2009 Holiday Guide: Gifts for the Tech-Savvy

I wanted to kick off the 2009 Holiday Gift Guide with a few of my favorite gifts for the Geek Girl in all of us!  Of course, most of these gifts would work for either gender, so I’m probably not being entirely fair, since most the the men that I know would kill to have any of these gifts!  So, without further ado, here are my top picks for the Tech-Savvy folks on your list.

Livespeakr – A set of small, portable speakers for your iPhone and iPod touch, great for listening to your music anywhere you can imagine.  I use mine most frequently out in the backyard and in the kitchen.  Occasionally it plays some of my favorite tracks, but I find it mostly serves my daughter’s purposes and is usually playing a song by the Imagination Movers.  It has a USB rechargable battery that lasts anywhere from 14-16 hours and works in both portrait and landscape mode.  Sa-weet!

Digital Foci: Pocket Album – A new twist on digital photo frames, this is a digital photo album that boasts a 2.8′ screen and can hold up to FOUR THOUSAND PHOTOS.  That’s right, you can tell your entire life story with this baby, especially if you make use of the folders function to organize your photos.  It’s small enough to slip in your purse and carry around with you, too – it even comes with it’s very own carrying case and viewing stand.

WikiReader — The WikiReader is a nerd’s dream gift (or nerdette, as the case may be).  I mean that in a totally endearing way, because I LOVE it.  Basically it puts 3 million topics at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere.  You pay a flat fee for the device, which includes all of the Wikipedia entries you could ever want – and the best part is that it does not need an internet connection to work.  It has three simple buttons for navigation, and the rest is controlled through a touch-screen interface.  You can even update the device yourself on a regular basis. (PS – it even has parental controls!  Yes, Veronica, you can give this to your High School student after all!)

SmartSwipe — This site is called Chic Shopper Chick for a reason!  For all of you frequent online shoppers like myself, you’ll be eagerly embracing the SmartSwipe – which is a pesonal credit card reader, just like you use in a retail store.  Apart from feeling very high tech (because you will feel very James Bondesque when you use this thing) the SmartSwipe provides you with additional protection and privacy from online phishing.  Basically, it’s a smarter, more secure way to shop online.  This would also make a great gift for anyone in your family who REFUSES to shop online because they are scared the Russians are stealing their information (I’m looking at you Gram!).

LogMeIn Ignition – Just yesterday a friend sent me a DM that said “can you email me the document I sent you yesterday?  I’m not home and I wante to show it to someone.”  Luckily that won’t happen to me anymore because I’ve started using LogMeIn – an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that makes the iPhone the ultimate productivity tool for the busy, on-the-go parent, business traveler or student. No matter where you are, you can have instant access to virtually any internet-connected computer via your iPhone or iPod Touch.  A great gift for anyone attached at the hip to their laptop!  (Love it?  Win a copy of LogMeIn!)

Mophie Juice Pack Air - When I was at Blog World Expo, I had this teeny, tiny, minor little issue of my iPhone continuing to die.  All the time.  Like, no battery at all.  That’s what happens when you have a bunch of geeks in one place, right?  One night my friend slipped one of these little contraptions on my phone and pressed a little button on the back, and voilà!  Insta-battery.  Of course, I had to have one.  A purple one, at that.  This light little contraption functions as a cover for your phone, but also includes it’s own battery.  I plug it into my laptop at night, plug in my phone elsewhere, and the next morning I have the equavalient of two full batteries.  The best part about the Mophie is that you can flip a switch to tell your phone to use the Mophie battery first, so that you can then remove the cover and have a fully charged iPhone to last you the rest of the night.  (Like it?  Win a Mophie!)

iSkin Protouch – Germophobes, neatfreaks, and eye-squinters rejoice!  The iSkin Protouch keyboard covers are made of silicone and have embedded Microban® antimicrobial product protection, which provides continuous cleaning action, inhibiting the growth of damaging microbes, such as bacteria, that can cause stains, odors and product deterioration.  Oh, and did I mention that the letters are printed, nice and big, on the keyboard? Oh yeah, so big that even my mom could read them!  (I’m picking on all SORTS of people in this guide, aren’t I?)  Even better?  The iSkin Protouch softens the sounds of typing, so it would make my French friends very happy, because, as they once told me in college while we were studying in the library — “Americans do everything loudly.  You even type loudly.”  The iSkin Protouch comes in all kinds of patterns and options, even one that allows the keys of the MacBook Pro to light up at night and still be seen.  Squee!

iHome iH15 Color Changing iPod Dock – This dock not only charges your iPod or iPhone, but it plays your music AND changes colors.  You can pick one color or you can let it rotate to all of the different ones.  An awesome gift for a teen, or the perfect item to keep on your desk.  My 2 year old thinks that it’s basically a dance party in a box – between the changing colors and the Disney songs!  It even has a subwoofer built in (I just LOVE that word, I’m such a dork) so the sound is actually really, really awesome for such a small little box.  (Love it?  Win a iH15 from iHome!)

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So there ya have it.  The first part of the Holiday Gift Guide!  I have a ton of giveaways and more categories coming up ASAP, so be sure and subscribe to my site by email or via RSS!

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Disclosure:  These products have been submitted to me for review.  I don’t love every product on the market, by FAR, but I write about the ones that I do love here on my site.  The deal is that I will only recommend things to you that I like, believe in, and would buy myself or tell my friends and family to buy.  My opinions are 100% my own.  It’s how I roll.  For more information, check out my Disclosure Policy.