Your Next Gift

Obviously printed photos are so last-decade. Digital photo frames allow us to go directly from shooting to displaying our photos with no messy meatspace-based printed version needed. The eStarling 2.0 Wi-Fi Photo Frame takes this concept to the next level by connecting to your local Wi-Fi network and allowing you to send photos to it via e-mail or RSS photo feed.

With full web-based access you can control exactly the photos you want on your eStarling frame at any time from anywhere in the word. E-mail photos as .jpg attachments and they appear on your frame. Choose a Flickr photo feed with the keyword "cool japanese robots" and soon your frame will be scrolling through nifty shots of highly desirable bots you will never get your hands on. New Photobucket integration allows you to add photos into rotation on your eStarling frame directly from the Photobucket website. You can of course send photos while on the go from your mobile phone, while your pets watch your exciting antics remotely on the eStarling. Hand the eStarling Photo Frame over to a non-technical relative and rule with an iron-fist over exactly what photos your Grannie views!

With one time easy set up, you get assigned a free dedicated e-mail adress to send photos to it. Simply e-mail any JPEG photo to the eStarling frame. It polls for new e-mail every few minutes and puts any photos it receives into rotation on the frame in a slideshow format. The frame functions similarly when receiving photos via the Flickr photo feed. You can also delete or add photos directly via the web-based control panel at any time and can easily set up RSS feeds to it. For Flickr RSS photo feed configuration, simply do a search on Flickr for your favorite photos. Cut and paste the URL from the "RSS 2.0" link at the bottom of the page into the eStarling web-based software. You can even do multiple feeds at once. Once a feed is set-up Flickr photos matching your search criteria go into rotation on the frame. As new photos are posted to Flickr, they show up on the frame.

We like to bring you those more unusual gifts here at YourNextGift and we definitely think the eStarling Wifi Digital Photo Frame will be a gift that will amaze and be well received!

Available at: ThinkGeek (USA/International) and Amazon (USA) and Firebox (USA / UK)

Think teapots are outdated and belong in your grandmother's kitchen? Think again. The Terrorist Teapot takes a threatening stance against anyone trying to mess with your perfectly brewed tea with a tea cosy that doubles as a balaclava. We can think of other uses for it... but you should probably reserve it for keeping the pot warm. The Terrorist Teapot is a set including the teapot and balaclava cosy. The perfect funny (tasteless?) gift for a house warming perhaps!

Available at: Generate (USA/Canada) and Drinkstuff (UK/Europe)

Great BIG Canvas produce exactly what their name portrays... Great BIG Canvases!

Looking for a great idea to decorate your den? Or have a blank wall to fill in your lounge? What do you put in the large space above your bed? How about waking up to beautiful sunrise from one of your favorite places, or the skyline of one of your favorite cities?

At Great BIG Canvas, they have a massive inventory of skylines, scenic and international destinations, all presented in wide-screen format, that is unrivaled. They have close to 250,000 images including xpans and 360 degree rotationals. Their high resolution scans are the key to creating amazing...Great BIG Canvases!

There's something about the texture and dimensional aspect of canvas that brings out the best in these high resolution images. Made from the highest quality fabric, this heavyweight artist canvas is ideal for photographic and fine art reproductions.

Imagery can set the mood, inspire individuals and be beautiful. We think these oversized canvases make a brilliant gift that looks perfect in the home or office. Feeling inspired?

Available at: Great BIG Canvas (USA)

Part practical necessity, part modern art object, this sculptural clock is the kind of design piece that becomes the focal point of any room. It was originally designed for maritime use in 1956 by Italian architect Angelo Mangiarotti, renowned for his work as an architect, urban planner and industrial designer. The display face is tilted slightly forward, while the hour marker's double bars increase in width as they progress, both for ease of viewing.

Features:

- 6" tall.
- Housing constructed of white porcelain, with a glass face and black dial.
- Uses N battery, included.
- Made in Germany.

Available at: Red Envelope (USA)

Everyone loves pressies, but all that wrapping/unwrapping malarkey can be a right drag, can't it? Because let's be honest, the vast majority of gift wraps are about as exciting as granny's scented drawer liners. Yes, there is some posh paper on the market, but glittery snowflakes, poncey patterns and badly drawn cakes are enough to make anyone want to rip their gifts open in a frenzy and chuck the screwed-up debris in the nearest bin.

For this reason we've been hunting high, low and everywhere in between for wrapping paper that conforms to YourNextGift.com's ethos of style, sophistication and high-brow innovation. Sadly we couldn't find any. That's why we've decided to feature Suck UK's Raunchy Double-Sided Wrapping Paper. And no, your eyes do not deceive you: each supersize (33" x 23" / 84cm x 59cm) sheet of this amusingly risque gift wrap really is printed with a montage of stunning ladies or hot hunks in varying stages of undress. But - and here's the clever bit - only on the reverse side. Brilliant, eh!

