Futurelooks has come up with a number of gift guides this month to help you with your holiday shopping. But, if you’re still looking for unique and useful gift ideas you’re in luck! We’ve got yet another gift guide filled with cool stuff to give your idea jar a shake. In this guide, we’ve selected a few unique but very useful gadgets that should be well received this holiday season and satisfy that difficult to shop for person on your list.
Two Gadgets To Ensure a Long Winters Nap
One thing that people that spend a lot of time on the computers and the Internet are known for are very poor sleeping habits. In fact, some of us get no sleep at all and wander around in a zombie like state for most of the day. This is not only bad for you, but can cause all sorts of health problems. Here are a couple of gadgets that might help you ensure that you get that long winters nap.
The DreamKeeper 400 is made by a company called HBI and is designed to promote relaxation and increase sleep quality and quantity. The device works using a Parallelized Electrostatic Field combined with a vibrating motor. The combination of these two act on acupressure points that are known to alleviate stress and improve sleep quality. HBI claims that stimulation of these pressure points can increase deep sleep by up to 14% and extend the total sleeping time by up to 78 minutes. Other benefits include increased blood flow and circulation.
The devices is worn on the wrist and should be activated 30 minutes prior to your sleep session. Once activated, a breath synchronization program (BSP) runs and you’re supposed to match your breathing to it. The device has three vibration settings that can be adjusted by simply tapping the button. The only downside is that the vibration setting is quite audible in a dead quiet room, which could disturb others.
I received a test sample a month ago and was pretty skeptical about its claims. However, after thirty days of use, there have been noticeable changes to my sleep pattern. Usually, I thrash around for hours until I get tired of thrashing around and then go to sleep. However, after the first week of use, I found myself falling asleep a little quicker by simply matching my breathing to the BSP. This is hard to do at first but gets easier, and eventually, you just do it without much effort. I did need to jack the vibration setting up initially, but after a couple weeks of use, I found myself able to use the lower settings.
Since my sleep patterns were pretty screwed up to begin with, I think that someone like myself would receive more benefit than someone who just starts snoring away minutes after hitting the sack. This is a great segue to the next product…
The HBI SnorePro keeps snoring in check by using something called Dynamic Snore Detection (DSD) technology which precisely detects a snore and issues a programmable digital pulse to quit it. So instead of having to be elbowed by your bed buddy, the SnorePro does it for you so you can get your sleep.
Like the DreamKeeper, the SnorePro is worn on your wrist. The LCD onboard gives you your “snore history” and allows you to track your improvement over time. A beginner, intermediate and advanced setting allows people to train themselves to snore less over time. Although this would be a great present for that snoring person on your list, it’s possible that it might be received as an insult. Of course, that’s for you to decide.
The HBI DreamKeeper 400 goes for $149.99 US while the HBI SnorePro goes for $119.99 US. Either way, someone is going to get a better night of sleep with either one of these under the tree.
Pack A Few More Gifts In Your Luggage Without Penalty
If that trip to visit family for the holidays ends up being extra lucrative, then you know that you need to figure out a way to get it back. Although you can pack that checked bag to capacity, airlines often love charging extra for those extra portly ones. This leads to the classic scenario of having to open up your luggage on the airport floor to redistribute the wealth. Here’s a product that can help you avoid that.
The balanzza Digital Luggage Scale is small handheld scale that allows you to get that weight distribution just right before heading for the crowded airport. The unit runs on two AAA batteries (included) and is small enough to just toss into any of your baggage. To use the scale, all you need to do is attach the strap to the handle of your bag, turn it on, lift, wait for the beep, and then put it down. The reading will be shown in the large, easy to read LCD and can be converted from metric to imperial units on the fly. It supports up to 100 lbs of weight or 44 kg if you’re in the rest of the world. It’s also very sturdy and the ergonomic handle makes it easy to grip with even the biggest bags.
The balanzza Digital Luggage Scale is priced at a very stocking stuffer friendly $24.95 US. Depending on how much you travel (or how often you break the airline scales), it could easily save you that and more in just one trip.
Give the Gift of Green Technology This Holiday Season
There are many ways to go green, but the most common way for people to reduce their footprint on mother earth is by changing their light bulbs to fluorescent bulbs. Recently, LED bulbs have been appearing on store shelves and thanks to GlacialLight, we should be seeing these bulbs in increasing quantities.
