Last year I put together my first Geek Gift Guide. Take a look since most of those gifts would still make great gifts for the geeks on your list. But here is my latest list of perfect gifts for the geek in your life, or the geek in you.

Paper product: Action Method

Price: $5-$15

As much as I love my laptop, I don’t use it to take notes in every little meeting I am in. What I love are Action Method notebooks. The Action Book was designed by the Behance team and is based on the Action Method. The four distinct zones on each page provide a flexible template to get the most out of meetings and everyday brainstorm sessions. Each page of the notebook is divided up into 4 sections.

1. Capture Action steps, relentlessly. During a brainstorm/meeting or on the run, ideas can come and go unless they are captured as action steps.
2. Tend to your Backburner. Keep a “Backburner” to catch ideas that may someday become actions. Whether it is an idea for the future or some small errand you want to remember, put it in the backburner and then forget about it.
3. Think beyond lines and boxes. The dot matrix on the front and back of each page serves as a subtle guide for your notations and sketches.
4. Preparation and Focus Items. Plan for meetings beforehand and be sure to address your focus items.

The Action Method was designed to help us push projects forward by organizing our ideas and focusing on action steps. The Action Book is used by leading creatives in the agency/advertising world as well as at top design studios and innovative companies across industries. The 2008 TED Conference also featured a limited edition TED Action Book to help participants make ideas happen.

Artwork: DNA Portraits

Price: Starting at $199

The perfect gift of original art that no one could ever replicate! I love these portraits because they are simple and modern and yet would fit in almost any home setting. Here’s how it works.

1. Go to their e-store to begin customizing your art piece.
2. Order your complete DNA collection kit.
3. Collect a cheek cell swab using the swab they provide. It’s painless & effortless.
4. Send the sample back to them and take care of the rest.

If you are giving the artwork as a gift, when placing your order simply select “this is a gift” instead of selecting a color. Then the person who is receiving the gift will get the DNA kit in a nice metal presentation box.

Gadget: Magic Mouse

Price: $69

It wouldn’t be me if there weren’t an Apple product on this list. The Magic Mouse is the world’s first Multi-Touch mouse. Need I say more! It’s the perfect gift for anyone with a Mac who uses a mouse. It’s a great upgrade to any computer. It will change the way you use a mouse.

Apple Gift Cards are always good too.

Organization: Grid-It

Price: $22

Every geek has a laptop bag, or a back pack, or something that they keep all of their gadgets in. But the hardest thing is not organizing your gadgets, it’s organizing all the wires, chargers, and other accessories that you have for them.

The Grid-It organization system is a unique weave of rubberized elastic bands made specifically to hold personal objects firmly in place. Designed to provide endless configurations of digital devices and personal effects. Slim design and conveniently sized for your current laptop bag or travel case, lets you easily find what you need. It also has a rear zippered pocket for additional storage.

I hope you enjoyed my little gift guide. And keep in mind that geeks aren’t always just about gadgets, we appreciate good design and clean lines, there are food geeks, and fashion geeks, tea geeks, all kinds.

Take a look at what I got Drew for his birthday. It’s a print by an Etsy artist from Drew’s favorite movie Say Anything. It was the perfect gift. Not the most expensive, not the most “geeky” but just right.

So pay attention to the geek that you are shopping for, many times the best choice is the one you wouldn’t expect, the one that comes from the heart.

I hope you find the right gift for your geek this holiday season.

Let me know what you are shopping for in the comments.

CES this year sure was an exciting show, but the product that interested me the most was the HP mini 1000 Mi Edition. I have been very happy with my computing combination of iMac and iPhone, but lately I have been traveling around a lot more, and it would be nice to have a small laptop to surf the web with. What I like about the HP is the fact that it is very small (only 1″ thin and 2.25 lbs), but with a reasonable sized keyboard (92% of full size), it runs on linux, and the price starts at $329!

I don’t think after being such a hard core apple user that I could go back to windows even for a small netbook so I am happy that HP is giving consumers the opportunity to try a new OS. But I still find myself scratching my head, where is Apple on this?

It would appear that there are two arguments in the “where is the Apple netbook” debate.

#1 The macbook air is as close as apple is going to get to a netbook, it’s small and portable, yet powerful enough for apple to sell it.

#2 The iPhone and iPod Touch are Apple’s versions of a portable internet browsing device.

Now while these both seem like good arguments, I still don’t buy it. I don’t think Apple is trying to get into the netbook game because they have stated that they can’t build a computer for less than $1000 and be happy with it. Now while the Macbook Air is very portable, it is also very expensive. And while the iPhone has good internet capabilities, it doesn’t match the kind of work I can get done when I have a keyboard and a webcam.