To the casual observer Raunchy Wrapping Paper appears to be innocuous yet stylish gift wrap with a stripy blue or red motif. But when recipients tear into their presents they'll come face to face with a bevy of jaw-droppingly attractive beauties or blokes in the almost altogether. It's enough to make Hugh Hefner blush! What's more, the tasteful but provocative poses struck by these scantily-clad sirens and underwear adorned Adonises are certain to stimulate the most jaded of present opener. And even if nuddy ladies and men don't float your boat, Raunchy Wrapping Paper still represents a fabulously glam alternative to regular gift wrap.

In fact, Raunchy Wrapping Paper is so delightfully distracting friends might even forgive you for presenting them with novelty socks for the umpteenth year on the trot!

Available at: Firebox (USA/UK/Europe/International)

The Micro Mosquito is currently ruffling feathers throughout the world of RC aviation, as it is one of the most incredible flying machines ever to take to the skies. Weighing in at a mere 15g, this bug-like indoor 'copter is so small it can take off and land in the palm of your hand. Amazing!

Thanks to its counter-rotating blades the Mosquito is astoundingly manoeuvrable. Once you get the hang of its twin-toggle, digital proportional transmitter you'll be buzzing around like a pro pilot. Up, down, hover, forwards, backwards, left, right - you name it. We just landed ours on the boss's head having taken off from the water cooler. Try doing that in a proper chopper. (Don't, you might decapitate someone).

Ready to fly in the smallest of spaces straight out of the box, the Mosquito is powered via a charger that doubles up as a launch pad. A 45 minute juice-up will give you a full ten minutes of flying time - more than enough to hover around the ceiling, fly by the coffee table and buzz past the telly. This innovative triumph of micro-engineering even features a pair of green glowing 'eyes' - perfect for putting the willies up the cat when night falls.

Believe us, playing with the Mosquito is seriously addictive. We guarantee you'll be unable to resist a quick flight whenever you're lounging on the sofa or twiddling your thumbs at work. If you still haven't got the bug, hit the Buy button. Because flying the Micro Mosquito is a total buzz!

Available at:
I Want One Of Those (UK/USA/Europe/International)
ThinkGeek (USA/Canada/International)
Firebox (USA/UK/Europe/International)

We all know VHS tapes were rubbish. Dodgy tracking, limited lifespan, noisy spools, below par quality...we could go on. So we will. Bulky, clunky, fragile, ridiculously slow to rewind - the list is truly endless. But for all its faults, VHS was the leading video format for almost thirty years. And that's why you've got stacks of tapes languishing in the loft and piled up in the cupboard. And that's why you need the brilliant Ion USB VCR 2 PC Converter.

This idiot-proof video player allows you to convert long-forgotten VHS recordings into pristine digital files. So you can cringe at your shoulder pads in those homemade vids and laugh at all those old TV shows you taped, without cracking out your soon to be obsolete VCR.

Simply plonk in a tape, press play and leave the rest to this USB-friendly machine. It doesn't matter if you want to watch reinvigorated recordings on your computer, iPod, PSP or DVD because the included conversion software caters for stacks of formats. As well as its incredible ability to amalgamate declining technology with cutting edge jiggery-pokery, the USB VCR Converter can be used as a regular VCR, just plug it into your TV. And once you've successfully archived your VHS library the only thing left to do is bin those cumbersome tapes!

Available at: Firebox (USA/UK/Europe/International) and I Want One Of Those (UK/Europe/International)

Also popular:

Ion USB Tape 2 PC and Ion USB Turntable

Designed by Miriam Mirri for Alessi, the Lupita Dog Bowl is for the most stylish of pets only! The bowl is manufactured from easy to clean polypropylene with a stainless steel insert and is available in funky blue or orange colors. Measuring 12.5" / 32cm in diameter, it holds 18.75 oz. / 0.6 litres, the perfect gift for your design conscious pooch!

Available at: Unica Home (USA/International)

Time is so staggeringly elastic. The seconds of terrifying anticipation before your parachute opens stretch ahead of you like hours, the minutes before you have to get out of your warm bed to go to work flash by in a nanosecond. The Lifetimer clock lets you keep track of the important things in life in a wonderfully novel way. The clock face is surrounded by a collection of buttons relating to different aspects of your life, such as your next holiday, your next tea break, your birthday, the time you knock off from work, even the last time you had rumpy pumpy. Simply pressing any of these buttons will give you the number of hours, minutes and seconds you've got left (or that have passed in the case of some) till the event happens. Press, and it's only seven minutes and twenty seconds to your coffee break; press, and you've been in your current relationship for two years, three months, six days, ten hours, four minutes and twelve seconds, etc etc. It's a brilliant idea and great fun - in fact it's amazing quite how much time you can waste simply pressing the buttons to see how much time you're wasting. Watch the seconds left till you can go home from work tick away (backwards of course), or the days since you last made like a rabbit add depressingly up!

Features:

- The Lifetimer keeps track of the important things in life, counting up or down to momentous events like 'home time'.
- An option to set the clock to 12 or 24 hour clock.
- A stopwatch function.
- The Lifetimer counts the days until your Birthday, Christmas, next holiday, lunch hour, home time, the weekend, the event of your choice.
- The Lifetimer times how long it has been since you started your job, began your relationship, last had sex.
- The calendar stretches up to the year 2050.
- The Lifetimer is an interactive little thing, pinging away with date reminders and scrolling messages across its back-lit LCD screen.
- Ergonomically designed.
- Uses with 2 x AAA batteries.
- Size: 3.3" x 3.7" x 3.3" / 8.5cm x 9.4cm x 8.5cm.

