jkOnTheRun Fifth Annual Geek Holiday Gift Guide

It's time (past time really) for the jkOnTheRun Fifth Annual Geek Holiday Gift Guide to help you find the cool and unusual gifts for that geek in your life.  I had to stop and look at that again, yes, it's the Fifth Annual guide!  That's a lot of years in blog years.  We've scanned the geekosphere and come up with the ten best gifts you can lay on your special geek.  Tell them jkOnTheRun sent you (no affiliation of any kind).

1.  My Documents Laptop Sleeve- what could be a better way for your geek to carry all his/her documents around than this sleeve?  You know your geek takes the laptop everywhere and is in the cloud so all of the "documents" are just files anyway, right?  $29.99

2.  Plant Twitter Kit- your geek is all over the Twitter and it only makes sense that his/ her plants are too.  This kit will allow the geek's houseplant to notify her via Twitter when it needs watering or when it's been over-watered.  Now that's geeky.  $99.99

3.  LOL Magnetz- I can hz magnetz?  What better way to live the cheezbrger lifestyle than with your geek's own LOL Magnetz on the fridge or cubicle?  $19.99

4.  Personal Soundtrack Shirt- because the only way to make your geek more annoying is to make his clothes play sounds.  The Personal Soundtrack T-Shirt will let your geek make his own music everywhere.  And any clothes with a remote control scores you big points with your geek.  $39.99

5.  Scrolling LED Belt Buckle- what better accessory for the clothes on this list than the LED Belt Buckle.  Let your geek declare anything he/she wants in bright colorful lights.  What could be geekier than that?  $19.99 - $24.99

6.  Got Root? Hat- sometimes your geek has problems with style but that's solved with the Got Root? Hat.  Great for any occasion and it has the slogan on the front only a geek could love.  $16.99

7.  Little Star Wars Costumes- you and your geek have started a geek family of your own and everyone knows it's never too early to start embarrassing your kids.  These Little Star Wars Costumes will show off that geek background that no good geek should ignore. $19.99

8.  Einstein Action Figure- your geek's hero is faithfully reproduced as a fully bendable action figure.  If you can call Einstein an "action figure".  Imagine the look of delight on the face of your geek as he plays with the doll, er, action figure.  It's what you live for.  $7.99

9.  Finger Drums- no more playing air drums on the table for your geek.  Finger Drums reproduce a complete set of drums that your geek can play to his/ her heart's delight.  And there is nothing more aggravating than a geek playing little tiny drums so make sure this gift is for your geek's cubicle.  $24.99

10. WTF? Mug- nuff said.  $6.99

Site construction upcoming: plan appropriately

Just a quick heads up that we've got some back-end changes here on the site later today. The timing is generally out of our hands but the window we have right now is between 6pm ET and 9pm ET. We should actually be up and running during the changes, but it's unlikely that any reader comments can be left during this window. We're mentioning that aspect specifically due to the HP Magic Giveaway contest that kicked off today. Remember that to enter that contest, you have to leave a comment on the contest post. You have a week to do that, so this small downtime won't preclude anyone from entering. However, I'd recommend holding off on your entry until after we're back up and running 100%, just to be certain that your comment is captured and entered.

I'll also post an update to the contest post linking to this message in case folks don't see this info. Again, the time-frame is out of our hands, but the changes are needed so that we can continue to bring you mobile tech content now as well as some new features in the future. Thanks!

Sharp finally shuts down the Zaurus

We first reported almost a year ago that Sharp was shutting down the venerable Zaurus PDA line but apparently that was premature.  The Zaurus has been around for at least ten years and has long been an outstanding piece of engineering from Sharp.  We were very impressed with the last Zaurus we reviewed, the SL-C3000, as it stood the test of time and was an incredibly useful device.  There are enthusiasts all over the world devoted to the Zaurus line and developers are still producing software for it.  Word is out that it is official finally, Sharp has pulled the plug on the Zaurus.  She will be missed.

Gladinet turns cloud data services into local virtual folders

With online services appearing regularly, how do you differentiate between them? Pricing is surely one way, but features and ease of use ought to play into the mix as well. Business Hacks points out Gladinet as a way to make several web services a little easier to use on a Windows machine.

This free utility turns cloud utilities and data into virtual local folders to make it look like everything is right there on your PC. It supports Windows Live SkyDrive, Google Docs, Zoho Docs, Amazon S3 storage, Picasa and more; each service is integrated nicely within Windows Explorer. Since the data is actually stored in the cloud, Gladinet offers an easy way to create a sharable URL to one of your "folders", but BHacks says that public folders aren't working for them. Since the application is still in beta, that's not too surprising but I hope that gets addressed quickly. Most of the other data storage services have the sharing features down pat.

