As the holidays bear down on us, a certain portion of the populations begins to long for tech toys.  Contrary to popular myth, not all those lusting for tech are men.  There are also women out there who haven’t met a tech toy they don’t want. 

What is new out there and what is highly desired?  It can be in the entertainment field, the latest kitchen gadget or power tool.  It can be the latest and greatest must have for a kid.  It can be a phone, a camera,  or a new computer.  What is all the buzz?   The sky is the limit for this discussion.

56 Thoughts to “What are the latest and greatest tech toys on the market?”

  1. marinm

    I think I’m going to bite the bullet and buy an e-reader. Having all my music in digital format and portable is very nice and the more I think about it… the ability to have my personal ‘library’ with me and at the touch of my finger… is very appealing. I think I’ll ‘miss’ the touch a real book and every once in awhile I’ll splurge but I think portability and centralization beats nostalgia. 🙂

    I’m holding off on a tablet computer until 2nd or maybe 3rd generation. I also want something to interface with my comm badge so I can beam up to the USS Sarah Palin anytime I want. 😉

  2. What kind of ereader are you going to get? If I had to get one I would be looking at the Nook touch.

  3. Just went to a NetSquared Meetup this past week on “How to Create a Compelling Video” for nonprofits, sponsored by Cavendo with presentations by Ugly Chair Productions and seobythesea.com. I want to get a plain video camera I can use to create and edit short (90 second or less) videos. Anyone recommend one?

  4. Morris Davis

    My daughter saved up her money and bought a Kindle 3G last weekend at Best Buy. We drove down to NC for Thanksgiving (7+ hours each way) and she wanted it for the ride. She downloaded some books and really liked it … until Friday night when part of the text started to disappear from the right side of the screen. By Saturday morning it had officially died, so she had a long ride home with nothing to read (I’m reading “Unchecked and Unbalanced” by Fritz Schwarz and Aziz Huq in hardcopy and offered her the chance to go old school and read a book with pages made of real paper, but she wasn’t interested). She returned it to Best Buy last night. They are sold out, so she got a refund. I know several other people with Kindles and I’ve never known anyone else that had a problem.

  5. marinm

    MH, the wife is thinking about the Kindle and I haven’t yet done my research to figure out which way I want to lean. I’m thinking the one with the easiest to beat DRM. 😉

    We went to the Manassas Best Buy last night to take a look at them and was annoyed to find that if you moved the Kindle 2 inches off it’s base the alarm would sound. After tripping it twice we walked away.

    I just bought my neice the Leap Pad version of an E-Reader (she’s 4) called a VReader. Was 49.99 at Target. Outta last her for a few years and since she can ready pretty well for her age now — I think it’ll be something she likes. 🙂 I’m the cool uncle!

  6. Emma

    I’ve been very pleased with my Kindle. I thought the screensaver images were “burning in” to the screen, but they do fade after a short time. Otherwise, it’s fabulous for travel, and I’m addicted to the Scrabble game.

  7. I could have sworn I posted a link for a laser guided sling shot and a “tactical” pitch fork…..maybe I left it in another post………………..

  8. marinm

    Now, a REAL M41A Pulse Rifle would ROCK for zombie hunting, bashing liberals and of course home and personal defense. 🙂

    http://gizmodo.com/5700605/dont-go-to-war-with-this-aliens-replica-m+41a-pulse-rifle

    BTW, I soooooo want the tactical tomahawk. I have no ‘need’ for it but it just LOOKS cool!!

  9. Tactical Tomahawk? What kind of toys does it mount on its rail? Acog sights? Grenade launcher? Flashlight?

    And it has to be black.

  10. marinm

    http://www.rmjtactical.com/

    While it doesn’t support a picatinny rail it does support MOLLE for a drop leg configuration. 😉

  11. Those things are expensive!!!!!!!

    I’ll take one (or a dozen) of these: http://www.amazon.com/Cold-Steel-Trench-Hawk-Axe/dp/B0030DBHGU/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

    One thing about the removable head is that you can customize it for yourself…..

    Bladeforums and Knifeforums both have tomahawk forums.

  12. re: kindle

    I have had one for about a year and a half and no problems with it at all. The good thing about Kindle is its portability. I can read on my kindle, my ipad or my computer. Lots of choices. Howevaaaa…if I had it to do over again, I would probably get the nook because of the back-lighting. I would not get an ipad just for the e-reader capabilities.

