There is still time to pick up a perfect gift for those blanks on your list!

5. Digital Photo Frame, $9.99-49.99

I once thought these were an awkward way of displaying photographs, but they’ve become more commonplace and thus they have grown on me…and I want one! Sold under many brands at any computer–or even gift–store. Consider picking one up for your favorite digital photographer this Christmas.

4. Rubik’s Touchcube, $84.99

This toy is a new twist on an old favorite—but it’ll actually give you hints! Swipe your finger across the rows to find the solution, and just tap on a middle cube when you’re stuck, or even *gasp* tell it to auto-solve.

3. Dell’s Mini 10v Netbook, $299

A must-have for techies on-the-go, the small Dell netbook has all the bells and whistles of a full-size laptop but can fit in a purse or briefcase. Specs: 1 GB Memory, 160 GB hard drive, WIFI with optional Bluetooth, and a 10.1” display.

2. iPhone 3GS, $299 with a new AT&T plan, $499 without new AT&T plan

The fastest, most powerful iPhone is up for grabs this year. New features include voice recording, voice control, video, a 3-megapixel camera, advanced text messaging with pictures, copy-paste, and up to 32 GB of storage.

1. Amazon Kindle 2, $259

The Kindle’s revolutionary way of delivering books has been touted “the future of reading.” Over 390,000 titles are available to read on the “electronic-paper” screen, including 101 of 112 current New York Times Best Sellers. Magazines and newspapers are available too, and all of this can be done without wires, cables, or syncing. The new Kindle 2 is thinner, has a sleeker design, and the pictures are sharper with enhanced 16-shade technology.

As with just about any type of social site, there are tons of gaming communities in existence. So what makes weplaythis any different from the rest? Well, according to the weplaythis team, “gaming sites are dark, geeky, and cramped with porn, popups and poker ads. We just don’t like that.” So they just don’t have it. Unlike the forum-based gaming communities that probably come to mind for most people, weplaythis this avoids the dark color scheme, typical ads, and forum-based approach, presenting itself as a truly friendly social network for gamers.

The primary feature of weplaythis is the Game Shelf, where users store a virtual collection of their game library. Each user is able to fill up their shelf with all the games they’ve played, define whether they loved it or hated it, and give them a rating of one to five stars. You can also mark which games you are currently playing. Publicly, users can display their six favorites or six least favorites, 3 of each, six recent additions, or six random games on their shelf. The over 37000 games are searchable by platform, keyword, or title, and everything from arcade games to PS3 titles are in the database, which the team constantly checks against the MobyGames database in order to keep it as up to date as possible.
Another feature that I really like is the Playground, where users can upload photos of where they do their gaming and tag the image with sticky notes to point out their favorite details. It’s a great way to get an inside look on not only where and how the people you meet game, but also on how they live. The rest of the weplaythis features are fairly standard of most social networks—friends, groups, and your own personal blog. weplaythis allows you to invite or search for friends and, of course, encourages making new friends through the site. In your profile you can define and group your interests, so when joining interest-specific groups you can find people who love Second Life, Nintendo Wii, or whatever else just as much as you do. Your blog is perfect for leaving your own game reviews, keeping track of progress, and ranting about anything game-related in general. You can grab widgets to place on your own personal site or blog, allowing you to take your weplaythis space with you and weplaythis always greets you with the latest that’s been going on with you, your friends, and the site’s progress when you log in.

In addition to what they’ve already got developed and available to beta testers, weplaythis is still working on a PC/Mac compatible application that showcases what you’re currently playing and shows what others are playing. weplaythis also encourages people to share their own creations via blog or group while they work on getting the object and theme contribution features working. If your work is good enough weplaythis will feature it on the front page. Other areas to explore that are still under development include the section for games and eighty-two platforms. weplaythis is currently in private beta, but you can request an invite here or learn more about it here.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=z8Q-sRdV7SY[/youtube]

JibJab, mostly made famous by the political videos such as the one seen here, has become a well known comedic Website.  There weren’t many, if any, contenders that were able to pull in high traffic page views or late night television appearances like JibJab until now.  SmashMash is a new Website that calls itself ‘The Ultimate Expression Machine’, allowing anyone to create “JibJab-type” creations of their own.  Critics are wondering if SmashMash has the sustainability to maintain an active audience and the usability for hilarious video creations that may take some popularity away from JibJab. 

Launched by the two Spiridellis brothers in 1999, JibJab became an overnight success with the release of their first video in 2000 featuring the rapping Founding Fathers.  Soon after, the Bush and Gore rap video landed JibJab on several major television networks.  Through some ups and downs, books and toys, involving the terminator, JibJab’s final push to make it big came true with “This Land” pulling in a quick 80 million views.  JibJab seemingly earned their success and has had an amazing ability to maintain it and gain cooperation from many talented individuals.  The site has made its mark as a go-to for political satire, laughs and customizable emailables. 

Unbeknownst to many, SmashMash was started in 2000 by three technical men from Lucasfilm Games.  Eight years later, SmashMash has been released to everyone for free in its beginning stages to allow people to try it out.  The program is a small download – enabling users to animate photos, create cartoons (similar to JibJab) with moving mouths and dancing heads and even edit video and their own audio.  The possibilities are endless and SmashMash is seemingly simple to use.    

Comrades

Is it possible for SmashMash and JibJab to live harmoniously in the online world, complimenting and availing one another?  Other similar program offerings have delighted different individuals and managed to stay afloat amongst their counterparts such as Flock and Firefox.  The question is; do they want to?  Many people develop pages with all intentions to be the best and supersede their competitors.  In addition, the majority of online users these days tend to equate the release date with ability – in the sense that whatever program was released last must be better because they have had the opportunity to develop a program that offers more than the previous released competitor edition. 

