You'd better be good if you want these under your tree

Forget about polyester socks for your favourite technophile. PETER GRIFFIN uncovers a whole host of 'geek chic' gifts which are bound to please.

You know the family gadget lover is unlikely to be kept happy with the traditional three-pack of polyester socks and king-sized bar of chocolate this Christmas. But what to buy for the geek in your life when just the thought of new-fangled computer technology gives you a headache?

Help is at hand. A special Herald investigation has uncovered the following Christmas wish-list of "geek chic" presents.

Small but perfect Sony

Do you often come back from your holiday trip with miles of undeveloped camera film? Save yourself the hassle and expense by going digital. It's been a good year for digital cameras. They've become cheaper, easier to use and won a following as more people upgrade their PCs to better handle picture file transfers.

Among the more attractive is the Sony CyberShot DSC-P5 ($1999, at Sony Style), a 3.2 megapixel job - Sony's smallest digital camera to date. If you know your way around the average 35mm camera you won't have any problems with this snapper. A built-in screen lets you line up shots without having to squint into the view finder. It produces good-quality, high-resolution images which are saved to a Memory Stick storage device.

Just plug the camera into your computer and drag the images onto your hard drive.

Instant photo album.

Impressive Portege

Soaring at the high-end of the "money is no object" category is the Audi TT of laptops, the Portege 4000 ($6480 including GST at Toshiba). While the Portege won't look like much wrapped up amid the Lego and Harry Potter paraphernalia - with a Pentium III 750MHz processor, 128MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive and built-in DVD player, it combines impressive computing power with mobility.

Handheld heaven

In the handheld space the smooth, silvery contours of the Compaq iPaq seem to have drawn most of the attraction this year.

The H3850 ($1397.78 plus GST at acquire) with 64MB of memory works well as a personal organiser, music player and wireless device with the appropriate expansion card installed. Running the Pocket PC operating system you can access cut-down versions of Word and Excel.

Cheaper, but without the rich display and abundance of memory is the Palm m505 ($1129.49 including GST at ascent). Hewlett-Packard's Jornada and Toshiba's E570 are other brands worth a look.

Melodies on the move

By now, a good number of us have mp3s coming out our ears thanks to the efforts of a few resilient file-sharing services dotting the internet. While your hard drive may be brimming with tunes, you really want access to them on the move.

For Apple users, the obvious choice in portable mp3 players is the Apple iPod ($1049 plus GST). It's stylish and light, and with a 5GB hard drive can carry up to 1000 songs. It syncs well with Apple's iTunes 2 software, allowing you to "rip" mp3s and organise a playlist of digital music.

The iPod also comes with a FireWire connection, allowing rapid downloading of songs (all 1000 in less than 10 minutes according to Apple). The hard bit will be collecting enough mp3s to keep iPod rocking. PC users can go for Compaq's iPaq Personal Audio Player, which can store up to two hours of music.

Up with the mobile play

You won't win many points for originality in offering a mobile phone as a gift this Christmas, with over 60 per cent of the population already owning at least one. But whoever you are buying for is likely to discard their existing mobile if presented with the Ericsson T68 ($529 on a Vodafone - 36- month contract).

The T68 has great screen quality with a full-colour display. The phone has a menu that's easy to navigate, voice control and a Wap browser.

But the real advantage is that the T68 is both infrared and Bluetooth capable. That means it can talk to your laptop, wireless headset or handheld if you have the right equipment installed on your other devices. If you're upgrading to Telecom's 027 network check out the Samsung SCH M105 mp3 phone ($499 on a Telecom 24-month Anytime contract).

You can get up to 32MB of music (about eight songs) into the phone's memory, allowing you to plug your headset in and bop along as you sit on the bus.

Mouse with style

We spend too much time clutching our mice to put up with the simple two-button, beige variety.

In the computer accessory basket, Sony's Memory Stick mouse ($239 including GST, at Sony Style) scores good points. It effectively allows you to add another drive to your computer without further cluttering your desk. Simply insert the Memory Stick - a chewing gum-sized piece of plastic and metal that comes with differing capacities ranging from 8MB to 128MB.

The only downside with this mouse is that you really need another Memory Stick-compatible device, such as a Sony Vaio computer or a Sony digital video camera, to transfer files. You can, however, buy a Memory Stick floppy disk adaptor ($219, including GST) which lets you transfer files off the Memory Stick using your standard floppy drive.

Speaking up

If you splash out on a bundled PC deal in the runup to Christmas, chances are it will come with a rattley pair of undersized speakers. But if you're going to spend any length of time in front of the PC, invest in beefing up your sounds.

TDK's Tremor S-150 ($399) three-piece speaker setup will do just that. The package gets you two flat-panel satellite speakers and a thumping subwoofer, which, ideally, you want to position behind the monitor.

Playing mp3s with audio software like Winamp or Windows Media Player, or through your CD-Rom drive, the Tremor system acts as a surrogate stereo system.

Burn, baby, burn

If you were a real visionary last year you may have surprised the technophile in the family with a CD burner.

Today they are a dime a dozen, sold with the most basic of PC models. DVD burners are a different story. The devices have just recently debuted on the market, with Hewlett-Packard's DVD+RW writer, the dvd100i ($1622.34, including GST, at ascent) one of the better ones around.

This burner allows you to create DVDs from your home movies taken on analog or digital video cameras using the accompanying MyDVD software. The disc accompanying the drive can store up to 4.7 GB of data - the equivalent of seven CDs.

But this gift requires you to take the lid off your PC to install it. Before you go mad with a screwdriver, make sure someone has the knowhow to get it up and running.

Sony Style

Toshiba



ascent

Apple

Vodafone

Telecom

TDK