Top 10 technologies for the holiday season

2. Photo sharing sites
Iain Thomson: I was a bit unsure about this one, but Shaun seemed very keen and the more I think about it the more it makes sense.

If you can't be with the ones you love, then the next best thing is to send them a photo of what they are missing. It's always good to see other people and, if you can't do it in person, sharing a picture is as good as it's going to get.

There are a lot of sites to choose from, such as Flickr, but social networking web pages can also be a good place to share. I keep up with the lives of my friends in other countries via such sites, and it always brings a smile to the face to see a good chum making a complete idiot of himself while someone else captures it for posterity.

However, with that in mind, please be discreet in what you post. Employers and others are taking an increasing interest in the material people post online, and a future boss might not view that hilarious shot of you with the bottle of Jim Beam with the same fond memories as others.

Shaun Nichols: It used to be that one or two family members would take pictures of the family gatherings, drop the film off to be developed and then mail out the printed photos to everyone a few weeks later.

With the advent of digital cameras, however, the process has become much simpler. But there can be complications. Emailing large files to dozens of people can take a long time, and most of us know better than to add our family members to our Facebook or MySpace accounts.

That's where photo sharing services such as Flickr or Picasa come in. After collecting all your holiday photos, you can simply upload them from your computer, phone or camera directly to the web site. From there, you can tag and organise photos, then get a simple URL to share with everyone.

For those with older relatives who don't own a computer, there are also a number of sites which allow you to print and directly mail photos or create specialised prints, albums and calendars. Not only can you preserve the holidays for your relatives, you can knock out a bit of your gift shopping.

1. Digital video recorder
Shaun Nichols: The National Football League is planning to show three games on Thanksgiving this year. Combine this with time to cook, eat and mingle with family members, and you have a very solid case for investing in a digital video recorder (DVR).

Even if you're not a football fan, DVRs are worth the cost for Thanksgiving. Aside from sports and some cheesy holiday specials, TV on the holidays can stink out loud, and when you're done eating, washing dishes and reminiscing with the family, sometimes it's nice to wind down and watch a good movie or television programme.

Saving some quality content onto your DVR ahead of time can save you from having to spend that time watching another screening of Home Alone or the non-stop loop of A Christmas Story.

Iain Thomson: One of the great similarities between Christmas in the UK and Thanksgiving in the US is that TV companies pile on all the programmes.

I can still remember the family arguments over watching The Great Escape over the Queen's Speech at Christmas, and Thanksgiving is no different. Thankfully the invention of the video recorder stifled some of these conflicts, but the DVR is even better.

At last there's a technology that allows all those family rows to be consigned to history. We can simply record what we like and watch it at our leisure. The TV companies hate this because it disrupts their business plans, but the fact of the matter is that technology has made those business plans redundant and made life a whole lot better for the rest of us.