If you're looking for high-tech gifts, it's hard to imagine a better holiday season than this one.

From electronic kittens to music players that store your entire record collection to cell phones that send e-mail and take pictures, you'll find an amazing selection of gadgets, gizmos, toys, games and programs for everyone on your techno-shopping list.

We've assembled a list of some of this year's coolest gifts, organized by category.

But before you rush out to a store or start surfing the online malls, consider a stop at a charity Web site to make a gift to those who might not get one otherwise. NetworkForGood .org, charitywave.com, and JustGive.org are good places to start.

Happy holidays!

Computers and accessories

Hot rod

If your favorite computer user looks at a PC the way a hot rodder looks at a race car, he'll go nuts over a Systemax Double-X. No bargain basement gear here. The turbocharged dragsters of the company's "U" and "A" series are designed for gamers and multimedia freaks who want to wring every bit of performance out of their computers. They sport the hottest CPUs from Intel and Athlon, which is why they're water-cooled. With a cutaway window in the case and blue neon interior light that shows off all that horsepower, the Double-X also looks incredibly cool (or incredibly geeky). From $2,150.

Information: www.globalcomputer.com/go/doublex/ or 888-845-6225

Power sound

Altec Lansing's 2100 2.1 Speaker System ($100) has a couple of spiffy satellite speakers and a woofer that sits on the floor with a wired remote control (for your desktop) that has a power switch and volume control. Deep, rich sound emanates from this ensemble, and though it's not as good as a five-speaker setup, it blows away most other basic computer speakers.

Information: 800-258-3288 or www.alteclansing.com

Great view

The NEC Mitsubishi MultiSync LCD 1880SX monitor ($1,100) takes up remarkably little space on your desktop but provides a sharp image on a roomy, 18-inch diagonal viewing area. Equally important is NEC's excellent raise-and-tilt adjustability, which is critical for delivering the brightest display on LCD monitors, but something that many flat-panel screen makers haven't figured out. The 1880SX has both analog and digital ports for connection to your computer.

Information: 877-273-5328 or www.necmitsubishi.com

Mouse power

Mice don't create much excitement unless they have four legs and are eating the corn in your grain silo. But Logitech's MX-series of optical mice are worth a little enthusiasm because they track better than most other mice on the market. The top of the line, the $80 MX700 Cordless, has rechargeable batteries. If you can remember to prop the mouse in the charger when you're finished, you'll have more than enough juice to get through a full day of computing. If you forget, you can use a couple of regular AA batteries.

Information: 800-231-7717 or www.logitech.com

Indestructible

Is your favorite computer user a slob? Do your kids leave the PC a sticky mess? You can stop worrying about coffee and soda spills, crumbs and other detritus with GrandTec's Virtually Indestructible Keyboard. Made from a flexible silicon-based material that can roll up and fit in a drawer when you're not using it, the VIK is immune to almost anything you're likely to pour over it. It's also virtually noiseless. In various sizes and colors for PCs, Macs and handheld computers, VIKs are priced from $40 to $60.

Information: www.grandtec.com or 214-366-3496

Printers Super photo prints

This year's best ink jet printer costs a pretty penny, but the Epson Stylus Photo 2200 ($699) makes the best home-produced photographs we've seen. It also accepts oversized paper prints up to 13 inches wide and 4 inches long (or longer if you're creating banners), while a roll paper feeder and cutter make it easy to churn out batches of 4-by-6-inch images.

Seven pigment-based UltraChrome inks deliver prints that will last 75 years without fading, according to Epson. The 2200 also supports Print Image Matching, which uses information from a similarly equipped digital camera to accurately reproduce color, sharpness, contrast, brightness and shadow points. Just don't expect racehorse speed at the highest quality: It took nearly 20 minutes to print out a gorgeous 8-by-10-inch photo in 2,880-by-1,440-dot-per- inch resolution.

Information: 1-800-463-7766 or www .epson.com

All-around performer

For good all-around performance at a reasonable price, the fast, quiet Canon i850 Photo Printer ($200) will turn out a 4-by-6-inch borderless photo in less than a minute and handle other printing jobs as well. Photographs looked particularly good at the maximum 4,800-by-1,200 dots per inch, and when matched with Canon Photo Paper Pro, the company says, the images won't fade for 25 years. Canon's printer also supports Exif 2.2, a system by which the digital camera provides data for better output. The i850 takes advantage of the new, high-speed Universal Serial Bus 2.0 connection standard (although it is compatible with older USB 1.1 as well).

