Holiday Gift: Mobile Me - Sync the Apple way

Here’s the thing, Mobile me has saved my bacon a few times. It keeps all my sync info, like contacts and iCal, without me thinking about it. It has extra storage for stuff I want to keep in the cloud. It has easy Public Folder access for me to share files with other folks. And it gives me a non ISP e-mail address. You can do all those things with 3+ other programs, but for me this has been the simplest solution. I’ve been lucky that I haven’t had serious issues with it, so I know recommending it is controversial. There have been several times in the last year that I have been glad it’s been there backing me up though. Also don’t pay full price at Apple. Go to Amazon and get it for cheaper.

Product: Mobile Me

Price: $99 from Apple, but cheaper on Amazon.

Recommended by: @shealadraws

Holiday Gift: ROKU Player - Stream it!

@Shealadraws Picks: Roku Player

We all know we wish the AppleTV did just one more thing. So instead of buying an AppleTV (sorry Steve), buy the Roku Box for $79.99. They’ve also added HD versions of the Roku Box, for $99.99 and $129.99. The expensive one includes Wireless-N. It sets itself up, the interface and remote are easy to use and it has content! You can set your Netfilx up on it, to stream to that lovely TV in front of your couch! You can buy movies at Amazon. You can rent movies form Amazon for the price of a Blockbuster rental and cheaper than any on demand service. And Roku is still making deals. They’ve just started adding channels like Pandora, MLB, Flickr. They’re working on other channels like YouTube. I recommend the Roku Box for anyone, not just your Apple fan. 

Product: Roku

Price: $79 - $130 depending on the model.

Recommended by: @shealadraws

Holiday Gift: IPWR - iPhone Backup Battery

Victor Cajiao Picks: iPWR Super Pack

My wife Mary was on the hunt for something that would be more petite and not cost a hundred bucks. The iPWR SuperPack is a little square wafer that can be attached to the port at the bottom and iPhone or an iPod touch.  

The form factor is the same width and depth as the iPhone and I found it to give the iPhone about twice the battery duration that using the iPhone by itself. Like the Richard Solo 1800 this device makes the iPhone seem too long and a bit awkward, but as an emergency supply of energy for your iPhone it does the job well. 

The iPWR uses a standard Mini-USB port that can be found in the majority of handheld devices. This made it very easy to charge on your Macbook or the wall without having to worry that you forgot a special cord.  One feature I liked about this unit is that the included USB cable is retractable and therefore always with the device.. The iPRW has the same 1,800mAh type battery that is used on the Richard Solo 1800 and the Mophie Juice Pack

The unit has an on and off switch, which I found useful when I was not using it. the iPRW comes in both a White finish (which I used with my iPhone 3G) and a black finish which Mary has used with both the iPhone first generation and now the iPhone 3GS. Mary actually ended up using both of these units and liked carrying one in her purse and keeps one at work for convenience.  

When not attached to an iPhone or an iPod, the iPWR SuperPack has a top lid that covers its connector and USB port.  I found this cover easy to lose, but Mary had no problem and she liked having the cap on so that the USB connector would not get caught in items in her purse. 

The device has a bright green LED that turns off when the pack is dead, and turns red after a full charge had been completed. This was a convenient way of keeping track of the status of the battery pack at all times. The iPWR is compact, easy to carry, and affordable.  Mary uses one of these today as her primary insurance against the Iphone "dead battery syndrome." 

I think for the price this little plastic wafer is hard to beat for a quick and easy way to make sure your iPhone or other "iPod" type device has power when you most need it.

Product: iPwr Super Pack

Price: $59.95

Recommended by: @VictorCajiao from Typicalmacuser.com

Holiday Gift: Bean - Free OS X Word Processor

Allison Sheridan picks: Bean

How much of Microsoft Word do you actually use? Do you do linked footnotes? How about automatic generation of tables of contents? Do you use paragraph styles? Or maybe you're all about the bibliography? Yeah, me neither. Unfortunately you can't get Word without the rest of the Office Suite, and it's $150 if you get the home version. 

What if you could get the features you actually need in a word processor and not all the features that serious writers need but we don't? and what if that application actually looked nice and launched really fast? I feel like saying, "and how much would you pay for this?" but that would sound like an infomercial. Ok, punch line is what if this was all free?

My word processor of choice is now Bean from bean-osx.com. This beautiful little Universal OSX application is released under the GNU Public License, in other words it's Open Source and free but it doesn't have that Soviet Cold War era look and feel of many open source projects. Bean imports .doc files from Word and supports rich text format, rich text with graphics, .txt, html and webarchive formats along with it's own .bean format. Even if you already own Word you'll enjoy the elegant, simple and painless interface of Bean.

Product: Bean

Price: Free!! -- Well, burn it to a CD and give it to them. 

Recommended by: @podfeet from Podfeet.com

Holiday Gift: Apple Composite AV Cable

Hunt Henning Picks: Apple Composite AV Cable

If I had to recommend one device for the Apple loving fanboy (or fangirl) that would have to be the official Apple Composite AV Cable. This handy little accessory will set you back $49.00, but not only does this set come with the appropriate cable to connect your iPod or iPhone to our TV, but it doubles as USB connection for your computer and comes with a USB power adapter. The cable works via the dock connector and will output photos, music, and video for numerous iPod and iPhone models.

With this accessory you can share your media with everybody in your family like home movies you created in iMovie, multimedia you ripped, purchased content from iTunes, Keynote Presentations, and even Youtube videos streaming from the device. The kit is extremely useful if you cannot afford to buy an AppleTV and want to watch your iTunes content on your television.  There is also a component cable if you want to output to 480p, but I recommend just buying the composite cable because it is compatible with more televisions and projectors, especially if they are older TVs.

The Composite AV Cable has so many uses most people will be able to find multiple reasons to justify the purchase. There are always third party accessories out there, but I have found over the years that Apple’s iPod accessories are tough to beat in their build quality and compatibility so that is why I recommend this to anyone who wants to connect their iPod or iPhone to a television. 

Product: Apple Composite AV Cable

Price: $49 USD

Recommended by: @hunthenning of TheDigitialCheatSheet