"We've had the camera for nearly a year now and are really happy with it. It definitely delivers on the expectation that you're getting professional camera features at a consumer price point. The colors are rich and vivid, the Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) gives you a very steady picture with hand-held operation, and you have full manual controls, so you can tweak camera settings to your heart's content. Other features of note include a 10x optical zoom (700x digital), a 3.1 megapixel still-camera mode, Web camera mode, 2.7" LED display, and both FireWire and USB 2 connectivity. Battery life is rated at 2 hours. We haven't done any clock testing, but our experience is that it may actually approach this in real-world situations." Read my full review here.

PowerSquid Surge Protector (powersquid.net, $70-80) In the first installment of our Guide, we recommended the less-than-sexy gift of a APC Back-UPS battery power supply/surge suppressor. This non-battery-packing protector may not be sexy either, but you gotta admit, it is kind of kinky. The basic idea here is a "power strip" with flexibly-corded AC jacks so you don't have to worry about power adapter bricks/"wall warts" blocking any of the available outlets. The units also come with in/out jacks for phone and coax cables to protect your gear from spikes sneaking in over those lines. Up to $500,000 in connected-equipment insurance is also part of the package.

Sony Portable Reader (sony.com/reader, $350) I can still vividly remember the moment I first started reading a Voyager Company CD-ROM-based e-book on my trusty Mac SE. "Turning" its sharp-looking virtual pages, bookmarking my spots when I was done; it was much more satisfyingly "bookish" than I'd expected. I remember thinking: "This experience will be 'just right' when I can do this in bed (or on the can, the Metro, in a beach chair, etc.), holding a lightweight, book-sized computer with a resolution that'll make the experience "unconscious" (not too bright, not too dim). Amazingly, that was nearly 15 years ago. I haven't personally played with a Sony Reader yet, but from what I've heard, it finally delivers on this promise. That is, when it delivers -- the Readers are still hard to come by, although Sony Style does offer them. At $350, they're still also a bit pricey. I can't wait for the day I can pick one up for half that price, and a future beyond that when such "dataslates" are strewn about the house like so much taken-for-granted tech.

Zojirushi Rice Cooker (Amazon, $100, $80 street) I'm getting old. I'm trying not to get fat to go along with it. Living by myself, it's easy to get lazy about cooking good, healthy food. I try not to keep a lot of instant crap and sweets around, but then I just find myself eating similar things every night, food that's quick and easy to make, like scrambled eggs or spaghetti. A Vietnamese friend of mine uses one of these cookers and makes simple grilled meats, fish, chicken, and veggies to go over the rice. Staying at his house, I found this a really great way to eat, so when I got home from visiting with him, I immediately ordered one for myself. It couldn't be easier to operate. You toss in the rice from the included measuring cup, fill the water to the prescribed mark, press cook, and in less time than it takes to cook the rest of your meal, the rice is perfect. I get various marinades at Trader Joe's and toss some in a Ziploc bag with meat or chicken an hour or so before dinner, grill it on my George Forman (or my outdoor grill in warmer weather), and serve it over the rice with a veggie or salad. It's a tasty and healthy way to eat without a lot of fuss. Not knowing if it was going to catch on with me, I bought one of the cheaper models. My buddy has one of the more expensive units that uses "fuzzy logic" to regulate temperature and moisture levels in the cooker to keep the rice warm and moist all day long. Since I only have the rice for dinner, I didn't really need this feature.

Sima Hitch USB-101 Digital Transfer System (Sima, $200, $100 street) One of the questions we frequently get asked here at Street Tech is: "How can I transfer my photos from my camera without having to carry a laptop with me?" The easy answer is obviously: "Buy more memory cards." But it'd be cool if you could, say send them to your iPod or put them on a Flash drive (which are dirt cheap these days). And then there's the often-expressed desire of being able to transfer music from one iPod (or other MP3 player) to another, or from one Flash drive to another. The Sima Hitch is designed for all of these media transfer situations. It can transfer media files between nearly all types of USB-connectable devices. It's not the most intuitively designed device, in fact, I really don't like much about its user experience, but it does what it was designed to do, and quickly.

For a camera solution sans laptop, you could get a couple of USB Flash drives and use them to offload images from your camera using the Hitch. Also, when I'm traveling, I like to know what people are listening to on their portable players. I would love to be able to hook up my Nano and grab some tunes from friends and folks I meet along the way. One sticky spot for Mac owners is that your iPod needs to be reformatted into the FAT32 filing system to work with Hitch. You need access to a PC and iTunes for Windows to do this. Once it's reformatted (and your music is reloaded), it will work fine on your Mac and Mac iTunes in the FAT32 format. Still, this is a hassle and something that should be made much clearer on the packaging and docs. I futzed with the unit for quite some time before I discovered this issue. And then there's the question of price. $100+ is a lot to spend for this single-function device. If your gift recipient is a promiscuous media sharer, it would likely make a great gift (especially if they're a PC user), for everyone else, this device doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And in case you're wondering, it doesn't crack DRM or anything, so you can't exchange copy-protected media files and expect them to play on other machine(s).

