Five Cool Tech Stocking Stuffers (Not Your Usual Holiday Gifts!)

Stumped for gifts to give the geeks in your family? Put a little something digital in their stockings this year. I've hand-picked five gadgets--all retailing for $50 or less--that can help ease your shopping woes. From a sleek and stylish MP3 player to a completely silly USB device, any of these five gifts will bring a smile to somebody's lips this holiday season.

1. Clip On Your Tunes

Smaller than a box of wooden matches yet capable of holding 15 hours of music, SanDisk's Sansa Clip truly is a small wonder. As the name implies, you simply attach the sub-1-ounce player to your pocket, shirt collar, or even your hat using its spring-loaded clip. The Sansa Clip plays MP3s, secure and DRM-free WMA files, and Audible books; it's also compatible with Napster to Go, and sports an FM tuner and a voice recorder. A tiny (but impressively bright) LCD shows either the artist and song title or a very cool-looking equalizer animation. About $40 buys you a 1GB black Sansa Clip that can store approximately 250 MP3s. Add $20, and you double the capacity--and you get to choose from ice blue, hot pink, or candy-apple red models. You'd be hard-pressed to find a more agreeable exercise partner.

2. Solving the USB Puzzle

Here's what I hate about USB hubs: My Flash drives are always just a little too wide, so I can't plug them in next to each other. The USB 180° Revolving Hub, however, is an ingenious solution. The multicolored dingus looks like a string of children's blocks, with one USB 2.0 port in each of the first four cubes. Cubes #1 and  #2 each rotate 180 degrees, so you can plug superwide USB dongles into the top and back, leaving the last two ports free for less outsize connectors. AC and USB power connectors in the fifth cube complete the puzzle. The Revolving Hub is available from Hong Kong-based gadget-meister Brando Workshop for $16.