The Lifetimer - possibly the most interesting and interactive clock ever invented!

Available at: I Want One Of Those (USA/UK/Europe/International)

Party Cups With Personality!

People are natural party animals, and here are the perfect cups to let them express their inner beast! Drinking from these strong, paper cups turns anyone's cute button nose into something WILD.

Each pack of Pick Your Nose Party Animals includes 24 x 9-ounce cups in six assorted animal styles.

Available at: Perpetual Kid (USA) and I Want One Of Those (UK/USA/Europe/International)

Also popular: Pick Your Nose Party Cups

Today's computers are triumphs of technology, but divvy designers always seem to scrimp on the USB ports. A shame because practically every electronic device on the market is now USB-friendly - from cameras and MP3 players to phones, lava lamps and drum kits. And who can be bothered fiddling around the back of their computer looking for spare ports?

Not us. That's why we use USB hubs. But we don't use any old hubs to bolster our USB connectivity. Good grief, no! We use ones shaped liked Doctor Who's Tardis. Why? Well, for starters we love Doctor Who. But more than that we love the Tardis. This ingenious product of Time Lord technology is surely one of the most iconic objects in sci-fi history.

The Doctor Who Tardis USB Hub boasts four ports in which to plug your various gizmos. Simply plug in and you're away. But here's the good bit: every time you connect or disconnect a device, the blue light on the top of the Tardis flashes and that unmistakable de-materialisation 'vworp, vworp' sound starts sawing away at your lugholes. Thankfully it doesn't actually vanish into the time vortex, so you can enjoy the classic grating din again and again by plugging in more devices or pressing the demo button.

Perfect for Doctor Who fans or those of you who want to increase your USB connectivity via a pretend Gallifreyan time/space machine, the Tardis USB Hub makes an eye-catching addition to any work surface. And with 4 metres of cable, you can easily slip it out of view when the boss, wife, or anyone else who might disapprove of PC peripherals disguised as dimensionally transcendental vehicles, is around. Vworp, vworp!

Available at: Firebox (UK/USA/International) and ThinkGeek (USA/International)

Maui Shelving, designed by Alexis Tricoire, is cleverly made from a single sheet of translucent acrylic (PMMA). The bending of the material functions as a gentle link between the elements, creating an organic continuity to the whole. Available in three different sizes; Sideboard: 44.5"L x 36"H x 12.5"D, Small Shelf: 28.75"L x 79"H x 12.5"D, Large Shelf: 44.5"L x 79"H x 12.5"D and with three or five shelves. These will funk up any room in your home or office whether contemporary in style or more traditional in look.

Available at: Generate (USA/Canada)

The Sanctuary charging station's simple and compact design brings order to his world of gadgets. Compatible with over 1,500 devices from most major brands--including Apple, BlackBerry, Motorola and Samsung--the universal charger allows it to charge up to 12 devices at the same time. The reversible inner tray insert turns this into the ultimate catchall. Tidy up your desk at home or the office, perfect for those with so many devices and gadgets to charge, the Sanctuary Charging Station will look neat anywhere!

Features:

- Available in black or white.
- Includes a fabric-finished inner tray that reverses to black or tan
- Has 12 built-in connectors for your electronics
- Measures 9" x 9" x 1 3/4"H
- Universally compatible with all models of the iPhone, iPod and BlackBerry
- Works with most models from Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony-Ericsson.

Available at: Red Envelope (USA)

Sick? Tired? Feel like being late?

Remember how easy it was to shirk responsibility when your mother could write you a note? With the Excuse Note, simplicity is here again. Whether you're late, absent, or just plain out of it, you'll be excused. Irrefutable written explanations! Authorizable by anybody - 50 useful pages included!

Available at: Perpetual Kid (USA)

Yes, it's absurd, we know, but boy is this gizmo a blessing in 1970s white plastic disguise or what! Stumbling to the lav at night is one of life's little irritations at the best of times, but what really makes it so darned annoying is having to half blind yourself in the process by turning on the bathroom light. You could almost get away with going through the process without truly waking up, if it wasn't for the 'Oh my good god, who put a 1000 watt bulb in when I wasn't looking' experience. Well now, thankfully, that whole snow-blindness nightmare is finally over. The Lavnav (great name) is a joy to behold.

You simply stick it on the inside of your lav lid (comes with sticky pads) and hey presto, whenever you stagger into the bathroom in the dark the motion sensor fires it up, and it shines a gentle guiding light into your lav, and turns off after you leave. It even knows if the seat is up or not - red light for up, green light for down. A brilliant, if slightly odd, product, and an excellent solution to prevent you being wrenched from half-asleepness in the middle of the night.

Features:

- Motion detector.
- Green/red light and seat position reader.
- Uses 2 x AA batteries.
- Size: 3" x 3.5" x 1" / 7.5cm x 9cm x 2.5cm.

Available at: I Want One Of Those (UK/USA/Europe/International)