Merry iChristmas — Eye-catching gifts for the techies on your list

A Salt Lake-based company's advertising campaign might lead a person to believe "it's all about the 'O,' " but much of this holiday season's e-commerce starts with an "i."

Unless you've been living on Mars the past year, you already know about the iPod. It's an obvious Christmas gift among consumer electronics options. But the iRobot, iTower, iSphere, iPort, iBeam and I-Dog churn amid the flotsam and jetsam of iProducts so prevalent and confusing — beware, not all play music — that it can drive a person iCrazy. You've got two weeks if you want to pick up any iStuff or other fancy tech devices, so here are a few eye-catchers to round out your last-minute holiday shopping list.

Listen up

For purposes of this section, we will assume that, like all good American consumers/trend-followers, you already have an iPod, which is about as "personal" as you can make a product, what with custom playlists accessible through ear buds for solitary enjoyment. We also will assume that you would, from time to time, love to share tunes but do not like the prospect of having your pristine-white buds in your bud's ears.

That's where a slew of products are available to pump out the songs to a plural audience.

One example of iPod speaker systems is the iSphere from Sharper Image ($149.95, www.sharperimage.com). The three-speaker system in a 7-inch-diameter structure plays iPod or MP3 collections through aluminum-cone speakers and subwoofer. All you have to add is an audio source, such as a portable CD or satellite radio, with a headphone jack. It can even serve as computer speakers. An 18-inch spooled cord allows you to pick up the iPod to scroll through your tunes.

Ditto for another Sharper Image iPod speaker alternative, the iTower, ($199.95, www.sharperimage.com). As you can assume, it is a 42-inch-tall tower sporting four vertically aligned aluminum-cone speakers, a tweeter and a base-incorporated subwoofer. The JBL On Stage ($159.95, www.jbl.com) is another tabletop-type speaker system for most iPods, MP3 players, CD players and computers.

The 1-pound device features four aluminum-domed transducers. A simple touch controls the volume or can mute and unmute the sound.