Gaming consoles, smartphones, tablets and other gadgets once again will be hot gifts this holiday season, but it can be quite a challenge to find something that offers both form and function for that special woman in your life.
Here to help out is Candace Bailey, the co-host of The Line, a new show from GSN that makes its debut this Tuesday (a two-hour, back-to-back special starting at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Dec. 23).
Bailey, an aficionado of geeky things who also hosted G4’s Attack of the Show and recently served as a panelist and judge on The Next Geek Thing, has a pretty good fix on some techno-gifts that are not only useful, but also flash some flair.
Wearables top her list, with smartwatches from Apple and Google. But if you’re into Apple, you’ll have to wait until after the holidays, as they won’t be wrapping around wrists until early 2015. Bailey’s favorite: the 18-Karat Rose Gold Rose Apple Watch.
“I have everything Apple … my computer, my phone. It just makes more sense for me because everything would sync up,” she told The Wire.
Next on her list is another item that won’t be out until next year: Nike’s self-lacing shoes that pay homage to Back to the Future, Part II. Yes, Marty McFly, this will be a real thing.
Other items on her list are out now, including LED earrings (via Amazon); the Tory Burch fitbit necklace (a fitness tracker you can buy at Bloomingdales); a lipstick phone charger from Michael Kors; and the spiffy Frends x BaubleBar “Layla” headphones (available at Nordstrom, those will set you back $179).
Bailey does a lot of her research online. She shops on the Web and braves the lines in stores, too. Her new show, The Line, is a travelling game show (first stop: Nashville) where the ultimate goal is to get to the head of the line and inside the “Trivia Vault,” where contestants answer true and false questions to win small amounts of cash that escalate with each right answer. A contestant who answers correctly eight times in a row takes down a jackpot that grows whenever someone fails to answer their batch of questions correctly.
Plenty of TV Under the Tree For NBA Fans This Holiday
When it comes to sports, if Thanksgiving is the NFL’s day, then Christmas is all about roundball.
For the 67th year overall and the first under Santa Silver, here’s a spirit-of-the-season Dec. 25 programming guide for the NBA.
Jimmy Dolan’s Madison Square Garden manger may need Phil Jackson’s Zen more than frankincense and myrrh, but the gold will be in the house as the New York Knicks mark their 50th Christmas appearance, versus the Washington Wizards at noon (ET) on ESPN.
ABC at 2:30 p.m. may summon the ghosts of NBA future with Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Serge Ibaka, as the Oklahoma City Thunder visit the ghosts of NBA championship present, the San Antonio Spurs, and Gregg Popovich’s three wise men, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker.
At 5 p.m. on ABC LeBron James will bring his new Cleveland Cavaliers courtiers Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love to the place where he hung his stocking the last four seasons: Miami’s American Airlines Arena, home of the Heat.
At 8 p.m., TNT showcases the Los Angeles Lakers and their “Father Christmas,” Kobe Bryant, who will play for a league record 16th time on the holiday, this time versus the Chicago Bulls.
The 10:30 nightcap on TNT might be the top matchup on the Christmas list, with the league-leading Golden State Warriors invading the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples. But given their dustup last Christmas and animus after the Clippers edged the Warriors in Game 7 of the opening round of the 2014 playoffs, there may not be glad tidings as this could turn out to be the Grinch game.
— Mike Reynolds
