As a father who spends most of his time reading IT, tech and political blogs, when the time comes to buy Christmas gifts for the kids, I feel so out of the loop. I actually bought my daughter a Nancy Drew box set a couple years ago. Yeah, it didn’t go over well.
This year I’m getting my daughter a laptop. She asked for one. Yes, I know of the perverts that dwell online, but she’s a smart kid and I’m sure she will exercise good judgment in her browsing.

Some other gifts I’m buying this Christmas:

The “True Lies” DVD is one of my favorite gifts. People I’ve gifted it to often report watching time and time again.

Some more gift ideas:

Perfect Holiday Gifts
Gift Ideas for Kids
Best of Brad Pitt
Best of Julia Roberts
Best of Bruce Willis

There’s a new gadget out for iPod owners that allows you to essentially block those around you from viewing what’s on your iPod. Brought to us by iStyles, the privacy screen protector blacks out anything being viewed on the iPod’s screen, except for the person in its direct line of site - you. It costs just $9.99, and also protects your iPod’s screen from the dreaded scratches that you might otherwise acquire. Now you can watch your iPod porn on the train with peace of mind, knowing that only you can see it.

It seems like GPS navigation is finally making it’s way on to American phones. I’m seeing more and more high-end phones have this feature. The phones in Japan and Korea have likely had such features for a good while now, as they’re always ahead technologically. While I’m not so sure that it would be something that I’d use frequently, I do think it is something that could potentially come in handy one day. It could be useful if you’re lost, or even if you’re in another city/state/country and want to find the nearest Starbucks in a flash.

I just got sent this geographic information system software from a company called TeleNav. I’ve not yet tested it out, so I can’t really give my opinion yet. They sent me a phone which is pre-loaded with the TeleNav software and some contraption to put in my car so I can use it as not only portable GPS, but also in-car navigation. The phone is kinda small though - its a Samsung Katana phone from Sprint. I’m thinking that a touchscreen smartphone with a large display would work better for the in-car navigation part. Maybe I’ll test it out this weekend and let you guys know what I think. Samsung sent me a BlackJack phone, which is compatible with TeleNav, and I kinda wish that TeleNav would have just sent me software I could load on the phone instead of a pre-loaded phone. I think the BlackJack would work better with it.

So, um, what’s your favorite GPS enabled mobile phone these days? If you’re not sure what’s out there, keep your ears open next week when the 3GSM conference is going on in Barcelona. There’s sure to be some great new mobiles coming out of that, and I hear that Apple is bringing the iPhone along for people to actually get a look at and test out there.

Further searching on the web has led me to even more outrageously expensive tech gadgets.  Check them out below.

The World’s Most Expensive Mouse:

For those who want nothing less than the best, I present to you the world’s most expensive mouse. This mouse is encrusted with 59 individual diamonds and is cast from 18 karat white gold.  It features USB and PS/2 connectivity to your computer, and is thankfully an optical mouse.   It is being offered by the Swiss company Pat Says Now for a mere $24,000.

The Super Expensive Jewelry PCs:

Moneual Lab announced three jewelry PCs designed by Lee Buckingham.  Each of the PCs is, of course, outrageously expensive due to the value of the jewels adorned on them.  One of the Jewelry PCs (the Moneual Renaissance) is expected to cost $1 million dollars. All of them are decorated with the most expensive blue Sapphires, Topazes, Rubies, Diamonds, and other precious gemstones.

The Moneual Renaissance system features 18K white and yellow gold is decorated with fine Rubies on the front panel of the system.  As far as the technical specs go, the Renaissance features the AMD Athlon64 FX processor, 2 terra byte HDD (RAID), 8GB Samsung system memory, blue-ray disc drive, a digital home motherboard by ASUS, HDMI capable graphics from AMD-ATI, Windows Vista Ultimate Edition, a silent cooling fan from Zalman, and two PCI HDTV cards from SIGMACOM.

The next system, the Baroque, is in 18K gold and is decorated with blue Sapphires on the front panel of the system.  The Baroque has the same system specifications as the Renaissance.

The last system, Rococo, is in 18K yellow and white gold, and is decorated with diamonds on the front panel of the system.

The company is considering making 100 additional Jewelry PCs, all encrusted with semi-precious stones, at at more affordable price of $30,000.  Three “value” models are also in the works which will be introduced at the $15,000 price range.

I wonder if anyone has the world’s most expensive cell phone, MP3 player, mouse, and PC.  That would have to be the world’s most expensive tech set-up!

If you’re a working class person like myself, you’ll probably never have the opportunity to buy any of the gadgets I’m about to share with you, but it’s still fun to oogle!  If you’re lucky and you’ve got the big bucks, then maybe you’ll be interested in one of these high-class pieces of modern technology.

The World’s Most Expensive Cell Phone:

For the person who literally has everything, there’s always room for a little bling-bling in the form of the world’s most expensive cell phone - The Diamond Crypto Smartphone.  This beauty features a platinum body and 50 diamonds, 10 of which are rare blue diamonds.  The phone runs off of Windows CE, and features a high-resolution TFT display, and a 256-bit crytographic algorithm. It also features SMS, MMS, E-mail, WAP, and internet capabilities.  The phone supports JAVA, and also has a fun media player.  For all that, this phone will set you back just $1.3 million USD.

The World’s Most Expensive MP3 Player:

Blinged out iPods just got outdone - the TrekStor i.Beat Organix Gold MP3 player might very well take the crown in the mp3 player bling department. This mp3 player features 18-karat gold casing and 63 diamonds that together make up 1-karat, which leaves us with one hefty price tag of $20,000. It features 1GB of storage, and has dual headphone jacks.

In the earlier part of 2006, I purchased the 4″x6″ Wacom Intuos3 Pen Tablet, which retails for around $230. I really wanted to get the next size up, the 6″x8″, but at the price of $330 I was not ready to spend that much. So I settled on the smaller one.

I recently was sent an 8″x6″ Manhattan Graphics Tablet to try out by the folks over at Technical Cable Applications. Right off, I loved the larger size of this tablet. This larger size makes it much easier to get things done, and is easier to handle. Another feature that I liked about the tablet itself are the hot keys around the border of the drawing surface; those can really come in handy.

Then drawing pen that comes with this tablet I prefer over the one that comes with the Intuos3. Manhattan’s pen feels more like an actual pen, and has a similiar weight to a real pen, so to me it felt more natural. The Intuos3 pen is lighter and a bit longer than a normal pen. One thing the Intuos3 pen featured that the Manhattan one did not was an “eraser”, but this didn’t really bother me as I mainly use the “step backwards” feature in Photoshop anyways.

The pressure-sensitivity of the pen and tablet worked out great for me, although it did seem to be very slightly less sensitive than the Wacom. I also liked the mouse that came with the Manhattan tablet. The Intuos3 mouse has a felt-like surface that attracts dust, particles, and cat hair like a magnet. The Manhattan mouse did not have such side effects.

I’ll admit that I was somewhat skeptical of this tablet as all I’ve heard anyone talk about is the Wacom tablets, but after trying it out for myself, I think I prefer the Manhattan tablet over the Wacom one I have. It is also much more affordable at just $79.95 and free UPS shipping!