Great Tech Valentine's Day Gifts

Well after my down-on-Valentine’s-Day post, I thought I needed to redeem myself a little. I decided to put a little more effort into making this day special, and I thought I would pass on some interesting gift ideas to you.

Now what to get a man on Valentine’s Day is always puzzling, but I recently read some statistics that were a real eye opener. IOGEAR did a poll where they asked men what their preferred gift on Valentine’s Day would be. 61% said that they would like a tech gift, but only 19% said they ever received this. Since IOGEAR is an audio/video manufacturer, their clientele are going to be men and women who like technology gadgets (my polite term for geeks), and this might slant their survey just a bit, but speaking from experience, men do like toys, so maybe, just maybe, you should consider a tech gift when it comes time to pick out your gifts.

VH1 on Chumby1

Penguin cam that the kids like to watch

First on my list is a Chumby1 (check out my review here) because of the cool factor, and because they're running a special for Valentine’s Day. The device normally sells for $129.95, but if you use the promo code VDAY11 when you check out, the price drops down to only $69.95! My husband has his sitting on his nightstand, and it’s the last thing he looks at before he goes to bed, and it was his favorite gift this Christmas.

There are also a number of smaller gift ideas (some under $10) that are both geeky and funny, and who doesn’t want to laugh and save money? Some of my students at school turned me on to a very unique site called ThinkGeek-some of the stuff is a little out there, but there are others worth a look. I found these in their section for Valentine’s gifts: give him your heart and a little extra heat with this heart hand warmer ($5.99), or tell him how much you care with an I Love You bean plant ($4.99). Maybe the two of you could dabble in the ancient art of chocolate making with the Mayan Magic Chocolate Making Kit ($24.99)? Or if your sweetie has a hard time staying awake, why not supercharge him with Shower Shock Caffeinated Bubble Bath ($14.99)?

I also have some gift ideas for those willing to spend a little more. If your guy likes to read, why not take a look at the Sony Pocket reader (about $120) or the newly reduced Kindle ($139) book reader. I was at the beach a few years ago when I saw the Kindle for the first time-I kept trying to keep the pages of my book from fluttering in the wind and I happened to glance at a man near me holding a Kindle. I decided to look into purchasing one for my husband that Christmas because my husband is also a big book reader, and we don’t have any more places to store our books. When I started reading about the Kindle’s problems and saw how much they cost ($500), I started looking elsewhere. Sony came out with their edition, and the one in my price range was their Pocket Reader ($120)-plus, most reviews raved about this new toy, mainly because it accepted all downloadable book formats, including the .epub that the libraries use (you can "check" out books through library systems). You can also buy books from the Sony site for around $9, and get newspaper and some magazine subscriptions. My husband loves his, and it still works great after a year. So far we haven’t downloaded anything from our local library, but that’s because they are just adopting the system now. You can buy books and subscriptions for about the same price from the Amazon site for the Kindle, but you can only download from Amazon.

I also have a no-to-low cost tech option that you may want to keep in mind since time is limited and getting a gift to arrive by Monday will cost some hefty shipping and handling fees… Why not purchase a 2-4Gb jump drive and load it up with his favorite tunes? He can take it to work with him, plug it in his computer, and think how lucky he is to have such a thoughtful, loving wife like you. (It could happen-LOL!) Enjoy your Valentine’s Day!