The stockings are hung by the chimney with care. With hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. But this year presents under the tree with a tech edge bring smiles to the faces young and old(er). The big sales on Christmas Eve and the days following Christmas through the end of the year. Don’t forget about the electronics trade in programs at stores like Target and Radio Shack.

Some of these deals last beyond the holiday and are limited by in-store supply. Motivated shoppers could find the exactly right kind of desk candy, cubicle fun, audio accessories and home theater equipment while all the other shoppers are looking in the next price range.

1. Small Screen Video

Grab some low footprint LCD TV while getting dressed, watching the baby, sorting the groceries, or hanging out in the home office, all without starting up the main PC or 45 piece home theater electronica powerhouse. But Best Buy’s outlet has a refurbished 19 inch LCD TV for $109.

Front porch sidewalk gazing, back porch sit-ups, company while weeding and pre-nap entertainment anywhere just got easier and more accessible. Smart low energy user, too. Check out the Microprojector at Radio Shack for $89.97 on clearance. That’s big screen fun and small screen pricing.

2. Big Impact Audio

The better flavor and more distinctive sounds of all of today’s recordings can be enjoyed to the fullest with new audio dynamite. The full experience of many video devices is lost in the sound. Build privacy, concentration, and enjoyment with better quality audio accessories.

Target has Skullcandy headphones in the Paul Frank ink’d style for $13.33. Target also has a Apple Ipod touch for $204, online only. This 8 Gigabyte Mp3 device has HD 720p video recording and a 960 by 640 screen resolution.

3. Game Play

Amazon is an excellent place to find high end vendor deals and get fresh technology at its most vibrant sale point. Amazon vendors can list products for a fraction of what it costs big box retailers to stock and advertise. Best Buy has white and black X-box refurbished consoles for $129.99 to $199.99.

Personal used item sellers can also let go of expensive systems after onetime play because they just want the early adoption experience and brag rights. Grab a new console and rent some titles to keep the family fun moving along but without permanent scars on you credit rating.

4. Gadget Fun

Nothing is more cool than pulling the latest gizmo out of your backpack and having everyone in the place turn to check it out. See something you like in the store that’s out of your price range? Look on Ebay for a used one. Radio Shack has a $4.17 wi-fi finder. Best Buy has extremely low prices on refurbished wireless routers. Target has a wireless weather station device with LED readout for $31.49.

5. Data Storage

Got movies? Most TV units sold in the LCD LED and plasma classes today have at least one computer capable USB jack. But Radio Shack has a 500 Gig hard drive for about $75 clearance. That’s backup for an entire hard drive. Best Buy has a $48.99 Western Digital 320 Gigabytes external hard drive. And the Clickfree external drive at Best Buy is 500 gigabytes for $59.99.

For programmable home theater entertainment systems, save your movies at a friend’s or take them there and jack up the film value of just sitting around doing nothing. High definition movies can be up to one and a half gigabytes, so a modest sum spent in portable file storage means your favorite flicks can be shown with a flick of the wrist.

Lots of unlikely and usual suspects fetching holiday deals this year end on LCD TV devices and television units. Many vendors of office supplies and video specialty equipment have bundles offers. Smart shoppers can buy an assembled set of components that make separate gift items. But that doesn’t mean picking up great deals on home technology is out of school.

1. Office Depot

Acer and Ativa monitors for 18.5 and 21.5 inch (widescreen) are available. Each have a 5 millisecond response time. Games and computer settings can maximize certain video streaming options when viewing for best visual experience. This might be an excellent gift idea for seniors who complain they can’t see the screen of smaller monitors.

Office Depot has a $99.99 offer for Microsoft Office for Home/Student with PC purchase. This 18.5 inch LCD model is $99.99 and the Ativa 21.5 inch model LCD  is $129.99, both with stands. A Cyber-Acoustics 3 piece speaker set is $29.99. Office Depot has office and holiday spending charge account deals that might capitalize on long payments with short shopping days.

Sandisk Cruzer flash drives can allow portability of movie files between PC entertainment zones and USB jacked LCD TV models. Sandisk is a well known name at the top of the game in portable storage, and 8, 16, and 32 Gigabytes models sell for $17.99, $39.99, and $79.99 on sale now. (Compaq’s PC offer monitor bundle upgrades to a LCD TV as well).