Information: 800-385-2155 or http://consumer.usa.canon.com.

High-tech toys

Here, Kitty!

If you or your kids want an electronic pet but you can't afford Sony's Aibo, FurReal friends can provide plenty of ersatz affection for $35 apiece. These plush cats from Hasbro move and purr like real kitties when you pet them, thanks to capacitive sensors embedded their backs, tails and heads. They even have three "moods" - cuddly, playful and irritable. There's a choice of three colors - gray, white and marmalade - but you may have to take what you can get - these are among the hottest toys of the year.

Information: www.hasbro.com

Spybots

What happens to kids who grow up with Lego building blocks? If they're geeky enough, they graduate to Lego's line of robots and other high-tech, build-it-yourself toys. Spybots are the latest in the line: $60 remote control vehicles with light and touch sensors that you assemble, program with your computer, and set loose on a variety of missions for a secret agency known as S.M.A.R.T.

The SnapTrax unit we tried out (one of four models) had 233 pieces, so adult supervision is a must. Lego posts Spybot missions on the Web, or you can invent your own and program the Spybot yourself. Not surprisingly, these gadgets are the most fun when they interact with one another, so plan on buying a pair and settling down for serious tinkering.

Information: 800-453-4652 or www.lego.com/eng/spybotics

Remote control racing

We predict that thousands of living rooms and offices will turn into mini-Grand Prix courses over the next few weeks thanks to an onslaught of tiny, inexpensive radio-controlled cars. AtomicToys' $20 Z-Cars are about the size of Matchbook vehicles (1:64 scale, if you're counting) and come nestled in an egg-shaped storage pod that charges them from three AAA batteries and serves as a controller when you flip it over.

Don't expect great performance, just a lot of fun as these gadgets careen around the floor with their drivers in hot pursuit. Kids will love them, too. Available in red, blue and green, with upgrade kits for hotter speeds.

Information: www.atomictoys.com or 858-874-8699

Kids' stuff

If you're looking for educational toys with more substance than fluff, LeapFrog's LeapPad learning system has been delighting kids, parents and teachers for years.

The latest addition to the line is My First LeapPad, a colorful $35 gadget that combines electronic learning modules with flip books that interactively teach kids 3 and older the ABCs, numbers, phonics and other preschool skills through words, music and sound. LeapPad products and learning modules for older kids are available at most major toy outlets.

Information: 800-701-5327 or www.leapfrog.com

Video cameras

Super shots

JVC's GR-DV3000 Digital Video Camcorder ($2,000 list, $1,600 on the street) offers superior MiniDV video as well as decent service as a still camera. In fact, it uses two types of digital media: an SD Memory Card (which comes with the camcorder) and a MultiMediaCard.

The secret to the camera's success is the f 1.2, 10X optical zoom aspherical lens, which is every bit as good as the Carl Zeiss lenses found on Sony's Mini DV camcorders.

The 1.33-megapixel CCD, which actually captures the image, reproduced color with astonishing realism. Low-light shooting and image stabilization features help offset unfavorable conditions.

You also can make short MPEG-4 video clips in the camcorder, then download them quickly to a computer for e-mailing. In addition, we like the feel of this camera more than many others.

It has enough heft to make it good for shooting high school sporting events - although it's just a tad heavy to take everywhere on vacation unless you're riding a lot in automobiles.

Information: http://sg.jvc-asia.com/products/camcorder.asp

Good video cheap(er)

If you have a mortgage and three kids, a $1,500 digital camcorder may not be in the budget.

But we found a couple of good Mini-DV units that might squeeze in: the Panasonic PV-DC152 Palmcorder ($700) and the Sony DCR-TRV18 MiniDV Camcorder ($800). They'll record tomorrow's memories, play the scenes on a TV, download them to a computer or transfer them to a VHS tape.

The Panasonic is the smaller of the two and easier to carry. Unlike some less sturdy, less expensive units, it feels solid in the hand, although not quite as good as the Sony.

The Sony camera comes with a Carl Zeiss lens for superior imaging and offers an excellent Night Shot feature for low-light shooting.

Information: Sony DCR-TRV18: 800-222-7669 or www.sonystyle.com

Panasonic PV-DC152: 800-211-7262 or www.panasonic.com

E-mail it!

Sony's DCR-PC120BT Network Handycam ($1,799) not only sends video to your computer, but e-mails the video to friends and family.

The camcorder, which stores video on the new, smaller Micro MV tapes, ships with a Bluetooth wireless data exchange modem adapter that plugs directly into an analog telephone line. The camcorder, which has a Web browser, then synchs with the modem adapter to connect to the Internet.

Surfing the Web on the camcorder is a hoot, although not very practical. But sending video via e-mail without a computer is a great convenience.

Information: 877-865-7669 or www.sonystyle.com

Still cameras No-brainer

Looking for a digital camera that you don't need a Ph.D. to figure out? Hewlett Packard's PhotoSmart 812 ($350-$400) requires virtually no settings but still delivers excellent 4-megapixel photos that stand up to 8-by-10-inch (or larger) prints. It also can record short video clips with sound.

Like most basic digital cameras, the 812's response time isn't fast enough for action shots, and quality drops off a bit when the camera's 3-to-1 Pentax zoom lens is fully extended. But it's compact, relatively inexpensive for a 4-megapixel camera and a no-brainer for vacation snapshots and family gatherings.

Information: www.hp.com or 888-999-4747

For photo tinkerers

For folks who like to tinker with their cameras, the Pentax Optio 430RS ($400-$450) offers plenty of opportunity to adjust exposure, color, focus and other settings, including an LCD histogram display for precise measuring of light levels. Or you can just point and shoot.

At 3.6 by 2.3 by 1.3 inches, the Pentax is one of the smallest 4-megapixel cameras with a 3-to-1 zoom. It also has 11 megabytes of internal storage in case you run out of space on your CompactFlash memory card. The 430RS will capture short video clips, and there's an interesting if clunky 3D mode - you take two shots of a subject from different angles and look at the dual print with special viewing glasses. Yup, a high-tech stereopticon.

Information: www.pentaxusa.com/products/digital.cfm or 800-877-0155

Video recorders No commercials

You may not be a part of the digital video recorder (DVR) revolution yet, but you may want to join after you've seen one of these gadgets in action. SonicBlue's Replay TV 5000 ($299 with a $50 rebate, plus $9.95 per month for the TV listing service or $250 for a lifetime subscription) is a good way to get started.

The ReplayTV records video on an internal hard drive instead of on tape. It's a bit complicated to hook up with your TV, cable box and phone line or home network, but after that it's a snap to record an individual show, all the episodes of a show for two weeks, or even all the movies with your favorite star. Better yet, it will skip over commercials on playback.

Information: www.sonicblue.com

Double play

If your home entertainment center is getting too crowded, Sonic Blue's Go Video DVR5100 (street price $240) can help solve the problem. The DVR5100 is a combination DVD player and videocassette recorder. Go Video's device offers solid playback of videocassettes with a four-head, high-fidelity VCR, as well as superior playback of DVDs with progressive scan technology. Copying a DVD to a videocassette takes one button on the remote (although you won't be allowed to illegally duplicate copy-protected DVDs). You can bookmark, zoom and listen to audio while scanning a DVD at 2x speed.

Information: 408-588-8000 or www.sonicblue.com/video/govideo/dvr5100.asp

Audio

Great sound to go

Digital music players have long had two major drawbacks - if they were small enough to carry, they didn't store much music. And if they were big enough to store a lot of music, they were too bulky to tote comfortably.

This year a new crop of diminutive players with tiny but capacious hard disks can store the equivalent of hundreds of CD albums - and serve as portable hard drives to boot. While they're not quite light enough for jogging, they're great for walking and taking your entire music collection wherever you go.

Apple's iPod, about the size of a pack of cigarettes, set the standard for shirt pocket music with a sleek design and elegant, jog-dial interface that makes it easy to manage, download and play MP3 music files. Priced from $299 for a 5-gigabyte model to $499 for 20 gigs, the iPod comes in versions for both Macs and for PCs equipped with FireWire ports.

Information: www.apple.com/ipod or 800-692-7753

Slightly larger and heavier - but with better playlist management and sound adjustments - Creative Technologies' Windows-based Nomad Jukebox Zen is the price and storage winner - 20 GB of hard disk space for $300 (after a $50 rebate). The PC-only device works with both FireWire and USB ports.

Information: www.nomadworld.com or 800-998-1000

Better sound all around

The Philips Electronics SACD 1000 ($1,000) plays high-fidelity super audio CDs, as well as DVDs and regular CDs, with magnificent results. If you haven't heard one, the Super Audio CD format layers more digital information on the disk for a better listening experience than regular compact disc recordings provide.

Some SACD recordings require a player like this one, while others will play on regular CD players, but without the additional sound quality. After you've listened to SACD, standard recordings won't sound nearly so good. You can play back SACD recordings in several modes, through a regular stereo or better yet, through a 5.1 system that will convince you that this is the future of high-fidelity.