    @Moe, that’s too bad that your daughter had to go cold turkey. I would have gladly lent her mine. She does know that she can download Kindle reader onto her laptop and read her books until she gets a new one? I think Staples also sells them as well as the old tried and true, Amazon.

  13. And marin, it is perfectly ok to post fox stories here. I do sometimes also.

    Go to Barnes and Noble and look at theirs. I have heard good things. I don’t think it is quite as ubiquitous as Kindle though.

    Emma, I just got the scrabble. I haven’t become addicted yet. I really like being able to stuff kindle in my purse though. It beats lugging a book any old day.

  14. marinm

    MH, I’m leaning towards the Nook because of DRM. The ability to ‘lend’ out books to friends is pretty neat as well. And, I’m digging the whole EPUB thang as well.

    I’m debating a new laptop as well. Sure it sports an 18.4″ screen and when I power it up the lights in my house dim but a Core 2 just doesn’t hang like it used to.. 🙁

    1. @marin,

      an 7i ought to hold you. Why do you want such a large laptop? I have a hard time getting used to the 17 in. myself.

      Not sure what the DRM is about. Explain pls. I like the color and touch capabilities of Nook, I think. The good thing now is, you can go look and touch before buying. I bought my kindle blind.

  15. marinm

    I’m sorry. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management

    In short, it’s who ‘owns’ the content that you are buying. Do you simply hold a license to use it or do you truly own something.

    Monitors are one thing I can’t skimp on. If I’m looking at my screen for 12 hours a day I don’t want to strain. Or, if I want to be able to surf the interwebs on one screen while destroying a Klingon Bird of Prey on another while the 3rd is constantly refreshing Drudge Report while I have my tablet auto refreshing FoxNews……… That reminds me. I still need to network a node to my guest bathroom so I can watch Glenn Beck without interuption. 🙂

    1. Marin said

      I still need to network a node to my guest bathroom so I can watch Glenn Beck without interuption.

      I wouldn’t want to miss the comedy hour either. I often even record it.

  16. marinm

    Careful. One risks the wrath of the chaulkboard if they decide to cross The Beck.

  17. Don’t forget that Glenn wants pitchforks……

    Here’s a high tech one:

    http://www.everydaynodaysoff.com/2010/11/17/tactical-pitchfork/

  18. marinm

    Nice…. I’m hoping St. Nick drops off a Serbu Super-Shorty w/ attachable KA-BAR (in case position is over run and I need to fix bayonets). Tactical drop leg holster so that I can carry to my local Target or Starbucks would be greatly appreciated.

    http://www.serbu.com/top/superShorty.php

  19. Cato the Elder

    Moon-howler :
    Marin said

    I still need to network a node to my guest bathroom so I can watch Glenn Beck without interuption.

    I wouldn’t want to miss the comedy hour either. I often even record it.

    How can you guys sit through an hour of that?

    I’m stalking one of these as a gift (to myself): http://www.fulton-armory.com/MARifles.htm#SOCOM

    1. @cato, well, it isn’t easy. I usually fall asleep/. He is one of those people who I feel I need to keep an eye on though. He has too many followers.

  20. marinm

    I’m honestly taken a back when I talk to people and they tell me that all they listen to or watch on tv is Beck and O’Reilly. My workmate was telling me about how his father in law DVRs it all and that his mother in law will only watch FoxNews..

    I mean, god bless them for doing so but I thought it was just the biased left wing media crying about how many Beckites exist… I guess the ratings don’t lie. People tune in and are eating it up. Must buy gold and ammo. Must buy gold and ammo. 🙂

    1. Marin, Beck does say by gold but he has not been beating the ammo bandwagon.

      He gets a big cut from the gold. And there are those who would argue against buying gold now.

  21. Gainesville Resident

    I’ve been very happy with my 2nd gen Kindle too. Although I recently got an iPad and whispersync’d books to it from the Kindle and like reading the books on it better, unless I’m walking around and reading like I do while my wife is shopping… But the Kindle is great – I travel a lot and it beats lugging heavy books on the plane to read!

  22. Gainesville Resident

    The scrabble on the Kindle is very neat. When I bought it I never imagined you could also play games on it!

  23. Gainesville Resident

    MH – if you want backlighting just whispersync your Kindle books to your iPad. It works great and you can make the print as large as you like on there, plus of course it is backlit. Just download the free Kindle app for the iPad and follow the instructions to pull down some of the books from your Kindle to the iPad.

    1. I do that. Thanks GR. I was speaking about if I had to do it all over again, with more options out there when I got mine.

      I tend to read on ipad more than I should…but …I would never get an ipad just for a reader. Too expensive.

