Tech Gifts for 2009

Jason Johnson, Information Systems Specialist

Only a few days left until Christmas so if you're looking for some last minute gift suggestions, read on!.

Shure SRH440: Headphones—$100: Amazingly high quality for an incredibly low price; forget those earbuds everyone is cramming into their canals, for true listening bliss at an absolutely affordable price try a pair of these gorgeous sound reproducing Shure SRH440 headphones. Lay back in the old arm chair with a fully loaded iPod (or Zune) and enjoy the soft, warm, bass and smooth treble these cans deliver. They’ll have you falling in love with your favorite artists all over again. Shure SRH440 at amazon.com

Plants vs. Zombies: Video Game—$20: Add a few zombies to your holidays for variety with Plants vs. Zombies, the most addictive action-strategy game I have ever had the pleasure of playing. What’s not to love about a mob of fun-loving zombies trying to invade your home and using an arsenal of plants to combat them on the front lawn!? This is the best $20 you’re ever going to spend on a video game that is a compete riot. Checkout this free trail and get hooked. http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz

3,000+ Lumens FireSword-IV: Flashlight—$400: The last light you will ever need. This powerful, insanely bright flashlight uses four 18650 rechargeable lithium-ion batteries to power four Cree MCE LEDs with 50,000 hour life expectancies to pump out so much intense, clean, white blinding light users liken the powerful beam as a weapon. http://elektrolumens.com/FireSword/FireSword-IV.html

Getting Real: Book—FREE: This book will excite you. Although this book's emphasis is on building web applications, loads of the ideas are applicable to non-software activities and include ideas about small teams, rapid prototyping, expecting iterations. Highly applicable for any one starting a business, writing a book, designing a web site, recording an album, or doing a variety of other endeavors. Once you start "Getting Real" in one area of your life, you'll see how these concepts can apply to a wide range of activities. Read it online for free and get fired up. The old rules don't apply anymore, it’s truer every day, this book and 37signals successes seem to attest to this. Available in a downloadable pdf format for $19 or in paperback for $25 or read the entire book online for free! http://gettingreal.37signals.com/

The Future of a Radical Price: Audiobook—FREE: The most effective price is no price at all? That’s what author Chris Anderson (The Long Tail) argues in this optimistic, highly engaging book full of interesting and amusing examples. Listen to the unabridged audiobook right off the web page or download it for listening on your computer or iPod. This book is a lot of fun and the fact that the author narrates it makes it even better. If you have to commute, there’s no better way to spend your time. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/17-07/mf_freer

eBook Reader: Software—FREE: Want the dust from the ebook reader wars to settle and the technology to mature? Waiting until the next new hardware release? You don’t have to spring for a $260 Kindle to enjoy discounted prices, instantaneous purchases and access to eBooks; just download one of the free eBook applications Amazon is currently offering. Kindle for PC and Kindle for iPhone are here today and Kindle for Mac and Blackberry is coming soon. The iPhone/iPod Touch Kindle apps offer especially neat features such as the ability to read in portrait or landscape mode, select alternate background and text colors to improve reading comfort in low light conditions, tap on either side of the screen or flick to turn pages, pinch to zoom images in books and “tap and hold” on a word to create a note or highlight. Free eBook reader from Amazon

27” iMac: Home Computer—$2,000-$3,500: A surprising number of people don’t realize how badly they a) want and b) need one of these. Apple’s new 27-inch Core i7 iMac is MC Hammer fast (as in, you can’t touch this) has an incredible 27” HD widescreen that’s so bright, rich and crisp the keyboard should come with a drool cover. Honestly, this iMac, it’s sick, and we never say things like that. The 2.8 GHz “Nehalem” processor incorporates four processing cores into one for blazing performance. Memory (RAM) options are 4GB, 8GB or 16GB and the more memory the better it performs and faster it goes. For storage the iMac comes with 7200 rpm Serial ATA hard drives in 1 or 2TB (terabyte) capacities. Everything about this computer is big and fast. http://www.apple.com/imac/

Fitbit: Wireless Pedometer—$99: We all know some “pedometer people,” our dear friends and family who wear these little doohickeys that count the number of steps they’ve taken during a given day; I’ve never felt compelled to join in until now. The fitbit not only tracks your steps it also calculates the distance traveled, calories burned, time you went to bed, time to fall asleep, times awakened, total time in bed and actual sleep. What’s more, the $99 cost gets you a lifetime account on the website that interacts with the Fitbit which downloads your data wirelessly when within reach of the USB base-station. When signed into the web service, numerous, easy to read graphs display your information and keep you motivated.http://www.fitbit.com/

Kindle or Nook: eBook Reader— $259: Take part in history and get in on the publishing business's destruction or salvation by joining the eBook frenzy! $260 can get you either the Amazon Kindle today or Barnes & Noble’s new Nook, shipping February, 2010. Either one of these top eBooks readers gives users the ability to store thousands of books, newspapers, and magazines, and downloads new content in seconds. The e-ink displays enable batteries to last for several days and text is crisp, clean and easy to read with no glare or backlighting. You can even adjust the font size as you read. Old school print meets high tech device. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/ http://www.amazon.com/kindle

Diamond DA40: Airplane—$350,000: Easy to fly, easy to land, who wouldn’t want their own airplane?! Sure it’s a lot of money but it’s also a lot of fun and as Philip Greenspun so flawlessly put it: “If you have $300,000 sitting in a savings account earning 3 percent interest, why not? Life is short, you can't take it with you, and you might as well arrive at your destination a little faster.” http://philip.greenspun.com/flying/plastic-airplanes - we couldn’t have said it better ourselves, Philip. http://www.diamondaircraft.com/aircraft/da40.php

Join us for Michigan's Economic/Business Outlook Presentation on January 13, 2010

Micro Visions is sponsoring the 2009-10 B.O.S.S. (Business Owner Success Series). Learn about current business and economic trends and legislation affecting businesses. Presented by Carole Valade, Editor of the Grand Rapids Business Journal and John Crawford, CEO and President of the Wyoming Kentwood Chamber of Commerce.

Register for the January 13, 2010, event from 7:45am - 11:30am by filling in the online B.O.S.S. registration form or call 616-975-0125.