Information: www.philips.com

Gadgets and gizmos

Back to basics

For folks who've wondered whether they need a handheld computer but don't want to invest a fortune to find out, Palm's Zire is an inexpensive entree to the world of personal digital assistants (PDAs). This stripped-down, $99 successor to Palm's famous Pilot has all the basics you need to organize your life electronically - address book, calendar, to-do list, expense minder and notepad - with none of the frills. (OK, OK. It does ship with a couple of games). Even with its relatively limited, 2 MB of memory, it has room for thousands of names and addresses. It will synchronize data with PCs or Macs, and it may be all you need.

Information: www.palm.com or 800-881-7256

Jack of all trades

The Handspring Treo 300 flip phone and personal digital assistant($499) makes a great gift for the on-the-go PDA user who wants to be able to check e-mail and do a little Web surfing in the grocery store.

Small enough for a shirt pocket and weighing just 6 ounces, the Treo uses Palm OS 3.5 and offers all of the basic amenities of a Handspring PDA. It not only has a small QWERTY keyboard, but also a touch screen for scribbling with a stylus. Its 16 megabytes of RAM can hold all your addresses, appointments, phone numbers and memos, while the speed dialer stores up to 50 names. The Sprint PCS telephone provided excellent reception when we tested it throughout the Mid-Atlantic region. Plans start at $40 per month, ($30 per month for the first 90 days).

Information: 800-480-4727 or www.sprintpcs.com

To your health

Healthometer's Automatic Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor (Model 7632, $89) by Sunbeam has big numbers on the control panel so that older eyes can easily read their pulse rate and blood pressure numbers.

The monitor, which looks like a giant wristwatch, has a cuff that wraps around your left wrist. When you turn it on, it inflates slightly and returns your pulse and blood pressure within seconds. If you don't have access to a bulky blood pressure monitor or hate using home monitors with cuffs that go over your upper arm, this compact device is a step in the right direction.

Information: 800-435-1250

Great Gaming

Super Monkey Ball 2

Sega has a new version of Super Monkey Ball that offers hours of play on the Nintendo GameCube. Rated "E" for everyone, the title gets its name from the cute monkeys inside transparent balls who are the protagonists in the game. While it's not the most stunning game from a graphics standpoint, the main puzzles on each level offer more than a bit of a challenge, and the games within the game (such as Target, Golf and Bowling) are all hoots.

Just as in the original, your monkey is gathering such objects as bananas and trying to reach a goal - it's a lot like life, as we say around here. Ignore the goofy plot in the single-player mode and try your best to find someone to play with, because Super Monkey Ball 2 shines when you enjoy it with friends.

Information: www.sega.com

Lord of the Rings

Electronic Arts' Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (PS2 and GameBoy Advance, with Xbox and GameCube versions due in 2003) may disappoint hard-core role-playing gamers, but it will delight casual gamers who love Peter Jackson's film interpretations of J.R.R. Tolkien's famous fantasies. The Two Towers ($50) is a thumb-busting fight game, in which you play as the human Ranger Aragorn, the Elf prince Legolas or the dwarf Gimli in a variety of Middle-Earth settings, including Moria and Helm's Deep.

Each character has its own fighting moves and success means you can upgrade to new moves for each. If the fighting isn't enough, the graphics are stellar, too. You'll also find plenty of outtakes from the two Lord of the Rings movies released so far.

Information: www.ea.com

Combat Flight Sim 3

Tactical air power in the European Theater of operations is the core fun of Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 3 - Battle for Europe ($55), the latest in this excellent series of flight simulators. Flight sims have been tough to come by in recent years as companies have dropped them from their gaming lines, but Microsoft has kept up the effort with a visually gorgeous Windows title.

Tactical air power means more strafing and bombing than gallantry against foes in the air. You can play as a member of a bomber crew or as a fighter pilot knocking out ground targets in support of troops moving along the ground.

Information: www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs3

Splinter Cell

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell by Ubi Soft for the Xbox and PC has arrived in time to take the espionage genre to the next level. You're agent Sam Fisher, authorized to do all sorts of nasty things to opponents of American freedoms. That includes assassinating enemies, forcing them to cooperate, or using them as human shields.

There are nine stealth missions here, so you don't want to go around shooting up everyone and everything. In fact, there's even a little stealth meter on screen to tell you how well you're doing in remaining undetected. The Xbox version uses all of the machine's graphics horsepower and allows online Xbox live players to download new adventures. The $50 title will be available for the PS2 and GameCube next year.

