1. iTunes

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iTunes has everything you want — music, movies, TV shows, games, apps, ebooks, and more. The smartphone is the most important gadget of all time, while the iPad is the most desired gift of the year (ever?). Do you really need me to explain why an iTunes Gift Card is at the top of this list? Plus, you can totally rub this card in the nose of your Android-loving friends. Bless ‘em, they just don’t realize they’re using inferior products. But your card is all the proof you need; the Android Marketplace doesn’t offer gift cards!

2. Xbox Live

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If you’re serious about gaming, then you own an Xbox 360. Xbox Live is like Xbox’s very own iTunes, offering most of the same movies, music, and TV shows, along with the biggest video game selection of any download service — some of which are even Kinect-friendly. But the real reason most players want an Xbox Live Gift Card is to get a year’s subscription to Xbox Live Gold membership. So if you really want your gift card to be a hit, make sure it’s for at least $60 (or just buy an Xbox Live 12 Month Gold Membership card; some places, like Amazon, have them on sale for $49 at the time of this writing).

3. Amazon.com

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There’s nothing Amazon doesn’t have. Seriously, need a carburetor? They got that. Lava lamp? Well, duh. Dixie Cup? Mm-hmm. Fake handlebar mustache? Are you kidding — of course! They also have a killer selection of all the things we geeks love: games, movies, graphic novels, toys, electronics, ebooks, and on and on. An Amazon Gift Card is the next best thing to giving a blank check.

4. Best Buy

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If you really need an explanation for why geeks love Best Buy, clearly you’ve never been in one. There’s something about walking into a Best Buy… it’s like the Chocolate Factory for geeks. They’ve got everything electronic: computers, smartphones, flat-screen TVs, game consoles, cameras, and loads more. They’ve also got a darn good selection of Blu-ray and DVD, video games, and music CDs. And if you’re not sure what you’re looking for, Best Buy’s sales staff is knowledgeable and helpful.

5. LEGO

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No other toy in the world has as many child and adult fans as LEGO. We geeks are particularly fond of the LEGO Star Wars sets, though there’s an enormous contingent of adult fans of LEGO (AFOLs, as they call themselves) that are true pioneers of the utterly jaw-dropping things you can do with those magical plastic bricks. 2012 promises to be a big year, too, with partnerships from major properties coming to LEGO that include The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, superhero franchises Marvel and DC, new dinosaur-themed sets, and tons more. LEGO Batman 2: DC Superheroes, the next big LEGO video game, is also expected sometime in 2012.

6. Regal Cinemas

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Some people will tell you that movie theaters are dying. The rising cost of movie tickets certainly doesn’t help matters. But I’d contend that people are just waiting for something worth going to the cinema for. And one look at the 2012 movie calendar shows that there are going to be tons of great reasons in the months to come: The Hunger Games, The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, Brave, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, and plenty more. Regal is the nation’s biggest theater chain, but you’ll want to check your local area for a dominance of other chains like AMC, Cinemark, or Carmike.

7. ThinkGeek

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As the biggest and best online retailer for the fun, the unexpected, and the just plain awesome, there really is nothing else like ThinkGeek (though we’re also fond of X-treme Geek). They carry thousands of products that you never knew you needed — until you see it on their website. ThinkGeek’s ace in the hole is that every product they sell is hand-picked by their own staff of hardcore geeks. So if you’re looking for geeky gifts, you can’t go wrong with anything in their catalog. Where else can you find plush bacon, Han Solo-in-carbonite ice cube trays, or caffeinated marshmallows?

8. GameStop

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For the gamer geek, there is no better gift card than a GameStop card. Not only do they have probably the most extensive collection of video games in any bricks-and-mortar retailer, every store also has a fantastic selection of used games. And they accept trade-ins. The only downside? Video games are all they sell, so don’t bother if your geek recipient isn’t into gaming (which seems impossible, but there are exceptions to every rule).

9. Threadless

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There are a ton of great online retailers out there for cool, original t-shirts. Teefury is another big favorite, and we love Splitreason, too. But the biggest and best has to be Threadless. They create new t-shirt designs every week, and most of them are extra geek-friendly, featuring mash-ups of popular franchises. Most of their shirts are just $12, so the price is right, too. Want to stand out at your next comic book convention or LAN party? You can’t go wrong with Threadless.

10. Openbucks

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Openbucks is a new kind of gift card for a new kind of shopper. Created by the Gift Card Payment Network, you pick up one of these cards at Subway, Circle K, CVS, Citgo, Sports Authority, or Hess, and then redeem them inside some of your favorite online games. Titles that support Openbucks’ cards include Battlestar Galactica, Need For Speed World, Dark Orbit, Parallel Kingdom: Age of Thrones, Metin 2, Cross Fire, Adventure Quest, and more. Additional games are being added all the time.

