1. iTunes gift certificates and apps. If you have an app, TV show, or songs you’d like to share, you can quickly and easily gift them to someone right from iTunes. Generic iTunes gift certificates are available in amounts of $10 to $50 in $10 increments if you’re not sure of a person’s exact tastes.

2. Online backup. Nothing says “I love you” like the gift of preventing data loss. If someone you’re buying for hasn’t developed an onsite backup strategy, you can both give a gift and do a good deed. Both CrashPlan and Backblaze (two of my favorite online backup services) offer gift subscriptions for $50. Sure, it isn’t a very fun gift, but it’s practical, and when a recipient accidentally lose a file, they’ll hopefully remember how you helped them.

3. Audible. I’ve been an Audible fan for a very long time. Someone who has a long commute to work will appreciate the wide variety of books that they can listen to via the service. You can give an individual book (the geek on your list will love “Ready, Player One” narrated by Wil Wheaton) or give a monthly subscription that allows for multiple purchases. Three month subscriptions start at $45.

4. Pandora One. For the audiophile who loves their custom stations and playlists but winces when they hear an ad, how about a gift subscription to Pandora? No more pink cupcakes. I’d suggest Spotify, but gift subscriptions aren’t available in the U.S. yet. Coal in that company’s stocking for sure.

5. Hulu+ or Netflix. If the hard-to-shop-for person on your list loves TV or movies, a gift subscription of Hulu+ or Netflix will allow for streaming of video content to their iPad, iPhone, and desktop. Unfortunately Hulu+ doesn’t work directly on the Apple TV, so Netflix would be a better choice for users of that device. Both products have gift subscriptions that start at $7.99, and both give you a choice of attractive gift certificates to print at home.

There you have it. You didn’t procrastinate, you were simply waiting for the perfect gift, and now you have a great list. Happy holidays and next time, plan ahead!

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Connected Consumer Q2: Digital music meets the cloud; e-book growth explodes
• Controversy, courtrooms and the cloud in Q1
• Connected world: the consumer technology revolution

Apple Retail Store Furniture

How well do you speak Italian?  It turns out that those round bean-bagish chairs found in many of the Apple retail Stores are actually of Italian design.  Cerruti Baleri’s Tato Collection is where Apple went shopping to find them.  It’s a collection of products from designer Denis Santachiara.  The problem seems to be how to purchase a set of your own.  You may have to go through a furniture dealer or even an art gallery, as these items are not available for direct sale over the Internet.

The Apple Company Store

If you happen to be in the San Francisco Bay area sometime this holiday season, then consider making a side trip to Cupertino. That’s right; Apple’s headquarters is the only place where you can purchase official Apple merchandise.  Better yet, plan a trip and take that special someone to the Apple Store on a shopping spree.  The Apple Company Store is open to the public.

Other Apple-Branded Gear

A little closer to home, from the comfort of your closest internet connection, in fact, is The Missing Bite.  From posters to hats to stationary and pens, This site is one of the rare places online that you can get some Apple-branded swag.  They even have the classic “Here’s to the Crazy Ones” genius bio sheets.  There are also alternatives like RedLightRunner and Dougintosh to consider. All of these sites seem to source their wares from official Apple promotional channels. I’ve also always liked the Apple Timeline t-shirt from Insanely Great Tees.

iPhone App Icons

As a magnet, a coaster, and even as a throw pillow, the look of the icons from the stock Apple apps on the iPhone are quite popular.  ThinkGeek is selling a set of the app magnets in their online store. If you’d rather have the iPhone app icons as coasters, they sell as three separate sets of six.  If it’s pillows you are looking for, then look no further than the iconpillows shop on Etsy. In fact, both ThinkGeek and Etsy have additional Apple technology related items that you may like even better.  MacBook decals are always a hit, as is the Etch-a-Sketch iPad case.  And who could forget the Antennaid stickers that helped resolve the iPhone 4 antenna signal loss problem?

