Father Christmas isn't noted for being particularly gadget-savvy. He's obviously well up on the socks and underpants market, but not so hot on MP3 players and digital cameras.
To help you point him in the right direction we have created our very own virtual stocking crammed with hi-tech toys.
It includes what we believe to be the year's best gadgets. Some are great value products that will last years. Others will be gathering dust in your loft by this time next year. But however you use them, they are guaranteed to give you much more fun this Christmas than another bottle of dodgy after-shave.
Mobile phones
Throughout 2000, the major phone companies paraded futuristic-looking concept mobiles designed to make the most of the forthcoming super-fast 3G networks.
Arguably a more honest glimpse of the future was provided by an actual product launched in late Summer. Ericsson's £300 R-380 smart phone married the Symbian operating system to a clever touch-screen and at a stroke made many of its rivals seem a tad old fashioned. For once a phone that promised simple to operate email, web browsing and PDA functionality lived up to its billing.
Next year Nokia will attempt to re-capture lost ground with the latest version of its Communicator phones. The 9210 keeps its predecessor's keyboard, but adds a colour screen, Symbian's Epoc operating system, and, if you are using the Orange network's High Speed Circuit Switch Data (HSCSD) system, faster download times than standard GSM.
2000 was also the year that the Japanese finally made good their promise to take a serious crack at the world's mobile phone market. Sony unveiled two innovative and stylish models, one of which, the £30 CMD-J5, is arguably the most sensibly designed out of the basic Wap models. However, Panasonic's GD-93 phone is our Wap model of the year. It is stylish, sports a large screen, and has a fun selection of ring-tones (you can also record your own). Best of all, it lets you access your existing email account rather than be lumbered with a new one offered by your network. Motorola's newly launched £100 Timeport Ti250 and Philips' £100 Xenium 9@9 Wap, which uses voice activation to fire up its web browser, also merit further attention.
MP3
2000 was the year that MP3 personal audio players went from being the preserve of PC geeks to a serious option for any discerning music fan.
This year's best-sounding model was undoubtedly the long-awaited Sony Memory Stick Walkman, the £300 NW-MS7. However, its daft copyright protection software, which almost makes you feel as though you are committing a minor crime every time you use it, prevents it from receiving a warmer recommendation. Our favourite player is the £230 Samsung YP-Neu 64, a dinky little number wrapped in an I-Mac-style translucent finish which paired a quality performance with 64MB of embedded memory. Other models worth listening to include the £220 Philips Rush, LG's £180 MF-PD360 and the £160 Rio 600.
Next year look out for units with MP3 encoders like the £300 Aiwa MM-FX500 that can record directly from CDs with no need to use a PC.
Personal audio
Since the summer, the UK has been flooded with personal audio players touting mini hard disks that promise to store half of your CD collection in one brick-like box. Some, like the £350 Neo 25 which boasts an enormous 12 gigabyte hard drive, work reasonably well. Others are so flaky that getting them to play back any kind of music seems like a major achievement.
An easier and cheaper solution is to invest in a personal CD player that also plays CD-Roms with MP3 files, such as the £200 eXpanium from Philips. You can burn up to 850MB of music (over 200 average length tunes on MP3) on one £1.50 CD-R disc. Even the Argos-friendly Goodmans has got in on the act. Its CDMP-350 plays MP3-loaded CD-roms yet retails for around £80.
Digital cameras
The digital camera world appears to be splintering between serious mega-pixel fixated photographers and gadget-fans out to impress their more gullible friends. However, both groups gave an enormous thumbs up to the £600 Canon Digital Ixus which, in spite of its lovely chrome finish and pocketable size, is actually capable of high resolution images.
Almost as sexy is Fuji's £700 Finepix 4700 Zoom, which integrated an excellent quality camera into the kind of gadget you'd imagine James Bond touting in the 60s.
Serious camera enthusiasts will probably prefer the £800 Olympus C-3030Z - a digital model with the look, feel and many of the features of an analogue SLR.
2000 was also the year the digital camera crashed through the £100 price barrier with companies such as Jenoptik, Kodak and Agfa unveiling web-friendly budget models. Samung's £250 SDC-80 is another camera sure to feature on many Christmas wishlists. It may only be modestly specified, but with its funky translucent orange finish it sure is cute.
Consumer electronics
In the CE world 2000 will be remembered as the year that the TiVo personal video recorder arrived in the UK. Yet despite the amazing tricks, including a highly intelligent programme guide which among other things guesses what you want to watch and records it for you, the TiVo system has not exactly had people queuing in the rain outside Dixons.
Perhaps its £600 price tag has something to do with it.
Don't expect the hard disk/personal video system technology to go away though. Next year Pace will launch a Sky Digital decoder which offers both an intelligent hard disk recording system and two tuners (for watching one channel while recording another).
JVC is also set to bring its hard disk/S-VHS combi recorder to the UK, while home cinema fans dream of the day Toshiba's hard disk/DVD-ram recorder lands on these shores.
DVD
Undoubtedly this year's success story, sales of both players and discs have gone stratospheric - apparently the DVD movie of Gladiator sold more last week than the number one CD single by Destiny's Child.
Among our favourites is the £400 Toshiba SD-200E courtesy of an excellent performance, a comprehensive roll call of facilities, and a very sensible price.
If you are feeling naughty, consider the Chinese-made £180 Mico DVD-A980 from www.unbeatable.co.uk. Not only will it play back imported American "Region Two" discs as well as standard European ones, it can also spin MP3-laden CD-roms.
The hi-fi fraternity has been drooling over the performance of the £800 British-made Arcam DV88, while for gadget-fans there's little to rival the DVD personal and mini screen of the £800 Sony DVP-FX1.
Gadgets
2000 was tipped as being the year of the watch with companies promising mobile phones, personal organisers and even music players integrated into a timepiece. The one company that delivered was Casio, whose amazing MP3 watch (the £280 WMP-1 ) and digital camera watch (the £200 WQV-1) were among the year's grooviest gadgets.
Even more fun than the camera watch was the Spypen, an £80 ballpoint-shaped digital camera from Plawa, which is sure to get a great deal of use in the next few weeks capturing Christmas parties shenanigans.
Two internet-friendly gadgets also caught the eye. Ricoh's £1,000 RDC-1700, a top-end digital camera with a cool 70s styling that allows you to peruse web pages via its 3.5inch LCD screen and instantly email images, would be a must were it not so pricey. More of a bargain is Bush's Net TV, which at £180 a set is sure to bring the wonders of the web to many new homes this Christmas.