      You can also download Nook for ipad.

      I can’t make the ipad Kindle read to me though.

  24. Gainesville Resident

    That is true – as far as I know the only way to have it read books to you is on the Kindle itself. I wouldn’t buy the iPad just for reading either, but it is a nice bonus that you can move Kindle books over to it for free! I actually haven’t used my Kindle much since I got the iPad – I mostly read the books on the iPad now.

  25. Gainesville Resident

    I’ve seen the Kindle for sale in many stores including Best Buy. Seems like Amazon is at least for the Kindle, abandoning its sales through the internet only business model. Smart of them, actually. I’ve looked at the 3rd generation Kindle in the stores – it is indeed a much better display than the 2nd gen. However, I’m plenty happy with my 2nd gen Kindle, although I paid a lot more for it than I should have as the price dropped soon after I bought it. That’s the price you pay for being an early adopter though. The same thing’s starting to happen with the iPad – it just dropped about $30 from where it was a month ago when I bought mine.

  26. Me too, Gainesville. Much as I hate to admit it. Ok, fess up. Is your kindle with you right now?

  27. If you buy the ammo, you can always GET the gold when civilization collapses….

    Marinm, “fixing bayonets” while wielding that Super Shorty as a melee weapon just brings all sorts of silly images to mind…..

    Get a real zombie gun with an INTEGRAL bayonet system. The Russians knew what they were doing…..cheap and plentiful….SKS for your TEOTWAWKI situation. Of course, everyday life in the Soviet Union was very similar to the upcoming zombie times……nothing to eat, unresponsive gov’t, people huddling in the their homes, etc.

  28. marinm

    Obama supporters…zombies.. I don’t really see the difference. Both are empty sacks of humanity looking for BRRRAAAIIIINNNNNSSSS!!!

    Agreed about the Shorty. Sorry, working with Marines all day has made me think that all weapons should be able to have a fixed knife attached for last resort. Agreed that range is your best friend in a TEOTWAWKI situation. If you have to resort to CQC with the horde you’re pretty much a zombie snack.

    That reminds me. I *still* need to get my HAM license..

    1. Marin, ahem…..plenty of people on this blog support President Obama. That kind of talk is unproductive and just insulting.

  29. marinm

    It was an obvious joke as we are talking about zombies…………………………………………. 🙂

  30. Gainesville Resident

    Moon-howler :
    Me too, Gainesville. Much as I hate to admit it. Ok, fess up. Is your kindle with you right now?

    My Kindle is here with me but it is in my laptop back and never got upacked out of it the whole time I was in Arizona. I used the iPad instead and suspect I will here in Georgia too.

  31. Gainesville Resident

    Meant to say “in my laptop BAG”.

  32. Gainesville Resident

    \

    Moon-howler :
    Marin, ahem…..plenty of people on this blog support President Obama. That kind of talk is unproductive and just insulting.

    No different than what Republicans or conservatives are called on this blog. I don’t see the difference, but of course you can make the rules and say that it is OK to call Republicans/conservatives names but not Obama supporters.

  33. Gainesville Resident

    Speaking of iPads, every time I try and post from my iPad on here the posts seem to end up in the spam folder. Does the blog software have a special anti-iPad detector built into it? It does use Apple’s Safari browser, but I don’t see how that works any differently than IE or Firefox. It constructs HTML in the same way as best as I can tell and works fine with every other website I frequent. Kind of strange, but no big deal, as I have my laptop here and use it when I’m in the hotel room. Only use my iPad for browsing when I’m at airports or on the plane (Delta now has wifi on the plane while in flight and it is free for the holidays – normally costs $12.95 for entire length of flight).

    1. @GR, Elena and I say what we don’t like about various people. And we might like the people and dislike their politics. Corey Stewart is a perfect of that last sentence.

      We don’t say that we don’t like Republicans or we don’t conservatives. (or Democrats or liberals) Many people on this blog are both. I don’t see a lot of name calling on moonhowlings. There is some. It is, after all, a blog. And it comes from both camps.

      @Marin, I wasn’t following the joke. One of Obama’s supporters, Warren Buffett is certainly no empty sack. He is filled with billion of dollars. :mrgreen:

  34. marinm

    http://money.cnn.com/2010/11/29/autos/americas_car_Mart.fortune/?section=magazines_fortune

    Look at the Buffett connection. 😉 I have no issue with Buffett. I think he has the luxury of dabbling in politics without getting personally hit with the ramifications of what he proposes. It’s a nice place to be in. But, the guy’s earned the right to what he wishes with his money.

