Pick the Perfect Holiday Gift

Leave it to video gaming pioneer Nintendo to find new ways to expand how we play, what we play, and whom we play with. Earlier this year the company delivered the Nintendo DS Lite, a portable, dual-screen console that features brain-teasing games for adults. And in November the company introduced its revolutionary Wii video game system (pronounced "we"), a set-top box aimed at players of all ages and gaming levels.

The $250 Wii pushes the gaming envelope with its souped-up technical features, such as 512MB of internal flash memory, two USB 2.0 ports, and an SD Card memory expansion slot, plus special chips from IBM and ATI that push performance and graphics to new heights. But the Wii's major attribute is its Wii Remote controller, which can sense hand movements and match them to on-screen activity (such as bat swings or race car steering).

The system has both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless communication built in, so you can connect to an online gaming service for additional games and global opponents.

At half the cost, Nintendo's $129 DS Lite is an iPod-white, 7.7-ounce, handheld gaming marvel. With a pair of bright and crisp color LCDs (one of which is a stylus-based touch screen), the DS Lite is aimed at kids and adults alike. In fact, its best-selling games, the $20 Brain Age and Big Brain Academy, purportedly help improve adult thinking abilities. It also features integrated Wi-Fi for wireless game matches and voice recognition.

The PDA used to be all the rage--until PDA phones like the Palm Treo sent the plain-old PDA packing. Now HP sends the PDA in another direction with its $599 GPS-enabled handheld, the iPaq rx5900 Travel Companion. The rx5900 comes with North American street maps offering visual and audio turn-by-turn directions to help you find your route. In addition, it's a multimedia audio and video player and a fully functioning Windows Mobile 5.0-based PDA with organizer and calendaring tools, built-in Wi-Fi for Internet connectivity, and Bluetooth for wireless synchronization of personal data. It even connects to Bluetooth printing and wireless stereo headphones.

Jabra's $89 BT325s Bluetooth headset allows users to listen to music while never missing a cell phone call. The corded stereo headset attaches to most music devices, including iPods, MP3 players, and even the HP rx5900. It also connects wirelessly to Bluetooth-enabled phones. When a call comes in, the music automatically fades. When you've completed the call, the music resumes. The tiny control unit has hands-free profiles for answering or rejecting calls and voice dialing.

For the person who needs noise-free audio enjoyment, the $349 Bose QuietComfort 3 noise-cancellation headphones are the luxurious answer. The QuietComfort 3 set is remarkably smaller and lighter than the popular Bose QuietComfort 2 headphones, yet you still get a range of audible frequencies and the ability to seal off outside noises such as the drone of an airplane engine. The well-designed earpads allow for comfortable, long-term listening and overcome the performance trade-offs of conventional on-ear headphones.

Desktops for the Living Room or the Office

Finding a power desktop is easy. Picking the right one is tougher. Some systems, however, stand out from the pack, like the HP Pavilion d4650y. Inelegantly named but elegantly equipped, it has the features to meet most computing and entertainment needs--this work-and-play horse is ready for the races.

The d4650y, which earned a PC World Rating of 84, features Windows XP Media Center Edition, with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4-GHz processor, 1GB of SDRAM, two 250GB hard drives, a 16X LightScribe DVD Multi drive, a secondary DVD-ROM drive, and a 256MB nVidia GeForce graphics card with TV-out. Add in a dual TV tuner with DVR functions, an FM tuner, a remote control, an integrated 7.1-channel sound card, stereo speakers with a subwoofer, and a 19-inch LCD, and we're talking about a PC that doubles as a home entertainment system.

The dual tuner means you can watch one channel while recording another. And with the continuously updated Media Center Edition online TV program guide, you can set up recording of future shows with one click.

This configuration is priced reasonably at about $1825, but you can customize the system further with more (or fewer) features at HP's Web site.