Introduction

Raspberry PI

Raspberry Pi 2 8 GB Desktop Starter Kit (Exclusive to Amazon)

The kit above includes the Raspberry PI Model B. This is the most powerful version available. It comes with an 8 GB memory card which comes pre-installed with NOOBs.

NOOBs provides a simple installer for getting up and running quickly and easily.

You also get a power supply, HDMI cable and ethernet cable.

If you decide to buy the above kit you will probably want to buy a keyboard, WIFI dongle and a mouse.

Overall cost is around £75.


If the person receiving the gift is a true techhead and they are good with electronics then you might consider buying them the new Raspberry PI Zero.

This is more of a stocking filler for the true gadget geek and costs from as little as £5. In order to do anything with it you will need a mini HDMI cable and micro USB power cable.

As the Raspberry PI is becoming more mainstream I will be focusing more content on the Raspberry PI in 2016.

Android JXD Gaming Tablet

I bought one of these a couple of months ago and I have to say I love it.

This is the JXD S7800B Tablet HD Rockchip 3188 IPS LCD Capacitive TouchScreen Game Console Unlock Rooted Android 4 Free Retrogaming - 16GB

The tablet itself is like a slightly larger Sony Playstation Vita. It feels solid and despite some heavy punishment by me it is still looking as good as it did when I first removed it from the box.

The JXD is quite simply an ordinary Android tablet with gaming controls attached but it comes with a piece of software called Happychick.

Happychick is like a retrogaming library whereby you can install ROMs from every retro games console you can think of.

The console itself lets you play N64, NDS, Playstation 1, SNES, Gameboy Advance, Genesis/Megadrive games, Atari and others.

My tablet is full of gems such as Bubble Bobble, Desert Strike, Lemmings, Micro Machines, Road Rash, Pinball Dreams, Sensible Soccer and Speedball 2.

This is definitely one for the big kid.

A word of warning before purchasing. When mine arrived the pre-installed software didn't work quite as well as expected and the documents were in Chinese. I watched a Youtube video which showed me how to get it working properly.

Basically all you have to do is go to the company's website (English page) and download the appropriate firmware.

If you plan to buy this for your children be prepared that you may need to do some setting up prior to Christmas day or have nagging frustrated children on the actual day. The tablet itself works fine and you will be able to install from the Play Store but the gaming emulators will possibly need to be downloaded separately.

Of course this might have been resolved by now. I was a fairly early adopter to this new version after seeing it advertised on Channel 5's The Gadget Show.

The cost of the tablet is around £100 and I have to say it is worth every penny.

Electroninks Circuit Scribe

The Circuit Scribe Conductive Ink Basic Kit lets you draw working circuits using a silver pen and a piece of paper.

I saw this for the first time on The Gadget Show a few months ago and I think it is an ace present for older children as it teaches basic electronics without the use of a breadboard and lots of fiddly little wires.


The video above shows the circuit scribe in action.

The basic kits costs around £40 and it includes a silver ink pen, 6 modules and a 9V battery kit.

You can get the more extensive kit for around £70.

Linux Magazine Subscriptions

My wife knows how hard it is to buy presents for somebody like me. She knows I like anything a little bit geeky but she is afraid to buy techy gifts in case she gets it wrong.

What my wife does know is that I like to read magazines and that I like to read about Linux.

A magazine subscription is great because it is a long lasting gift and every month you have the anticipation of the next issue dropping through the letterbox.

In the UK the three magazines that are prominent on the shelves of the supermarkets are Linux Format, Linux User & Developer and Linux Voice.

The great thing about Linux magazines is that they often come with DVDs containing the latest distributions and they are generally packed with tutorials, hints and tips.

The GooDee 3D Printing Pen

Bit of a novelty item this one. Don't expect to be producing 3D masterpieces. This is also not a toy for kids although it should be fine for older children / teenagers.

Basically the GooDee 3D Pen lets you create plastic models by drawing them in layers. It is essentially somewhere between a soldering iron and a hot glue gun spewing out hot plastic.

You can use it to create basic models and novelty arts and crafts.

It only costs £35.

3D Printer Pen 65g Entry Level 3D Stereoscopic Print with Free ABS supplies (Grey)

Immerse 3D Virtual Reality Headset

Looking To Spend A Little Bit Extra?

This beautiful piece of kit is the Alienware Steam Machine (4th Generation Intel Core i3 Processor, SteamOS, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive) (Electronic Games).

Play all of your Steam powered greats on the sleekest machine available.

This is up there with the XBOX One and the Playstation 4 but is probably 10 times cooler. The library of games far surpasses the number available for the XBOX and Playstation.

The machine is also incredibly powerful with an NVidea GeForce GTX GPU 2GB GDDR5 graphics and Intel core processors.