Competitors

Therefore, on the subject of competition – who’s projected to come out ahead?  SmashMash is a modern way of thinking in this online world by allowing you to be the next big creator of a world-known video that is emailed, blogged and posted all over your social networking sites such as Facebook and Ning.  If you are a more experienced editor or a novice that just takes a few minutes to master SmashMash – there is no reason why you can’t produce a hilarious JibJab quality video.  SmashMash received three stars from Simple Spark.  JibJab, on the other hand, has pretty nifty options that SmashMash does not offer (at this time) including pre-made videos where you can paste a friends head right in and mail it out as an ultimate form of embarrassment.  This JibJab feature is very easy to use – except you can only do most of it once until you are required to buy points to keep goofing off.  Drawn!, a blog for illustrators, artists and cartoonists, believes that JibJab is facilitating the rise of the independent creator.  SmashMash is currently offering their pro-version at no cost but that will, unfortunately, go away in time.  So…who is better?   

Kaput

Will JibJab, SmashMash or both go kaput?  It isn’t unrealistic to consider that something even better will eventually come along.  Here are some downfalls of both:  JibJab doesn’t allow you to do a whole lot of customization.  You can’t upload your own video, edit it, add sound and publish it to your social networking sites or YouTube.  With SmashMash, you can – however – you have to be decent at it and somewhat funny.  The SmashMash Website has an area of videos that people are currently creating and I haven’t seen anything worth mentioning.  I will say, that doesn’t mean it can’t be done.  MetaCafe has a great video on how to use SmashMash to make photos talk and I would suggest watching some tutorials before you post something idiotic.  Another downfall of both can be the cost.  Regardless of the pettiest of costs, many people will not want to hand over their bank information to a site just to make a video.  I would have to say that there is more justification in paying for SmashMash because you are buying the ability to use a program to create pieces that you can have forever and those pieces (videos, pictures, etc.) have the possibility to make you money.   

The best thing about the World Wide Web is that people have endless possibilities.  If there isn’t a program or site created to do your task yet, there’s a good chance that there will be.  And not much stands in the way of new, useful (and in this case hilarious) inventions being created and constantly improving what’s currently available.  Time will tell who comes out ahead between these two grand ideas – for now, everyone should just have fun!

The “most difficult puzzle ever,” the ISIS has been challenging the most accomplished puzzle experts in the UK for over a year now. Finally, the puzzle crosses the pond to America.

Each ISIS is unique, with just one solution. The puzzle is a gleaming orb, handcrafted in England of a premier alloy of aluminum and constructed of precisely engineered, moveable bands. Each band is etched with hieroglyphics; the challenge is to position those bands in the right combination to unlock the ISIS. You are given 10 encrypted clues to decipher.

The ISIS is almost as difficult to put down as it is to solve. Each individual ISIS is etched with two unique 10-digit numbers, one visible on the outside, the other hidden on the inside. The ISIS can be a spectacular gift or decorative object – beautifully presented in a highly polished solid wood box. The alloy sphere is 2.75″ in diameter; it weighs 1 lb. Available in the U.S. exclusively from The Sharper Image in silver or purple.

Here’s an interesting note: Due to the unique nature of this special puzzle, all sales of The ISIS are final. No getting frustrated and asking for your money back on this one. The manufacturers are offering another incentive to solve the problem as well – The first step on this journey is registering your ISIS online at www.isisadventure.com/tsi.

The registration page will ask for your contact information and the 10-digit serial number on the outer shell of your ISIS; this number belongs to your puzzle and yours alone. Only once you’ve registered can you gain access to the “decryption files” – top-secret documents that will help you solve the 10 brain-teasing clues that appear in The ISIS instruction booklet.

Once you have the decryption files, you will have every resource necessary to unlock the mystery of The ISIS. And when you have finally unlocked “the most difficult puzzle ever,” you will find the hidden 10-digit code inside of it. This code is the key that will unlock and cast open the doors of the much-anticipated Award Zone.

To access the Award Zone, you must return to The ISIS Website and log back in using the username and password you established upon registration. However, the journey is not over once you’ve reached this level. Upon arrival, you will be presented with a choice – solve one more riddle for $1,000 cash; or take a chance with one of 10 mystery prizes such as a $2,000 massage chair. Your selection will be a roll of the dice; which mystery prize will await you? When you select a mystery prize, you will be shown a riddle. If you are the first person to solve this riddle, you will win the mystery prize. Prizes will be delivered in 4 – 6 weeks. There are also clues to a treasure hunt for valuables hidden in major cities across America.

It’s official. According to Eric Walter, Nintendo America’s PR manager, it’s confirmed that Nintendo will not be giving in to the demand for a Wii hard drive. Why? Because they don’t want people storing all their data on the console. I have no doubt that this will serve to fuel the fire of petitions that are already underway, but is a hard drive really necessary?

I’ve been a Nintendo lover for, literally, the majority of my life, and not once has the lack of hard drive bothered me. Running out of space on a memory card most definitely does suck, but investing in a few decent sized cards has never been a hassle. So, it has always seemed natural for that practice to continue with the Wii. And it’s not as if they haven’t made it more convenient. The Wii uses an SD card which means that your memory card is now useful in other devices as well.

Perhaps it’s just due to the fact that I’ve always had a few spare SD cards lying around, perhaps its due to blind “fandom.” But, I really don’t think the Wii needs a hard drive. If it did, it would already be there. After all, Nintendo’s been in the game for this long. They know what they’re doing.

Check out the Wii and related accessories at Amazon.com: