But fret not. Here’s a list of stuff that this Goondu will be elated to find under his metaphorical tree, and hopefully, it will inspire you to find that perfect gift for your special someone.

Nikon Coolpix P7100

Canon aficionados can swear by their G12, but the Nikon P7100 comes out tops for me, due largely to its longer zoom range: 7.1x (28-200mm) on the P7100 vs. 5x (28-140mm) on the G12. It’s also got a superior LCD screen which is both bigger than the G12’s and has a higher resolution.

The P7100 also gives you very long exposures of up to 60s, an above-average battery life of up to 350 shots, lets you go as close as 2cm for macro shots, and has enough buttons and dials to make any manual photographer happy. The vari-angle LCD screen is also a handy addition.

If you already own a DSLR (especially with Nikon accessories), and are looking for a travel-friendly camera with more advanced features, then the P7100 is an excellent choice.

HTC Titan

Windows Phone 7 has come a long way since its inception, and its latest update is now a solid mobile operating system that is starting to catch the attention of many consumers (see our review). I’ve been eagerly waiting for Nokia’s entry, but the Lumia 800, while a beautiful device, failed to impress with a lot of features missing, including a front-facing camera and an NFC chip.

The king of Windows Phone is still the HTC Titan, with its massive 4.7-inch Super LCD screen (which has also been “Androidified” in the form of the HTC Sensation XL) and zippy 1.5GHz processor while maintaining excellent battery life. The 8-megapixel camera with its backside illuminated sensor and f/2.2 lens is a great upgrade, offering decent shots even in low-light conditions.

Unfortunately, it isn’t available on any of our local telcos, and it costs a pretty penny without a contract.

Xbox 360 with Kinect

I have no doubt more Kinect units will be flying off the shelves this holiday season, especially with a bevy of new games unveiled in October. This little gadget is incredibly fun to play with, whether alone or with a group of family or friends, and will be perfect for that party you’re planning. And it’s great for working off the fats earned from those holiday feasts.

Put the Kinect aside and an entire world of more hardcore games open up, from first person shooters like Gears of War 3 to role-playing games like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. What more can a geek ask for?

Kobo Touch

As someone who reads a lot but hate lugging books around, an e-reader would be a perfect companion. Unfortunately, the Kindle isn’t friendly to this region: 3G doesn’t work, and buying books through Amazon requires a painful workaround.

Enter Kobo, the underdog in the e-reader world. The Kobo Touch is more expensive than the Kindle, but packs in several nicer features. The quilted back design, for one, looks fantastic. Storage can also be expanded via a microSD card slot, letting you hold up to a nice 30,000 books in a light package.

Buying books is also a much smoother experience, as Kobo is more international friendly. Most importantly, the Kobo Touch supports the ePub format – the official standard of the International Digital Publishing Forum – while the Kindle does not.

Jawbone Jambox

I reviewed the Jambox back in March, and thought it was a fantastic little speaker. It has a top-notch build, sounds significantly bigger than its size, and even handles calls with built-in noise cancelling microphones.

Unfortunately, the price is north of S$300, a little too high. But it has a great size for travel, and its microphone makes it perfect for a home office or a conference room where you can hook it up to a service like Skype.

Nintendo 3DS

The last handheld I owned was the GameBoy Advance, and many hours were spent training Pokemon to unrivalled heights. Now that the price of the 3DS has been slashed, there’s no better time to buy it.

Despite a lukewarm reception at launch and a disappointing range of titles in its early days, the platform has moved on nicely and is now a decent device. And with the PlayStation Vita first available in Japan and rolled out gradually elsewhere, the GameBoy Advance is definitely the gaming handheld to get this holiday season.

Google is spreading some Christmas cheer this holiday season with an “easter egg” that will unleash snow flakes on the screen right after you enter “let it snow” in a Google search box.

Once the screen has been filled with snow, there’s a button to defrost the screen, though snow flakes will continue to make their descent on the first page of the search results.

But before you hit defrost, be sure to doodle something on the screen with your mouse cursor, similar to what you might do on a bus window on a rainy day.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays!

What better way to wish your friends a merry Christmas than by using a cheesy animated GIF from more than a decade ago?

Well, we thought that too. So, here’s a short and sweet greeting from all the Goondus to our friends who have been nice enough to read us and take part in our contests this year. Rest assured, we got more goodies to give away in the coming months, so keep checking back here.

