Common Paradox Tech Blog

Now that the holiday shopping season is officially in full swing, you still have a few weeks to get out and get gifts for everyone on your list. If you’re reading this site, chances are you know at least one person who is obsessed with everything Apple (or you are that person yourself). Gifts that fit someone’s personality and existing gadget collection are often a great way to say “happy holidays.”

Here are 10 great holiday gifts perfect for the Apple fan in your life. These gifts run the gamut from stuff that touts an Apple fan’s devotion to those just add a little bit of flair to an existing Mac.

Macify a Workspace

Know someone who just got a new Mac or needs a little help making their workspace more, well, workable? Check out some of these awesome workspace additions for Macs of all kinds and sizes.

BookArc — Twelve South makes some really spectacular stuff to accompany your Mac. The Book Arc is one of those perfect items for the user who always has their MacBook or MacBook Pro connected to an external monitor and keyboard. The stand fits all MacBooks, holds the laptop securely and can save a ton of space or just freshen up how an office looks.

Twelve South sent us one to review and we’re now using it with a MacBook hooked up to an external monitor as a secondary computer on the same desk as a 27″ iMac.

BackPack — The BackPack is also from Twelve South and it is a great addition to any iMac or Apple Cinema Display user’s desktop. It’s a shelf that fits easily onto the back stand of the iMac or Cinema Display and can easily hold an external hard drive, a caddy of pens, a bobble head, you name it. For Mac users that keep an external drive connected for Time Machine, this is a great way to keep the drive out of the way.

BassJump — Twelve South just introduced the BassJump, and for MacBook and MacBook Pro users looking for a nice, portable way to boost the sound that comes out of the Mac, it’s pretty ingenious. The BassJump connects to an Apple portable via USB and acts as a subwoofer, adding a richer, more enhanced sound.

Testing the BassJump with my MacBook, I was impressed at how much better the system sounded when it was turned on. Rock and pop music especially was much more lush, less tinny, and had more definition. At $79.99, it’s not a bad option for someone who works in a small office or dorm room and wants a sound solution that is portable (it comes with its own neoprene case).

Slimkey V2 — Macessity makes some really nice Mac-centric accessories, but the Slimkey V2 really takes the cake. It’s a stand for your computer (you can use it with a monitor, a laptop, or with an iMac) that also contains a side-accessible USB hub. This is great because the USB ports on the back of the iMac can often be hard to access and this makes it easy to connect items without having to reach around, which can be really helpful for users who keep their Macs on a desk with a hutch.

Fashionable Cases and Bags

The Apple-addict in your life probably already has a case for their laptop or iPhone, but it probably isn’t as nice as some of these.

Lacoste Messenger Bag — Designed to hold up to a 15.4″ MacBook Pro, this messenger bag was made by Lacoste specifically for Apple computers. It has a pocket for cables, accessories, and even an iPod or iPhone (with holes for earphones). It’s also waterproof so it’s good for the Mac user who has to trek around in all kinds of weather.

Vaja Leather Products — Vaja cases for the iPhone or Mac portables can be pricey — everything is handmade — but the quality is impeccable and the design aesthetic just flat-out rocks. Some of the custom styles can take 25 days to make so they won’t be ready by Christmas, but Vaja does have some models already made and ready to buy.

Vogue Leather Collection — If Vaja is out of your price range, check out the Vogue Leather Collection from More-Thing.com. Good looking and affordable.

Apparel and Toys

Apple has a Company Store at their Cupertino campus that sells lots of official Apple merchandise and apparel. Unfortunately, you can’t buy that stuff anywhere except for the Company Store (although a few places sell some of the items online). That doesn’t mean you can’t still get Mac-centric clothing and toys from other places.

Some favorite spots:

Insanely Great Tees — Insanely Great Tees has a variety of shirts for guys and girls that celebrate the fun, artistic, and geeky side of Mac life. They are printed on American Apparel shirts and hold up extremely well. I have shirts that are two years old that still look brand new.

