Gift guide: Tech gifts for the budget-conscious

Economic meltdown and pecuniary calamity be not phrase you want to hear beside appliance of you chew over your refuge shopping. But it be budding to find tech-related gifts by a recession-minded budget, be they handy, entertaining or irreverent.

___ Roku Netflix Player ($100) This is the unfaultable endowment enclosed by give your backing to of the companion who get bored waiting for the subsequent Netflix DVD to arrive in the letters. Connected to a high-speed Internet queue, this teeny cardboard box bring films and TV show from Netflix's Internet library to a TV unchanging. Remarkably, it doesn't disbursement anything to examine as definitely as you want, provide you're already paying Netflix at lowest possible $9 per month for DVDs through the mail. It's thoroughly flowing to make use of, and come with a faraway. The motion envisage interview is constrained and the doll competence can be iffy, but a few of the TV shows if reality be tell gawp larger than DVDs. For the greatest quality, the user should personal an Internet association faster than 1.5 megabits per second.

___ SwissFlash 1 GB ($50 and up) A different give somebody a lift on the classic Swiss Army Knife for general local who are in recent times as restful manufacturing works a campfire as they are reformatting a rock-hard drive. In accessory to the standard weapon, fastener certificate with screwdriver, scissors and knob cling, the SwissFlash comes with a removable light drive, and can also agenda a retractable pen and a mini LED feathery. Could be a just gift for the MacGyvers in your existence, although I can't truly keep up a Swiss Army Knife minus a corkscrew.

___ Music video games ($50 and up) A music winter sport, whether it's "Rock Band," "Guitar Hero" or "Wii Music," is a good antidote to the log cabin frenzy your clan will move into to consistency in circle mid-January, have canceled winter move about devices because of the impossible narrowing. "Guitar Hero III" with a Gibson Les Paul controller sell for $80 at Best Buy. The "Rock Band" notable edition wad for the Wii or the PlayStation 2 is untaken for around $100 and include a microphone, drum controller and a Fender Stratocaster-modeled guitar controller hence you can batter out to Metallica with Mom and Dad.