Holiday Anti Sopping Guide: Products to AVOID!

Every winter we have to think about what to get our loved (and not-so-loved) ones.  There are tons of vendors that try to cash in on our buying frenzy by offering a bunch of stuff that we simply don’t want or need.  Since we don’t need it, I guess we assume that other people do.

Most consumers know to avoid seasonal items like electric shavers and sausage gift baskets, but there is still a bunch of crap out there that no one really wants.  Some of this stuff actually seems like a good idea at the time, especially if they seem like a great bargain.  Since we test lots of games, hardware, and gadgets, we have our own thoughts about what gifts are worth giving (and getting).

Sometimes stuff just isn’t as good as you think it is.  Either the product is great but breaks, or you quickly grow tired of it, or worse yet: realize you need an upgraded version and have to spend your money all over again.

This anti-guide is targeted to a wide range of people.  Some are parents who are out of touch with their teenagers (and twenty-somethings).  Others are grandparents who think the latest trend-knockoff on QVC would make a perfect gift.  Some are girlfriends who just don’t know what their technology-enabled boyfriend would want.

Since the economy isn’t doing so hot, then why spend money on crap that will find its way to a landfill?  Here are some of the things that should be avoided at all costs this holiday season.

15. Earbuds that cost less than $100
Nearly every person under 40 has an iPod or other MP3 player.  These players usually come with a cheap pair of small headphones (dubbed “earbuds”) and are usually uncomfortable and only provide margional sound.  A better set of earbuds will produce crisper highs and deeper bass than a cheap pair.

To be honest, most of the headsets you buy for around $50 or less are almost exactly the same quailty as the ones that came with your player: which is fine if you just want a replacement. To experience the next level of portable audio fidelity you need to look at the next tier… and the next tier starts at $100.

There are several brands that offer small earbuds with huge sound.  Bose, Seinheisser, and Sure are the most popular names, and their prices can cause sticker-shock for gift-giving consumers.  Believe me, your gift-receiver will thank you for them.  They will last much longer than cheap earbuds or headphones, and sound much much better.

The Bose earbuds start at $99 and is probably the bare minimum in terms of audiophile-quality earbuds.  There is much room for debate, and there are lots of flamewars about Bose… but what cannot be argued is that Bose is in a different league than $10 earbuds. If you were thinking of earbuds for your ‘bud, then consider upgrading to the next level… they will totally thank you.

14. Playstation 2
Sony’s Playstation 2 is one of the cheapest consoles around at a retail price of $120.  The PS2 still has some great games, and some game companies are still making new games for this console.  It’s just not suitable as a gift in 2008.

If you’re considering this for a gamer under 12, and they have no game console at all, then a better bet would be a Nintendo DS, which costs exactly the same as a PS2.  If your gamer is a girl, then consider the metallic rose version.

A game console is always a winner during the holidays… assuming it’s from the current generation.  Console companies have slashed their prices recently, so you can get a Nintendo Wii or even an Xbox 360 for only two Benjamins.  If you buy your console from a used game store (like GameStop or Game Crazy) then you can pick up some great used games for really cheap.  The PS3 is a good alternative if you were going to buy a console AND Bluray player… you get both in one!

13. Any all-in-one gaming thing
There are several little toys that look like a gaming joystick or controller, and even have games embedded right in the stick!  This sounds like a no-brainer for a gift, but is actually a Christmas Trap.  Jakk’s Pacific loves to come out with these little devices (we’ve actually reviewed one here).  They have manu popular franchises like Spongebob, Scooby Doo, Power Rangers, and even classic arcade games from Atari and Namco, but believe me, they are all crap.  You’ll get five minutes of entertainment out of them tops.

12. Flash Drives under 4GB
USB flash drives are incredibly handy to have, and have penetrated modern society almost as much as iPods… even my mom has a few.  It’s great to carry around data that you may need, like programs you may need on a guest computer, presentations, and of course having every Super Nintendo and Atari 2600 cartridge ever made in your pocket.

Several years ago, flash drives were very expensive and could only hold 256MB or so (we’ve even reviewed a few).  Today’s programs and file formats have bloated to require more space, and a measly 1GB will no longer do the trick.  For the amount of stuff that the average geek carries around, a 4GB model should be the bare minimum when considering a flash drive as a stocking-stuffer.  Models up to 64 GB are available, but for some reason retail stores only seem to carry smaller ones.  Take a look at the usb drive options online here.

More is always better: and the best price-per-gigabyte right now is a 64-gigabyte flash drive (reviewed here).

