From Esquire Magazine:

In retrospect, I’m wondering if my Christmas wish list this year should have included more sweaters, wood-burning stoves, canning techniques, and other tools for self-preservation in tougher times.  On the other hand, maybe the only way out of our economic sadness is to spend what little money we have left on gadgets that will bring a little joy into our daily mess.  Yeah, that’s the holiday spirit!

And on that note, let me say that it’s amazing how far digital technology — from cameras to flat-screen TVs — has come in the four years since we’ve presented this guide.  So start giving!  At least that’s what I’m telling the wife.

Check out the holiday gift guide by Barry Sonnenfeld, who looks a little like the Santa puppet here, and is a film and TV director and producer, and Esquire’s Digital Man columnist.

20 Best Holiday Gifts for the Digital Man

The LiveScribe Pulse smartpen is a computer within a pen that captures handwriting and simultaneously records audio and synchronizes it to the writing.

You can tap on your notes to replay what was recorded at the moment you wrote the note.  With pre-printed controls at the bottom of the dot paper notebooks, you can fast forward, rewind, jump ahead, pause or even speed up or slow down the audio recordings to easily access information.  You can upload all of this information — including the audio — to your computer to save, search for keywords, or share with friends, colleagues and classmates.

Starts at $149.

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen