Ah, the holidays. What a magical time. The sounds of ringing bells and singing children fill the air, and everyone seems filled with goodwill and cheer. The Sonicare Plus Toothbrush will have your orally retentive loved ones dashing through the snow with glee. Cleaning at an amazing 31,000 strokes per minute, Sonicare reduces stains by 80 percent in just four weeks, studies show. Developed and designed by "periodontists" (Latin for "elves"), it even removes that not-so-festive plaque between your teeth and under the gumline. (Brookstone, $130.) But the fun doesn’t stop there. Dental research shows that bacteria and plaque also hide in the crevices of the tongue and can seriously impede your chances under the mistletoe! Never fear. For every problem, there's a bored inventor; witness the Electric Tongue Cleaner. It vibrates at 8,000 rpm and is specifically designed to clean without causing a gag reflex. (Brookstone, $30.) Once they're smelling minty-fresh, you'd better make sure your special people can reach you. Fortunately, Santa's little elves in the wireless phone division have been busy this year. One of their hottest items is the new Sprint PCS Touchpoint phone, "the phone with a mouse." Weighing in at 5.2 ounces, this new phone features a mouse interface, a large display screen and a built-in scheduler capable of working with a personal computer. It offers 98 phone book entries, or 300 individual numbers, caller ID and a vibrator alert option for incoming calls, so you won’t interrupt Christmas Mass to close that deal. (Radio Shack, $179.99.) Is 5.2 ounces too heavy for you? Try the featherweight Motorola StarTAC 8000, 3.5 ounces (with battery) of pure digital power. It has built-in caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, call hold and conference calling. What more could someone hope to find under the tree? (Pacific Bell PCS Kiosk, Fashion Valley, $549.) Know someone who can’t stand liars? Here's something guaranteed to make them wiggle like a bowl full of jelly: a telephone/lie detector. The Truth.Quest Phone is sensitive to inaudible changes in human speech that signify dishonesty, and gives a quick double-flash of red when severe stress is detected. Is that how Santa knows if you've been naughty or nice? (Sharper Image, $129.) With all these phones, you'd better have a way to answer them. What could be classier than a BeoCom 1100 answering machine? This digital machine with built-in caller ID can hold up to four outgoing messages at a time, and will play specific messages for specific callers. Greet your parents with Gene Autry's "Little Drummer Boy" and tempt your mate with a sexy rendition of "Silent Night." The unit also is wall-mountable, can deny access to selected numbers, and will show the identity of callers who don’t leave a message. (Bang & Olufsen, $250.) For the techie who already has the Q Phone, head to the Web where the Qualcomm Store has just opened in cyberspace. There you will find the high-tech Q Coat, a parka that includes the Q Pocket on the sleeve for easy access to a Q phone. "No more frantic digging under your outerwear when your phone rings," says Qualcomm. Other phones fit in the breast pocket. And, of course, if the recipient of your gift happens to be among Qualcomm's 11,000 employees, and happens to be wearing the coat when Irwin Jacobs walks by, all the better. (www.qualcomm.com/store, $149.) But maybe the people on your shopping list aren’t into communicating via phone. No problem. Santa thinks of everything. For those Luddites who long for the feel of paper and pen, turn to the CrossPad and Cross DigitalWriter Duo. With the Cross system, up to 50 pages of handwritten notes on a normal pad of paper can be captured and stored on a PC running Windows 95, with a CD ROM. (Colorado Pen Company, Cross Digital Pad, $399.95; DigitalWriter, $80.) Are your kids just not violent enough? Do you find them trying to sneak in quiet time with a good book? Here's a quick cure: Roboxing Fighters. The remote control robots deliver realistic boxing action, including intricate combinations of hooks, jabs, crosses and uppercuts. Controlled by full-function wireless remote controls, the 10-inch robots (they come in pairs) are made of fight-resistant plastic, and are guaranteed to make your Christmas lively. (Sharper Image, $35.) And there won’t be any smelly stockings, either, because those jolly ions also work on your shoes. Simply insert the Ionic Shoe Freshener into your shoes and the solid-state, electrokinetic Zenion Effect technology circulates fresh air and negative ions into your shoes, eliminating stinky feet and odor-causing microbes. When the freshening is complete, the unit shuts off automatically. Santa will thank you. (Sharper Image, $59.) We hope these holiday hints help you stay sane during the season. Merry Shopping.
Yeah, right. This is the '90s, Daddy-O. Who has time for brotherly love? There are Teletubbies to be bought, stockings and turkeys to be stuffed, and feuding in-laws to house.
San Diego Metropolitan feels your pain. And while we can’t help you with the in-laws, we can assist you with something almost as bad: gift-buying. To make your holidays a little easier, we’ve compiled a list of some high-tech gift ideas (because who wants to be low-tech on the eve of the new millennium?), sure to make the special someones in your life as merry as elves.
Make your list and check it
twice with the CrossPad and
Cross DigitalWriter Duo.
The perfect cure for those
well-behaved, bookish children:
remote control Roboxing Fighters.
If you treat your shoes with the Ionic
Shoe Freshener, Santa will never
leave a lump of coal in your stockings.
On a less destructive note, Santa's taken care of that holiday grinch known as Bad Hair. Say good-bye to flat and dull locks, and say hello to the Ionic Hair Wand, a battery-powered ion generator that creates a stream of electronically charged ions that smooth and tighten damaged outer layers of your beloved's hair. There'll be no split ends in your holiday pictures this year. (Sharper Image, $39.)
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