GlacialLight’s GL-BR30 bulbs provide a direct energy efficient replacement to standard household incandescent and fluorescent bulbs. Using a measly 11 Watts, these LED bulbs provide up to 720 lumens of light, which is equivalent to a 75 watt incandescent bulb or a 15 watt fluorescent bulb. Although fluorescent bulbs are closer in energy consumption, LED bulbs have the advantage of longer life span at over 50,000+ hours. They are also instant on, requiring no warm up period to reach full brightness and are able to maintain full brightness till they die. They contain no environmentally hazardous metals such as mercury or sodium and do not emit potentially harmful UV radiation or infrared radiation like halogen lamps.
Due to the small size of the LED lighting elements, GlacialLight has been able to design and manufacture common replacements for overhead fluorescent tubes and even halogen work lights. The only problems you may run into is availability and cost as they run a fair bit more than more common fluorescent and incandescent units at around $40 US for a single GL-BR30 bulb. However, based on the dramatically longer lifespan and potential energy savings (not to mention the lack of hazardous materials), they might just be worth it, and a unique and useful gift worth sharing.
Small Package: Lots of Fun!
At a scant 20 grams and smaller than most USB flash drives, the Swann Monitoring Micro-VideoCam is a recipe for potential mischief (or fun). It can literally be hidden anywhere or attached to anything and records up to 2.5 hrs of video on a 2GB micoSD card. In other words, it’s perfect for attaching to the tree to see who’s been opening up their Xmas presents early. A built-in rechargeable lithium ion battery provides the juice and connects via USB for both charging and downloading of data.
The Micro-VideoCam records up to a resolution of 352 x 288 so it’s far from HD Quality. Actually, it’s below even YouTube quality. In my testing, I found the video to be quite grainy, and grainier still in low light so if you were thinking about setting it up in the dark as a spycam, you can forget about that. However, in well lit areas, it does produce viewable video and could be a hoot attached to a radio controlled car or the family pet. If you’re looking for something higher quality, the Flip Video Mino would fit the bill, but is many times larger.
The Swann Micro-VideoCam will set you back about $119 US.
Once Cellphone to Rule Them All
In the last few years, the cellphone has quickly taken over as the home phone of choice for people on the go. Why have a landline when you’ll never use it? In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I had a landline. It’s also no surprise that cellphones will continue to be one of the number one gifts on many wish lists this holiday season.
Although there is no doubt that I will never return to landline service, there are times when I forget to charge my cellphone and it dies somewhere in the house where I can’t find it easily. Other times, I put it somewhere and it rings, and I’m too far away to make the sprint to the handset in time. I also miss being able to cradle a phone under my chin without screwing up my neck. These are all things that this next product can take care of and more.
The XtremeTech XLink BT is a device that allows you to connect your cellphone to a regular corded or cordless landline handset. Instead of using landline service, the XLink BT bridges your regular landline phone and your cellphone together via bluetooth, allowing you to use regular landline phones to answer your cellphone calls. If you have a set of wireless phones in the closet, this allows you to have more than one handset so you no longer have to sprint for your cellphone when a call comes in.
I’ve been testing this device with a set of Philips DECT 6.0 wireless phones and I’m actually quite pleased with the sound quality and the convenience of having a handset within reach. I also like having the peace of mind knowing that my cellphone is always charged and ready to go and I know that it’s sitting beside the XLink BT.
Setup is extremely easy and is as difficult as pairing a Bluetooth Headset to your phone for the first time. Once that’s done, and as long as Bluetooth is activated on your cellphone, it will automatically connect to the XLink BT and then to your regular landline handsets every time you come home. The XLink BT can also pair up to three cellphones, each with a distinct ring, allowing everyone in the household to park their phone. This is also useful if you have a line with evenings and weekends free as you can park both lines and just pick up the one that doesn’t use your daytime minutes.
I’ve really enjoyed using the XLink BT and I recommend it to anyone who has chosen the route of the cellphone only lifestyle. The XLink BT actually comes in two flavours: The BT as tested retails for $79.99 US and works with cellphones only while the available BTTN version allows you to plug in and manage a landline phone or FAX line in addition to three cellphones and will run you $109.99 US.
You Better Get Going!
With only five more shopping days left, you don’t want to end up running around on Xmas Eve when you should be relaxing with Eggnog in hand. I hope these ideas inspire you and put you on the right track to getting that perfect gift for that special someone on your shopping list. If this still doesn’t do it for you, you might want to check out our other guides.
We’ve put guides together for Macbook users, Nintendo Wii owners, Holiday Gamers, Outdoor Techies and even travelling techies. If you’re on a budget, we’ve got a guide for that too and there is no shame in buying refurbished cameras. Happy Holidays!
Futurelooks Holiday 2008 Guide to Unique and Useful Gadgets Photo Gallery
