Ahh…the joys of the giving season. The thrills, the excitement, the scraped knees from battling for the last bottle of Destructoid Anti Perspirant Perfume. Luckily there’s always the more sedate alternative… the flight to Morocco … sorry… the online shopping route. So, to save you any more headaches, here’s our list of the coolest geek gifts for under $50. [image via shutterstock]

1. Dr Who Dalek R/C Watch – $34.99

Who could resist the lure of piloting their very own agent of mass extermination around the living room floor on Christmas Day? And from a wrist watch too. Bliss. This keychain toy may not qualify as the perfect gift for a Gucci loving partner, but for any geek worth their salt it’s got to be the coolest thing in town. Buy.

2. Bluetooth Smartphone Voice And Call Recorder – $45.07

Set this puppy to auto-record and it’ll automatically capture tons of calls from friends, relatives and parole officers. The device comes with 8 GB of on-board storage plus a microSD slot for expansion, which should be enough for even the weirdest recording needs of the merely desperate. Buy.

3. Smartphone Time-Lapse Turntable – $32.69

Slot a phone into the cradle and this doozy will instantly capture picture perfect 360 panoramic images and demonstrate just how cool photo technology really is. The resulting photos are apparently permissible as court evidence, which is handy, as is the fact that the thing can double up as an egg timer. Allegedly. Buy.

4. Smart Warmer – $39.99

Have you noticed how everything is smart nowadays? We’ll be getting smart toilet paper soon (don’t ask) and that’s when we’ll know the end is near. For now we’ll stick with this Smart Warmer which does double action as a cosy hand warmer and – ta-da – an emergency backup charger for your phone. Brilliant eh? Just remember, toasty hands, dead handset. Buy.

5. Bicycle Tail Light With Lane Lasers – $24.99

This bicycle tail light is not only shaped like a skull for some reason, but also features some very cool laser beam lane markings to help vehicles in the area stay well clear. The six foot long lines may not be too visible in well lit areas, but it’s the dark alleys and country lanes where they’ll really come into their own. Buy.

6. Portable WiFi Signal Booster – $49.95

Word has it that the U.N. is about to declare 2014 as The Year of Better WiFi Signals, which makes this a particularly apt gift for all geeks. The little unit does very little apart from boosting the signal from your WiFi router in a part of the premises which is too far away to cope with the demands of X-Factor streaming. Buy isn’t that a blessing? Buy.

7. Standscan Portable Phone Scanner Dock – $29.95

The cameras on phones are now very good at capturing much more than just Aunt Mabel doing the splits on New Year’s Eve, so why not make the most of it? This clever collapsible scanner dock turns a phone into a professional document scanner in seconds, great for capturing fake passport details and the like. Works with any phone and also doubles up as a light box. Buy.

8. World’s Smallest Nightvision Camera & Webcam – $49.00

Nowadays not only do we need eyes in the back of our head, but they also have to cope with pitch black conditions. Just ask someone who’s been hit by a flying banana on a midnight ski run. Well now there’s a solution to sun-less insecurity, with a device that not only comes with its own night vision LEDs, but also sports 12 megapixels and video recording. Take that banana! Buy.

9. Liquid Armor Nano Screen Protection – $24.99

This weather resistant, anti static formula contains ‘nano’ particles which will provide scratch resistance to sensitive touchscreens, while maintaining the vividness of the image and your romantic relationships. Or did we mis-read that? Anyhoo, we’ve tried it, and it seems to work as advertised, so we can do no more than happily recommend it here. Buy.

10. Wonderbag Portable Slow Cooker – $50.00

This could also be called the ultimate slow cooker, because all it does is hold your already boiled pan in an insulated container to allow the cooking process to continue without additional heat and energy. They call it eco-friendly, we call it sloooow. But hey, we’re happy that they’re donating a 1 for 1 bag to Africa though, so we’ll just shut up and eat the yummy chow. Pass the spoon! Buy.

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