Time is ticking away, and you still haven't purchased all your holiday gifts. Many of the popular gifts are sold out; but there are still plenty of great gifts that will bring a smile to the faces of the recipients.

Some in the "need-to-have but don't want to buy for myself" category are among the best gifts. Here is a sampling:

Power adapters. Your nephew loves his new digital music player; but when he goes away for more than a few hours, it runs out of juice. That's when a car adapter comes in very handy. Griffin Technology has a whole line to satisfy different power needs. Its PowerBlock is an AC adapter for iPod. Its iTrip Auto includes a car power adapter (the kind we used to call cigarette lighter plugs) and an FM transmitter in a single package; so you can hear your favorite tunes on your car speakers as you charge the player.

For somebody who has multiple devices to carry, consider a power adapter from iGo with multiple tips. These unique devices let the user carry around a single power supply that can be used with his cell phone, laptop, portable music player and PDA. It saves valuable space in luggage, and is a lot lighter to carry than carrying separate power adapters for each device.

USB Flash memory drives. These portable drives, ranging from value-added drives from Kingston to inexpensive drives from SanDisk, give the recipient portability to take data everywhere. They come in a variety of sizes to match many budgets.

Memory cards. Your friends and family are taking their portable cameras everywhere. And they're taking lots of pictures. But what do you do when you fill up your memory card? Put in a new one, of course. Those spare memory cards come in very handy-- especially on long trips, because you can use them to hold more of your memories before you return home to put them on your computer's disk drive or burn them onto CD. Here's a tip: Find out what type of digital camera the recipient uses before you buy the memory. That way you can choose the right type of memory card. Common types include Compact Flash, xD, Memory Stick; and each camera typically can take only one or two types. Look for fast cards when possible, and get them as large as your budget can afford -- or buy two.

Burnable CDs and DVDs. You can never have enough recordable media ready-to-burn files. If you use a digital music player, you can back up your favorite tunes onto these disks to make sure they're not lost if your disk drive fails on your computer or media player. If you record TV shows onto your computer, you can archive them onto DVDs so you can offload your computer's disk and still have them ready to play later. A stack of 50 to 100 recordable disks is not expensive; and it lasts beyond the holidays. Make sure you buy disks that are compatible with the recipient's computer. If she has a DVD+/-R burner, she can record almost anything, including CDs. But her drive may be DVD+R or DVD-R, which are incompatible with each other. So you'll need to pay attention to the +/- sign on the package. If she has a CD-R burner only, she will not be able to burn the larger capacity DVDs.

Finally, don't forget batteries. Some cell phones and music players have proprietary batteries that may last only 100 charges. Again, find out the model he's using; then buy the right battery.