Even though it’s Christmas, most of us don’t really expect to get the gifts we pine for, but hey, there’s still half a day to Christmas Day, and we can always dream!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

First, merry Christmas to all!

For those that haven’t read it, check out Alfred’s and Gin’s Christmas wishlists. This is our 2nd Techgoondu Christmas thus far (hopefully many to follow), and following last year’s tradition we post our Christmas wishlists.

Well this year I already spent a bundle upgrading my old desktop PC to a new complete Dell rig, and buying a few new peripherals like a 750GB WD 2.5-inch portable hard disk. So, Christmas shopping wise, I’ve already gotten what I wanted.

About the only other gadget I’m seriously looking at getting is a new handphone, as my old Samsung one is getting a little cranky liaoz. Of the few handphones I got a chance to play with and review this year, the one I really liked was the HTC HD2 (retail price S$1,188 without contract).

The reason can be summed up in a word: It’s gorgeous. The 4.3-inch touchscreen display is one of the largest in the market, and the thin and sleek form factor, with it’s metal finishing, is super chio. Apps wise it’s not as spectacular as the iPhone (nothing is), but the UI is sane and intuitive (unlike other phones I can mention). It also uses standard 3.5mm audio jacks and typical USB cable jacks, something which I really appreciate.

After watching Youtube videos on this phone, I can confidently say that the next phone I buy will have a large LCD screen.

Have a merry Christmas and a great New Year ahead!

As Christmas comes and the year draws to a close, what would a geek want in his Christmas stocking, or rather, in a nice FedEx box?

In my own unrealistic mind, I have keys to an Audi A4 2.0T, an Intel six-core Gulftown CPU (though that’s only officially out next year) and a Classè integrated amp for my music.

But I’m being greedy. I’m a PC geek, a car lover and a hi-fi buff (I refuse to call myself a pretentious audiophile).

Just how do you buy a gift for a geek? Let’s be fair and agree that there are different goondus, or well, geeks who might be differently pleasured with different gifts. Here’s what the various types of goondus might want.

1. For the PC geek: The Digital Life Dream PC 2009

Okay, so you can’t buy an Intel Gulftown CPU yet. But you can buy all the stuff on the Digital Life Dream PC that I built last week with the top-end components you can find in the shelves (check out Wednesday’s Straits Times print edition, sorry, the site is gated).

With dual ATI Radeon 5970 cards – a total of four graphics processors – running your games, you will never need to upgrade in the next two years (unless you absolutely “need” the latest). All the goodies are stuffed inside Corsair’s excellent Obsidian 800D case, which I am mad about for its excellent cable management system (only thing is it’s steel, not aluminium).

The main problem, of course, is the cost. It only costs about $12,000 to build this ultimate Dream PC.

2. For the Mac geek: an iPhone 3GS

Come on, don’t say I’m biased. I love Apple stuff. It’s just the evil way they do business that irks me – and thousands of users out there (I was a Mac user screwed over by Apple junking ADB and SCSI, by the way – don’t say that’s innovation).

What I think the Mac geek – okay, Machead – needs is a new iPhone 3GS, of course. Now, all three telcos here – SingTel, MobileOne and StarHub – offer the “best” smartphone out there (if you haven’t tried an HTC) with “competitive” price plans (I pay StarHub just S$35 for real UNLIMITED access on my HTC PDA, by the way). So, buy the iPhone for your Steve Jobs-loving geek friend. Just don’t get sucked in by the hype yourself!

2. For the gamer geek: a Logitech G9x

Sorry to all the Razer fans out there. Despite funny critter with phone-like buttons on them, what it all comes down to for many gamers is the performance AND longevity. Logitech makes the best mice out there, period. I am talking not just the technology – which Razer is great for, especially in the Lachesis I use now – but also longevity.

I’ll be honest. I’ve never had a Logitech keyboard or mouse die on me. My Razer Tarantula, unfortunately, has lost all the paint on the well-used AWSD buttons, so I really gotta touch-type on it. I’m going to buy a new Logitech/Microsoft keyboard and, once my Lachesis dies, I’m going for the excellent Logitech G9x mouse. Solid grip plus on-the-fly speed changes are what I love about it.

3. For the AV goondu: Denon AVR-1610

Not everyone has S$10,000 to buy the best of the best in sound that does both home theatre (HT) and music excellently. As I found out while shopping for a budget AV system with a couple of friends recently, S$1,000 can net you a decent deal for a HT setup if you choose a bundled offer.

For that price, Denon’s AVR-1610 is going with Boston Acoustics wooden CS2310 5.1 satellite speakers at Audio House, when I went there with a friend today. Not a bad combo for S$999, the setup brings out the effects in movies pretty well and even manages to fill a small room. Check out also Onkyo and Jamo bundles – I’m talking about under S$1,500 5.1 systems that actually turn up the effects in movies pretty well.

Of course, if you want the subtleties in music CDs, then there’s no substitute for a good stereo setup that may cost several times more. But everyone starts somewhere, and S$1,000 for a hi-fi system that absolutely kills some of these home-theatre-in-a-box systems is a good start. New year advice from a hi-fi noob to another: don’t listen to the snobbish audiophile tweakos, listen to your ears.

4. For the boy racer: Audi A4 2.0T quattro

Every weekend now, you can see Premium Automobiles, the distributor for Audi cars here, laughing all the way to the bank with their new lineup. The reason is the sexy new A4s and Q5s (the latter is on order many months into 2010), which sport some of the sexiest LED front and backlights around.

That’s not to mention the nice 2.0T engine, which easily puts out 211hp, or more if tuned up. Between the two cars, the A4 2.0T quattro is my pick since it is a flexible sedan with four-wheel drive and features the “G-force” feel you usually get from a car under 7sec in the 0-100kmh scale. However, I just can’t make myself fork out close to S$160,000 (that’s not a typo, you folks from outside Singapore) for it. The cabin can really be better… and what, I still have to stick in a key to turn on the ignition?

5. For everyone else: happiness
Of course, money or gadgets cannot buy you happiness. Well, they can, for a short while, actually. But, ultimately, we want world peace. And happiness for all. Though failing that, we’d just take a nice PC or an Audi A4 as a Christmas or New Year wish.

Whatever you get in your stocking, here’s wishing one and all a Merry Christmas!

A throng of Santas running down the usually sleepy streets of costal Paignton in Devon, England.

Overcompensating Christmas trees, snow in the the heart of the desert and theme park living in Dubai.

All these and more at fortylove.tv, a travelogue of roads less trodden by two friends criss-crossing continents. At fortylove.tv, two globe-trotting babes share three minute postcard videos of their travels with each other, and also with the wider web world.

Started by Singaporean Adrianna Tan, 23, and Malaysian May Yee, 25, the “part travelogue, part video-cast, part excuse to hang out with interesting people” experiment is a living dream writ large for the two writers/photographers/communicators.

Tapping on the collective power of Web 2.0, the duo have sourced artwork, music and photos from disparate corners of the world. To this they added their own videos, mashed and edited the content, and created something really unique. The closest thing remotely similar I can think of is Matt’s Dancing YouTube videos, but it’s like comparing apples to oranges.

This is an exemplar of self-published content blooming all over the Internet, where individuals with big dreams and talent can find an audience and be noticed. That they are Singaporean and Malaysian chio cha bos respectively is, of course, a plus point.

Adrianna and May Yee aim to release forty videos in twenty weeks, and so far, week one has been pretty good. I really liked the pilot episode on the Santas, and episode two on Dubai malls isn’t bad either. It’s raw and quirky, and most importantly, interesting.

Good enough to keep tuning in, and I’m now a fan. You go girls. Live your dreams, and I hope you get noticed.

(Disclosure: some of my content posted on Techgoondu is research for stories in Digital Life, the Straits Times weekly IT supplement. If you’re interested, please do drop me a mail. Here’s wishing all Techgoondu readers a happy new year for 2009!)

What’s a geek to do before Christmas? Buy a Techgoondu-approved gift to make others – and ourselves – happy of course. Granted, this year-end is shaping up to be more austere than the past few with the financial downturn already upon us. But austerity driving shouldn’t mean no giving for Christmas, right? So here’s a list of diverse geek gifts mooted by us, and we promise it is a cool one:

Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition
S$1,679

Called the fastest desktop processor on Earth, Intel’s new Core i7-965 lives up to its title with benchmark-busting performance for PC buffs. The Extreme Edition, the top of the Core i7 range, retails at a ridiculous price, of course, but it comes with an unlocked multiplier that lets you overclock to your heart’s content. Crazy PC enthusiasts won’t blink an eye when it comes to buying one of these puppies for Christmas! -Alfred

