No more frosted faces or smiles stuck on “how nice.” No more regifting, exchanging, or Goodwill-ing stuff that missed the mark. This holiday season, all that you want will soon be here: the gewgaws, the tchotchkes, the doodads, and the thing-a-ma-bobs. The bags, the boomboxes, camcorders, and flaming logs. The mice, the cans, and the bling. Oh, you know - just about everything. Forthwith: Mac|Life’s greatest guide for gifts. Ever.

 

Want to take this gift guide with you to the store? Print it out with this handy PDF or upload it on to your iPod or iPhone with the files contained within this essential ZIP archive.

 

To: Mom, Dad or Aunt Edna

Your relatives want to make fun scrapbooks, online photo albums, and family videos to share with everyone in their worlds. Here’s some good stuff to keep those creative juices flowing.

 

Belkin Washable Mouse ($29.99) - Your sister will thank you again when she can quickly wash your 2-year-old nephew’s germs off the family’s shared mouse.

 

Maxtor OneTouch III Mini Edition ($99.99 to $149.99) - Every video, photo, and music enthusiast needs the gift of hard-drive storage, and 80GB to 160GB should do the trick.

 

Targus Soundup ($39.99) - Stick this sound-enhancer between Dad’s earphones and his iPod to stop his infernal complaining about his digital copy of Quadrophenia sounding too cold and sterile.

 

Pure Digital Flip Video Ultra Camcorder ($149.99 and $179.99) - Make this slim device the first present opened during the holidays so it can capture all of your other perfect gift picks. It records 640-by-480-pixel resolution video, ready for the Web or iMovie.

 

Software Mackiev The Print Shop For Mac 2 ($69.95 and $89.95) - Mom loves to send out that end-of-year family newsletter, and now she can fancy it up with this fun-to-use, jack-of-all-trades software.

 

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To: The Workaholic

It’s not just a 9-to-5 job, it’s a way of life. Set up your traveling worker bee with a useful gift, not a gimmicky toy.

 

Logitech VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse for Notebooks ($69.99) - Five programmable buttons, a teeny-tiny USB receiver, and laser technology for precise mousing. ’Nuff said. Your laptop-using giftee will never go back to the Apple trackpad.

 

DLO iBoom Travel ($89.99) - The iBoom lets your traveling businessperson awaken to his or her own tunes, not a jarring wakeup call or that blaring hotel clock radio.

 

Rain Design mStand Laptop Stand ($49.90) - Watching your hard worker hunch over her Mac notebook makes your back hurt. The aluminum mStand puts her laptop at a more ergonomically friendly height and keeps the workspace clutter-free.

 

Griffin Technology PowerJolt Car Charger ($19.99) - Plug this puppy into your recipient’s car power socket, and that iPod or iPhone will stay tireless, not tired.

 

Bose QuietComfort Acoustic Noise Cancelling Headphones ($299) - Designed to cut out that mind-numbing airplane noise, these around-the-ear headphones will also provide sweet solace in a bustling office. (Get the QuietComfort 3, $349, if your recipient prefers on-the-ear ’phones.)

 

Want to take this gift guide with you to the store? Print it out with this handy PDF or upload it on to your iPod or iPhone with the files contained within this essential ZIP archive.

 

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To: Creative Types

 

The key to getting a good gift for the artist on your shopping list: Appeal to his love of aesthetics and sense of design, and you can’t go wrong.

 

KB Covers Keyboard Covers ($24.95 to $39.95) - These keyboard covers have the keyboard shortcuts for your giftee’s favorite apps—Photoshop and Final Cut, for example - right on the keys.

 

Digital Spectrum MV-1040 Plus Digital Frame ($229.99) - Help your photo lover take frames to a new level. With this 10.4-inch (measured diagonally) digital frame’s slideshow mode, you can display a series of images from a memory card, as well as play a soundtrack through the built-in speakers.

 

Pantone Huey ($89) - Every creative needs their display’s and printer’s colors to look the same for accurate prints. The Pantone Huey is a great bargain for accomplishing those color goals, and it even adjusts the display depending on the light in the room.

 

Logitech Nulooq Navigator ($79.99) - Put the controls for Photoshop (and other programs) at your artist’s fingertips, literally. This nifty navigation wheel is faster than using keyboard shortcuts or pointing-and-clicking.

 

Wacom Bamboo Fun Graphics Tablet ($99 and $199) - Enable budding digital artists by replacing their mouse with this pen and tablet input device - it’ll be much easier to retouch photos, draw, and paint. Comes in two big sizes.

 

Want to take this gift guide with you to the store? Print it out with this handy PDF or upload it on to your iPod or iPhone with the files contained within this essential ZIP archive.

 

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To: The Student

Learning? Ha! Students use tech gear for creating, having fun, and communicating. But really, isn’t that part of learning?

 

Scott Evest Ultimate Hoodie Microfleece ($69.99) - The hoodie is a staple of the college wardrobe, and this hoodie is made for the gadget-minded with all the pockets and loops a kid could want.

 

Apple iTunes Gift Card ($15 to 50) - There isn’t an iTunes Gift Card big enough to get all the songs your student wants, but it does send an important message: Don’t steal music (and avoid being a target of the recording-industry authorities).

 

Boston Innovative iMEP MP-702-388 ($299.99) - A cramped dorm room is the ideal place for the iMep, with its 7-inch LCD, a built-in TV tuner, radio, DVD player, and most importantly, a dock for an iPod.

 

Isis Memory Foam Laptop Sleeve ($22 to $24) - A student’s laptop is bound to take a beating, but a sleeve will absorb some of the shock. For 13.3-inch MacBooks and the 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pros. Design shown: the Nouveau.

 

Samson Zoom H2 Handy Recorder ($199) - This portable audio device will record class lectures, podcasts, or a dorm-room jam session and copy the audio to a Mac with no sweat.

 

Want to take this gift guide with you to the store? Print it out with this handy PDF or upload it on to your iPod or iPhone with the files contained within this essential ZIP archive.

 

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To: The Geek

If you decide to get your geek a tech gift, you can’t just go with any ol’ gadget. Instead, pick one of our suggestions, and your geek will be in high-tech heaven. Trust us.

 

Olinari Sterling Silver Dog Tag ($349 and up) - If he’s going to carry around a USB flash drive, you might as well get him one he can wear. This fashionable dog tag actually houses a 2GB USB drive.

 

Corsair Flash Padlock ($29.99 and $39.99) - Some data is just too important to lose. The Flash Padlock requires a personal identification number to access its contents.

 

Insanely Great Tees ($17) - The geek’s badge of honor (and identity) is the T-shirt, and these Mac-centric shirts are the bomb. Designs shown: Pixel Tools and (what else?) The Bomb.

 

Oregon Scientific ATC2K Waterproof Action Cam ($169.99) - Attach it to a helmet, a bike, or any other moving object to catch some extreme-sports video at 640-by-480-pixel resolution (recorded movies are in AVI format).

 

Want to take this gift guide with you to the store? Print it out with this handy PDF or upload it on to your iPod or iPhone with the files contained within this essential ZIP archive.

 

Happy hunting!