It's that time of year again, the winter holidays are upon us. Christmas music is in every store, All the while, us nerdlings have our noses pushed up to the glass of our favorite geek supplier store window in hopes that someone who loves us will gift us one those shiny sparkly doodads. I've scoured the net and here are my Top 5 favorites that I've found.
1. Star Wars: Jedi Challenges - Lenovo $199.99 online now
This is easily my favorite geek thing out this holiday. Star Wars: Jedi Challenges is a VR game where you can battle your favorite Star Wars characters in epic lightsaber battles. You will need the Star Wars: Jedi Challenges companion app on your phone, the app itself is free.
2. Amazon - Echo Dot (Alexa!) - $29.99
Gift Alexa this holiday. No really! Do it! I received one myself for an early Christmas gift and I love it. Alexa has a ton of skills that you can download easily and so far they've all been free. I keep up with Bitcoin alerts (Yes, Gingir is a bitcoin news junkie...), I use it for timers for cooking, recipes (errm okay drink recipes. No more Long Island Barges for me), shopping lists and controlling various things around my home. She can control my alarm system, my door locks, anything connected to my smart hub and if my Mercedes were a generation newer she could talk to it too! She was super easy to set up so I think she'd be safe for your parents or grandparents if they're able to use a smartphone.
3. Trezor bitcoin wallet - $169.98
Bitcoin wallets are going to be a hot commodity this holiday with the price of Bitcoin soaring over $16k today (12/7/17) and predicted to hit above 20k by Christmas. The 2 best bitcoin bits of advice I can give is it's always a good time to buy Bitcoin and always store your bitcoin offline in a hardware wallet.
Trezor seems to be the wallet that most folks recommend and while there are cheaper ones this one can handle multiple forms of e-currency, allows you multiple wallets and uses state of the art cryptographic algorithms to help keep your coins safe.
4. Nintendo Switch - $299.99
Give the gift of amazing memories this holiday with the Nintendo Switch! Do you remember the days of old when you sat around the TV playing your Nintendo NES? All the fun you had growing up with the different Mario games? And then somewhere.. we moved away from couch play and forgot what it was to have game nights with your friends. Well, Nintendo is bringing that back. While Nintendo Wii and WiiU seemed to stay the course of family-friendly, the Switch is really switching it up with AAA titles that might not be safe for grandma. It also allows you incredible versatility. Play at home, on the go, at the office or where ever you are. Share the switch with a friend by sliding the controller apart into two. It's like if the Nintendo DS and Nintendo NES had a dirty, dirty love affair creating the Nintendo Switch. It's everything we've wanted for the last 10 years.
5. Bose SoundSport Free Wireless Earbuds - $249
The Bose SoundSport Free Truly Wireless Sport Headphones are something I really hope to find in my stocking this year. These awesome little guys have a 5 hour play time with each charge and 10 hours with the charge case. You can track lost earbuds with the Bose Connect App's "Find My Buds" feature too! No more lost earbuds! Which is good for me because I have no idea where my wired ones are. Though I have to caution, these look a bit like the ones from that Doctor Who episode where the Cybermen almost take over the world.