    I think the idea of Car-Mart is brilliant. I also don’t fault check cashing or car title businesses as they provide a service to people who otherwise have no access to financial instruments outside of Vinnie the Loan Shark.

    I used to joke around that I wanted to open up a dealership with an onsite pawn shop so that you could make your payments with whatever you brought in…assuming it wasn’t hot. But, I am in no means a pawn expert and lacked the capital. 😉

    Yes MH, it was a joke. I don’t see Obama supporters as zombies. I think many were lead to believe something that has obviously not worked out the way they had been promised and it’s shown the People that election of someone using the same methodology as Dancing with the Stars and American Idol is probably not the best way to pick a President.

  35. Wolverine

    Do you high tech maniacs have any idea at all how difficult you have made Christmas for an old timer with grandkids? Here I am a guy who started off his career with a manual typewriter and had to encrypt many Navy messages on a cranky mechanical device when our electronic communications gear didn’t work. (You should try that once when the ship is rolling in heavy seas, and one mistake messes up the entire message. I’ll bet not even Cargosquid can relate to that.) To Hell with it. I cannot even understand what you are saying — much less go to a store and find one. Shoot, it’ll be the same old Christmas again. When DB is coming out of the store on 24 December, he could well meet Wolverine going in. Ebenezer Scrooge was right — the first time. And it’s all your fault!!!

  36. Gainesville Resident

    Moon-howler :
    @GR, Elena and I say what we don’t like about various people. And we might like the people and dislike their politics. Corey Stewart is a perfect of that last sentence.
    We don’t say that we don’t like Republicans or we don’t conservatives. (or Democrats or liberals) Many people on this blog are both. I don’t see a lot of name calling on moonhowlings. There is some. It is, after all, a blog. And it comes from both camps.
    @Marin, I wasn’t following the joke. One of Obama’s supporters, Warren Buffett is certainly no empty sack. He is filled with billion of dollars.

    Oh come on. People like starryflights name call in almost every post he/she/it writes. I don’t see anyone calling out starryflights. I really think it is selective on here who gets criticized for namecalling. That’s my opinion and I’m sticking to it.

  37. Gainesville Resident

    I don’t deny there’s namecalling on both sides. My point is only one side gets criticized for it.

  38. Gainesville Resident

    Wolverine :
    Do you high tech maniacs have any idea at all how difficult you have made Christmas for an old timer with grandkids? Here I am a guy who started off his career with a manual typewriter and had to encrypt many Navy messages on a cranky mechanical device when our electronic communications gear didn’t work. (You should try that once when the ship is rolling in heavy seas, and one mistake messes up the entire message. I’ll bet not even Cargosquid can relate to that.) To Hell with it. I cannot even understand what you are saying — much less go to a store and find one. Shoot, it’ll be the same old Christmas again. When DB is coming out of the store on 24 December, he could well meet Wolverine going in. Ebenezer Scrooge was right — the first time. And it’s all your fault!!!

    I don’t think these days there would be any way to manually de-encrypt something if the crypto devices failed! Those were simpler times, I guess!

    I wish they had toys like they have now when I was a kid!

  39. @marinm

    Actually I think probably more thought goes into DWTS and AI jokes than goes into a presidential vote in many cases. Certainly people are more interested in the former than the latter.

    And I am glad it was a joke. I hadn’t been following the joke.

  40. GR, and actually, several people on here call Starry names too. Moe gets called names. Did you miss that part?

    Elena and I decided a while back we were going to ignore the testosterone outbreaks on here.

    However….when it is directed at her or me then its going to be Katy bar the door. If I get a complaint, same thing.

    Now…why are we having this discussion?

  41. Gainesville Resident

    We’ll just have to agree to disagree. No way can you convince me that liberals get called out on here for namecalling as much as conservatives do.

  42. Gainesville Resident

    And if Starry can’t take it, then maybe he/she shouldn’t have started the namecalling – as it was definitely intitiated by Starry as soon as he came on here.

  43. marinm

    Wolverine :Do you high tech maniacs have any idea at all how difficult you have made Christmas for an old timer with grandkids? Here I am a guy who started off his career with a manual typewriter and had to encrypt many Navy messages on a cranky mechanical device when our electronic communications gear didn’t work. (You should try that once when the ship is rolling in heavy seas, and one mistake messes up the entire message. I’ll bet not even Cargosquid can relate to that.) To Hell with it. I cannot even understand what you are saying — much less go to a store and find one. Shoot, it’ll be the same old Christmas again. When DB is coming out of the store on 24 December, he could well meet Wolverine going in. Ebenezer Scrooge was right — the first time. And it’s all your fault!!!