11. Sideshow Collectibles

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Their products don’t come cheap, but for good reason — they’re incredibly well made. Whether you’re looking for a life-sized bust or a collectible figurine, they’ve got items from all of your favorite properties, including Star Wars, Harry Potter, Disney, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Terminator, and many more. Don’t see your geeky friend’s favorite franchise? You should also try Gentle Giant and Weta.

12. Facebook Credits

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Sneer all you want, but Facebook has become a major part of all of our lives. (Even John Romero made a Facebook game.) Millions of Facebook members play games there every day, so a Facebook Credits Gift Card might be just the ticket. Your recipient will be able to spend it on premium in-game items in Mafia Wars and the like. You can only buy these gift cards in the real world, but you’ll find them almost everywhere. Walmart, Target, Best Buy, GameStop, Radio Shack, and 7-Eleven all carry them.

The League - all you expect, but in a cool new way!

DC has now announced their collaboration with Amazon, releasing their stock, including an exclusive 100 graphic novels for release to users of the Kindle Fire. We are told, not to worry, these stories will be available for other Amazon customers eventually, and following that, DC are not sticking just with Amazon, but promising to look at other outlets, such as Barnes and Noble.

All major outlets I notice, which is really to be expected. But where does that leave your local comics shop?

Now I am personally in a quandary over this. Though I have yet to purchase a Kindle Fire, I adore my eReader. I love how it reduces the weight of my luggage when I travel, and the fact that my library can be squeezed into one corner of my external hard-drive rather than covering every spare inch of shelf space across the house. With the new technologies at our disposal, the need for a real book is lessened; devices with full colour appropriately sized screens and easy to manage are slowly replacing paper simply through that quality of space.

I was amazed one day to watch a young guy reading a comic through his phone, which just shows how well the fans are adapting. For myself, I think a phone screen is just too small, yet here we are, just over a year down the line, and that is no longer an issue. As a consumer, this is a perfect solution for me.

As a former retailer and comic shop manager, I have my concerns. Will the printed material still be relevant? Will the release of full graphic novels through digital outlets devalue my stock? Or will it deliver on a promise of pulling more customers through my door?

What about our community? Each local store has it’s own community, where friendships are made sometimes for life. And let’s face it, these communities are drastically different from their online analogues. Everyone is generally a hell of a lot nicer to each other to start with. I see little that supports your LCS; even these ‘combo-packs’ seem little more than hooks to drag readers into the digital market, rather than genuinely caring for the end retailer.

Is this simply the cost of progress? Is it a return of comics to the newsstand in a sense?

The DCnU has indeed triumphed over all of the fears we had at the abandonment of over seventy-five years worth of history. Three months down the line, and who cares? The history is there for us to read when we want to, and fanfic will always work keep it alive. Now DC expands into new markets, capitalising on the new energy they have injected into the market. As a consumer and a fan, this is good for me.

Yet I cannot forget my successor at my local store. I suddenly have an urge for the Universe X trade paperback, in real paper. What better thing can I give the store for Christmas, than a few sales prior to the big day?

WIN: Chess, Algebra and Music
It’s a triple threat this week! Jonathan W. Stokes, blogger and man clearly gifted with superior intelligence and entirely too much time on his hands, used algebra to turn famous chess games into piano music, which he then turned into mp3s. It’s not often boardgames, mathematics and tunes get to have a hot threesome, so for that I tip my hat to Mr. Stokes.

FAIL: Microsoft Update
Monday’s Windows Phone 7 update designed, according to the Windows Team Blog, to “improve the software update process itself “, seems to have broken the phone. At least for some users, whose complaints Microsoft’s been fielding on their WindowsPhoneSupport Twitter account. The only recourse Microsoft is offering? Take it to a store. Why? Could it be because the update designed to improve the update process has screwed up the update process? And now unfortunate Windows Phone 7 users wait with great anticipation for the next update which will undeniably be intended to fix the previous update, but will only further &@#$ things up. Because that is The Microsoft Way.

WIN: French Kissing
Ever wanted to control your video game with one of the least graceful and most accident-prone acts of intimacy in the arsenal of human contact? Probably not. But now you can, regardless. Developer Hye Yeon Nam has created a video game controller that’s powered by French kissing. I’d make a joke about no geek ever being able to take the the Kiss Controller for a test drive, but it’s already been done to death. Yawn. Next.

WIN: Amazon Prime
Amazon announced plans to stream videos free to its Amazon Prime users, a paid service that offers shoppers free 2-day shipping on all qualifying products and, now, movies and TV on demand. Of course, Amazon has been offering on demand video for a long time now, so it’s really not much of a revelation. It is, however, a volley at Netflix, since Amazon’s Prime pricing works out to less per month than Netflix charges for its streaming-only subscription plan. The selection may not compare as yet, with Netflix offering the larger of the two, but we’re talking about Amazon, here. How long can it take for them to fire off another shot?

