TechBytes: Tech Stocking Stuffers

Dec. 21, 2009— -- It's not too late to find great, low-cost gear to please everyone on your list. The folks at Switched.com have made their list and checked it twice. Editor-in-chief Thomas Houston reviews five perfect stocking stuffers for the holiday season

No question about it, iPods and iPhones are still the most popular big gifts of the year. So to go along with them, Switched.com suggests Apple's A/V component cable Kit, which costs $50. "The great thing about it is you can hook up your iPhone or iPod to your big screen TV and share your images without having to lug your laptop around," Houston said.

If you're looking for a great gift for siblings, Houston suggested LaCie's Little Disk hard drive, for $70. With 250 gigabytes, it has plenty of room for photos, music and more. It also reminds you to back up data. "The other great thing about the drive is it's pretty sleek and sexy, unlike your traditional hard drive," Houston said.

For the kids in your family, Houston said Griffin's SmartShare headphone splitter is a great gift idea and it's just $25. Essentially, it takes the audio out of any device you've got, including an iPod, and splits it into two different headphone jacks. It makes it easy for kids to share whatever music they're listening to, and the SmartShare headphone splitter is especially great for road trips.

If you know an aspiring journalist or blogger, Switched.com strongly recommends the AP style book iPhone app. Although its $29 price tag is expensive compared to most iPhone apps, it is a great savings over upgrading your hard copy every year. "The other great thing is it's searchable, so if you're trying to find whatever that semicolon rule was, it's much easier to find now," Houston said.

Finally, the CTL+ALT+DEL cup set is a great conversation piece and makes an especially good Secret Santa gift. The three-cup set riffs on the classic windows key commands -- control, alternate and delete -- and it costs just $24. The cup set will also work really well for that smug Mac fan in the corner.

You can find more gift ideas at www.switched.com.