The Iconfactory — The Iconfactory makes apps and icons for the Mac and the iPhone. They’re the geniuses behind Twitterrific (one of the very first Twitter apps EVER), and their icon “Ollie” is probably as well known as the official Twitter logo. The Iconfactory sells t-shirts featuring their app icons (see above photo) and will soon be offering vinyl toy Ollies – perfect for a Mac lover’s stocking.

If you want to get something really cool and contribute to a great cause, you can bid on a set of four Ollie prototypes. 100% of the proceeds from the auction will go to the American Cancer Society, with Iconfactory matching the winning bid up to $500.00

Throwboy — You can get the Mac lover in your life pillow versions of their favorite Mac OS X dock icons. These pillows from Throwboy are handmade and extremely cool.

Photo courtesy of Nik Fletcher

More holiday shopping resources from Mashable:

- 10 Gift Suggestion Sites for Hapless Holiday Shoppers

- 10 Unique Gifts You Can Make with Help from the Web

- HOW TO: Use Social Media to Find Deals This Holiday Season

- 10 New Sites for Socially Responsible Shopping

Reviews: Twitter, Twitterrific

Tags: apple, Holidays, List, Lists, mac, online shopping, shopping

Jiilik Oiolosse writes “The KDE community has killed the term K Desktop Environment (previously the Kool Desktop Environment). ‘KDE’ had previously ambiguously referred to both the community, and the complete set of programs and tools produced by the KDE community which together formed a desktop user interface. This set of tools, including the window manager, panels and configuration utilities, which KDE terms a ‘workspace,’ will now be shipped under the term ‘KDE Plasma Desktop.’ This allows KDE to ship a separate workspace called ‘Plasma Netbook,’ and independently market the various KDE applications as usable in any workspace, whether it be the Plasma Desktop, Windows, or XFCE.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Think about your workspace and imagine if your furniture or your desk or cubicle could automatically reconfigure for different applications with a simple wave of the hand. Now check out the reality of Clemson’s Animated Work Environment (AWE).

Essentially, AWE is a programmable wall with varied displays that can switch between six configurations just by activating a proximity sensor. For example, when the wall is hanging overhead like a ceiling, the act of standing up triggers the sensor and instructs the wall to move out of the way. The project is in it’s infancy, but it is easy to see how future applications could lead to a whole range of dynamic, multi-functional furniture that automatically reacts to its environment. [AWE Project via IEEE Spectrum via BotJunkie]

OffiSync, the Microsoft Office plugin that allows users to sync their documents easily with Google Docs, has launched a new release today that will make it even more appealing to businesses: support for Google Sites. Google Sites is the search giant’s answer to Microsoft SharePoint, so this will give business users an alternative solution they can use to manage their documents in a shared workspace. Today’s release also marks the launch of OffiSync’s first premium offering.

We’ve been tracking OffiSync’s progress for a while now: last May the startup launched support for Google Docs, and released an improved version over the summer that integrated Google Image Search. But until now they haven’t had a premium option that was tailored for business.

For those of you who experience life mainly through a series of keystrokes, I give you the CTRL and Shift button LED light.

One press of this oversized key will illuminate your workspace, giving you an unprecedented tactile experience and level of control over your environment. If you happen to be a food addict that spends most of their day eating and crying in the dark, I suggest going with a lighting solution that is more your speed. [CTRL Light and Shift Light]

For all its new multi-touch goodness, Windows 7 only has about 7 basic gestures. So if you’re all about the touch (and say, have a tablet PC) BumpTop’s stack of unique new gestures could be a very good thing.

As we’ve mentioned in the past, BumpTop isn’t a new OS or shell replacement, it just adds a 3D workspace to your desktop. The $30 mulit-touch version of the software is available now, but you’ll need to have Windows 7 (and a multi-touch tablet, laptop or all-in-one PC). The good news: we’re going to see a bunch of those arrive alongside the new OS on October 22. [BumpTop via TechCrunch]