Information: www.splintercell.com/us.

Shinobi

One of the best action games for PlayStation 2 this year is a re-creation of Sega's Shinobi ($49). As Hotsuma, the last member of the Oboro Ninja clan, you must do battle with an assortment of enemy Ninjas. You can run across walls, slice bad guys up so fast that they don't even know they're dead yet and move so quickly that you leave Ninja ghost images to help you defeat opponents (who include resurrected dead members of your clan). Shinobi, in a word, is "challenging" requiring mastery of combination moves as well as exercising extreme caution (to keep from getting killed). This game has a Mature rating for blood, gore and violence.

Information: www.sega.com/games.

Bounty Hunter

Star Wars: Bounty Hunter ($50) by LucasArts provides PlayStation 2 and GameCube players a chance to see just how tough life could be for bounty hunter Jango Fett, who became a major character in the film version of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. There are great weapons, beautiful visuals and fantastic action - but Bounty Hunter is essentially a tough game where each of the 18 levels can take up to an hour to complete. If you're a Star Wars fanatic, you'll learn more about Jango and other characters and events in this story line, which runs parallel to the screen story of The Phantom Menace.

Information: www.lucasarts.com

Power of Grayskull

If you (or your kids) grew up watching TV in the 1980s, you'll remember He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Now the super hero is back for the Nintendo Game Boy Advance (not to mention a new TV show and a line of action figures).

In Power of Grayskull ($30, TDK-Mediactive), your digital He-Man once again takes on the evil Skeletor, the baddest bad guy of the Reagan era, in a fight to the finish for control over the land of Enternia. You can battle on foot or in vehicles, and up to four people can join a game with cables. And if you're too grown-up to own a Game Boy, don't worry: He-Man whispers that he'll be available on the big-boy game consoles next year.

Information: www.tdk-mediactive-us.com

Great game gear

Throttle up

If you think a $200 joystick and throttle for gaming should come with an F-16 Falcon fighter attached, you might be put off by the price of the Hotas Cougar. But you shouldn't. Your $200 buys one of the sturdiest joysticks ever created, with a heavy base and metal parts. Each half of the two-piece unit weighs more than 8 pounds.

I'm not a pilot, so I can't tell you if the Cougar handles like a real F-16's, but in the 15 years we've been flying flight simulators, few PC joysticks/throttles have been so responsive and enjoyable to play with. In fact, the Air Force uses the HOTAS Cougar for training. There are 28 buttons, including directional hats, and the joystick/throttle hooks up easily to a PC via the Universal Serial Bus port.

Information: www.thrustmaster.com

Wow adapter

We don't think Saitek Industries was being presumptuous when it named its $40 wireless controller system for the Sony PlayStation, PS One and PlayStation 2 the Wow adapter. In fact, this add-on device, which enables users to increase their distance from Sony's PlayStation consoles, worked well all the time. With the Wow, players using a big-screen television don't have to sit so close to the screen that they're blown away by the action.

The Wow Adapter consists of two pieces. One is a transceiver that plugs into the controller slots on the front of the PS2; the second is a satellite base station for plugging in PS2 controllers. It's not a totally wireless solution, but it does keep cables from snaking across the living room floor during play time. The Wow satellite base can be placed up to 33 feet from the console.

Information: 310-212-5412 or www.saitek.com

Xbox Live

The most fun you'll have gaming online will be with Microsoft's Xbox Live, which launched Nov. 15. To join the service, you'll need an Xbox game console and a cable or DSL Internet connection. Xbox Live Starter Kits cost about $50, which includes the software to go online as well as a headset for trash talking (and other forms of communication) once you're connected. This service rocks because of the voice connection and its overall speed, which easily surpasses that of its major competitor, Sony's PS2.

Information: www.microsoft.com/xbox

Stick 'em up

Shooting with a video game console controller requires practice, the kind that some of us older geeks never got because we didn't grow up with a game console under the television. So we like light guns that plug into the console and let us point and shoot in shoot-em-ups.

Mad Catz's $40 Light Blaster ($40), the first light gut for the Microsoft Xbox, makes shooting games like Sega's House of the Dead III much easier to manage. Before you start, you'll have to calibrate the weapon, which looks like a machine pistol and is designed for two-handed use. Similar add-ons have been around for the PlayStation 2 for a while, so if you own a PS2 and need a light gun, shop around.

Information: 800-831-1442 or www.madcatz.com