12 Mighty Good Gift Ideas for the Folks on Your Holiday List
DISNEY'S MAGIC ARTIST STUDIO [4 points]
CRAYOLA MAKE A MASTERPIECE [3 and 1/2 points]
Forget finger paints and coloring books--today's kids let their artistic side shine through the computer, using applications like Disney Interactive's Disney's Magic Artist Studio and IBM's Crayola Make a Masterpiece. Either of these CD-ROMs is sure to please a kid who loves to paint.
Disney's Magic Artist Studio, designed for kids of all ages, is the lighter-hearted of the two. Its tools include the usual painting tools--paintbrush, eraser, spray can, and so on--but they're animated and goofier than most. For example, the ImageTube tool lets you create lines that resemble objects such as hissing steam pipes or wriggling earthworms. And if you decide to trash your masterpiece and start over, a click on the handle at the top of the screen sends the drawing down the toilet--complete with flushing sounds.
Even more engaging are Magic Artist Studio's magic stamps, featuring all your favorite Disney characters and a gallery of colorful backgrounds. To add a stamp to a painting, simply drag it over the canvas, where you can color it in or make it dance. Instrumental music, running the gamut from oompah to disco, accompanies the animations. But before you reach for your credit card, make sure your Mac is up to snuff--Magic Artist Studio demands an iMac or a Power Mac G3 with 70MB of free disk space.
Crayola Make a Masterpiece, for kids 5 to 12, takes a somewhat more scholarly approach to painting. Scribble, an animated artist with a heavy French accent, guides you through the program, and you'll find notes on famous painters and art theory in Scribble's journal.
But attempts at creating serious artwork won't prevent your budding Rembrandt from enjoying herself. The Magic Effects Tool, one of the many fun touches in Make a Masterpiece, lets you transform your drawings with a variety of painting techniques, from pointillism to solarization. And the program lets you add animated stickers to drawings, although without musical accompaniment. Make a Masterpiece is less responsive and polished than Magic Artist Studio, but it's still a great holiday gift buy.
FRANKLIN, ALYSSA, AND ADAM TESSLER
Disney Interactive; 800/900-9234, www.disneyinteractive.com; $30. IBM; 800/320-8377, www.ibm.com; $20.
PRINT EXPLOSION [4 points]
Know someone who loves holidays but hates shopping for the perfect card? Nova Development's Print Explosion lets creative types add a personal touch to dozens of projects, including personalized party supplies, stationery, calendars, and crafts. And with more than 2,000 greeting-card designs, Print Explosion has a card for just about every occasion, from New Year's to tooth-fairy visits to the Super Bowl. You can even apologize for copping an attitude.
You start by selecting a project and template from a menu or by creating your own design using one of more than 50,000 graphics. You can edit the templates--to transform that peaceful nature scene into a sci-fi battleground, for example--and import family photographs and other images from your scanner or PhotoDiscs. But don't expect to touch up or add special effects to your photos using Print Explosion; other than resizing and colorizing, the program offers few image-editing tools.
You'll appreciate Print Explosion most when it's time to print your project: instead of worrying about which side of a greeting card to print first or which images you need to place upside down, just let the program set up your pages to print correctly. Print Explosion does the work, leaving you more time to enjoy the holidays.--KATHRYN LUNSFORD
Nova. Development; 800/395-6682, www.novadevelopment.com; $50.
KEYSPAN USB PDA ADAPTER [4 points]
Palm organizers are the PDAs of choice for Mac users. Unfortunately, Palm PDAs and USB-equipped Macs don't play well together: Palm's HotSync cradles support only serial connections. Keyspan's incredibly simple--and very affordable--USB PDA Adapter solves that problem. The included CD contains everything you need, and the installation process is so painless you don't even have to restart your Mac to use the adapter. Keyspan's adapter is slightly slower at HotSync sessions than Entrega's more expensive USB to Serial Converter for Macintosh, but if speed isn't your biggest concern, the USB PDA Adapter is the smartest and least-expensive way to connect your Palm to a new Mac.--JEFF PITTELKAU
Keyspan; 510/222-0131, www.keyspan.com; $39.,
COOLPAD [4 points]
Apple's new PowerBooks and iBooks are hot--really hot. If you've ever picked one up after it's been cooking on your desk for a while, you know we're not just referring to the sleek design: either portable can reach blazing temperatures in a hurry.
To keep things cool, Road Tools offers the elegant, simple CoolPad and its stylish new sibling, the iCoolPad, which features iBook-coordinated colors. Using rubber feet attached to two sheets of plastic, both devices elevate your portable just enough to allow air to circulate beneath it, dissipating heat more efficiently. They tilt your Mac forward (the iBook version tilts it slightly more) to give the keyboard a more traditional slant, and they swivel--handy when you need to make presentations to small groups or spread your work across two airplane seat trays.--MICHAEL PENWARDEN
Road Tools; 603/926-9000, www.roadtools.com; CoolPad, $20; iCoolPad, $23.
YEAR 2000 GROLIER MULTIMEDIA ENCYCLOPEDIA [4 points]
Despite the Y2K hype, life in the year 2000 probably won't be too different from life in 1999. So it is with the Year 2000 edition of Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia: although it features some new entries and a spruced-up interface, the latest version of the reference title offers little more than its predecessor. However, it's nevertheless a great learning resource, and it's the only Macintosh encyclopedia that has true multimedia features.
Aimed primarily at high schoolers, the two-CD set features 37,000 articles, with links to an additional 22,000 online entries. You also get 15,000 images, 177 QuickTime videos, 150 QuickTime VR panoramas, a comprehensive atlas, and a 250,000-word dictionary. The well-designed interface lets you browse articles, search topics, and organize information. A new Millennium feature highlights key events of the past 1,000 years; also new are user-selectable interface themes, with sounds and background graphics. The new features aren't quite enough to justify the $40 upgrade price if you already own the 1999 edition, but the program still reigns supreme among Mac encyclopedias.--STEPHEN BEALE
Grolier Interactive; 203/797-3530, http://gi.grolier.com; $60.
CEREMONY OF INNOCENCE [3 and 1/2 points] 1/2
Whether or not you're a fan of Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine trilogy, you'll enjoy the multimedia-enhanced Ceremony of Innocence (developed by Real World Multimedia and distributed by Khyber Pass Entertainment). Bantock's tale of the mysterious correspondence of two lovers remains intact, but instead of the original's tactile intimacy, the CD-ROM offers a more complex world where art, video, and user interaction meet to tell the story.
As postcards and letters arrive on your desktop, you use the mouse to figure out how to reveal their contents. The cursor's appearance and movement, as well as the way objects react to it, change with each card--a very Zen, and often frustrating, approach (be prepared to fruitlessly bang a fish on the head before solving one of the puzzles). At other times, the experience is magical. Gently lift a mask to reveal a window; a samurai approaches, then withdraws into darkness. Video enhances the mood, as does the narration of Isabella Rossellini. The only downside is an incomplete set of instructions that seem geared toward Windows users.
The story of Griffin and Sabine doesn't need a CD-ROM, but Ceremony of Innocence lets you explore the story using a medium that has its own rewards.--FRITH BREITZER
Khyber Pass Entertainment; 888/478-1177, www.kpdistribution.com; $45.
UNIMOUSE [4 points]
Contour Design's UniMouse is the ideal gift for anyone who's ready to ditch the abysmal round mouse that comes with iMacs and G3s. Contoured to nestle comfortably in the average user's palm, the UniMouse has rubberized sides that make it easy to grip the mouse. Using special control-panel software available from the company's Web site, you can adjust the UniMouse's sensitivity in 15 discrete steps. The control panel also lets you program the three buttons to perform functions such as clicking, dragging, and scrolling. Whichever option you choose, the UniMouse is a joy to use.--FRANKLIN TESSLER
Contour Design; 800/462-6678, www.contourdesign.com; $43.
STAR WARS: EPISODE I INSIDER'S GUIDE [4 points]
If you're a Star Wars fanatic who disagreed with the critics' negative assessment of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, LucasArts has the gift for you--the Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide. Even if you hated the movie but still believe that George will get it right next time, this two-CD-ROM set maybe a good gift.
The Insider's Guide contains the entire screenplay (with annotations) from the movie, the trailers for The Phantom Menace, trivia questions, and exclusive interviews with George Lucas and other members of the Star Wars crew. You can even peruse a catalog of Episode I-related merchandise, although such commercial pitches are largely cordoned off from the other, richer content. The folks at LucasArts have a good sense of what Star Wars fans are likely to take an interest in, but the CD-ROM is not so esoteric as to frighten those who are just entering the Star Wars universe.--CHRISTOPHER BREEN
LucasArts; 888/532-4263, www.lucasarts.com; $30.
MUSIC ACE 2 [4 points]
If you feel your offspring's education isn't complete without a musical component, Harmonic Vision's Music Ace 2 may be the perfect gift. This entertaining CD-ROM introduces such fundamentals as notation and tempo.
Music Ace 2 is broken into three parts--Lessons, Games, and the Doodle Pad. The lessons introduce a particular musical concept, such as note recognition. Maestro Max, Music Ace's jolly Germanic host, explains each concept and presents a series of activities that test your child's comprehension. How quickly the program progresses through each lesson depends on the percentage of correct answers given; incorrect answers prompt the program to offer visual clues. The games are scored exercises that reinforce a lesson, and in the Doodle Pad area, your child can create tunes or listen to musical examples.--CHRISTOPHER BREEN
Harmonic Vision; 847/467-2395, www.harmonicvision.com; $50.
ACS651 SPEAKERS [3 and 1/2 points]
Sure, the iMac is a cute, all-in-one computer, but its built-in speakers are terribly tinny. If you're looking for a gift that enhances both the look and the sound of an iMac, give a listen to Altec-Lansing's ACS65i speakers. This Bondi-blue-and-ice, three-way speaker system features two satellite speakers and a subwoofer with a frequency response of 30Hz to 20kHz, a bass volume control on the subwoofer, and a master volume control on the right satellite speaker. Although they lack the fidelity of a good home stereo, these speakers are serviceable for noncritical listening and robust enough to make gamers happy.--CHRISTOPHER BREEN
Altec-Lansing; 800/258-3288, www.alteclansing.com; $100.
UNCLE ALBERT'S MAGICAL ALBUM [4 points]
The premise gets kids every time: solving a series of puzzles leads to hidden treasure. But Uncle Albert's Magical Album, from VTechSoft, uses an intriguing story line--along with beautiful, eerie music and graphics--to create a unique experience that goes beyond the typical educational CD-ROM. The story revolves around quirky Uncle Albert, a tinkerer who leaves behind an album full of peculiar photos, creatures, puzzles, and experiments. To solve the mysteries, your child must search every page of the album and pore over videos for clues.
One of the biggest challenges with this type of children's game is allowing room for creativity. It's easy to create puzzles with just one answer, but it's tricky to make puzzles that children can solve in various ways. In this program, one of the many solutions to a spiderweb puzzle is to guide a fly carefully through the web, but distracting the spider with another animal while the fly slips through also works. This variety and unpredictability make Uncle Albert's Magical Album a truly intriguing game for children ten and up.--NANCY PETERSON
VTechSoft; 800/742-1050, www.vtechsoft.com; $25.