Design Apps From Scratch

Have someone in mind this holiday season that feels they can design a better version of almost any app they install?  Empower them with their own assortment of stencils and tablets so they can get to work re-designing the apps they’ve grown to love.  UI Stencils has both an iPhone and an iPad version of a metal stencil that you can use to draw the app of your dreams. If the UI Stencils sketch pads aren’t to your liking, take a look at what App Sketchbook has to offer instead. If they already have an iPad, an app might better suit their needs. Endloop’s iMockups is a solid choice.

High-Style Mousemat

My old X-Track Zoom mouse pad wasn’t quite up to the same style standards as the rest of my Apple kit. I wanted my workstation to look less custom-built PC and more Mac chic.  That is where the Just Mobile Alupad comes in.  The look and style of this mouse pad fits right in with my current Apple desktop accessories like the Bluetooth keyboard and the Magic Mouse.  If Macs are out and iPad desktops are more the in-thing, then JustMobile also has a series of different style iPad stands as well.

Korean iPhone Sausage

Earlier this year, a Korean sausage manufacture was noticing an increase in sales.  It turns out these sausages emit just enough of an electrical charge that the capacitive touch screens of the iPhone can’t distinguish the sausage from a human finger. Casecrown is now selling these as an iPhone Sausage Screen Stylus.  If using a sausage feels a little too odd, then perhaps this winter, try out a pair of North Face eTip Gloves.

Classic Leather Book Covers

When I first saw this, I thought it was a great design concept.  There are several old school business people out there who aren’t ready to give up their Franklin Planners, their Oxford Black and Red, or their classic black-and-white-marbled composition notebooks.  Perhaps they haven’t seen the Twelve South BookBook for iPads and MacBooks yet. Personally I’m more partial to their BookArc and BackPack products than the BookBook cases.

Books and Movies From Amazon

There are likely several lists on Amazon that will claim to be the definitive list of all media available on the subject of Steve Jobs, Silicon Valley and Apple Computer. Ignore them and listen to mine instead. For historical and cultural reference books, consider Apple Confidential 2.0, The Cult of Mac and Revolution in the Valley.  For DVDs in the same vein, the must-haves are Pirates of Silicon Valley, Welcome to Macintosh and Macheads.  If you want to go off of the beaten path a little, and get to the core of what makes things tick in Cupertino, consider purchasing the book The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs as well as the DVD documentary Objectified.

There you have it.  This collection of holiday gift ideas should capture the attention of just about every true Apple enthusiast out there.  You can’t go wrong with the standard iTunes gift card, of course, but the above selections are a little more personal and will show the Apple lover in your life that you’re willing to go the extra mile.

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

• How to Reach Mobile Shoppers This Holiday Season
• 4 Ways Technology Will Change Black Friday
• Five Things Needed for a 48 Million iPad Market

It’s been a long time coming, but Apple has finally given the greenlight to app gifting, meaning you no longer have to limit your ridiculous, spontaneous impulse buys of games you will only play once and then never again to just yourself.  You can find the new “Gift This App” option alongside the “Add To Wishlist” and “Share Via Facebook” menu items in the dropdown that appears next to the price of any app.

It’s nice to be able to give someone a specific app instead of just an iTunes gift card that they then might waste on absolute and utter crap by accident or through ignorance. I’ll also probably make use of app gifting to get other iPhone-owning friends on board with multiplayer games and multi-user apps that I haven’t been able to sell them on buying through extremely convincing rhetoric alone.

Why did Apple finally decide to turn on iPhone app gifting, at this late juncture? It’s been absent since the launch of the App Store, which took place almost two full years ago. My guess is that Apple flipped the switch in order to have it up and running, bug-free, in time for the iPad’s launch in early April in the U.S., and late April in many other parts of the world.

Gifting apps will be a great way for Apple to take advantage of its existing App Store user base to spread the love and help new iPad owners become immersed in the experience. I’m sure it’ll also have a positive effect on those people who get an iPod touch or an iPhone and never even open the App Store, let alone download any third-party programs, a group whose size continues to surprise me at this late stage.

