'Twas the night before the night before Christmas and all through the mist, procrastinators were scurrying for last-minute gifts. I've identified a half dozen gadgets to consider – even though you'll have only a picture of the gadget and a "Coming Soon" note to wrap. It IS December 23d, after all!
If you or someone you love has any pretentions to be the next Susan Boyle, thiswireless microphone with an iPhone/iPad dongle ($100) used together with the Soulo iPad music app is not only fun but necessary. Not only can you karaoke with songs provided with Soulo or sing along with songs in your iTunes library, but you can record these performances to hear how you actually sound. Better to know now than wait until Simon Cowell eviscerates you at the X Factor audition or, worse, on stage. You can hook the wireless dongle to a TV to view larger lyrics, and connect speakers or headphones to your iPad to blast your performance. A wired mic is a less expensive ($70).