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C.E.S. 2013: A Genuinely Novel Gadget, the Self-Driving Car

A self-driving car from Lexus.Julie Jacobson/Associated Press A self-driving car from Lexus.

Most of what’s on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show is the same as what was on display at last year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Phones, TV sets, accessories. Minus Microsoft, of course.

But here and there, some first-time technologies made their appearance. One big one: self-driving cars.

Google, of course, is at the forefront of this technology; it’s had a successful self-driving car experiment running for some time now. (Actually, it has 12 such cars now.) Google wasn’t at C.E.S.

A few others were, though. There’s something bubbling here.

Audi demonstrated a car that can park itself in a garage after dropping you off. (It was the garage of the Mandarin Oriental hotel, in this case.) And when you return, you can summon the car with a phone app; the car drives itself from its parking spot to you. That, however, is not so much a self-aware car as a self-aware garage; it requires that the garage itself be equipped with special laser guides. And the driving is very, very slow and controlled (as you would hope).

Audi is also working on a traffic-jam mode, in which you can take a nap, work or do some reading as the car handles the slow, patient, touch-and-go edging through crawling traffic.

Audi says it’s thinking long-term — years away — for these features to become real futures. Read more…

C.E.S. 2013: What’s New in TVs

Samsung showed a curved TV screen at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show.Yonhap/European Pressphoto Agency Samsung showed a curved TV screen at the 2013 International Consumer Electronics Show.

If you ask anybody, “What’s the hottest thing you’ve seen at this year’s International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas?,” you get a distant look or uncomfortable head-scratching. There are enough iPhone cases and Bluetooth speakers to overflow every landfill in America. But without Apple, Google, Microsoft or Facebook on the premises, what’s left to exhibit?

TV sets, I guess.

The 3-D television push of the last two years is, thank heaven, pretty much dead. The industry learned after only two years that consumers have no desire to put on $100 glasses just to watch TV. And consumers learned early on that there was very, very little to watch in 3-D. You can sit through “How to Train Your Dragon” only so many times.

This year, 3-D is still around, but only in dark corners of the enormous, glitzy, stadium-sized, multimillion-dollar electronics-company booths.

But that doesn’t mean the TV industry has quit trying to get us to buy new TV sets. This year, the push is “4K,” called Ultra HD by some companies. It means more pixels — four times as many as HDTV. I’ll be writing more about the 4K push later this week, but for now, here’s a hint: the sets cost tens of thousands of dollars. There’s not a single cable TV show broadcast in 4K, and not a single movie available on disc in 4K. So what you may watch mostly on your 4K TV is the reflection of your own “I’ve been scammed” expression.

There’s all kinds of experimentation going on. Sony and Samsung both have big, hyper-expensive, not-yet-available flat-panel OLED sets on display that can show two 3-D shows simultaneously. (Viewers must wear special glasses that “tune in” to one or the other, and play the audio through the earpieces.) The Samsung can also play four 2-D shows simultaneously. Everyone on the couch can be watching a different program. Or two youngsters can be playing video games while their parents are watching a movie.

Samsung’s also exhibiting the world’s first curved TV set. I know, right? What the heck?

But sure enough, it has a slight bend to it, as though it were sliced from a circular wall around you.
I wasn’t aware of the general populace complaining that their TV screens were too flat. So why did Samsung bother?

The company says that the curve provides more viewing angles where the picture looks dead-on. Which I find to be nonsense; the curve is so subtle, it can’t possibly make any difference.

The real reason Samsung made this screen? Because it can, I guess.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro Tablet Changes the Game

A few months back, Microsoft raised a lot of eyebrows by selling its first computer: the Surface tablet. For the same $500 that gets you an iPad, it offers better hardware and more jacks. It has only one drawback: it can’t run any PC software.

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Or, more precisely, it can’t run any of the four million standard Windows programs. Instead, it requires a new type of app, a more limited, full-screen, iPaddish sort of app, available only from Microsoft’s online store. And there aren’t many of those apps, although the situation is slowly improving.

