What to gift your boss on New Year

Shahrukh Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Abhishek Bachchan shouldn't be the only ones who get to endorse and keep all the cool gadgets in the market this year. Check out which gadgets corporate heads are craving for this season.

Remember, knowing what your boss craves for is directly proportional to your year-end pay increase, reports Moneycontrol.

The business development head at Universal Music, a division of the US entertainment giant Universal Studios, Abhijeet Kamdar wishes for high-end smartphones.  "The Nokia N series would be great. More specifically, it would be either the N70 or N72 series," says Abhijeet.

Interestingly, the positioning of Nokia N72 combines the two freshest ideas - the latest technologies of the Nseries and interesting fashionable design, say reviewers. The N72 is very similar to N70 with some differences on the cover design and other changes insignificant to the end-user.

Jaspreet Bindra, country manager, MSN India would like more than one electronic gadget this season. "There are so many gadgets that I wish for. Not because it belongs to me, since I have never been a gamer, but I am seriously contemplating buying the X-Box 360 along with a flat screen TV and a nice Bose speaker system," he says.

Among the gaming consoles this season are Microsoft's X-Box 360, Sony's Playstation 3 and the common man's console-the Nintendo Wii. The first is the most expensive while the Playstation 3 may cost as much, but its game-play and graphics which, quickly reminds you, why all good things cost money - a lot of money. The PS3 comes in two different versions - the basic and the enhanced version.

The X-Box 360's major selling points are its super sensitive wireless controllers, amazing processor speed and its X-Box Live program, which allows users to download games, trailers, demos and other cool stuff for a monthly fee.

Nintendo's Wii does not use traditional controllers but instead uses special controllers that look similar to large TV remotes which users strap onto their arm. The motion detector allows gamers to detect movement, play tennis or swing swords. Not surprisingly, the Wii has captivated quite a different audience with its "action oriented" game play.

What's the use of having the best in gaming consoles without the best audio to match? It's little wonder then that Jaspreet prefers Bose for his speaker needs. Bose has recently launched its 6.1-channel surround sound home entertainment speaker system. The Acoustimass 16 Series II speaker system pairs with your 6.1-channel components and places the user in the middle of the action - without bulky equipment overpowering the décor.

Standard surround sound provides five channels for surround effects. But with 6.1-channel surround sound, the Acoustimass 16 Series II speaker system increases the impact of home theatre listening, with a rear centre speaker for even greater drama and realism.

Most recently, LG Electronics has launched their new Plasma and LCD television sets with an in-built 80 GB hard disc drive, which facilitates users to record TV programmes and other entertainment material from any external device - could go well with Jaspreet's X-Box and Bose speakers.

Navpreet Singh, joint managing director (finance), Dolphin Offshore Enterprises (India) Ltd., would also like a smartphone this season. "With regard to gadgets and electronics, I would like to see a Nokia 9500 with improved software, which I believe is on the cards. I find it a very handy phone to use, both for personal and official use," he says.

Navpreet's new Nokia 9500 Communicator is a hybrid PDA, phone, camera, music player and wireless browser in one - essentially it's a mobile phone on steroids, say reviewers. The 9500 does what it is designed to do - be a business data tool for users on the road. While the device is a lot smaller than lugging around a laptop and is comparable in size with most PDAs, it's not particularly pretty but it does its job well.

"If there's a gadget out there that I dig for - it's a Meade DS-2000 series telescope," says Praveen Suthrum, president and co-founder of NextServices, a business that provides revenue cycle management solutions to healthcare providers in the US.

Until now, the star gazer's two biggest challenges to enjoying the night sky have been aligning the telescope and finding objects. Meade's new DS-2000 Digital Series helps eliminate these two challenges and makes astronomy as easy as pushing a button – right out of the box.

Moving from stargazing to foretelling your stars, if it's good for the astrologer, it's probably good for your boss as well. For Marjorie Orr, the TV producer turned astrologer and who perhaps is the most recognized face in the world of astrology, it's the combination of three gadgets that come together to form a complete entertainment centre that tops her crave list this season.

"Given a chance, I would like an iPod with speakers since I hate earpieces. Also a new desktop PC with a French Windows XP version and a DVD Camcoder so I can do video stuff," says Marjorie.

Right in time for the holiday season, mStation has started shipping its 2.1 Stereo Orb 'Colors' for Apple iPod. The mStation Orb 'Colors' beautifully compliment the newly revamped, Apple iPod nano range of MP3 players. They are available in Pink, Green, Blue, and Silver, as well as in original Black and White.

The mStation 2.1 Stereo Orb packs 30 Watts of room filling sound and a 10 key remote that allows you to control the volume, bass and treble as well as navigate within a playlist.

Finally, there are still corporates out there who find it hard to make a gadget wish-list-corporates like Anupam Mittal, chairman and CEO of the People Group that owns Shaadi.com, who feels that one should seek something more meaningful.

"Fortunately, or unfortunately I can afford a lot of gadgets and it is quite hard for someone to gift me something, so it is hard to make a wish-list. When you can do that, your wish list changes and you start looking for things that give you ever-lasting joy or things that mean a lot emotionally. What touches my heart is when someone has gone through a lot of trouble for me or created something for me. That gives me a lot of joy and I love surprises, so I don't have a wish list. I like to be surprised," says Anupam.

For those that don't like surprises there's always Gears of War - a wicked game to play on your gaming console, which involves one of the most heart-pounding and graphically thrilling experiences of the year, according to gamers worldwide.

Reviewers consider Gears of War to be the game that raised the bar for how console games should look from here on out- happy happy joy joy!