photo credit: Marco Alioli aka Marcus

I was sitting in the barbershop on Saturday morning (quite early I might add) and I couldn’t help but notice all the cool gadgets all of the customers were using. Any one of those gadgets I think would make a pretty good gift (no Zhu Zhu Pets) for the technologically literate savy member of your family.

If you don’t know by now, a brotha loves cheap (if not free) so I decided to come up with a list of five solid, yet affordable tech gifts for this holiday season. (note: these are solid tech gadgets that YOU know they will like, not those lame ones that they pray you didn’t buy at the end of last year’s shopping season, so the reciept is still good).

The Low Down:

Pretty much anything under 100 bucks from Apple.
That includes: iPod shuffle or Nano, in-ear headphones, Magic Mouse…or if you’re like me, an Apple/iTunes gift card so they can buy whatever they feel like getting (in my name, of course). (Hint: Buy Apple Certified Refurished products – You may save some money on an otherwise perfect piece of equipment that somebody just didn’t know how to operate!)

Bluetooth Headset
I think those folks who ALWAYS have the headset in their ear even when they are NOT on a call are clowns…but I must admit they do come in handy when you are on a call and need two free hands. So if you know somebody whose large “cheeseblock” phone (thanks sweetie) stays glued to the side of their face, this might be a good gift for them.

Flash/Thumb Drive
A cool item that you will never use…until you need it. Then you will thank God you have it. A great way to carry around pics, pdfs, spreadsheets and other documents with you. So if you frequent public computers and they have a “No Downloading” policy, or you need to have 100 copies of your resume printed out on fancy Kinko’s paper for the umpteenth Career Fair you’ve been to this year (keep your head up!) a Flash/Thumb Drive is the way to go.

Noise-Cancelling Earphones
You’d prefer NOT crank up your earphones until your ears bleed just so you don’t have to listen to the person in the check-out lane who doesn’t think their super smart phone can pick up their normal speaking voice when they are on a call. Well noise-cancelling earphones may just do the trick. They come in full-size or in-ear (for those of us who don’t want to be mistaken for a DJ)

Logitech Harmony Remote
Chances are, the techy you are shopping for (like myself) has researched, designed, manufactured, and implemented his “routine” for turning on the TV, turning on the Cable/Satellite box, turning on the Receiver, chaning the video input on the TV and the audio input on the receiver to ‘Video 1′, using a myriad of ATLEST three remotes. Well Logitech has taken all the fun out of only ONE person in the whole house knowing how to operate the ‘big TV’ and introducing a line a remotes that stress user-friendlyness (it’s a word now). You simply hook the remote up to your computer, find all of your components, and the software automagically (another patened word) programs the remote.

So there you have it, a brotha’s picks for solid tech gifts for this holiday season. You only have a couple more shopping days till the big day, so I suggest that you remind the ‘Mrs.’ of all the shopping she has to do hop to it and start checking off those Christmas lists.

…One of these days, Brotha Tech will be large enough to where my inbox will be full of messages from companies itching to send me their products so I can bless them with my insightful, witty reviews. Until then, there are some other folks out there who are already where I am trying to go. So instead of ignoring their existence until I am put on, I will gladly support other great sources for great tech products.

The Lowdown:

One such source is Digital Living Room. The article that caught my eye was “Top 3 Media Remotes for your HTPC Media Center”.

A Media Remote is a little different than your average TV, VCR, DVD, AVR remote…actually, it’s all those remotes with the addition of an PC remote all rolled up into one. For those who don’t know (this IS a place for learning), a Home Theater PC is a computer that can handle most if not all of your typical media. Whether it be music, home videos, streaming movies, online and broadcast TV shows, and movies you’ve saved (legally of course) on your PC, a HTPC has “upgraded” equipment and software than can handle the load most media can throw at a device…I should’ve just quoted from the article myself…it did a better job!

A Media Remote is one of the most important elements of your digital living room as that determines how comfortable you are able to control your HTPC Media Center. The key contribution of this article is to help you first to recognize what do you expect from your HTPC Media Center and then suggest the best media remote for those activities.

Since nobody wants to fumble around with a large keyboard and mouse in your lap (I used to do it with a TV dinner tray) just to get to the content on your PC, a Media Remote is the best choice.

That’s where the article comes in and gives you a breakdown of the top remotes that can control your HTPC. So check it out: Top 3 Media Remotes For Your HTPC Media Center.