11. Power inverters over 150W
Many people are on the move all the time.  They need their electronic devices in the car with them, such as a laptop computer or gaming console.  It’s also convenient to be able to charge up your GPS, cell phone and iPod all from one device… the DC power inverter.

DC power inverters work by conditioning direct current (DC) from your car’s battery into alternating current (AC) with higher voltage that your standard appliances use.  The funny thing about charging your cell phone or ipod through an inverter is that DC electricity is converted to AC, then the device’s power adapter converts it back DC… but I digress.

The dirty trick about car inverters is that you can’t draw more than 150 watts through your typical cigarette lighter (or electrical port).  To use any more than that, you must connect the inverter directly to the battery, which requires a lot of work if you want the leads inside the vehicle.  For the average family, 150 watts is enough to power a game console and LCD screen or laptop computer.  Charging up cell phones, iPods, GPSs and other devices don’t use much juice at all.

So, for the average person, an inverter over 150 watts is just a waste of money.  You usually get more outlets with higher models, but you won’t be able to use the extra juice you’re paying for.

10. iPod-enabled Alarm Clocks
There is a dark side of iPods being ubiqitous… there is so much crap flooding the market.  There are a ton of boomboxes and alarm clocks that have iPod docks, but most of them have horrible sound, buzz, or otherwise suck.  If you ever thought that an alarm clock was a lousy gift, then the iPod-enabled clocks aren’t any better.  They seem like a good idea, but stay away.

9. CDs
Do people really buy CDs anymore?  The purpose of a CD is to be played in a CD player, and they are almost as blassé as an 8-track recorder.  Ten years ago, every car had a CD player and boomboxes supported CDs.  The rules have changed: now cars are iPod compatible and boomboxes have iPod docks.

If you have the original CD then you can make your own MP3s, and with much higher quality than what’s available on the online stores.  Unless your gift receiver is an audio purist and rips his own music, then consider buying an iTunes gift card instead.

8. Portable CD Players
Didn’t you read the paragraph above?  Nobody uses portable CD players anymore.  People who exercise now have flash-based MP3 players because they have no moving parts and are not prone to skipping.  Portable CD players also eat batteries like candy.  The only reason you should even consider a no-name MP3 player is if the only alternative would be a portable CD player.

7. Voice Recorders for the iPod
This sounds like a no-brainer, right?  Your technology-loving nerd probably already has an iPod, and a voice recorder would help them with school lectures, business meetings, interviews, personal notes, and all sorts of things, right?… Well, not quite.

Voice recorders for the iPod vary in features, and most of them have pretty good sound quality.  The major differences between them is if they have USB passthrough (for charging while recording), or can record in stereo.

The problem with these devices lay in the iPod itself.  The iPod cannot compress audio in real time, so the audio format has to be unsompressed WAV (which take up quite a bit more space than MP3 files).  During a long recording session, the iPod will eventually start thrashing its disk as it writes… which usually results in large portions of the recording being ruined.  These voice recorders are fine for quick notes, grocery lists, or whatever, and for these look for one with an integrated speaker (so you can listen to your list while at the store).  For the purposes of recording lectures or other long speeches, consider a dedicated voice recorder.

6. No-name MP3 players
I’ll admit it… I was one of the last adopters of Apple’s iPod.  I was originally a fan of other MP3 players from Creative and Archos, and hoped that they would gain as much ubiquity as Apple’s player.  Microsoft came along and screwed that up real good with their “Plays for Sure” initiative, which essentially killed the market by not following up with their marketing promises.

The new players by Creative and Microsoft are pretty good, but the sheer fact of the matter is that there are sooooo many peripherals that work with the iPod.  The iPod isn’t the best player in the world (Creative comes out with some awesome features that would blow the iPod away), but it’s the most ubiquitous.  Apple’s marketing department has the world believing that unless it’s a true iPod then it’s not an MP3 player.

If this is a gift for someone else, go iPod.  If this is a gift for yourself, then you can choose from several companies: I would stick with those from Samsung, Creative, Archos, Microsoft’s Zune of Apple’s iPod.

5. Analog TV sets
You might be able to find some good deals on traditional “tube” TV sets, and there is a good reason for this… they will soon be worthless.

In February of 2009, all over-the-air (OTA) broadcasts will have to be digital.  This really doesn’t mean anything for the average techie, as they probably already have cable or satellite TV.  Hardly anyone in the US receives their television from an over-the-air antenna, and these people will either need to upgrade to HDTV or get a converter box.  Let’s be honest: if you are fine with the quality of programming you can get with a rooftop antenna, then there’s no reason to go HDTV.