These factors are really making me lean toward the HP. Apple give me a break on this, I would gladly pay $600 for an Apple netbook than ran OSX, just throw me a bone here.

What would you do? And how do you feel about the whole netbook catergory of laptops?

Around the holidays everyone is scrambling to find the perfect gifts. Well I thought I could do my best to give you this geek’s wish list for perfect gifts.

1. The Kodak Zi6 – Now while many people may see this camera as a flip knock-off, I see a bigger better screen, rechargeable batteries, and no red light in the front while recording (unlike the flip) This allows for super secret stealth recording. Plus (and I hate to say this) I do love pink gadgets.

2. The Sanctuary – This takes all your gadgets, keys, and everything else coming out of your pockets at the end of the day, and puts it in one neat box that also hides all the wires and keeps everything neat. You might say, ok Sarah that’s nice but what is so special about this?

It comes with a universal charger compatible with over 1500 electronic devices from most major brands and a USB port. It can charge whatever you got! All you need is a spot that will hold the 9″ x 9″ box (23 x 23 cm). Oh and in case you were wondering, it works with 220V and 110V.

3. Canon 5D Mark II – With 21.1 megapixels and HD video can you really blame me for wanting this?

“Professional photojournalists and wedding photographers already choose the EOS 5D for its discrete size and outstanding image quality,” said Mogens Jensen, head of Canon Consumer Imaging. “The addition of HD movie recording opens a new chapter for EOS. It creates new possibilities for EOS photographers to capture and share their stories and to stay relevant in a rapidly changing digital landscape.”

Now I don’t blog about photography because it is my first love. Before the internet, before social media, before I was a blogger or a vlogger, I was a photographer.

If you are thinking about picking this up for yourself or as a gift do yourself a favor and only buy the body. DO NOT get the kit with the lens. Just buy a fixed 50mm EOS lens to start with and you will be much better off.

4. Polaroid PoGo Printer – A mini polaroid printer that can print via bluetooth from a cell phone or from being plugged into your digital camera is awesome in my book. The printer prints 2” x 3” borderless, sticky-back prints. A must gift for all your friends who take a million photos at the party. Now they can have this tiny printer and stick the picture right to your back.

5. Revel lighting – Reveal is a new type of ambient interior lighting. It creates the impression of sunlight streaming through a window and onto an interior wall. The image projected by REVEAL is unique
and cannot be recreated by any other device. Multi-plane analog images create real depth of focus. Air currents through the projector create organic non-repeating movement in the trees. The lamp color closely mimics multi-spectrum sunlight. How cool is this! You know you want it.

6. TriniTEA Electric Tea Maker – This is the ULTIMATE tea gadget! I am so sick of coffee drinkers getting all the gadget fun. So this goes on my list for all us tea geeks. This wondrous appliance does it all – heats water, steeps leaves, and keeps tea warm. Variable timer and temperature control let you adjust the strength of an infusion, ensuring a perfect cup of tea each time.

7. Apple Macbook – You know it can’t be a wishlist of mine without Apple products. I have been moving around a lot and realizing that life without a laptop is not as easy as it seemed. So the new macbook seems the most practical. We all know the reasons to buy it so I am not even going to waist your time with why it is amazing.

I hope everyone has a great holiday season. And remember, jewlery never hurts either.

Wired magazine has set up a store in New York City for the holidays on 15 W 18th Street in Chelsea. The store will be open from Nov. 21 through Dec. 28 so make sure to stop by if you’re in town before it closes. Also check out their list of events, there are some pretty interesting ones.

Last night I was at the store for an event with Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix. But I was much more interested in playing with all the gadgets. But there were more than gadgets in this store.

One of the most interesting things were two packages made by A & R. “Help I’ve cut myself” and “Help I have a headache”.

Help Remedies aim to solve simple health issues simply by stripping away the extraneous elements. The packaging is molded from recycled paper pulp and is compostable, and all Help’s products are packaged together at its upstate New York factory which employs adults with learning disabilities. The 500mg acetaminophen pills are as pure as possible, and without the dyes and coatings most brands are fond of using to pretty up meds. Acetaminophen doesn’t cause stomach problems the way aspirin and ibuprofen can. These next-generation bandages are made of hydrocolloid, the same material hospitals use to help wounds heal faster and reduce scarring. These strips are nearly invisible, and should stay on for several days. They are best for minor cuts and blisters. If all that wasn’t helpful enough, 5% of profits are returned to charities that help people without healthcare get healthcare.

