Nerdy Valentines: What to Buy
If your beloved is more envious of gadgets than chocolates, there are many ways to show him or her how much you care with a gift of technology this Valentine’s Day. You don’t need to break the bank, either. The secret to an unforgettable token of your affection is to make it unique and personal and these gifts for your techie Valentine are a great alternative to generic flowers, cards or candy.
The days of laboriously crafting a mixed tape of your favorite tunes for the object of your affection are over – he or she probably doesn’t even own a cassette or CD player. Yet you can achieve the same objective by picking up an iPod shuffle in their favorite color (it’s available in seven different ones) and loading it with the songs that speak to you. Or choose his favorites if you don’t share the same taste in tunes. For $49 the iPod shuffle won’t store his entire library, but it’s a great grab-and-go MP3 player that will maintain its usefulness beyond the life span of a CD.
If movie nights are more often than not spent streaming a video or TV show to your tablet or handheld electronic device, snuggle on the couch and share the experience without straining to hear the dialog over the device’s included audio. An inexpensive headphone splitter like the Monoprice 35-HSSVC (http://www.amazon.com/Monoprice-35-HSSVC-Headphone-Splitter-Separate/dp/B0016CFZQ0/ref=sr_1_5?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1360137740&sr=1-5&keywords=headphone+splitter, $5, Amazon) will allow each of you to plug your own headphones into the same tablet. I like this splitter because it gives each listener their own separate volume control, so you don’t have to go deaf if she likes to crank it up.
If you’re planning to rent the latest romantic comedy and watch it on your device, make sure to get the technical stuff taken care of in advance. Nothing puts a damper on a romantic evening like leaving your sweetheart cooling her heels on the couch alone while you track down your credit card, wait for the video to download, or worse, get stuck with a movie that pauses every few minutes to buffer. Most online rental services like Amazon Instant Video, iTunes or Xbox give you several days or weeks to activate your rental from the time you pay and at least 24 hours to watch your flick from the time you start it.
If your love is never far from their Smartphone or laptop, consider a customized skin or case. What better way for her to remember you with a smile than every time she picks up her phone and sees her favorite shot of the two of you on vacation, or her favorite character or logo. Even better, she’ll never again have to pause to determine which of the iPhones on the table is hers when she goes out with friends.
With a wide selection of styles of cases for just about any popular phone as well as vinyl skins for laptops, tablets and more, skinit (www.skinit.com) lets you easily create a custom case or skin using one of their many designs or by uploading your own image. I like that the site has more than one style of case since many people are particular about the feel, cut and durability of their phone’s cover. Now you don’t have to sacrifice the features they want in a case or cover to achieve a fully unique accessory for the device they use so often.
Finally, bring some love to their desk with a digital frame filled with images of your life together. It doesn’t take long to transfer over some of your favorite shots and will give him or her a stream of photos instead of a stationary one or two. Share the love!
Image by Flickr user pat 7047
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