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Five good secret Santa gifts for gadget lovers
December 09, 2012
Secret Santa season is in full swing. Up and down the country, in offices, factories, warehouses, shops and other places of work, people are picking names out of hats, rushing down to the shops and trying to buy good secret Santa gifts for each other.
Assuming you don't want to just pop down to the local newsagent and buy a lottery ticket (a gift I once received from a colleague who never revealed their identity), how do you find a good secret Santa gift?
With your budget and time limited, the world of tech offers plenty of good secret Santa gifts. Here are our top five - plus some pricier alternatives, in case you've decided to blow the budget this year.
1. For the smart phone addict
In cold weather, there's nothing worse than having to take your gloves off to operate the touch screen on your smart phone.
But for £4.50, these smart phone gloves contain metal thread in the fingertips, allowing you to use your phone with your gloves on. It means the end of cold fingers.
Looking to spend more?
As well as being touch screen friendly, these Bluetooth gloves (£49.99) contain a microphone and a speaker that turn your hand into a phone.
2. For the LEGO lover
It's hard to believe anyone doesn't like LEGO, so if you want a good secret Santa present then how about this key ring torch?
It wins on two counts, because not only is it LEGO, but it's also Darth Vader. And if your gift recipient doesn't like Star Wars then frankly they don't deserve a good present anyway.
Looking to spend more?
Just £19.99 bags you a Darth Vader alarm clock.
3. For the person with a tidy desk
If you need a good secret Santa gift for someone who loves to keep things tidy, you could get them a tub of Cyber Clean.
Available for £5.99, this putty is designed to be squeezed into tight spaces - like the gaps between buttons on a mobile phone - where it removes dust, dead skin and other nasty stuff.
Looking to spend more?
Grab a miniature Henry desktop vacuum cleaner for £12.99.
4. For the frequent tea drinker
If you're buying for the kind of person who makes a cup of tea, gets distracted and ends up drinking it cold, they need a £5.95 USB cup warmer.
It'll keep their tea warm for hours, and runs off any computer's USB port.
Looking to spend more?
It's got to be this self-stirring mug (£11.99). And they say they've invented everything.
5. For the person who's always surrounded by paper
Encourage them to go paper free by giving them a robot-shaped USB stick (£7.99) to store their files on.
Make sure they're not the absent-minded sort though - you don't want them causing a data disaster by leaving it on a train.
Looking to spend more?
Go classy(ish) with a silver plated USB drive - just £49.99.
Have you come across any good secret Santa gifts for gadget lovers? Leave a comment and let us know.
How do you see your IT running costs?
June 20, 2011
We've decided to experiment with creating some video blogs. For our first, Craig Sharp from Abussi looks at IT running costs. Are they an investment, or a necessary evil? Once you've watched it, please use the comments to let us know what you think. We've put a full transcript of the video beneath it.
You can also download the audio in MP3 format for listening on the move.
Video transcript:
"Hi, this is Craig Sharp. Today's short video blog has been prompted by the recent IT donut article, How to cut your IT running costs."
"I think the key thing about IT running costs is to consider whether you're looking at them as a cost, or as an investment. There are many people who feel IT is a cost they have to bear, that there's no alternative, and that this is something they have to pay a lot of money for."
"Some of that's true, but I think it depends on your perspective as to how you deal with the costs that come with having your IT system. For me, it seems an investment, mainly because you're investing in a platform that's going to be the basis for your entire business. Therefore, you want it to be reliable and to not hinder your ability to work."
"Sometimes skimping on costs can result in problems which actually make you very ineffective and inefficient - and that ultimately can lead to problems with your business."
"The other things to bear in mind are fairly straightforward. The article pulled out that cloud computing can often save money. That's true."
"Cloud computing is a new service which allows you to take some of the services running inside your business - often on computers which are using electricity and incurring costs - and puts them in a cloud solution, which means you don't have that responsibility any more. You just pay a small monthly fee."
"Those kinds of issues are worth considering when you want to reduce costs."
"I'd certainly urge you to go and look at the article about how to cut your running costs. It's a good starting point on where to begin with making your IT more of an investment. Thanks very much."
If there are any questions you'd like to see Craig answer in a future video blog, leave a comment and we'll do our best!
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