Laptop test drives Intel Classroom convertible

The Intel Classroom notebook certainly qualifies as a netbook due to the small size and relatively low price.  The Classroom is aimed squarely at the education field, young children in particular, as the name implies.  Laptop Magazine reports that Intel will be showing a convertible Classroom at the upcoming CES in January.  The convertible Classroom is a typical 8.9-inch netbook with a twist.  The screen swivels around to tablet form and can be operated by touch.

We are not fans of touch-screen netbooks unless the device can assume a slate configuration so it's good to see Intel approach this from the swiveling angle.  What remains to be seen is how well the palm rejection works since the touch-screen is meant to be used for handwriting in addition to the touch controls.  Windows XP Tablet Edition, Microsoft's only version of XP that supports handwriting and touch, is no longer available to OEMs so Laptop reports that a specially developed interface and utilities have been produced to take advantage of the tablet capabilities.  They were impressed with how well this worked which sounds very promising.

The pictures we have seen of the convertible Classroom show a nice slate form with the screen swiveled and while that is nice there is no indication of the weight of the netbook.  This device is designed to be used by small children and since slate mode usually requires handheld operation the weight will be critical to its success.  It looks over 4 pounds heavy in the photos but let's hope it's much lighter than that.  We'll try to get a first-hand look at this new Classmate when we attend the CES in just a few weeks.

Toshiba, Sandisk slashing NAND memory production due to poor demand

We are seeing NAND flash memory in all sorts of products these days and the high demand for the cheap memory saw Toshiba and SanDisk enter a joint venture to build an expanded production facility in Japan.  This facility was scheduled to go operational this year to allow the two giant flash memory makers to ramp up to meet demands.

Then came the failing economy and accompanying price freefalls that has many memory makers running in the red.  This climate has worsened to the point that Toshiba and SanDisk are cutting back their production of NAND memory, Toshiba by a tremendous 30%.  Both companies are claiming that demand has fallen dramatically resulting in over-supply which has caused memory prices to tank. 

''Recession in the global economy and the slowdown in consumer spending are having a significant impact on demand for semiconductors,'' according to Toshiba in a statement. ''This is particularly notable in NAND flash memories, where decreased demand for applications such as memory cards and MP3 players has generated excess supply.''

What is unclear is how this global flash memory situation will impact Apple.  Apple is one of the largest consumers of NAND flash memory in iPods and iPhones and it's not clear how they would be impacted if a major consolidation of memory makers were to take place next year as some experts predict.

(eeTimes via engadget)

Consumer Reports top 5 smartphones will surprise you

Consumer Reports is a great publication, online or print, that does a very thorough job testing, rating and reporting on various consumer products.  They usually are good at defining what is important to the consumer and designing criteria for rating products in a given category.  It was with great surprise when Matt Miller pointed out that Consumer Reports has released their list of the top 5 smartphones.  The surprise is two-fold- some of the phones that made this short list and especially those that didn't make the top 5.

Here's the top 5 smartphones according to Consumer Reports:

• Samsung Blackjack II
• T-Mobile Wing
• Motorola Q9C
• T-Mobile Shadow
• Blackberry Pearl Flip

These phones are all fine smartphones but it is surprising that only one Blackberry made the cut, and where the heck is the iPhone 3G?  The iPhone 3G was further down the list and actually tied with the T-Mobile G1.  Interesting list to say the least.

ST-NXP combines 3G, UMA support on single chipset

ST-NXP might not be a household name, but they're under the hood of phones you would recognize. The company has shipped over 120 million EDGE chipsets but knows that the future is in 3G and beyond. That explains the new 7210 UMA chipset the company just announced. They claim it's the first single chipset solution that combines 3G connectivity with support for UMA, or Unlicensed Mobile Access. UMA is used to seamlessly move cellular phone calls over to wireless networks like WiFi, which benefits consumers by using fewer calling plan minutes. Of course, it helps the carriers too since it offloads traffic from their cellular network.