2. Target

Target has “targeted’ its customer appropriately. Whilst Santa is shopping small devices and gifts, a Sylvania nineteen inch class LCD TV is $139.99. With 720p HDTV at 60 Hertz, that’s a lot of television. The slimline horizontal facing stand keep the footprint small for desktop or home office. Target has wireless Nano mice by Microsoft on sale for $10 in jewel colors like blue, red, purple and gray (with micro adapter).

Target has an under-cabinet LCD TV also an HDTV for $199, excellent for small spaces and higher elevation viewing. This RCA model is fifteen inches and swivels to flip up when not in use. The 15 inch RCA perfect for small footprint offices, kids’ rooms, and boats. Re-orient bed and space plans to make a shared bedroom a home theater entertainment zone.

But the best deal from Target is the Philips seven inch portable DVD players with $7 replacement plan. Stereo speakers and two hour rechargeable battery life means a lot of value for home, garage, or student use.

3. Radio Shack

The Shack usually has some tasty items for techy elves on Santa’s list. A $10 giftcard comes with purchase of a Samsung camera. A free mobile Bluetooth headset comes with any 2 year mobile plan. And ther At & T Go-phone is half price for $9.99, $2 a day when used per day.

But the real temptation at Radio Shack is the deal on TV Mounts. Radio Shack features Level Mount for 32 inch TV units for $19.99. The Auvio AUVIO twelve foot HDMI cable is priced at $49.99. But BOTH mount accessories . come together bundled for $59.99. Radio Shack also sells Facebook credits gift cards and packs of 36 AA or AAA batteries for $10.99.

4. Best Buy

Best Buy regionally has different deals on LCD TV models but the most tempting bit of technology might be the 32 Gigabyte Kingston DataTraveler.  With the DT 32 Gig drive, no walk through customs or wait at an airport means risking your work product for the last two weeks/years/projects. Want to make sure your files aren’t being copied while you game, check email, or use public wi-fi? Unplug the DataTraveler.

It’s $150, but financing is available. “No Interest storewide on all purchases if paid in full within 18 months”. With the Kingston DataTraveler Locker model, any computer you ever use again can crash without file loss or work interruption disaster. Hold custom movie products and proprietary work product in a standalone mode for secure online use. Great for students using multiple home, school, and friend’s computers.

Sure, you’ll buy those $50,000 sound systems just as soon as you can sell your house to afford them. But for many TV consumers looking to augment their picture video with high quality sound, price escalates sharply with every added feature. And when LCD TV and LED units, not to mention plasma TVs cost between $500 and $5,000, it’s a wonder there is any money left over for speakers at all.

One amazing find in the big-speaker price wars is the Monitor Audio Bronze BX series speaker set. Far from hand-rubbed cherrywood, the wood-look vinyl finish may out you off. But the 7 unit Monitor Audio individually priced speakers can make a huge party look for your entertainment center, while delivering quality specialized sound effects quality. This is what adults have attached to their televisions.

The new C-Cam drivers deliver better sound quality and les audible distortion in a reasonably priced chassis. The ceramic-coated C-Cam aluminum/magnesium cones have a much higher resistance to bending stress and provide fidelity rangewide. The set enhances any LCD TV or wall unit television with end of the room sound. Of course you can always upgrade to Monitor Audio speaker series in Platinum, Gold and Silver. For about $3,000 to $4,000 total, all the units can be yours.

The Hive reflex ports have refined design standards and reflect the value in only one step up from “computer speakers’ can go. The HiVE II ports label stands for high velocity reflex port. This airtunnel design gives big bass listeners better quality sound with less turbulence. Acquiring pieces of this speaker set is an investment well worth the money and will enhance any fine resolution LCD TV with today’s HD media.

At these prices you can mix and match for your budget floor plan and hookup panel to see how much value you can wring out of a simple set of speakers with single bolt driver mounting and improved crossovers. NB: The BX5 and the BX2 are comparable units with a floorstanding BX5 giving more end -of-room wall flair and the squat tower giving more knees-up immediacy to the sound.

The BX LCR is the BX center modal unit which offers a wall or stereo surround sound two way configuration option. There is a choice of four wood color finishes.

BX1 $379 -Single timpanum squat speaker.
BX2 $489- This is the squat tower, timpanum above and below.
BX5 $749- this is the tall floor tower speaker.
BX6 $989 – 3 timpanum jackback for same proportions as the BX5
BX LCR $299- 2 way loudspeaker unit for wall mount or surround plan.
BX FX $489- hexagonal squat surround speaker for switch dispersion
BXW-10 $629 -This is the subwoofer.

