The season of giving
Holiday gift guides abound. Deep down, I desperately wish to fight off Christmas fever and present a column devoid of such lists. Unfortunately, the evil powers-that-be (powered by Steve Jobs), have forbidden me to do so. I must succumb to the wishes of my audience, so here I am—I sit in front of my radiation-emitting monitor, woefully presenting the first annual Reveille Holiday Gift Guide.
Being college students (that's the first painfully obvious statement of the day), an abundance of funds are, unfortunately, not within our list of resources. Due to the nature of technology, a limited budget leaves a good chunk of the market off the list. However, operating under the assumption that we all have credit cards and love our family members... let's throw aside the price tags and deal with it in January.
First on the list come the cheap stocking-stuffers. Thumb drives, running about thirty to fifty dollars, are quickly replacing the archaic floppy disks as a preferred method of storage. Starting at 16mb (equal to about fifteen floppies), a thumb drive—also referred to as flash drives or key drives—contains a small, low-capacity hard drive. They plug directly into your computer's USB port, which comes standard for any machine built in the last four to five years. Best of all, a thumb drive will eliminate the pesky annoyance of transferring files from your dorm to the computer lab—no more self-addressed emails, put it on the thumb drive. Estimated price: $35.
For an entertaining alternative for your geeky bud, head over to Best Buy and pick up the most anticipated DVD release in recent memory... That's right, Star Wars is finally out. While it might not be the original trilogy—unofficially dubbed the Special Special Edition due to Lucas' further editing of the classic trilogy—it is still the de facto standard in any geek's movie collection. Estimated price: $50.
Something for mom and dad? If you've got the cash, spring for the reasonably priced PalmOne Zire 31 ($125) or one of Kodak's superb EasyShare digital cameras—at $165, the CX7430 is more than enough for the casual photographer. Of course, you could always surprise the family and bring home the budget-oriented Sony PlayStation 2 or Microsoft Xbox (both about $140).
For the more financially stable, plenty of opportunities lay ahead of you: A new desktop, one of the HP Pavilion Media Center editions ($1400) or the new Apple iMac G5 ($1200), would do nicely. For laptops, look into the sexy Apple 12.1-inch iBook ($999) or HP Pavilion zv5000z series ($850). Of course, if you've got a music aficionado in the family, nothing could satisfy the senses more than Apple's remix version of the classic iPod: Clad in black and red, the 20gb U2 iPod comes in at only $349.
Ahh, we come to the end—there are many more options out there, but we can't cover everything in one column. A few parting recommendations: Always look for the best price, not just the best set of features, and don't be afraid of heading online (froogle.com, a spin-off of Google, will provide a snapshot of price ranges) for the best deal. Until next semester, have fun shopping—coming in January, 2005: How to pay off all those holiday gift debts.