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Even though we’ve had a hot summer, it’s inevitable that our thoughts soon turn to the holiday season, and with that Christmas. Many electronics companies enter the scrum by bringing out new gadgets for the Christmas market, so here is a quick round up of some of the things that will be competing for your cash come December.

Storage media and flash memory company Verbatim are trying to inject some style into the portable hard drive market with the upcoming release of the Wallet Drive. This stylish peripheral features a stitched leather case, giving it the appearance of a wallet, and has a discreet USB socket revealing its identity. The 500GB model will cost $130 in the US, which is around £85. The drive would look right at home on an executive’s desk, but as it looks just like a wallet, it’s wise to take out some gadget insurance in case it becomes the target for an opportunistic thief.

Inductive charging – that is, charging mobile gadgets such as an MP3 player or a mobile phone wirelessly – is beginning to take off, and battery maker Energizer has jumped on board with the Energizer Inductive Charger. This gadget supports the new QI wireless charging standard. It can charge two devices at once, and supports Apple iPhones. With an additional accessory can charge Blackberry Curve 8900 handsets. It also features a USB socket for wired charging too. The Inductive Charger will retail at about $89 (£58).

If you’re going skiing for the holidays, you may want to take some video footage for posterity. The Oregon Scientific ATC9K is a high-def all terrain video camera touted for such outdoor activities. The weather resistant, shock-proof unit is designed to be attached to a helmet, bicycle handlebars, surfboard or any other unsteady perch. The $300 (£196) camera can take 5 megapixel images as well as 1080p video footage. In addition to this, it features a sensor which measures speed, angle of movement, hang time and other data which can allow you to fully retrace your movements. A separate GPS add-on will be released at the same time which will allow you to map your movements to Google Maps and Google Earth.