What I want for Christmas…

This Christmas looks set to be one of the most financially ruinous and terrifying ever to be experienced by the friends and family members of technology fans, man, woman and child alike…

Christmas 2013 sees a bumper line-up of freshly released technology offerings jostling for position beneath the Christmas trees of the world. Here are a few of our absolute favourites which we sincerely hope Santa (or any mystery benefactors that might just so happen to be reading this article) will be stuffing down our chimneys this December 25th:

The Xbox One

Ahh the Xbox One… Could this be the games console that finally brings Microsoft’s home entertainment vision beautifully to fruition…? The early evidence would suggest that it really could be! The new Xbox includes a range of different capabilities including the multitasking of applications using split screen, the ability to overlay live TV broadcasting using an existing set-top box and enhanced second screen support – all of which enhance the console as an all-round entertainment system.

Microsoft have taken a leaf out of Nintendo’s book, giving heightened precedence to the Kinect motion sensing peripheral, which can be used with Skype videoconferencing, motion sensing and system navigation. Also, with Microsoft ploughing ever more time, effort and money into Xbox Live, you just know the gaming options on offer along the line for this console are gonna be good.

The iPad Air

True to form, Apple have released another corker in the form of the iPad Air. With stunning graphics that are displayed at literally twice the resolution offered by the 2nd generation iPad, this tablet is ideal for users who like their browsing beautiful and their entertainment experiences immersive. Users can dash, leap and slide their way to heroic feats as a certain blue hedgehog from the early nineties in Sonic Dash, or they can brush up on their Blackjack strategy and aim to win big at the online casino – the options available to iPad users are pretty much unlimited, with literally hundreds of thousands of apps to choose from.

The Oculus Rift

The say what now!? The Oculus Rift is our wild card Christmas list choice this year, but we’d hate to bet against it being one of the biggest things to happen to technology in the near future. So what is it?

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset display, currently at an advanced stage of development and widely tipped to be the next big thing. Offering life-like 3D gaming, this device looks set to change the face of the way we play. To find out more, click here.

Want more tech? Click here.