So How Was Everyone's Christmas?

[Jason Dunn]

<p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/wpt/auto/1293044981.usr1.jpg" style="border: 0;" /></p><p>...and we're back! It's a tradition here at Thoughts Media that we kick off the post-Christmas break by asking our community what they got for Christmas - specifically, any gizmos or gadgets. Or did you gift a loved one with some new piece of technology? Got any great tech support stories to share? I don't know about you, but whenever I'm over at a family member's house for Christmas, I inevitably end up sitting in front of their computer fixing/tweaking something. I don't mind though - I find it fun, and I like to help.</p><p>Speaking for myself, my tech stuff was pretty light this holiday - as it is every year - because if there's something tech that I need, I tend to buy it for myself when I need it, not when a holiday/birthday rolls around. I got a Kindle this Christmas from my wife, but, you guessed it, I bought it (with the help of a friend in the US) and gave it to her to give to me. Such is the life of a professional geek! ;-)</p><p>What about you? What did you do over Christmas, and did it involve technology in some way?</p>

[Brad Wasson]

Hi all,

We have a couple of new gadgets to play with here. We have a PS3 with the Move bundle and an Apple TV. The PS3 was set up yesterday and so far so fun! I really like the graphics capability, and the Move sports games are decent starters. Now if I can just learn how to play Madden NFL 11.

I haven't got to the Apple TV yet, but that is more of an experimental thing. I will report on it later in the year.

If any of you are like me, then you have a home office area packed with boxes, papers, software, manuals and other technology bits and pieces. This HAS to be cleaned up in the next day or two to make room for another year of fun. That will keep me occupied for the next several days (and I can't wait to get at it :D.

Season's Greetings and Happy New Year to all!

Regards,

Brad Wasson
Contributing Editor

[NeilE]

My Christmas present from Santa was a broken voltage regulator on my car, which died completely and spectacularly while on an overnight trip to Vancouver. We're now stuck here until Monday when the car can be repaired :(

Oh, and I got some nice Canada mittens.

Neil

[Stinger]

I bought my parents a B&W Zeppelin (and an iPod touch to go with it).

The Zeppelin looks gorgeous and sounds even better. It definitely lives up to the hype. I'd buy one for myself if I didn't already have a decent separates system.

[Bob Christensen]

I love technology, but you do have to learn to live with the disappointments. My granddaughter was excited to get a Kindle... but it won't connect. More than adequate troubleshooting was done, and it will have to be returned.

In my case, I got an early Christmas of components for a new computer build. I've had to RMA two motherboards with major flaws and the third one has a minor flaw that I'm trying to decide whether to live with or return once again.

Tech did come through successfully with other grandkids getting a Wei, a PS3, and an iPOD Touch--all of which are working well. Oh, and one of my sons got a Roku, which I'll get to play with and help him set up.

Nevertheless, had a very, very merry Christmas and wish the same to all of you.

[Macguy59]

It was awesome. I had anyone considering buying me a gift instead make a donation to one of 3 charities I specified. And I had all of my kids here :D

[encece]

Bought my mother an iPod Touch. Wanted to get her an iPad but with the new one coming out in February-ish, I hated to waste the money...especially since I really wanted her to have a camera. The Touch is a good way to get her acquainted with iOS til she's ready to upgrade to the iPad.

[ptyork]

I don't know about you, but whenever I'm over at a family member's house for Christmas, I inevitably end up sitting in front of their computer fixing/tweaking something.

Yeah, my wife actually got me a T-shirt this year with "No, I won't fix your computer" printed on it. Definitely one of my favorite gifts! :)

Unfortunately, I was sick for most of Christmas, so I didn't even get to enjoy our first white Christmas in, well, ever. All of the travel wore me out, too--we drove 6 hours Friday, 3 hours Saturday, and another 3 today. No fun gadgets. Well, except for the new Makita drill set that I bought for myself (supposedly from my mother in law). That and misc. crap I put on my Amazon wish list to satisfy my in-laws (who can't figure out what to buy me, ever).

Other than that, it was just about all clothes, which is good because it is something I never buy myself. If it wasn't for Christmas, I'd be wearing rags. ;)

Neil, sorry to hear about your nightmare!! Uugh! Makes my sick Christmas seem like something to write a carol about. Take care!

[John London]

Received a Nikon 50/f1.4 lens along with an Expodisc. Also, a SANS Digital 4 disk external box that supports raid along with USB 3.0 adapter for my server. Also, 2 monitors 23 and 25 inch. All-in-all not bad this year. Although I wouldn't mind that t-shirt about not fixing your PC. :)

[Ron Hostetter]

It was a big tech Christmas in our family. My wife got a new Zune HD, my son got an HP laptop, my daughter got an Archos 7 Tablet, and I got a Kindle.

So far, all are working great, except the Archos. It's a very flakey device.

I love my Kindle.

[Joel Crane]

My wife and I totally surprised each other with 6th gen iPod Nanos, a red one for her and a blue one for me. She also bought me a 4th controller for my Xbox 360. She's a very, very good wife.

It was a great Christmas!

[Dyvim]

Not a very tech Christmas for me. I received an analog watch, and I gave my wife a replacement battery for her MacBook (one of the older models where you can actually swap the batteries).

[Down8]

Same here - minimal tech. Best gift was a couple of very nice jackets from my wife.

It's OK, though, as I've been teching out all year. If my Vibrant worked as advertised, I'd be just about settled... until SSDs get just a bit less pricey. :D

-bZj

[The Yaz]

There was a lot of new tech in my household. "Santa" gave my two oldest children Acer Netbooks which replaced aging desktops in their bedrooms. (Since I didn't win the Lenovo M90z giveaway, I'm hoping to reuse parts from the older desktops to make mine a servicable machine for another year...)

My oldest son gave his younger brother his 3rd gen iPod Nano (very nice of him since he replaced it with an iPod Touch he saved up for).

Finally, my daughter received a nice Canon point and shoot from her Grandparents.

I figure it will take me the better part of the week off at home with the kids to get everything configured.

Somehow, my wife must have missed the hint about the iPad :)

Steve

[Jason Dunn]

It was fun reading about everyone's Christmas. :) I've been playing with my Kindle and really loving it - it's everything I was hoping it would be. The rest of my presents were fairly non-tech: lots of DVDs, couple of X-Men graphic novels, some clothes, lots of food/candy, and a few odds and ends. Quite a lovely time with family. :)

[Outlaw94]

We had a very good Christmas. My father and I received iPads. I also got an apple TV which I have yet to hook up. My girlfriend received an iPod Nano, it was a very Apple Christmas. My mom received a very nice new Sony DSLR.

All and all, a very nice Christmas.

[karen]

We have pretty much reached a stage where we don't do gifts at Christmas. Sort of like Jason - if there's a tech need, we just get stuff when we feel the price and value is right.

This year, though, we decided our 'gifts' would be new LED TVs. We still have regular TVs from 10+ years ago. However, we bought the TVs via Best Buy's Boxing day sales. Our order is still sitting at "in progress", so I'm not sure what that means now. I've got a feeling it means that our great deals are going to disappear at some point and we'll be shopping.

The purchases we made at Future Shop are still in limbo. Bank says the credit card payment has cleared, but Future Shop is saying that it hasn't. That order has a new video camera for video casting. FutureShop says we have 48 hours to get this sorted out or they will cancel order. Don't know how to get a retailer and bank to actually talk to each other, though, so I'm guessing that deal is going to be toast, too.

Every time I try to buy something online from a Canadian retailer the process is so onerous and annoying. You guys in the rest of the world have no idea how good you have it.

We also got some general deals: Kinect games, DVDs, new wireless keyboard for me, new speakers, etc. Those are starting to trickle in.

I also won some swag in various contests running up to the holidays: an Apple TV and a nice webcam from Boingo Wireless. Can't wait for those to show up, either.

But over all we are healthy, have money for toys and nothing real to complain about in the scheme of things. I guess that's what really matters.

[encece]

Tho I personally habe no need for a kindle...I played with one for the FIRST time today (A co-worker's xmas present). I must say...that is a beautiful device to (be)hold. The screen is remarkable!

I would love a 20 x 30-ish framed e-ink screen hanging on my wall with images and headlines rotating thru all day!

[Lucy]

I received an Aluratek Libre 7" ereader and so far so good. It is back lit, so, I don't expect the same battery life that the Sony ereader that I bought for my partner has. I also bought myself an HP Touchsmart laptop that I absolutely love. I had a very quiet xmas, full of movie watching and a wonderful salmon dinner. Happy New Year to all of us!

[mas98110]

I am a bargain hunter and will wait forever to get the best price and like others I usually get my tech stuff as needed. This Christmas My low tech wife got her Kindle and loves it. I got my HTC HD2($29) and a new Velocity desktop is on its way.
Happy New Year to everyone.

[Richard76]

Well, we started out trying to keep things simple this year. Only because we had already made a couple of fairly big purchases since the summer; a new leather couch and 2 leather chairs for the family room, a new leather home theatre couch for my "man cave" and a new component cabinet for my many electronic components. Then we decided to replace our stove with a new "flat-top" model. About 2 weeks later, our washing machine decided to retire so we also had to buy a new washer and dryer.

So at this point I said to everyone, let's just keep it simple....no big gifts this year and Dad doesn't need anything so save your money.

Then, about a week before Christmas, my wife's laptop decided it would rather be in 2 pieces instead of one, so that decision was made for us. About 2 days later, my son's phone started acting up and because he will be heading back to University after the holidays, we ended up getting him a new Samsung Focus. And then, to be fair, we ended up buying my daughter a Karaoke machine and a bunch of disks. And Dad? Well, Dad got about 3 Tim Horton's gift cards and a gift card from Princess Auto. So no 'lectronics for me.

Now I just have to hope that I can make it through 2011 without something else major breaking!

Happy New Year!!!

[Jeff Campbell]

was surprised with some Apple Store gift cards so I did what any respectable person would do and spent them :-).... picked up MacBook Air 11 inch and Apple TV .... will write up how I enjoy both of them soon :-)

[Richard76]

Jeff, I am interested in your thoughts on the Apple TV. I have been debating which hardware device to get to handle my Netflix subscription. I look forward to your review.

[TimeHunter]

My wife rarely follows my Christmas wish list very closely, but she always surprises me with something that I like just as much as anything that was on the list.

The one thing she did get me that was on the list, but only marginally tech related, was the Adidas TRON pullover hoodie that I wanted.

As for real tech, I bought myself an Achos 70 Internet Tablet (250GB model). I have been very happy with it so far. Though I am an IT professional, I haven't wandered too far off the ranch in fiddling with it just yet. That will come in time but I'll enjoy it as designed for now.

[Phillip Dyson]

I actually have an all out ban on people purchasing electronics for me. The line is that even if I've talked about it, the fact that I haven't bought it means I haven't made my final decision.

My wife knows that I love electronics but she gets me other stuff that I like. This year she got me the complete Deep Space Nine series, Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter, and the Volume 1 of The Walking Dead graphic novel series.