8 Valentine's Day Gifts for Your Geek
Regular chocolates and flowers are so 1990. Try BlackBerry or Wii Mii chocolates or LED crystal jewelry for the techie in your life this year.
CIO — Gadgets and other techie goodies make great gifts for your Valentine. Geek chic twists on jewelry, candy and the old mixed tape fallback are fun alternatives to traditional Valentine's Day gifts.
For a Valentine who appreciates jewelry, and likes unique items, consider giving a piece that lights up with the help of LEDs. While wearable technology can sometimes be a pretty pricey investment, accessories like necklaces or watches can run between $20 and $200. Necklaces from Firejewel, a company that creates Swarovski crystal jewelry infused with LED technology, may be perfect for your Valentine if she likes to stand out.
The Tokyoflash Fire isn't for the timid either, but is both male and female friendly. When the user clicks the watch's side button for the time, the Fire's stainless steel watch face is lit up with colorful LEDs. The LEDs burst into an X formation and then "scatter" to display the time. The yellow LEDs represent hours, the red represent 10 minutes and single minutes are shown in green.
If jewelry isn't quite right, chocolate can be a great option as well. However, Valentine's Day chocolates no longer need to just be heart shaped to share your sentiment with your special someone.
Paul Pape Designs offers chocolates that are perfect for the person obsessed with their Nintendo Wii.
Sold in dar, milk or white chocolate, these little 4" tall treats are in the shapes of Nintendo Miis. The box's special message says "Wii belong together, you and Mii".
Computergear.com has a special Valentine's Day promotion on its chocolate bar calculator if this option is more suitable, and you're a practical joker. Although, if your Valentine really does have a sweet tooth, this gift might not go over so well, because while the calculator smells like chocolate, it's actually a working gadget—and better left not nibbled. For the true chocoholic geek, getting your hands on a chocolate BlackBerry, Mp3 Player or computer mouse is just the thing.
Due to iPods and Mp3 players, the days of the mixed tape's popularity have long gone, but the sentiment is no less cute. iTunes has a page dedicated to Valentine's Day on which users can select from collection of love songs, movies, television shows, audiobooks and applications. Located in iTune's music section under "more in music", the Valentine's Day page is at least a step up from the mixed tape because the entire iTunes library is at your disposal.
While jewelry, chocolate and the mixed tape are relied upon for Valentine's Day gift options, tech influenced options are available to update these typical classics. And, if you're really gutsy, you could give a virtual gift or e-card, but if you chose this option, remember that your Valentine may not stick around to celebrate with you again next year.