Brenthaven iPod Case (Brenthaven.com, $35) We've long been fans of the Brenthaven product line here at Street Tech. They carry extremely well designed, well-manufactured computer cases. Recently, they've added iPod cases to their line. Their "Flip Case" is something of a misnomer. I thought it flipped open, but it flips OVER. There's a slot in the back so you can stand your 5th Gen iPod in it to watch videos without having to hold the damn player. Cool idea. The molded hard-shell case is covered in Napa leather on the outside and lined in suede. The case also comes with a clear plastic screen covers. Most of the decent iPod cases seem overpriced (they all run about this amount). If you're going to spend this kind of dough on a case, it should at least feel worth the expense. This Brenthaven fits that bill.

ViewSonic VX1935wm 19" LCD Monitor (ViewSonic.com, $200) I had a very early LCD monitor, a 15" Micron. We're talking last millennium. When we moved, in 1999, one of the movers walked into my office, saw the monitor and said: "Whoa. Dude. Star Trek." At the time, these monitors were exorbitantly expensive (we got ours as part of a Micron sponsorship deal for Street Tech). Now you can get a 17" LCD monitor for around $100. But to get a good LCD monitor, you need to get a little closer to $200. ViewSonic's latest X series of wide-screen LCDs are a stellar example of where this technology has come and how much bang you can get for your buck. The entry-level 19" retails for $199, but you know it won't be long before it's $20 or $30 less than that. At any price-point below $200, this is an awesome unit. The first thing you notice when you take it out of the box is how gorgeous it is, all glossy "piano-black" with silver trim. And there's nice attention to detail, such as the way the plugs are hidden under a back rim and the silver cable guides that keep all the wires neatly tucked behind the stand. You also get both DVI-D and VGA cables, and an audio cable for the built-in stereo speaks. But the proof is in the viewing. You get a very crisp, vivid 1440 x 900 image, with a 700:1 contrast ratio and 5ms video response time with little blur or ghosting. Everything about this monitor feels as though you spent at least 50% more on it and you'll find few better-looking monitors at any price (at least if black n' silver are your thing).

Belkin Cable-Free USB Hub (Belkin.com, $200) Having a printer/scanner stand that's not even close to my "new" (as in: stolen from a kid away at college) Alienware PC, I was excited to get this wireless USB hub. I'm for any tech that says sayonara to cable glut. The Belkin uses ultra-wideband tech and is one of the first products to do so. What UWB is supposed to offer you is transfer rates some 100 times faster than Bluetooth. This would, theoretically, allow you to, say transfer music and video, or wirelessly access an external hard drive (Gizmodo outlined a scenario of walking into a room with a laptop and being able to get instantly cozy with an external drive stashed somewhere under the desk). We didn't do any testing of high-bandwidth media xfers over this link -- our only need was wireless printing, scanning, and use of our media card port on the scanner -- but Engadget did a test of a movie transfer and got miserable results, by any wireless standard. They still ended up recommending it for basic document sharing, wireless peripheral connecting, and the like. And so do we (if you can stomach the price and really need this type of untethered USB solution).

diNovo Edge Keyboard (Logitech.com, $200) I cannot tell you how freakin' yummy this keyboard is. I don't know whether to type on it or take it to bed. Of course, since it's wireless and has a built-in trackpad ...er... "TouchDisc," I could take it to bed, and control a Mac- or PC-based media computer from there. Everything about this board smacks of the quality of an expensive stereo component, with brushed-this, lacquered-that, and lots of twinkle-lights. The recharging stand is a cool way to get the board off of your desk so you can have... an actual desk! What a concept. The Li-on battery is supposed to last up to two months on a charge, but I just stash the board in the charging base to get it out of the way when not in use. There are all sorts of useful controls on the keyboard, from the TouchDisc with two buttons, to the ultra-cool volume slider, to A/V controls, to a Skype phone button. Using the included software, you can, of course change key assignments. There are only two cons to this pro board: the price and the fact that it's so amazingly flat. It's so flat, it's not comfortable on desks at a height meant for higher boards. On my PC Biomorph desk, the typing platform is easily adjustable. Not so on my Mac desk, and while the Edge Keyboard pairs nicely with Mac Bluetooth, it's not a comfort-fit in terms of a good typing height. Look for my full review of the diNovo Edge this coming Monday (Dec 11th) on the Federated Media Holiday Gadget Guide.