FAIL: 911 Calls
Specifically, 911 calls via Verizon. It’s been revealed that a staggering 10,000 calls to 911 were dropped in the Washington suburbs during the massive blizzard late last month. As you’d expect, the Federal Communications Commission is pretty darn upset. The FCC is asking Verizon investigate the issue out of fear that the problem may be more widespread than just that one area, and could happen on a large scale again. It’s not the first time 911 calls have been fouled during a blizzard (filed under New York City). Will the Snowpocalypse force carriers and responding agencies alike to review how they handle things when that abhorrent white stuff starts to fall?

From what I have read, what Lanier does in his book is to philosophically analyze what we take for granted on a daily basis: online tools and other related technology. An old saying came to mind: “Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are.” Perhaps, after reading what Lanier has to say, we can put a twist to that saying and come up with a modern one: “Tell me what your gadgets are (and how you use them) and I’ll tell you who you are.”

Amazon had a Q&A with Lanier and asked two important questions. The first one is “Two decades later, how has the internet transformed our lives for the better?” Lanier’s reply:

The answer is different in different parts of the world. In the industrialized world, the rise of the Web has happily demonstrated that vast numbers of people are interested in being expressive to each other and the world at large…In the developing world, the Internet, along with mobile phones, has had an even more dramatic effect, empowering vast classes of people in new ways by allowing them to coordinate with each other.

I couldn’t agree more. Just take a look at how easy it us to communicate with everyone now.

Looking at the other end of the spectrum, the second question is raised: “How has the internet transformed our lives for the worse?” Lanier’s answer:

The problem is not inherent in the Internet or the Web. Deterioration only began around the turn of the century with the rise of so-called “Web 2.0″ designs. These designs valued the information content of the web over individuals. It became fashionable to aggregate the expressions of people into dehumanized data. There are so many things wrong with this that it takes a whole book to summarize them. Here’s just one problem: It screws the middle class. Only the aggregator (like Google, for instance) gets rich, while the actual producers of content get poor. This is why newspapers are dying. It might sound like it is only a problem for creative people, like musicians or writers, but eventually it will be a problem for everyone. When robots can repair roads someday, will people have jobs programming those robots, or will the human programmers be so aggregated that they essentially work for free, like today’s recording musicians? Web 2.0 is a formula to kill the middle class and undo centuries of social progress.

I am not sure I get it. Perhaps I really do need to read that book. Interested?

You can get a copy at Amazon for $13.44.

If the stand of the New York Times is to be followed, though, everyone might have to pay more than they are paying now. They want Amazon to “spread its wealth” and start charging state taxes. How does it work? Amazon should pay state taxes to New York, and of course the consumers from New York will have to pay for it when they make any purchase – gadgets or otherwise.

What’s wrong with the scenario aside from the fact that we would have to pay more of our hard earned bucks? A writer at TMC News did the legwork for us. He quoted parts of the Constitution that shoots down the idea. The stand of the New York Times is due to the fact that the state is experiencing financial problems due to low tax income. Of course, they had to point the finger at online stores at once. While it might make sense to tax more, doesn’t it make more sense to try and cut spending? That just might solve the problem and make people’s lives much better. I am glad I will not be affected by this idea if it ever becomes a reality, but wouldn’t it suck to pay more taxes when you buy gadgets online?

Amazon UK has made a move that just might spark a “war” between online music stores. Yesterday, Amazon UK slashed its pricing on songs! We all know that one of the most popular online music stores is iTunes. In fact, I don’t think I have ever bought music from Amazon. That is why a lot of people are saying that this move by Amazon is actually a bid to attract some customers from iTunes.

With their current promo, Amazon is selling some of its top music downloads for a mere 29p! Compared to iTunes, you can make up to 70p savings on one song. Add that savings up if you buy lots of songs, and you make really considerable savings! Imagine having to pay only 3GBP for an album. Now isn’t that really cheap???

This move is really making waves everywhere. The Guardian even ran a feature on the promo, which by the way, is running indefinitely. Here are some of the tracks that you can get for 29p:

…Lily Allen’s The Fear and Lady GaGa’s Poker Face – to 29p.

On the bargain list, which spans pop, hip-hop, rock, classical and jazz, music fans can also find older tracks such as Oasis’s Wonderwall, the Dambusters March played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Neil Young’s Rockin’ in the Free World.

I guess I am outta here – have to check the other tracks!

We all know that Amazon’s got downloadable and/or streamed online music and videos on sale, but what we probably missed is knowing that they’ve got video games too. The service is called Amazon Games downloads and right now it has over 600+ video game titles and each for less than US$10! Great eh? Makes me wonder if Yahoo will follow suit by lowering their Yahoo Games… really, at an average of US$29.99, too expensive games Yahoo.

Amazon Games Downloads allows you to download the full versions, play it for thirty minutes then decide if you want to keep it. This is nice. I think I can just about know if a game would put me to sleep or awake.

You can probably test the service by downloading free games. Amazon has 3 of them right here.