Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat uses the Opte to remove age spots.

The DeanBeat: My holiday tech gift guide for the pandemic

During the pandemic, we could all use some upgrades in our lives. Earlier this week, I recommended some gaming products that I’ve enjoyed during the lockdown. And now I’ve got some suggestions for tech that I’ve used to stay sane during a very difficult time.

I love to write about technology in the service of people. Consumer markets drive the whole of technology forward these days, just as space technology drove the chip industry forward in the early 1960s. We can only get these advances as the volumes associated with games or other consumer tech devices lower costs, drive manufacturing efficiencies, and propel technology forward. It preserves the notion of technological progress at a time when some fundamental technologies, such as Moore’s Law driving chips forward, has slowed down.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.