Sree's Thoughts on High-tech Stocking Stuffers
Thursday, Dec. 18, 2003

Here are some suggestions for last-minute, high-tech stocking stuffers - all under $100 each.

• Intellivision Lives!: The old Intellivision video games are now available for the 21st Century. There are Xbox, PlayStation2 and PC versions (around $20), but the most intruiging is the direct-to-TV version. You plug in a controller that comes with 25 games built-in ($25) or 10 games ($15). Sure the graphics are quite tame compared today's super games, but it's a refreshing video experience, with no violence.
  
• Hasbro Video Now: This palm-sized, hand-held portable video disc player makes for a good gift for anyone over 6. These require a new kind of disc, and only play black and white programming, but they are fun. The player is $50 and each disc is less than $20.
  
• Napster Pre-Paid Gift Cards: If you're worried about the kids running up high credit-card bills on the new, legal Napster, then these cards make perfect sense. For $14.95, you get 15 songs that can be downloaded. It's a simple process and the cards can be bought at about 14,000 retail outlets throughout the U.S., including RiteAid, Radio Shack, CompUSA, etc.

And if you live or work in Manhattan, you can get a large selection of gift sdelivered in Manhattan from BN.com - the Barnes & Noble site - for free. As long as it's more than $25, there's no shipping charge; you place the order by 11 am and they will get it to you by 7 pm, even on Christmas Eve day. If, say, you don't have a doorman or for some reason you can't take delivery at 7 pm, they promise to attempt delivery on Christmas Day itself. They have what they call "faster delivery" items (with a running man icon) that allows you to send gifts to certain zip codes on the East Coast by 7 pm the next day. You can check all the fine print here.

Write to techguru@sree.net and let me know your thoughts.