Analog TV sets might be fine for the kids room with a DVD player.  Honestly, this is where many old sets usually end up when parents upgrade.  Analog TVs have their place, but it’s just not something to give as a holiday gift… not even those DVD/VCR/TV combos.

4. Camcorders that use tapes
Everyone wants to capture their memories.  Video camcorders are very popular among new families for this very reason, and now camcorders are cheaper and more accessible.  Several years ago these recorders required digital tapes (in various formats), but now storage technology has progressed to the point where you can capture DVD-quality video direct to a flash card or internal hard drive.

Video must be highly compressed in real time in order to fit on these new storage media.  This means that the video passes through a digital encoder chip, and the video is written in standard MPEG-2, MPEG-4, or other video format.  Because they are pre-compressed, the video will never be as sharp or crisp as digital tapes (which were still compressed, but not using MPEG technology).

Most families would dump their tapes directly to DVD and then re-use their tapes.  Unless you’re a video broadcaster then there’s little reason to do otherwise.  It just makes sense for the average consumer to write directly to MPEG-2 and then dump directly to DVD without conversion (as many hard-drive-based camcorders do).

Camcorders that write to SD cards usually write in MPEG-4 or a different codec. This is great if you have a media center or network-attached media device, but if you plan on transferring the video to DVD then you’ll still have to go through a conversion and authoring process.

There are some camcorders that write directly to min-DVDs, but this is a toss-up.  You can only record about 30 minutes of standard-definition video on a disc, which requires carrying a stack of discs with you.  If you want the ease of direct-to-DVD, then consider a model with an internal hard drive.

Either way, these new camcorders are much better (for the consumer) than tape-based camcorders.

3. Any computer sold on a shopping channel

This should be as obvious as “don’t buy fish off a truck”… but still year after year QVC and other shopping channels make a killing by selling computers over the airwaves.

For the person who just wants to get online, use Office, and print some photos this computer will probably do just fine.  For the geek (or teenager who doesn’t have his own computer): they are usually pretty lame.  It is possible that there may be one good deal out of a hundred, but overall I wouldn’t recommend purchasing a computer like this.

The main reason for this is that most of the computers are just not upgradable.  They usually have a motherboard with very few options, an integrated video card that can’t play games very well, and barely passable onboard sound.  The included memory may not be enough to run the operating system they’re selling.  I actually saw a computer being sold that included Windows Vista and 512MB of RAM!

Again, let me reiterate… you can buy a decent cheap computer just about anywhere (even on QVC), but remember who it’s for.  Will your grandson who plays video games appreciate a computer that won’t let him play video games?  No.  Most computers sold on TV are not gamer-friendly.  These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.  Move along.

2. Any Guitar Hero/Rock Band Knock-Offs
It seems like whenever any thing becomes a hit, then vendors flood the market with crap hoping to cash in on the confusion they’ve created.  For example, every time a Disney movie comes out then some low-budget Chinese animation house comes out with a similarly-named direct-to-DVD piece of crap.  The same is true with Guitar Hero

I’ve seen some toys that only have segments of songs that have you push fret buttons, and these are incredibly lame and cheap.  If the thing you’re looking at doesn’t work with one of the three major consoles (Xbox 360, PS3, or Wii) then you should put it down.

Extra peripherals are ok.  Nyko and a few other vendors make some great guitar controllers, and these are the few exceptions to this rule.  Avoid Konami’s Rock Revolution like the plague… it’s not Guitar Hero, even though they try to make you think that.

1. HD-DVD players and movies
I was so sure that HD-DVD would win the format war.  These format wars usually take several years before one becomes the victor, but the battle for the next-generation DVD was over almost as quickly as the first Iraq War.

You can now find HD-DVD players for bargain-basement prices (and the movies are even cheaper).  Do NOT under any circumstances be enticed into thinking that HD-DVD is a good idea.  It’s a dead format.  Even though there may be some titles that aren’t on BluRay right now, they will come out eventually.

If you’re thinking about a high-definition format for your video junkie, then get a blu-ray player.  One of the best BluRay Players is Sony’s Playstation 3.  The PS3 costs exactly the same as a good BluRay Player, but it pulls triple duty as a game console, bluray player, and networked audio/video appliance.

If you’re turned off by Bluray’s prices: then this is exactly why you should avoid HD-DVD.  HD-DVD is cheap for a reason.  Don’t buy into it.