Wadia 170i iPod dock
US$350

The world’s only iPod dock to extract digital – as opposed to analogue – signals from the iPod. Rip your CDs in a lossless format and partner this with any top of the line DAC and be shocked: this combination will likely outgun any CD player that you own, even esoteric megabuck players. The only caveat is the lowly storage capacity of the iPod, exacerbated by the humongousness of lossless files, so here’s hoping Apple continues to pack in the gigabytes on their music players. Available, I believe, in Singapore at Absolute Sound in Adelphi. -Boon Kiat

Audio Technica ATH-ESW9
S$498 from CK Tang

Any self-respecting audiophile will scoff at the flimsy plastic bits that music player manufacturers call “earphones” that come along with their gadgets. Instead, do your ears (and street cred) some favour by getting the Audio Technica ATH-ESW9 headphones. Made out of cheery tree wood and boasting a large 42mm neodymium magnet driver, these gems belt out rich and bassy tunes that will rock your senses. Its lightweight body also make it a dream to tote for hours straight. -Stephanie

Fable II for Xbox 360
US$60

Nintendo DSi
18,900 Yen (S$300)

I recently had the chance to play with the DSi, the third iteration of the Nintendo DS platform, whom my friend bought while in Japan last month. Launched on Nov 1st 2008, the DSi is released only in Japan for now but should make an appearance in other parts of the world in Spring 2008. The GBA slot has been removed, making it not backwards compatible with certain games, but also makes it 12% slimmer than the DS Lite. It also sports two VGA cameras, a cool interface bundled with fun software – especially the photo sharing software – and access to the NDS Shop, which allows people to buy stuff online. Super cool. -Chi-Loong

Rotel RSX-1560
US$2599

Who says home theatre receivers need to sound bad in music? Rotel’s RSX-1560 not only looks great but promises everything you need in a box for a 7.1 home theatre system PLUS good stereo sound. It, of course, comes with all funky wizardry – like HDMI 1.3 – expected of AV receivers now. Just don’t expect this to be cheap. -Alfred

Fujitsu M1010 netbook
S$888

With prices of netbooks falling faster than you can say “Asus Eee PC”, there is greater incentive for users to whip our their wallets and bring a sweet lil’ netbook home. The Fujitsu M1010 makes a great gift for the female folk as it comes in candy-coated snap-on covers in shades like pink, red and blue. It’s not just a pretty face either – the laptop comes with juicy features such as a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor,1GB RAM, 8.9-inch display screen with a maximum resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, and even a 60Gb hard drive. -Stephanie

Nokia E71
S$200+ with a high-tier mobile plan

By now no longer the new kid on the smartphone block but still one to beat for those who need a real Qwerty keypad: (Relatively) cheap, zippy, terrific features, super pocketable and a real energizer bunny to boot. It is also a tough nut to crack – literally. I’ve dropped it several times and it still ticks perfectly, with only a minor rash on its lower corner to show for my clumsiness. -Boon Kiat

Chrono Trigger for Nintendo DS
S$80

As a gamer, if you haven’t played Chrono Trigger before, and if you own a DS, pick this one up. Yes, it’s a remake (launched 25th Nov 2008), but it’s a remake of one of the best games ever. I played the original Chrono Trigger on emulation on my PC (didn’t have a Playstation) about 10 years back, and I still have fond memories of the game and characters. For fanboys, it’s a no-brainer due to nostalgia. For newbies, get this game because it has withstood the test of time. -Chi-Loong

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen
S$$329 at Challenger and South Asia Computer

It’s the most unusual product that I toyed with this year.It’s a pen with a mini-computer, 1 GB storage, mic, speaker and a mini-camera under the tip of the pen. As you write your notes on special paper (lined with a million invisible dots per sq inch) the camera remembers every stroke’s location on the paper. So you can record your meeting or conversation while taking notes at the same time and the pen is actually bookmarking every pen stroke and linking it to the corresponding part of your audio recording. So if you want to hear what the lecturer was saying at the third line of your first paragraph, just point your pen there. You can even upload your recordings plus image of your notes via USB to your laptop and you get a flash equivalent of what you created. It’s cool. Period. -Gin Lee

OLPC XO
US$399

Lastly, the movement that arguably spawned the whole netbook craze. The OLPC, or One Laptop Per Child, is a cool project that sends one of these delectable green, Sugar Labs-powered gizmo to a developing country child with every purchase you make. Available at Amazon.com. -Techgoondu

Merry Christmas!