Geared Up for Giving
By Mark Henricks
These gadgets will make life easier, happier, and lots more fun for the tech lovers in your life, whether they’re sports fans, music lovers, or gamers.
Virtual Virtuoso
Karaoke? That’s so ’90s. Today, the trend is toward making your own digital voice recordings directly into your computer, where they can be manipulated with audio-editing software, patched onto multitrack musical recordings, e-mailed to deserving friends, or burned onto a CD. Samson Technologies GTrack USB condenser microphone does just that with onboard features allowing for simultaneous recording of vocals and instrumentals. Just plug it into your PC and, with the distinctive optional shock mount, your living room will both look and sound like a real recording studio. Suddenly, remote caroling becomes a possibility, and the holidays may never be the same. G-Track microphone, $149, shock mount, $40, samsontech.com
 Green Giant
To get an idea of how much electricity our gadgets consume, just flip off the lights in your living room some night. That flock of glowing indicator bulbs, multiplied by every home in the nation, signifies the sizable and rapidly growing percentage of the energy our modern existences require that is represented by consumer electronics. Sharp’s AQUOS LED LE700UN series of LCD TVs aims to reverse that trend. The new line employs LED backlighting to reduce energy use below that of any other full-on 1080p HD screen. The 52- inch model consumes just 105 watts, about 68 percent below Energy Star 3.0 guidelines. The LEDs are also mercury-free and should last 100,000 hours. The TV comes in 32- to 52-inch diagonal models and is priced from $1,099 to $2,799. sharpusa.com
Now Hear This
From the exotic ruthenium metal outer casing to the Ethiopian sheepskin-covered ear cups, everything about Ultrasone’s Edition 8 headphones displays a devotion to ultimate quality that, frankly, verges on obsessive. Ethiopian sheepskin, it turns out, is the most sound-isolating leather around -- who knew? Ultrasone’s S-logic technology, which creates the impression of virtual surround sound to the wearer, is easier to appreciate, as is the frequency range from booming rumbles of 6 hertz to 42,000 hertz -- chirps mostly audible to bats. At $1,499, the Edition 8 can likely lay claim to the finest audiophile headphones anywhere. For a bit less money and absolutely no ruthenium, sheepskin, or even cables, Sony Ericsson’s HBH-IS800 wireless stereo headphones, $180, stream music and calls from a Bluetooth cell phone directly to your ears. ultrasone.com, sonystyle.com
 Big Shot
Leica practically invented compact 35 mm photography in the early 20th century, and the German optical pioneer has manufactured its M-series of cameras for more than 50 years. The latest, the M9, is the first compact digital with an image sensor big enough to capture a full 35 mm-sized frame in 18 megapixel resolution. The range-finder design, which uses a viewfinder instead of the through-the-lens approach of modern single-lens reflex cameras, harkens back to the original M3 of 1954. Yet the 2.5-inch display and intuitive electronic controls are thoroughly modern. It even comes with a copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom software. The M9 body is $6,995. Lenses in focal lengths from 16 mm to 135 mm run $1,500 to $10,000. leicacamera.com
Play Your Fast Game
For some, it’s enough to say that MAINGEAR’s Ephex Elite is one bad gaming PC. Others will want to know that MAINGEAR’s latest gaming rig is wrapped around the fastest desktop processor ever, Intel’s new Core i7 975 Extreme. As many as three interconnected ATI Radeon HD or NVIDIA GeForce GTX systems handle graphics chores. A custom water-cooling system dissipates the copious quantities of heat generated by all the over-clocked CPU and GPU. And the Ephex Elite’s radically styled case accommodates up to 24 gigabytes of random-access memory as well as a wide selection of massive disk drives and optional Creative X-Fi Surround Sound Gaming Audio. From $5,660, maingear.com
 Remote Possibilities
You’ve just settled into your recliner and clicked on the tube when you realize you left the channel guide across the room. Exasperation sets in until you realize you hold in your hand ESPN The Ultimate Remote. This sports-fan remote puts you in charge of TV, cable box, satellite box, DVR, TiVO, DVD, and audio receivers, and you don’t have to fumble for confusing device codes to make it work with your components. The Ultimate Remote figures it all out for you. Even better, it gets the Internet through a WiFi connection so you can browse online TV Guide listings, check Facebook, update fantasy-football standings, and more, without so much as lowering your leg rest. $200, espnremote.com
Music to Your Ears
Call it a light guitar, call it a laser harp, but don’t call it just another Guitar Hero wannabe. A Beamz is a unique musical instrument you actually play by passing your hands through any of six laser beams. All you need besides a Windows PC and a USB connector is a bare minimum of musical talent. Breaking one of the beams with a wave of a finger triggers a note, melody, or sound effect from more than 100 instruments. It comes with a gallery of 30 prerecorded play-along songs, including top hits from pop to classical. And the software keeps everything in harmony so even if you’ve never made music before, you will with this. Even serious musicians will find creative playgrounds aplenty in this breakthrough device. $200, thebeamz.com
 Sleek Cell
A slender sand-blasted titanium body, black leather, and side panels made from woven carbon fiber help the Vertu Ascent Ti Carbon Fibre cellphone stand apart from the plastic masses. But the fact that this is a limited edition -- just 1,500 were made -- is what makes this phone command a $16,000 price tag. Along with the aerospace materials used in its construction, the Ascent Ti boasts five hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby. The onscreen chronograph and offset keypad illumination are meant to suggest the dashboard of an exotic sports car. To garage this baby, though, we suggest adding the black saddle calf-leather case with red detailing and stainless steel “V” logo to go with it. vertu.com
The Sound of Music
For digital-music aficionados, gathering and managing and listening to all those tunes becomes a lifelong opus -- literally. The Olive Opus No.4 digital music center makes short work of any such task, however. Its CD player automatically converts CDs to a high-fidelity lossless digital format, preserving full CD sound quality far superior to the compressed data in MP3s. Its sleek aluminum case can store up to two terabytes of music -- 6,000 CDs worth. Locating what you want to hear is similarly simple, thanks to a full-color touch screen that lets you search by genre, artist, or album, or just flip through album covers. Connect it to your stereo to start the party. Connect it to Olive’s Melody No. 2 wireless multiroom music player to let the party roam through the whole house. Opus No. 4 Digital Music Center, from $1,499, Melody No. 2 wireless multiroom music player, $599, olive.us
 A Driver For All Seasons
Whole entourages of club technicians accompany top golf pros on tour, customizing their clubs to fit individual course requirements, weather conditions, and a player’s own inclinations. Now you can be your own driver mechanic with Nike’s SQ DYMO² STR8-FIT Driver. The head cover contains a torque wrench that allows you to easily modify the just-out driver to produce eight possible clubface and lie angles. The special wrench alerts you with lights and an audible alarm when you’ve tightened the club head back down just enough. A degree or two may not sound like much, but the difference can turn a confirmed hook-meister into a consistent straight-down-the-fairway winner. $299, nike.com
Plasma Perfection
All games of big-screen TV one-upmanship end at the very mention of Bang & Olufsen’s BeoVision 4-103 plasma television. The 103-inch diagonal plasma screen alone dwarfs virtually every other big-screen. But the BeoVision’s greatness can’t be measured merely with a yardstick. A visually striking triangular center loudspeaker looks great while anchoring the digital surround sound. And what really sets the BeoVision apart is the handy and handsome remote-controlled motorized floor stand that tilts the screen to the optimum viewing angle and automatically lowers the big fellow to the floor when not being viewed. $111,005, bang-olufsen.com
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