But what I was most excited to play with was the Blackberry storm. I was very curious about the “Screen that clicks” But it is exactly what it sounds like. The touch screen can tell where your finger is but that will not select anything. Not until you actually press the screen down until it clicks will it be selected. The feel is much different than say and iPhone but I can see how some people will like it. I found the UI complicated but then again I am not a blackberry user so maybe it is more intuitive than I thought.

I didn’t get as much time to play with it as I would have liked. I hope to get my hands on one again soon so that I can do a full review. (hopefully with video)

I also got to play with Pleo, a chumby, Peak (the email only gadget) and many more. Check out all my photos from last night below.

I first heard about Eye-Fi a while ago. I thought it was interesting but I didn’t jump on it for a few reasons. The main reason was that it was a SD card and my DSLR used CF cards. The other reason was that until recently I was never really a big flickr user. But the more I blog the more I find having my photos on twitter is a really easy way to add pictures of a blog post or add a URL to a twitter.

I love the idea of mobile blogging but when it comes time to add a picture from my iPhone to my blog post I just am not happy with the quality of the iPhone camera. The eye-fi would be perfect for this. As soon as you get to your home network the Eye-Fi goes right to work uploading all your photos, so before you know it, you have a flickr url and photos to add to your post. This is officially on my “I want” list. (along with a camera that uses SD cards of course)

Today facebook launched version 2 of its iPhone app and it is 100% better than the original. The new app adds basic facebook functionality that it was originally missing. Notifications are there and you have a real news feed with some functions that are even better than facebook’s actual site.

One of my favorites is the new news feed. It allows you to see how many comments any certain post has, and let you add one right from the news feed. Another great feature in the news feed is the bar on the top. You slide your finger horizontally across the bar to switch the news feed you are viewing. It implements friend groups so you can only look at the news feed of people you want to see. It also lets you look at the news feed for certain facebook apps. The inbox has been updated, showing a much easier to read conversation. And as always there is facebook chat.

So when I had a first the iPhone I was very afraid to hack my phone. I knew a lot of people who had it hacked and loved it. But I was holding out for 2.0 and the app store. To me it didn’t seem like there were any killer apps I NEEDED to hack my phone for. Until now… A few days ago I posted that Qik had come out for the iPhone 3G but only through hacked iPhone’s. Since the iPhone technically does not record video, Apple could not allow an app that would stream video live to the internet. But Qik released it anyway for hacked phones.

Now since live video is something that I love, this was enough to make me hack my iPhone. So I did! Last night using the iPhone dev teams Pwnage tool it was really very simple to hack the phone. So you might be wondering why I feel safer now than before? I guess it comes from the fact that when you hack an iPhone running 2.0 you still have access to the app store. So all the other apps I am running are Apple approved apps so I feel safer. Plus I know I can always restore the phone to the original software.So I have added a Qik embed to the random sarah live page, and you can follow me on Twitter for updates when I go live

I made some minor changes to the site and to my viddler player!

Check it out:

I have really been looking forward to Qik on the iPhone, but this news today is really depressing. There are so many great developers out there and to see an app that would change the way so many of us communicate only be avalible on jailbroken iPhones just makes me sad.

A while back, Qik announced that they would be creating a video broadcast client for the iPhone. When they first announced it, Qik was only available in a limited beta to jailbroken phones. However, Qik has announced that all jailbroken 1.1.4 iPhones will be able to get the client through Installer.app. Since Apple hasn’t yet allowed streaming video using the iPhone’s camera, jailbreaking is the only way to use Qik.

Qik, as you may already know, is a way to broadcast live, streaming video from a mobile device. While they are not offering an App Store version of their client, you can download it via Installer.app by adding “http://qik.com/iphone1″ to your sources list. If you are using iPhone 2.0 software, you might be able to downgrade to 1.1.4, however, the risks outweigh any advantages you might get.

There seems to be a growing field of jailbreak applications as Apple continues to disallow some SDK-built apps. Even though we have the official SDK, there are still too many limitations for some apps and their users.

Qik launches on Installer.app – The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

So even before I had my new iPhone I had been using the new iPhone 2.0 software and I feel like I should tell all my readers when I find an app that I love, that you might not know about.
It’s called Evernote and it is not only an iPhone app but also a desktop app and a web based app.

So what does it do? It allows you to save notes (written, photos, and even voice notes) these notes then sync with the app on your computer and can even be accessed online from anywhere.
Now I know what you are thinking… Sounds cool but whats the killer feature? The killer feature comes after you have been using it for a while. You amount this whole database of things you thought, saw, or heard and you can access them from anywhere.
So I think you should give this a try. And see how you like it. Let me know if you agree or disagree?