bookmarklet (drag this link to your bookmarks) and the ability to post a little GiftHat badge to your blog or website, it becomes a powerful service rivaling the functionality of del.icio.us except for gifts not sites, and actually makes shopping for yourself and getting what you want easy as, well pie. Pumpkin pie. The last great thing is that you can have any relatives, friends, and other people who will buy you stuff go to a simple URL on the web to see your list, in the form of gifthat.com/yourlistname. Email them the link, let them know that this is your wishlist, and you're done.

Wow, I feel so self-centered after this post, I am going to go feed a homeless guy or something. Peachy.

Tags: bookmarking, del.icio.us, gift, holiday, list, web

Filed under: OS Updates, News, Windows, Microsoft, Holiday Gift Guide

Vista-ready gifts will be on Santa's sleigh

Windowsby Ryan Carter Oct 14th 2006

Santa Vista On Ozzie, and Allchin, and Ballmer...Microsoft will be looking to rake it the dough this holiday season. Already there are 250 plus products that are Vista ready, and will be ready to ship for the holiday season from many third party vendors. Santa will have a lot of Vista-ready stuff to hand out this year. Many new hardware and software products will both be available for this season's holiday rush, among them, many usual suspects. Keyboards, mice, other peripherals, and also many software titles, such as Flight Simulator, Company of Heroes, Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy. Is there anything you've seen and heard about that you want this holiday season from the ever-growing Vista universe? Come on tell me, I may not be Santa, but we go way back, I'll see what I can do for you.

Tags: christmas, holiday, Microsoft, santa, vista, Windows

Filed under: Fun, Holiday Gift Guide

Gift Guide: Greeting card templates

by Marc Perton Dec 22nd 2005


Admit it. It's getting down to the wire, and you haven't picked out gifts for everyone, or even sent out all of your cards yet. One popular last-minute solution is to send out e-cards, and here's one way to make those cards a little more interesting. Instead of just using the canned cards available on countless sites, design your own. Don't have the time or Photoshop chops? No problem. Just use a canned template and plug in your own images, words and whatever else you need to make the card work. One good source is the scrapbook community, where designers have a wealth of templates available at prices as low as $3.00, most of which can be used both for e-cards and for printed ones — though, unless you're going to spring for FedEx or deliver your cards by hand, the latter isn't a likely scenario this year.

Filed under: Holiday Gift Guide

Gift Guide: Software company swag

by Marc Perton Dec 21st 2005


What do you get for the geek who has everything? How about some software company swag? Software companies large and small offer everything from the Google Goo pictured above, to Mozilla's plush firefox dolls, to logo-pimping t-shirts. Some of my favorites include the non-logo t-shirts from Mac developer Panic Software (they include one featuring the Mac "spinner" and one that boasts "i make macintosh software"). If you really want to impress, you can hunt down collector-level swag on eBay, including old Apple lapel pins and Microsoft bobble-head dolls.
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