Holiday Gift Guide 2008: Best luxe Mac accessories
Don't forget to check out my lists of Mac-related Bargain Apples (gift ideas under $100) and Mid-Range Apples(gift items from $100-$300) and iPhone and iPod touch software.
The Mino HD is my pick for must-have gadget of the year – the world's smallest high-definition (HD) video camera. At an impossible 3.3 ounces the Mino HD is the ultimate accessory for any self-respecting Mac head. It's about smaller than a iPod classic and holds 60 minutes of 720p HD video and can run for two hours on a charge.
The best part is that everything is self-contained. When you're ready to offload the video a USB port pops out of the top like a switchblade and does double duty as its charger. The included FlipShare software is Mac compatible and makes it easy to trim and add titles to your videos then email them or upload them to YouTube.
Price: $230
[read the review] [check prices]
Just because Steve Jobs has a problem with Blu-ray, doesn't mean you have to. The bottom line is that the war is over and Blu-ray has emerged as the winning format in the next-gen optical drive wars.
Other World Computing's Mercury Pro Blu-ray external drives for the Mac are the first Blu-ray external drives on the market that offer four interfaces, including FireWire 800, FireWire 400, USB 2.0, and eSATA.
It features a 4x Blu-ray disc write speed for burning up to 1 gigabyte of data per minute and can store up to 25GB per disc. Mercury Pro Blu-ray external drives are compatible with iTunes, iDVD 5, DVD Studio Pro and Roxio Toast.
Price: $500
[Read my review] [Vendor site] [related review]
My current Crumpler is the Cork and Fork which I can only describe as the ultimate camera bag/backpack. It's a wheelie bag that will fit in the carry-on compartment of a commercial aircraft and features a removable inner backback with customizable dividers and room for up to 2 DSLRs and plenty of lenses. Wheel it off the plane and into the hotel, then pop out the backpack for daytripping around town with all your DSLR gear.
Price: $450
[All Crumpler bags at ZDNet] [Vendor site]
Launching the free iPhone app gives you a choice of several music sources (pictured) including your library, Last.fm, Pandora, Sirius, Napster and Rhapsody. It can even play music from a folder stored on your Time Capsule (NAS).
Each "zone" of your house needs either a ZonePlayer 90 ($349) or ZonePlayer 120 ($499) depending whether or not you need an amplifier. Then just plug in your speakers and go. My (admittedly complicated) setup took a few tries to get configured but once I did, it has been acoustic nirvana ever since. It beats the Airport Express because it doesn't require a host computer and it streams just about every type of audio to several zones at once.
Price: Starting at $350
[Read the review] [check prices] [All Sonos media system products at ZDNet]
The best automotive GPS receiver these days is the nüvi. The nüvi 755T features a 4.3-inch display and the small footprint is pocketable making it easy to tote on your next trip. Its gorgeous user interface is intuitive and super fast, with even faster boot, acquisition, route calculation and map drawing times.
The 7xx-series is the first nüvi to debut with the Garmin's new software that features gorgeous 3D buildings and lane assist so you don't miss your exit. Nicities like the QWERTY keyboard, native Mac software and free traffic data make the nüvi the only GPS that should be on your holiday shopping list this year.
Price: $400 street
[ZDNet Product Page] [Related review] [Vendor page]