The 2010 year is drawing to an end and decisions about tax deductions come to the fore. Financial planners who are also eyeing a way to make room for a new technology LCD TV from one of those killer end-of-the-year deals can follow the list below. These are ways any tax bracket can make an itemized deduction and make way for a new super black backlit LCD TV in the hizzouse.

1. Charitable Donation

Many charities work with programs for fund drive and projects where any donation is very much valued and appreciated. Tax deductible groups and charities can be found via the IRS website or by asking the charitable organization of your choice to demonstrate their tax ID number. The rules for claiming a value may be the replacement cost in some cases of donation or the brand new cost if receipts can be shown without too much damage or aging to the LCD TV unit.

2. Youth/Community Center

Funding for youth group organizations and community centers have suffered from a downswing in charitable donations. The kinds of things these groups get are far from what they need. Many after school organizations and places like like libraries are actually safe harbors for children until latchkey parents arrive home or can pick them up. They usually have rooms for the media but no actual equipment. A fair deduction for your LCDTV gift may be smiled upon by the IRS in the spirit of the season.

3. Church

It is hardly likely any church has as nice a television as the one in your living room or home theater. Churches and religious groups have a need for projection or big screen communications. Ongoing media displays, movie nights, and special screenings of religious films or documentaries can instantly become calendar events for th church body with a (for them) new LCD TV in their midst. It is likely the youth room or kids’ room of any church you think of can use it.

4. Schools

Public schools in underprivileged and underserved districts would love to have an LCD or LED TV of any home theater quality for their media exhibits and programs. School budgets have also suffered even as technology has grown. Lab teaching and media materials that could help the school could be spent on new titles and courses with a new LCD TV in-house. Get a receipt from the principal or audio visual office at the school.

Two new audio products compete for center stage in the audio equipment bragging-rights category. One is the ultimate digital stream renderer, the other packages a visual experience and hard candy look with diffuse music channels and touch performance. For the flashy party player with wandering ears or serious tech turntable king, these are the legitimate options for multimedia streaming home audio.

Meridian Sooloos

Meridian Sooloos has some new device called a Music Server which can have many different rooms playing different playlists and each person in the house downloading their own channel of music. The Meridian audio device with the Sooloos Control 10 system makes a 17 inch touchscreen the music portal of dreams come true. The 2.1 server is 1280 by 1024 pixels.

The Meridian-audio device users and network operators can sample what’s playing on other channels.  Lossless compression is no longer a fleeing illusion. Wi-fi friendly, this tech candy makes any room look good. But its serious production possibilities make it the most borrowed piece of equipment your A-list friends will beg for.

Visually the device looks like  a sleek small LCD TV with an audio setting menu online, with attendant logos. But the back end of the device has multiple jacks for serious audio support for TV watching gaming and audio enjoyment. No simple CD audio transport, the Meridian with control 10 works wonders on even legacy media to produce killer pet sounds.

The touchscreen and interface are user friendly an PC and Mac compatible. The visual component includes a screen with visual images and graphics associated with the artists and playlist channels. If you are looking for the investment to spring ever aspect of your audio career and home listening enjoyment to the fore, this is it.

The physical device has color-coded jack arrays on the port panel, a welcoming way to speed up jack-in confusion. This is the perfect gift for a music student learning classical techniques and composition with 2010 era computer media audio technology.

$3,000 to $5500

Linn

Linn Products manufactures a Digital Stream music server that looks so low-profile you might mistake it for a preamplifier. The Majik DSI music server is the opposite of the family-ready Meridian Sooloos  amp-in-a-TV setup Lin favors the Ethernet over a Wi-Fi configuration. Lin specifically avoids computer lag issues by eradicating a USB jack outlet, enforcing higher connectivity standards for signal quality.

Linn  suggests using the home AC wiring in a system called Home-Plug. The faster signal really gets boosted this way, so Linn users can enjoy old-school DJ turntable mixing with online integrated digital streams. The variety of devices that the Linn DSI can play makes it a serious use piece of audio equipment for living room or garage soundstage. Writing audio signal to media at 85 mpbs can save time when jobs are queued and the night is long.

Want people to come to your party? Let them know one of these is in the house. The Linn Majik DSI works from any digital or analog signal coming from a music Mp3 file, tape recorder, audio tuner, ROM disc, flash drive, Itunes music library file, CD Player, turntable (phonostage), and thumb drive. There ain’t nothing this ***** can’t play.

$4200