The 7210 UMA isn't just a voice and data chipset though. ST-NXP is packaging it in a "Cellular System Solution" for handset makers, offering the following features:

• ARM926-based GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS platform
• Fully integrated 3 Megapixel camera-sensor interface
• Display sizes up to QVGA resolution and 18-bit color
• Video recording and playback: H.263, MPEG-4 30 fps CIF
• Video playback: H.264 15 fps QCIF
• Audio playback: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, WMA

Last I checked, T-Mobile's UMA service (known as Hotspot @Home) only worked with a few handsets like the BlackBerry Curve and Samsung Katalyst, so perhaps the range of devices will be expanded more quickly based on the news.

Palm's software store is (finally) open for business

Well that was quick and slow at the same time. Just yesterday, I penned some thoughts about Palm's Nova announcements coming in a few weeks at CES. One of those predictions, admittedly not much of a stretch, was that Palm would follow Apple and Google by launching their own application store. Turns out that Palm quick did just that last night. It's also slow because Palm practically invented the smartphone market earlier this decade, but is now playing follow the leader, which usually isn't good.

Palm should have leveraged their vast array of in-house and third-party applications long before this as they had a clear, competitive advantage. Namely, the number of Palm OS titles and smartphones on the market as early as 2002... anyone remember the Treo 180? Now Palm has over 5,000 applications (over 1,000 are free), which Venture Beat notes is half that of the Apple's iTunes App Store and ten times more than Google's Android Marketplace.

Numbers and strategies aside, Palm's store is here now and available for download. The company has partnered with PocketGear, a long-time handheld software vendor; I haven't yet seen any details if developer terms are modeled after that of Apple and Google.

Update: Mobile Crunch indicates that developers will see 50% of software sale revenues, which is far less than Google, Apple and even RIM are offering.

HP Magic Giveaway kickoff on jkOnTheRun! Enter here.

NOTE: Site maintenance from 6 PM ET - 9 PM ET will take the comment system down.  It will be up after that so if you can't enter the contest just wait a bit.  We promise it will come back shortly and you have 7 days.  Thanks.

Finally it's time to kick off our HP Magic Giveaway where one lucky winner will snag a huge prize bundle full of magic.  It's a great time of year to be giving such a great bunch of stuff away and we're making it really easy to enter our contest.  A big shout out to HP and Microsoft for putting this contest together and supplying all the great prizes! 

Here's what's being given away, all to one super duper lucky duck:

• HP TouchSmart IQ816 PC
• HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC
• HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC (with Windows Live)
• HP Mini 1000 (with XP)
• HP MediaSmart Connect
• HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO (printer)
• HP 564 Photo Value Pak
• Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 (Student-Teacher Edition) – 1 DVD with 3 licenses
• Microsoft Windows Live
• Corel VideoStudio X
• Kung Fu Panda (2 widescreen DVDs; 1 widescreen Blu-Ray)

That's FOUR new computer systems accompanied by all that other good stuff.  The TouchSmart is a 25-inch all-in-one PC that is totally awesome, the HDX18 is an 18-inch laptop, the dv4 is yet another cool laptop and the Mini 1000 is the newest netbook from HP.  You could win all of this stuff in time for the holidays if you follow the simple rules and enter our contest.

All you have to do to enter the contest is to post a comment on this thread that shares your best mobile tech tip that has provided you the most "magic".  That's it, certainly not too much work to win all this cool stuff.  Your tip can be anything that makes your mobile tech work well for you and that you think worth sharing.  Explain your tip with enough detail that anyone can figure out how to start using your idea with no help.  Since this is a giving time of year and HP is sharing all this cool gear with the winner we think it would be super if the winner would share some of that stuff with those who need it.  There are four computers after all, and while it's not a requirement it would be special to see it shared with others.  If you will share some of this prize package then tell us who you will share it with and why.  That's all you need to do to have a shot at over $6,000 of great gear.

Here are the official rules for the jkOnTheRun HP Magic Giveaway contest:

1. Entries must be left in a comment on this post, nowhere else.
2. Only one entry per person.
3. Contest is open to all entrants world-wide.
4. Entry to consist of your best tech tip to share explained in detail.  Plans to share part of the prizes should also be left in the same comment.
5. Contest will accept entries from December 16 - December 22.
6. Kevin and I will choose the ten best entries and choose the winner randomly from them to be announced December 23.
7. Winner will have 24 hours to provide us with shipping information via email upon our announcement, otherwise an alternate winner will be chosen.
8. Our decisions are final.
9. Our friends and families are not eligible nor are any employees of the GigaOM network.

That's it, now isn't that simple?  Get thinking about your best mobile tech tip and leave the advice in your comment.  Only seven days until someone is going to have the best holiday season ever!  Good luck!

