Brandon

It is truly the season for giving as as we get closer and closer to December 25, some of you might be wondering what to get that special gamer on your list. Of course it's easy go get them games and it's likely that you have some titles and even some game consoles on your shopping list. Here at FiringSquad, we know that men and women gamers don't live by games alone. That's why we decided to come up with a holiday gift list that has more than just a bunch of game titles. We hope this collection of ideas from various FiringSquad staff members will help you in your quest to get a gift that your gamer will enjoy but perhaps didn't see coming:

Brandon Bell: FiringSquad Hardware Editor

Nikon D40 $600

Nikon's entry-level SLR is perfect for budding photographers looking to capture high quality images. It's got a 2.5" color LCD and supports up to 6.1 megapixels. It's also smaller and lighter than previous SLR offerings from Nikon. Officially it carries an MSRP of $600, but expect street prices to fall over the course of 2007 as more retailers begin to carry the D40.

ASUS WL500W router $150

While they're best known for their motherboards, ASUS has quietly developed a line of high-end routers with their WL-500 and WL-700 series. The WL-500W is an 802.11n draft-compliant router. The WL-500W is also one of a handful of routers with built-in BitTorrent client support. With their download manager software, you can manage your FTP, web, and BitTorrent downloads, even when your PC is turned off or disconnected. The router comes with 2 USB 2.0 ports built-in, in case you want to add an external HDD for storage. The more expensive WL-700 actually comes with a 160GB HDD built-in for this purpose.


Skip Barber racing school $1,595 2-day racing school@Laguna Seca.

I once had the pleasure of driving de-tuned NASCARs at Las Vegas Speedway thanks to the Richard Petty driving experience. It was a lot of fun, but not entirely helpful for real-world use. Skip Barber racing school is entirely different, with courses on a range of different driving skills you can use day-to-day, and in a variety of regular cars as well as sports cars. Skip Barber schools are available at a wide variety of tracks, but I chose Laguna Seca because of its reputation for being one of America's great tracks.


Flight school ~$200 for 1 lesson

I grew up playing flight sims, and one day would love to go flying. I hear lessons start at about $200, one of these days I'm definitely going to give it a shot.


Philips Pronto TSU7500 $600

While there are cheaper universal remotes out there, the Philips Pronto is the one that truly started it all. The Pronto works with practically every brand of AV equipment, and its completely customizable. Simply hook it up to your PC (via USB) to download templates from other Pronto users online. The remote itself comes with a 3.8" touch screen and 48MB of memory. This is another one of those home audio devices that I want to own one day.