It’s also good news for developers, who might find the limited number of promo codes Apple provides to be somewhat limiting in terms of getting their products out there to the reviewer community. Maybe we’ll be lucky enough to see giveaways and other types of promotional freebies climb now that gifting is an option. Blogs, for instance, could offer apps as prizes pretty quickly and easily now. Mind you, this isn’t a coy hint about our plans for the future, so don’t hold your breath.

There are some restrictions, of course. You can’t buy in-app purchases or recurring subscriptions for others, nor can you use your iTunes gift cards to give apps. Still, it’s one more option on the low-priced gift ideas list, and there’s nothing wrong with that.

With both shopping days and budgets running short, you may be wondering what to get your friends and family members who have either just purchased or will be receiving a new Mac.

With 1-8GB USB flash drives having a street price of ~$6-$15.00 and a plethora of highly useful free software for the Mac ripe for the picking, here is a guide to putting together a relatively inexpensive, yet most invaluable gift that will definitely keep on giving. If you have suggestions for items to include, post your ideas in the comments (it has to be free, remember!).

While TAB cannot distribute a pre-loaded DMG with these items (many have license “click throughs” before downloading and/or mounting), we can get you started building your present with this handy pre-built DMG file (ZIP), complete with custom disk image, background image and folder icons, all pre-layed out for you.

Core System Elements

• Growl + Hardware Growler – Great way to receive system and application notifications.
• iStat Menus – CPU, memory, enhanced date/time with calendar and more right in your menu bar.
• Perian – “The Swiss-Army knife for QuickTime” that lets you play more media formats than you will ever need.
• UnPlugged – Visual notification when your Mac becomes unplugged.
• Quicksilver – Put almost every aspect of your OS X system components and applications right at your fingertips.
• VirtualBox – Free virtualization tool for OS X which lets you run Windows, Linux or other operating systems side-by-side with OS X.

Must-have Utilities

• Audacity – For all your sound recording and editing needs.
• Fluid – Turn any web site into a desktop application.
• HandBrake – Preserve and convert video media and files.
• SuperDuper! – Don’t rely solely on Time Machine to preserve your data. SuperDuper! puts you back in control of your backups.
• TextWrangler – Let’s face it, TextEdit just does not cut it for power editing. This baby brother of BBEdit is a great free alternative, filled with options and support for many programming languages.
• Transmission – When you need a torrent, Transmission is the best way to get it.
• VLC – If there is a video or audio file that VLC cannot play, it won’t be long before support for it is added.
• Burn – Comprehensive audio, video and data media burning software.

Security

• ClamXav – Don’t join in the misconception that OS X is safe from the evils of the internets. ClamXav is a great, free anti-virus solution for OS X.
• TrueCrypt – Create cross-platform, virtual encrypted disks to keep your private data private.
• Wireshark – See what is really going in and out of your system/network. Great troubleshooting tool as well as a security-related app.
• nmap – One of the most comprehensive network scanners available. Find out who and what is running on your network.

Communication/Social Networking

• Adium – Centralize all your instant messaging, from .Mac to Facebook.
• Firefox – Despite growing compatibility with WebKit, there are times when Firefox is needed to view a problematic site.
• Last.fm - Personalized radio stations.
• NetNewsWire – NNW puts you back in command of your RSS feeds.
• Skype – Free or cheap voice, video and text calls to anywhere in the world.
• Twitterrific – The clean and classic way to tweet from your Mac.

Productivity/GTD

• Evernote – Store notes, web clips and more right from your browser or desktop.
• OpenOffice – Full office productivity suite offering compatibility with Microsoft’s comparable suite.
• Seashore – Powerful image editor based on GIMP.

Fitness

• TrailRunner – get into shape, track your cycling and train for that marathon.

Education

• Google Earth – Satellite imagery, maps, terrain, and more.
• Stellarium – Chart the heavens on your Mac.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Report: An Open Source Smart Grid Primer
• Note: Telco Strategies for Over-the-Top Video
• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era

Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanza, there is one undeniable fact. The holiday season is around the corner, and it is time to find the perfect gift for the Mac Addict in your family.