Shoot callers of your choice to voicemail with Do Not Disturb

Considering my iPhone is ringing off the hook with CES meeting requests, Trinket Software's latest application has me considering a move to Windows Mobile. Their Do Not Disturb software is still in beta, but it's just what I need right now. Using the software, you customize settings for your WinMo 5, 6, or 6.1 phone to force incoming calls to voicemail without your handset even ringing.

Do Not Disturb allows you to set which contacts, phone numbers or categories are allowed to disturb you... or not. You can also set profiles for contact groupings as well. It looks handy, but you'll want to get in now on the beta since the application is due for general release next month and is expected to cost between $5 and $10.

(via Jason Langridge)

Toshiba dynadock U- USB dock for notebooks/ netbooks

Toshiba has introduced a new docking solution for notebooks and netbooks that packs a ton of utility into a slim tower form.  The Toshiba dynadock U is a USB docking solution that contains a high-res graphics processor allowing the usage of big monitors with any notebook.  The dock packs a punch by providing a lot of features for even the most demanding user:   

• One cable connection from your PC to all your devices
• Universal compatibility with all Windows-based PCs
• Built-in HD Digital Video card supports up to 1920x1200 resolution
• Built-in Digital Audio card adds virtual 7.1 surround sound through S/PDIF port
• Space-saving upright slim design reduces cable clutter
• View up to three displays simultaneously
• Provides six USB 2.0 ports--two front Sleep-and-Charge USB ports supplying power even if PC is off
• Hot swappable - add or remove most devices without rebooting the PC
• Easily and safely undock with undock button
• Dimensions and weight: 1.8” x 3.1” x 8.75” ; 1.13 lb
• Ports: six USB 2.0, S/PDIF, LAN, VGA, DVI, microphone, headphone and lock slot
• In the box: One Toshiba dynadock, base plate, USB cable, AC Adapter and CD-ROM

The inclusion of the HDMI and S/PDIF ports means the most sophisticated monitors and audio systems can be used with even the lowest netbook.  We particularly like the two USB ports on the front of the dynadock which are powered even when the laptop is not running allowing the charging of phones and other gear.  $150.

Add OS X "stacks" to Vista, XP for free

I won't go on record to say that the Stacks feature in Mac OS X 10.5 is the best feature in the OS, but I do use it on a regular basis. If I didn't like it, I'd simply turn it off and go back to folders, I suppose. Having said that, you can easily add the same visual navigation feature to Windows XP or Vista using the free StandaloneStack application that Download Squad just highlighted.

Once installed, you can easily create or customize your own stack groupings in the Taskbar: just click 'em and you can simulate the grid or fan views on a PC. I find that I can navigate a wee bit quicker using Stacks than I can with the standard Windows menu system, but I offset that with the QuickLaunch toolbar to a large extent.

Global calling gets more mobile and less cellular

It's no secret that landlines are getting replaced by mobile phones. As soon as Verizon lights up the dark fiber they put in my front lawn five months, I'm cutting the landline cord myself. Unless I keep running out of juice on the mobile phone that is. So if phone calls are generally moving from fixed lines to mobile lines, is there any impact on international calls? Turns out that the trend follows suit, perhaps even more so thanks to low cost VoIP or other web-based global call rates. The report from TeleGeography shows that 45% of all international calls are mobile to mobile and we've seen a number of companies launch web voice services at low costs.

The report timing just happens to coincide with more relevant news from TruPhone. Earlier this month, the company launched their voice calling client for a non-phone in the iPod Touch. However the iPod client was limited to other TruPhone members on the iPod Touch or Nokia handsets. Today, TruPhone announced a new feature for the client, enabling your iPod Touch to call any mobile phone or landline in the world over WiFi at reduced calling rates.

Mobile phone shipments drop 58% in Japan

You don't have to look far to find signs of the poor economic climate.  The global climate is as bad as it's been in a very long time and it seems each day we hear another indication that points to how bad it really is.  Forbes has reported that mobile phone sales are down 58% in Japan, a staggering decrease in phone shipments.  Japan is typically one of the hottest markets globally and this decrease is staggering.  This huge drop in phone shipments makes the recent Nokia decision to pull out of Japan understandable.

We often complain in the US about the business model we have to live with where carriers subsidize the phones in exchange for long contracts.  We might want to think twice about that according to Forbes based on what experts blame for the Japanese phone slump:

The figures underscore the deepening slump in Japan's mobile phone market following the industry-wide introduction of a new business model under which carriers charge more for handsets in return for lower calling fees.