    With today’s new fangled technology we just hit the big green ENCRYPT button and let the box do it’s magic. I say for the non-techies the more lights and noises something makes, the better. 🙂

    Boys always like robots or things with guns on them. You can’t really go wrong with that. I buy my neices educational toys so that they can outsmart the boys and not have to rely on one when they’re all growed up.

  44. I made the zombie joke first. My point is that DC is zombieland. Everybody stays around forever and eats all the brains of those entering DC. DC politics shows that those inside the beltway have very little brains left.

    As for encryption, I left that to the cryptos. I just looked at pretty pictures of ships, boats, and aircraft. Then I sent my report to those poor guys in that windowless shack to make it hard to read.

    As for name calling, if you can’t stand the heat…..besides, coming from Starry? Who cares? Just consider the source.

    And here is a nice Marine story for Marinm about “fixing bayonets” from http://www.strategypage.com/humor/articles/military_jokes_200522523.asp:

    Recently, a Marine Corps Harrier Squadron was invited to attend the annual Air Force Red Flag exercised at Nellis Air Force Base, NV. This is one of the USAF’s big exercises where they test Combined Arms employment of tactical air assets. The USAF F-15 pilots showed up on the ramp with dozens of rear echelon airman types and tons of equipment such as Ground Power Units, Accessory Power Units, Hummers, Trucks, Air Conditioners, etc. The Marines appeared ready to operate in a combat environment and showed up with only their Harriers. The Air Force commander commented to the Marine commander: “Where is all your support stuff? Geezz, you guys really are just Grunts that know how to fly.”

    Not wanting to disappoint the Air Force commander, the Marine commander got an idea of his own to carry on the comment. He talked to his First Sergeant and later that night, the First Sergeant had his Marines make up bayonet studs on hose clamps. You see, there is a Pitot tube sticking out of the nose of a Harrier. In the late hours of darkness, the First Sergeant had the clamp with the bayonet stud tightened onto the Pitot tubes of each Harrier.

    The next morning, the Air Force pilots fell out on the ramp in front of their F-15s. The Marine pilots fell out on the other side of the ramp in front of their Harriers. Each Marine pilot had on his deuce gear with a bayonet in the scabbard. The USAF commander ordered his pilots to “man your planes.” The USAF ground crews by the dozens scrambled to their trucks, APU’s, GPU’s, etc. and the pilots ran to their planes. The Marine commander ordered his Marines to “Fix Bayonets.” Each pilot ran to the front of their Harrier and fixed his bayonet on the stud attached to the Pitot tube. The Marine commander then ordered “CHARGE” and the Marines jumped in their Harriers, dusted airborne, and flew off. The Marine commander turned to the USAF commander and said; “Now that is what we Marines consider Close Ground Support.”

    Semper Fi! Go Navy!

  45. Gainesville Resident

    marinm :

    Wolverine :Do you high tech maniacs have any idea at all how difficult you have made Christmas for an old timer with grandkids? Here I am a guy who started off his career with a manual typewriter and had to encrypt many Navy messages on a cranky mechanical device when our electronic communications gear didn’t work. (You should try that once when the ship is rolling in heavy seas, and one mistake messes up the entire message. I’ll bet not even Cargosquid can relate to that.) To Hell with it. I cannot even understand what you are saying — much less go to a store and find one. Shoot, it’ll be the same old Christmas again. When DB is coming out of the store on 24 December, he could well meet Wolverine going in. Ebenezer Scrooge was right — the first time. And it’s all your fault!!!

    With today’s new fangled technology we just hit the big green ENCRYPT button and let the box do it’s magic. I say for the non-techies the more lights and noises something makes, the better.
    Boys always like robots or things with guns on them. You can’t really go wrong with that. I buy my neices educational toys so that they can outsmart the boys and not have to rely on one when they’re all growed up.

    Same here for encryption. I don’t think anyone could manually encrypt these days – the algorithm is supposedly pretty complex. If one of the crypto units goes down the game is off until it is fixed or a replacement unit is put in.

  46. marinm

    GR, the sad thing is the magic crypto box is probably made in China or Israel. Too expensive to build things in America now a days. 🙁

  47. Gainesville Resident

    marinm :
    GR, the sad thing is the magic crypto box is probably made in China or Israel. Too expensive to build things in America now a days.

    That’s too sad, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were true!

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