The world slavered, however, over Microsoft’s intention to release a second version of the Surface — the Pro — that would, in fact, be a genuine PC, running the real Windows and real Windows apps. Can you imagine how cool that would be? To have a tablet that was also a full-blown PC?

It’s almost here. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Microsoft didn’t have a booth and didn’t give the usual opening talk (instead, Qualcomm took that slot, embarrassingly and hilariously). But representatives were there, in a hotel room far from the show, giving a few reporters an early look at the Surface Pro.

It’s thicker than the original Surface tablet, just over half an inch thick. It’s heavier: 2 pounds instead of 1.5. And it’s more expensive: $900 with 64 gigabytes of storage, $1,000 with 128.

But you’re looking at an entirely new kind of machine, one with new possibilities. It’s a touch-screen tablet, of iPaddish proportions, that runs desktop software: Photoshop, Quicken, the full Microsoft Office, iTunes (and Apple’s online movie and music stores). Desktop software on a half-inch-thick tablet. That’s a first.

Microsoft has pulled out all the stops to make sure that you’re not disappointed in either of the two functions, tablet or PC. The screen is dazzling: bright, crisp and responsive. It has 1,080 by 1,920 pixels, also known as 1080p high definition. But when you connect it to a TV or external computer monitor, it manages to output an even bigger desktop — 2,550 by 1,440.

That you can use it at home as your main PC is only the first indication that Microsoft intends for this tablet to go head-to-head with actual computers. Another is the speed: it’s fast. Big apps like the Office apps open in just over one second. Programs switch fast and run fast. Gamers will be in O.K. shape, although of course without a dedicated graphics card, the frame rates won’t break any records.

The Pro comes with a hollow plastic stylus, so that you can write, draw and paint on the screen. The concept has one big flaw: you can store the pen temporarily by attaching it magnetically to the tablet’s power jack, but there’s no silo where you can store it for travel. So you’ll probably lose it.

But the drawing experience is fantastic. The pen is pressure-sensitive, so with the right apps, you can create darker lines by bearing down harder, exactly as graphics pros do on Wacom tablets. And you can rest your fist on the glass; only the pen makes marks.

There’s only one USB port on the device — USB 3.0, fortunately (meaning fast). But Microsoft has added a second USB 3.0 jack on the power brick itself. So whenever you’re set up at home or at work, plugged in to get work done, you now have two USB jacks. You can be charging your phone as you work, for example, by plugging it into the power cord. That’s just so smart.

(The fussy magnetic power-cord attaching jack, so frustrating on the Surface tablet, has been improved on the Pro. A stronger magnet makes it click in more easily.)

What really makes the tablet/PC concept sing, of course, is the famous Surface keyboard cover. It attaches and detaches briskly and simply to a magnetic bar on the bottom of the tablet, making the Pro’s conversion from tablet to PC instantaneous. That’s a huge, huge point. You can also flip it around to the back when you’re in tablet mode; the on-screen keyboard appears automatically as needed.

There are two versions of the keyboard cover, actually. There’s one called the Touch Cover, which is no thicker than a piece of cardboard, but the keys don’t actually travel. You can buy this cover, in a choice of colors, with the Surface for $100, or later for $120; Microsoft acknowledges that you won’t be able to type as fast as you can on a real keyboard.

There’s also the Type Cover ($130), with real keys that really move up and down. It’s about a quarter of an inch thick, but you can type on it normally.

The Surface Pro runs Windows 8. Now, as you know, I find Windows 8 an ill-conceived mashup of two different operating systems. There’s the standard Windows desktop, and there’s a new overlay, which I call TileWorld (because Microsoft hasn’t named it) — a colorful land of big, bright, touch-screen tiles.

Because you’ve got two almost completely dissociated operating systems, you wind up with two Web browsers, two Control Panels, two Search mechanisms, two ways of right-clicking. Your own computer now has a split personality.

On the regular $500 Surface tablet, Windows 8 makes no sense at all. (It’s a version called Windows RT.) The Windows desktop is there as a shriveled appendage; it can’t actually run Windows programs (except a modified Microsoft Office), so why is it there?

But on the Pro, the dual operating system is more defensible. You have TileWorld for use in iPad mode, and the Windows desktop for use when you’re in PC mode.

So: should you buy a Surface Pro instead of an ultrathin laptop? Is this a MacBook Air killer?

The question isn’t quite as clear-cut as it seems. The keyboard cover requires a hard, flat surface — so you can’t actually use this “laptop” as a laptop in your lap. The two successful ways to use it are (a) in your hands or lap as a touch-screen tablet, or (b) as a laptop on a table or desk.

It’s not as flexible when it’s in laptop mode, either; you can’t adjust the screen angle. The lower half of the back is a hinged panel, a razor-thin kickstand, held shut magnetically until you pop it out with a fingernail. It props the tablet sturdily upright — but at a fixed angle.

But even if the Surface Pro is not strictly a laptop killer, it nonetheless changes the game. It’s a machine nobody’s built before, and it should get a lot of imaginations whirring.

These are first impressions, mind you, based on a supervised hour of playing in a Microsoft hotel room. For example, it’s anybody’s guess what the battery life will be. (Probably less than for a real laptop, since there’s so little room inside for a beefy battery.) In any case, I’ll write a full review when I get my own Surface Pro to test.

But for now, it looks as if the Surface Pro is, conceptually and practically, a home run. For thousands of people, it will be an ideal mobile companion. It will mean the end of the daily question: “Hmm, should I take my laptop or my iPad?”

12 Days of Gadgets: Necomimi Brain-Powered Cat Ears

On the 12th day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…the last gift idea for gadget lovers who don’t really merit spending over $100 on.

Today, the weirdest and most memorable of all: the Necomimi Brain-Powered Cat Ears ($100).

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
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It’s a headband with fluffy white cat ears attached. They perk up, flop down and otherwise turn, cutely and catlike, in sync with your brainwaves.

That’s the promise, anyway. A slightly uncomfortable forehead arm picks up the echoes of your neural activity from the front, and a clip on your earlobe completes the circuit. As your mental activity rises and falls, as your mood changes, the ears take on a life of their own.

There’s a good deal of debate online about just how much the ears’ motion is, in fact, governed by your brainwaves. There are certainly times when they seem exactly in sync with you, and others when they seem completely random. No question about it: brain-computer interfaces are in their infancy.

But some things the Necomimis do extremely well are get attention, start conversations and make your holiday gift memorable. It doesn’t take a lot of brainwaves to realize that.

So there you have it, tech fans: 12 consecutive days’ worth of offbeat tech-gadget gifts for your loved ones and pals. Hope your days are merry and bright.

Now go start wrapping.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: The Touchfire iPad Keyboard

Thumpity thump-thump — that’s the sound your fingers make on an iPad screen when they try to type. It’s not an efficient process. You sort of have to keep looking down at the glass to see where your fingers are. In short, typing is not, ahem, the iPad’s shining moment.

One solution is to buy yourself a real keyboard — a Bluetooth one, for example. But that’s an expensive and bulky proposition. It’s another whole gadget to carry around.

On this, the 11th Day of Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets (Under $100), may I suggest the Touchfire iPad keyboard?

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
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It’s a transparent, flexible, squishable, $50 silicone membrane, weighing less than an ounce. (It got its start on Kickstarter.)

The Touchfire’s surface is molded into the shape of keys. You unroll this thing and attach it to your iPad with magnets along the edge. The molded keys align with the on-screen keyboard, and the whole affair makes typing easier and faster. There’s no actual key travel, no actual clicking, mind you. But at least your fingers can feel where they’re supposed to be.

It flips and folds out of the way when you need access to the screen without the keyboard; you can actually tap and swipe through it, when necessary. It also folds up nicely with Apple’s magnetically attached iPad covers.

If your lucky recipient is not a fan of typing on glass, the Touchfire makes a confident step toward keyboarding without adding any bulk.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: Cirago iAlert Tag and Cobra Tag

Oh, holy night — you’ve forgotten your phone!

Why can’t somebody invent a little beeper for your key ring? If you walk away from your smartphone (iPhone, Android phone or BlackBerry), your key chain beeps to alert you.

And it could work the other way, too. If you leave your keys somewhere, the phone beeps to alert you as you walk away!

The Cirago iAlert Tag. The Cirago iAlert Tag.
Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
See All the Gadgets »

That’s exactly the point of the Cirago iAlert Tag ($50) and the similar but more polished Cobra Tag ($70), the subjects of Day 10 in Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets Under $100.

They look like cheap black key fobs of the sort that unlock your car. Each pairs to your phone using the battery-frugal Bluetooth 4.0. (The iAlert uses a hearing-aid battery; the Cobra Tag has a built-in five- to seven-day battery that recharges from a USB cord.)

Then, if you ever leave your phone behind — on a cafe table, for example — your keys start beeping. It’s a high, insistent beep. You’ll smack your forehead and go back to get the phone before it’s too late.

The Cobra Tag The Cobra Tag

It works the other way, too: if you pick up your phone but leave your keys behind, the phone beeps to let you know. In the case of the Cobra, it can actually start playing a song of your choice.

And if the phone is lost somewhere in your living room, you can press a button on the fob to make it start beeping, as long as it’s within about 30 feet.

The Cobra has a backup feature, too: if your keys and your phone are separated and, for some reason, you don’t notice, the phone sends an e-mail notification that records the last known time it was near the key chain, along with GPS coordinates. You can specify multiple e-mail addresses for this purpose, or even request that it auto-post your little phone distress call to Facebook or Twitter. (“Hey, world — help me find my keys?”)

Neither one is exactly built like a Lexus. (The iAlert is especially flimsy.) But maybe small, light and cheap is just the point; if something weighs nothing, you won’t mind adding it to your key ring. You’ll forget all about it — until the moment comes when you desperately need it.

The Instagram Muddle

Our story so far: Instagram, the filter-and-share photo app that was recently bought by Facebook for $1 billion, changed its privacy policy on Monday. The new one says:

“You agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.”

Wow. So you do beautiful, creative photography — and Instagram gets to sell it to advertisers without a nickel to you.

The Web went nuts. Instructions for canceling your Instagram account burned up the Internet. Indignation and outrage were everywhere.

I had a hunch nobody at Instagram was really that stupid. This sort of thing happens every few months: someone reads the fine print of Google’s terms of services, or Apple’s, or Microsoft’s, and discovers what seems to be an outrageous “we own you” statement buried in the legalese. Google, or Microsoft, or Apple, apologizes, saying, “That’s not what we meant — that’s just what our lawyer put in there, and we’ll change it.” And life goes on.

And sure enough: On Tuesday, Instagram’s co-founder Kevin Systrom responded to the outrage with a blog post that says, in essence, “that’s not what we meant.”

“It was interpreted by many that we were going to sell your photos to others without any compensation,” he wrote. “This is not true and it is our mistake that this language is confusing. To be clear: it is not our intention to sell your photos. We are working on updated language in the terms to make sure this is clear.”

So what did he mean? “We want to create meaningful ways to help you discover new and interesting accounts and content while building a self-sustaining business at the same time.”

I have no idea what that means, either. I’ve read the post six times, and nothing he says translates into English.
In any case, it’s clear that Instagram is owning up to its “misinterpreted” language, and vows to change it before the policy takes effect next month.

Well, fine. But honestly — how could anyone, in this age of hyper-privacy-awareness, think that he could get away with such an inflammatory choice of words? Who could possibly have missed the probability of “misinterpretation”? What kind of reaction did he expect?

Maybe once you’ve got $1 billion in your bank account, you lose just a little touch with reality.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: The Leash Camera Strap

The first Noël, the angels did sing — but that was a long time ago. Today, the angels might note instead that it’s Day 9 of Pogue’s 12 Days of sub-$100 Gadgets for the holidays.

Kickstarter.com, as almost everyone knows by now, is a Web site where inventors present their brainstorms to the public, in hopes of raising enough money to move forward with production. Sometimes truly great new products are born. Sometimes they flop.

The Leash is in the first category. It’s exactly the sort of thing Kickstarter projects are so good at: updating or revisiting some mundane object in our lives that hasn’t been redesigned since 1723.

In this case, it’s the camera strap.

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
See All the Gadgets »

An single-lens reflex takes beautiful photos, but you pay the price in weight, bulk and awkwardness. The Leash ($40) is designed to help.

The first thing it does is spare you the nightmare of attaching a camera strap — usually a 20-minute procedure involving crochet needles and reading glasses. Instead, you fasten the Leash’s tiny black plastic anchors to your camera’s camera-strap loops.

Then there’s the nylon strap itself, which hooks onto these anchors quickly and simply and holds 200 pounds. It starts out as a regular neck strap, but it can expand to twice its original length when you want to use it as a sling strap, where the camera hangs at your hip instead of your sternum.

In another configuration, you can clip an anchor to your belt, turning the Leash into a handy improvised tripod. (You pull it tight against the strap; the tension helps keep it steady.)

The company also sells the Cuff, a wrist strap for your S.L.R., which is something you probably never had before. It attaches to the same anchors you’ve already put on your camera.

And you know the best part? This is a fresh Kickstarter invention. If there are S.L.R. owners among your loved ones, you can be pretty sure they don’t already have one of these.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: Prank Packs

Joy to the world — it’s Day 8 of Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets! (All offbeat tech products, all under $100.)

And in this holiday season in particular, we could use a little joy.

Prank Packs (three for $20) will bring it.

They’re the boxes for screamingly funny, hilariously awful, but scarily plausible products that don’t really exist. New this year, for example:

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
See All the Gadgets »

• The Crib Dribbler. It looks like a giant water bottle, like the kind that clings to the side of hamster cages — but it’s for baby cribs. “With the Crib Dribbler feeding system, baby will have the alone time it needs, and its parents can enjoy some quiet time without having to tend to a hungry baby.” “For use with milk, formula, stew and cocoa.” (The testimonials are priceless. “I really like that it’s made from recycled plastic syringes!”)

• Pet Sweep. They’re basically mop-head slippers for your dog, but of course it’s billed as an “Animal-Powered Debris Removal System.”

• Connect-a-Cord. It’s 50 one-foot extension cords. “Use your appliances anywhere!” The best part is the bulleted list on the back of the box. “With 50 separate cords, the configurations are endless! 1 foot; 2 feet; 3 feet; 4 feet; 5 feet; 6 feet; 7 feet…” (You get the idea.) It’s just plausible enough to become a real product, actually.

The photography, typography and layout of these boxes are perfect. I mean, they look exactly like the cheesiest products you’d buy from TV infomercials.

Anyway, the point is that you put people’s real presents inside the empty Prank Pack boxes. Then, when they unwrap their gifts, you get that delicious moment of watching their faces as they struggle to be tactful. They think you’ve just given them the all-time turkey of presents.

Once they figure out that it’s just a satirical prank, there’s even more laughter — and then gratitude for the much more thoughtful present you’ve stashed inside.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: Tagg Pet Tracker

Silent night…all is calm, all is bright… because your dog ran away!

Here, on Day 7 of Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets, I offer a solution.

GPS is already in our cars and phones — why not on pet collars? The Tagg Pet Tracker ($100, plus $8 a month after three months) snaps onto your dog or cat’s existing collar. (The company notes: “The tracker should not be used on spiked, jeweled or metal collars.” That means you, Brutus next door.)

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
See All the Gadgets »

Now you can track Fluffy’s wanderings. If the animal leaves the yard (or any other “geofence” that you create), the 1.1-ounce tag sends you a text message. And you can use the pettracker.com Web site to find your pet again on a map, using your phone or computer.

Unlike most pet trackers, this one is useful even when your animal remains on the property. It also acts like one of those FitBit-type motion sensors, generating daily or weekly reports on how much exercise your animal is getting. Might be handy if you’re not around to witness its activities during the day.

The design is clean and attractive (and water-resistant — swimming or bathing doesn’t hurt it). When the battery runs low, the transmitter sends you a text to let you know. You snap the thing neatly onto its base station charger; one charge lasts about a month.

You can add another pet for another $1 a month, and there’s no commitment; you can start or stop service whenever you like.

Of course, giving someone a present that requires a monthly fee is always risky. But look at the bright side: next year, you have a ready gift. You can pay for the service for a year.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: Sound Oasis Sound Therapy Pillow

You better not pout, you better not cry — today is Day 6 in Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets! A tech-gift goodie daily, under $100.

Today: A speaker pillow.

The Sound Oasis Sound Therapy Pillow ($50 list, $38 at target.com) is just what it sounds like: A regular, 20-by-26-inch, washable pillow (“soft brushed cover and hypoallergenic polyester fiberfill”), with two compact speakers inside. And a very long cord.

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
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When the speakers are in the pillow, you don’t feel them. The idea, of course, is that you can drift to sleep with music playing. (You plug the cord into your phone or music player.) The other idea is that you can listen to music or podcasts in bed, without disturbing whoever is trying to sleep next to you.

The audio is not what you would call Bose quality. The power won’t exactly damage anyone’s hearing, either; you are, after all, listening through a pillow. And there are, to be sure, thicker pillows on the market.

But there is something to be said for the clever design of this deal: You can easily remove the speakers from the pillow when you want to wash it or when you want to use the speakers as emergency booster speakers for your phone or laptop.

You can bet that this is the sort of pillow Santa himself would want at the end of another year’s exhausting worldwide course. He would put on his fluffy jammies, lay his head down on his music pillow, plug in his phone, and play — anything but Christmas carols.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: PowerTrip Charger

Oh come, all ye faithful — today is Day 5 in Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets! One gift idea every day that you probably weren’t thinking about — and nothing over $100.

Usually.

Today, it’s the PowerTrip charger. It’s $109 (sue me).

Everyone in your gift-receiving circle probably knows the heartbreak of Dead Battery Syndrome. It’s barely dinnertime, and your iPhone, Android phone or tablet is giving you the “10 percent remaining” sign.

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
See All the Gadgets »

This white plastic brick, about the size of a deck of cards, nips that problem in the bud. There are plenty of backup battery gizmos available, of course, but this one is interesting because you can charge it from three different sources: a wall outlet, a computer’s USB jack or — get this — the sun. Yes, there’s a solar panel on the back for topping off the charge.

It’s got a huge backup battery: 6,000 milliamps, enough to recharge an iPad once or a smartphone four times. In other words, you probably don’t have to charge it up more than once a week, especially if it’s sometimes exposed to sunlight. A handy “gas gauge” on the side shows you how much charge remains in the PowerTrip.

So it’s a single replacement charger for multiple gadgets and it’s a backup battery. But it’s also a flash drive, with four, eight or 16 gigabytes of storage for use with your laptop or whatever.

You can charge any device that would normally plug into a computer’s USB jack, because the PowerTrip has a USB jack. Just use whatever charging cord came with your gadget. (The brick also comes with three cords of its own — the traditional Apple 30-pin iPod/iPad/Touch connector, mini-USB and micro-USB — to save you the trouble of bringing your own cable.)

In short, the gadgethound you give a PowerTrip to will owe you one. And you’ll be able to enjoy a power trip of your own.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: Pop Bluetooth Handset

Hark the herald angels sing — it’s the fourth day of Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets!

Or, rather, 12 Days of Gadgets Under $100.

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
See All the Gadgets »

We love how slim and tiny our modern cellphones are; why, you could practically use ‘em as windshield scrapers! But the truth is, they do much better as hand-held computers than as phones. Ever try cradling one of those things between your chin and your neck as you do the dishes? It’ll twist your spine into a Figure 8.

The ingenious Pop Bluetooth phone ($50) is the solution. It’s a full-sized handset, looking like it’s been freshly snipped from the cord of some rotary phone of old (except that it’s available in a choice of bright colors).

Here’s the twist: It connects to your cellphone over Bluetooth. That’s right: your cellphone provides the signal, and the POP provides the comfortable, well-designed, full-sized, cordless handset. Cradling this baby under your chin is no problem, and you’re far less likely to drop it into the toilet by accident.

The design is better than the sound. You sound great to your callers, but they can sound a little scratchy to you. Still, what a cool gift idea for the person who has everything — including a chiropractor.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: CardNinja Cellphone Case

On the third day of gadgets, my true love gave to me … another budget-conscious tech gift, as part of Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets!

You know those guys who, in lieu of a wallet, carry around a big wad of credit cards and cash wrapped in a rubber band? They’re the kind of person who might like the CardNinja.

Pogue's 12 Days of Gadgets
One offbeat tech gift idea a day — and nothing over $100.
See All the Gadgets »

It’s a clever, stretchy-silky backpack for your cellphone. It holds cash and credit cards. Choice of colors, $18.

The point is to reduce the amount of stuff you have to carry around by eliminating the wallet. You get away with carrying only one bulky pocket item instead of two.

The CardNinja attaches to the back of the phone with strong adhesive backing (you can, with some effort, remove it later). It’s completely flat when empty; as you stuff more and more cards into it, it expands as necessary. I’ve been carrying around two credit cards, my driver’s license and some bills, and I was surprised at how easy it was to slip them in and out. The company says that you can stuff as many as eight cards in there, plus cash.

For some people, the CardNinja can replace the wallet. For others, the phone plus CardNinja is a good enough grab-and-go bundle for most days; you might keep the tertiary stuff — maybe your library, grocery, AAA and car wash loyalty cards — in your actual wallet that you don’t take with you as often.

For still other people, the CardNinja either doesn’t have enough capacity, makes it too hard to see all their cards splayed out, or puts too many eggs into a single “where did I leave that?” basket.

Fortunately, since you, the gift giver, know the recipient’s style, you’re in a good position to judge. If that “few cards plus cash, one bundle fits all” style does fit your loved one, though, the CardNinja offers a fresh and well-designed option.

Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets: The Zooka Bluetooth Speaker

Here we are — it’s Day Two of Pogue’s 12 Days of Gadgets! One offbeat tech gift idea a day, and nothing over $100! (Here’s Day One.)

There are all kinds of Bluetooth wireless speakers these days. They’re really great, actually. Many are tiny, but produce disproportionately good, strong sound. For a phone, laptop or tablet with tinny built-in speakers, these wireless portables (Jawbone Jambox and many others) are a huge help — when you want music for a gathering, when you’re watching a movie, when you’re giving a presentation for people who are farther than 18 inches from the screen.

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Carbon Audio’s Zooka speaker is much the same idea, with a twist: it’s designed like a foot-long tube, made of hard silicone rubber in your choice of eight bright colors. There’s a speaker at each end.

The best part: there’s a slot running down the Zooka’s length, which lets it wedge onto the edge of a tablet or laptop. That way, it’s not a separate piece. It’s up off the ground for better sound dispersion. And when you’re watching a movie, this design allows the soundtrack to emerge from the screen, as it should — not from off to the side, or wherever you put your Bluetooth speaker.

There’s a cutout in the center so that the tube doesn’t block your laptop/tablet’s camera. And there’s a pull-out foot that lets the Zooka prop up your entire tablet, as though it’s a stand.

Of course, most people will connect this thing to their phones, tablets and laptops wirelessly, using Bluetooth. But there’s also a miniplug input, so you can connect sound sources that lack Bluetooth.

Similarly, most people will clip the Zooka to the edges of tablets and laptops. But you can also use the Zooka as a portable, grabbable, freestanding speaker anywhere: the kitchen, the beach, your car, and so on.

The sound from this $100 speaker is crisp and clear, but not as rich or bass-y as what you’d get from a $200 speaker. It can distort at the highest volume levels. Still, the company says that the volume is five times greater than what the iPad’s tinny speaker can put out by itself, and with much better sound, and that’s about right.

The Zooka started out as a Kickstarter project (you can still see its promotional video here) — and became a real product thanks to the contributions of citizen believers worldwide.

It fits handily inside a stocking.