Holiday Shopping Guide 2007, Vol 1

UncommonGoods: While the products are consistently fresh and original, their website is lacking in design and usability. They're a trusted, long-time quirky goods reseller. Be sure to sign up for their print catalog -- it's nice to browse through printed materials every now and then.

Elsewares: Taking a page out of Urban Outfitter's playbook, Elsewares is another success story in peddling original, quirky stuff on the web. Popular among urban-dwelling twenty-somethings, like the above UncommonGoods, this is the place for independent artist designed jewelry, clothes and products for your apartment (err, dorm?).

Branch: Recycled and earth-friendly products are perfect for an eco-minded gift recipient. One fact I especially warmed up to is that their founder Paul Donald is a former creative from Wired magazine.

GelaSkins and Mophie: Looking for great iPod accessories? These guys have got the hottest way to wrap, protect and accessorize the most precious of mp3 collections.

NY Transit Museum Store: For those passionate about trains, or more specifically NY's mass transit, this is the place. While the subway map emblazoned apparel and bags are a bit tacky, the old subway grab holds and original subway art make for tasteful, original gift ideas.

Temperamental iPod Touch(s)

Dumb and Dumber. That's what my wife and I are calling our two 16GB iPod Touch devices.

This weekend, we stopped by the Apple store to replace our 30GB Video iPods (stolen from us on our recent cruise). Although we entered the store with the intent of purchasing 80 GB iPod Classics, we were completely enthralled by the fun factor of the Touch model.

Unfortunately our excitement and fascination with our new (*and expensive) gadgets quickly dwindled from the moment they were connected to our computers. Jen's iPod screen lost it's magical touch capability, completely freezing up with no online forum or tutorial offering a remedy.

Simultaneously, my troubles began when I attempted to connect my iPod. The device decided it didn' t like my USB2.0 PCI slot drive on my Powerbook, and only wanted to cooperate with my USB 1.0 input (with less-than-stellar data transfer rates). Next, iTunes refused to recognize that I actually connected a compatible device and insisted I try to restart, disconnect and reconnect an array of a dozen or so configurations before finally loading it.

Lastly, my patience wore thin when a pop-up window notified me that the music and videos I was attempting to sync were TWICE AS LARGE as the device's capacity. Then began the tedious process of weeding out podcasts, playlists and albums I guess I could live without. After a few more dances with configurations so that iTunes recognized my iPod again (it just disappeared from my devices), I called it a night and shut everything down.

My usability issues aside (well not really... I hate that i have to toggle through to get to my volume, lock my device and shut it off), this may not be the device for me. Simplicity and storage capacity reign supreme for me. It's what made me such a loyal fan of my Gen 2 and 4 iPod devices.

While my wife would like to exchange her iPod Touch for one that actually functions, I think I'll eat the $39 open box fee and send this bad boy back to the store. Anyone interested in giving me a good deal on a 30GB Video iPod?

Wish List: MultiPot

Ugly strip-style and aquatic-themed surge protectors are so passe´. You've got to get those wires contained in style! Enter the MultiPot

I'm blown away by the beauty and simplicity from Northern Italy lighting designer; Rotaliana. The MultiPot looks like an attractive, illuminated planter, 5 outlets and a generous length of feeder cable. The icing on the cake? A docking tray on top so you can conveniently charge your iPod, digital camera and phone.

This gadget is definitely going to find it's way into my home office.