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Photos: Top Christmas presents for techies

From a Star Trek pizza cutter to a magic wand that controls your TV
By Tim Ferguson, Contributor
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From a Star Trek pizza cutter to a magic wand that controls your TV

In case you hadn't noticed, Christmas is nearly upon us. You may now be wondering what to buy members of your tech team to thank them for all their efforts in 2010 or you might want something for that special techie in your life.

Allow silicon.com to help you pick the perfect presents with our list of the best geek gifts for Christmas.

Vuzix iWear glasses
If you want to watch a movie but don't fancy the big screen experience, the Vuzix iWear video glasses could be the answer. The glasses allow the wearer to view movies or computer games shown inside the lenses, but not visible from the outside.

The glasses include integrated earphones and are even suitable for playing 3D films. There are a range of models, offering different functionality such as lens focusing for people who wear glasses as well as various screen ratios and sizes.

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A cookbook is a common Christmas present but for sci-fi fans The Star Wars Cookbook will add that extra geeky flavour. Among the delights that sci-fi cooks can rustle up are Wookie Cookies, Jedi Juice Bars and Boba Fett-Uccine.

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One of the favourite foods of techies is pizza but slicing them can be a chore. Of course, that's when you don't have a pizza cutter shaped like Star Trek's USS Enterprise to hand.

With the disk of the ship forming the blade and the two rockets serving as the handle, this officially licensed pizza cutter should slice your Hawaiian at warp speed.

It should also draw admiring glances from tech colleagues, even when it's not boldly going where no novelty kitchen utensil has gone before. Maybe.

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For more techie magic, what about this wand that doubles as a television remote?

The wand can learn 13 infrared codes from your existing remote control and then transmit them via predefined gestures. For example, you could flick the wand to turn on the television, move it up to increase volume and flick it to change to your desired channel.

The wand uses infrared to control televisions, Digiboxes and even stereos without using buttons as the user simply waves or flicks the wand.

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Christmas will also be a time when techies get a bit of extended game time so the latest Call of Duty game from Activision, Black Ops should be well received.

The game is available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC so recipients will be able to spend the festive season carrying out missions in 1960s Cuba, Russia and Vietnam.

Screenshot: Activision

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If the techies in question are musical, they might like this electronic music synth shirt, which can be played while being worn. It has eight different sounds to choose from and if you want to form a tech department band, guitar and drum shirts are also available.

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For techies who have decided to pin their colours to the Android mobile OS, a cuddly version of Google's Android robotic logo could be a good way to show their OS love.

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And for techies who have problems getting out of bed in time for work, the Arcade Alarm clock should be a useful and fun way to wake them from their slumbers.

The clock resembles a gaming console from the 1980s and the actual alarm is made up of gaming sounds that should get most geeks jumping out of bed. The clock even has joysticks to set the alarm.

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With temperatures regularly below zero, these SmarTouch gloves could prove useful. They let the wearer use smartphone or tablet touchscreens without getting cold hands.

The gloves conduct electricity using special material woven into the thumbs and index finger to allow the device to pick up finger taps and pinch and scroll commands. The gloves are even available in black and white stripes for those wanting something a bit more natty.

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For techies stuck in the office over Christmas, the Echo Bot should provide one way to pass the time.

The user records a message, which is then played when a motion sensor in the eyeball is activated - leave it near a colleague who refuses to make the tea pre-programmed with the message, "Milk and two sugars!" to make new friends among your workmates.

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And once you've finally got the beverage-dodger to the kettle, why not make sure your brew has a cup to stir it?

The self-stirring tea cup has tiny motor at the bottom, which is triggered by a button on the handle. The recipient of the tea can have it mixed to perfection while they get on with something more pressing such as whipping up a batch of Death Star Popcorn Balls to accompany that perfectly stirred cup of cha.

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