gift guide - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• PLAY: Video game and other tech toy gift suggestions

  We all like to play games, whether we admit to it or not. While everyone might not be a video gamer, I think we all still enjoy playing, to some extent, to bring us back to our youth.

• ACCESSORIZE: Gadgety gift ideas for the holidays

  OK, so you've got your tablet, you've got a case, you're ready to go. Right? Wrong. Sometimes you need some additional materials, whether it's a nice stylus, a mouse or a keyboard or other fun gadget.

• CHARGE: Power-related gift ideas for the holidays

  While battery technology makes slow advances, at least we have other ways of keeping our gadgets up and running when either at home or on the road.

• STORE: Data storage holiday gift ideas

  If you're gadget fans like we are, all of this digital content creation leads us to need more places to store the stuff we're making.

• TRAVEL: Gift ideas for the out-and-about

  It's always been difficult to figure out where to put the hands-free Bluetooth headset in the Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide. Does it belong in its own category or do we combine them into something else?

• WATCH: Photo and video gift ideas

  Even though most people have and use the camera on their cell phones, there are still a number of different and cool video- and photo-related gadgets available for holiday shoppers to peruse.

• WORK: Gift ideas for the office (or home office)

  With today's flexible workstyles, your office can be in a corporate workspace or the dining room table of your home. No matter the place, sometimes you need more than just a notebook and a mouse to get things done - so we're here to help.

• LISTEN: Audio-related gift ideas for 2012

  If you're a fan of music, or have someone on your gift list who is still using the Apple headphones provided by them, you'll want to consider some of these items from our 2012 Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide.

• COMPUTE: Tablets, phones and e-readers for the holidays

  By any stretch of the imagination, there's probably at least one item on the following list of tablets, smartphones, computers or e-readers that you'll want to buy for friends, family or yourself.

• PRIMP: Health, fitness and grooming gadgets for the holidays

  In previous years' Cool Yule Tools holiday gift guide, we've offered health and fitness gadget gift suggestions, but this year we decided to expand this category to include "grooming" tips as well. Looking good is always important, and technology is being added to new things to help us stay that way.

• KID STUFF: Child-friendly gadgety gift ideas

  My obsession with technology and gadgets came at a relatively early age - I got the Merlin, a handheld toy with red lights, cool sounds and the ability to play a mean game of tic-tac-toe.

• LIVE: Home and style gadgety gift ideas

  OK, we'll admit up front that this Cool Yule Tools category used to be "Miscellaneous", for those items that didn't quite fit into other groupings. But the more we thought about what we're putting in here, the more we realized that these are homey gadgets as well as things that make you more stylish - things you wear.

• The best of Network World's Gift Guide 2011

  Network World's own Indiana Shaw goes through more than just the temple of doom to find gifts suitable for you or other techies on your list. Just like his more famous archeologist cousin who digs up ancient artifacts and treasures from around the globe, Indiana Shaw scours the globe and the Internet to dig up the greatest technology treasures.