As good as an iTunes gift card or iPod case may be this season, “Think Different” and get that special Mac Addict in your life something that matters. Get them something they will remember, and something they will use. This will add some personality, and practicality under their tree this season. So what do you get for the computer geek that already has everything?

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

Today I’ll be briefly showing how easy it is to create a beautiful calendar using iPhoto, complete with all your important dates for the year and some seasonal photography.

Choosing a calendar

Once you’ve opened iPhoto and asked to create a calendar (via the small plus icon in the lower left), you’ll be presented with the following window:

Apple offers a selection of 10 different calendar styles to suit your needs. My favorites are the classic ‘Picture Calendar’, which puts the most emphasis on your photos, and ‘Colored Paper’, with a more relaxed and colorful feel. There are also a few great themes for obligatory events such as a wedding, holiday, or a new baby.

What then follows is a very handy dialogue for automatically adding some useful dates to your calendar:

You’re able to not only create the standard ‘January to December’ calendar, but can start the calendar on any month and have up to 24 months included (obviously for an extra fee!). It is also possible to pre-load your calendar with the national holidays for your country, any birthdays you’ve added to contacts in Address Book, and the events from any other of your iCal calendars. If you have already populated iCal with all the year’s birthdays, holidays, events and work it is a simple procedure to have them all added to your printed calendar without needing to copy them across by hand when it arrives. National holidays are also useful to have added, as the exact dates generally change from year to year.

On to Designing

Now it is a simple case of choosing the color scheme of each page and adding your own photos. To add an image to your calendar, you’ll need to find it in iPhoto and drag it over the calendar name in the left pane. Once you’re editing the calendar project, all the photos you’ve added will be displayed to the left, easily drag-able into the photo placeholders.

For each month, you’re able to select the number of photos you’d like to be displayed, and the color scheme (if the calendar template supports it). iPhoto has an ‘Autoflow’ feature, which will take all the images you’ve added to the calendar project and automatically fill each month of the calendar with a different layout and style. It’s a time saver, but personally I enjoy crafting each month myself!

Once you’ve added a photo to a grey placeholder, clicking it will bring up a menu allowing you to zoom the image in and out, or drag the image to reposition it within the frame. Take care that you don’t zoom in too far, as this can lead to the photo not being of a high enough quality to print. If this problem occurs, iPhoto places a yellow warning sign next to the photo to alert you.

A great tip for sourcing some extra photography to add a seasonal touch (I’m thinking Halloween, Christmas, Easter etc) is to browse through a stock photography site. Having a few photos of friends and family, coupled with a great Christmas scene can look fantastic. A few of note are:

• Stock.XCHNG
• iStockPhoto
• StockVault

Adding and Editing Events

No doubt there are events you’d like to add to the calendar which were not imported from iCal originally. This can be done by double clicking a date and entering your text. Fonts, colors and sizes can be changed by bringing up the font toolbox (press Command+T). You can also add an image to any given date — great for events and birthdays, and adding a personal touch.

Ordering & Pricing

Once you’ve gone through every month, added your photos and typed in the relevant events, it’s time to upload all that content to Apple and let them start printing your beautifully designed calendar.

Prices of calendars can be found at the iPhoto site. They cost $20, not including P+P, with an extra $1.49 per additional month (over a year). It’s worth keeping an eye open for offers run in relation to calendars — it’s common to have a percentage knocked off around Christmas time, or into the New Year.

Uploading all your photographs and calendar information can take a while, particularly on slower broadband connections, but the process is automatic and you’ll receive an email after the order completes. Delivery takes a couple of weeks, so make sure you plan ahead if you require delivery before the Christmas rush!

If you have any further calendar-related questions, please feel free to ask in the comments. In addition, do let me know if you have any other great Christmas gift ideas which can be ‘Made on a Mac’ — I’m still undecided on what to buy my Grandma…

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks