profiles in gifting

	Aneya Dixon The Grade-Schooler	Nicholas Bonds The Teenager	Chauncey Canfield The Multimedia Junkie	Gary Hahn The Road Warrior	Nora Taylor The Grandparent
$	I-Dog -- It's one of the most talked-about toys this season. Hasbro's I-Dog is a fun, yet inexpensive, electronic "pet" that doubles as a speaker for any portable music player. Lights on the dog's face blink, and the ears and head move to the beat of the music. It also barks when it needs attention and whimpers when it's being ignored. $30	Xingtone ringtone software -- The software allows users to create custom cell phone ringtones using tracks from their personal digital music libraries. $20. Visit http://www.xingtone.com/ to download the software or learn more. Also consider: Pretty much any age-appropriate video game will do. Most games for handheld and console gaming devices are in the $40 to $60 range.	iTunes gift card -- Apple's iTunes Music Store (available on both Windows and Mac computers) is easy to use and includes a large selection of songs at 99 cents each. Cards are available in Apple stores or online at http://www.apple.com/ . Also consider gift cards or subscriptions from Napster, Rhapsody and others.	T-Mobile HotSpot gift cards -- A quick connection to the Web can be found at almost any Starbucks via the T-Mobile WiFi HotSpot connection. A $10 one-day card (or several of them) or $20 seven-day card will come in handy for the frenzied road warrior.	Customized photo book or calendar -- It's low-tech for Grandma but high-tech for the gift-giver. Load those digital photos of the grandkids into a customized calendar or, better yet, create a hardcover coffee-table photo book that friends will admire. Those products and other custom photo gifts are available on the Shutterfly, Snapfish, Kodak EasyShareGallery and other Web sites. $20; Also consider: a USB floppy disk reader for access to those older files. Look for an all-in-one reader, such as the Iomega Floppy Plus 7-in-1 card reader, which will also read memory cards found in most digital cameras. $40.
$$	Fly Pentop Computer -- It looks like a pen but functions as a computer of sorts. Create and play music or do math homework with a pen that will amaze you. Visit http://www.flypentop.com/ for a great interactive demo. $99. Also consider: the Game Boy Advance, the handheld gaming device that has a long list of games appropriate for all ages. $80.	Turtle Beach gaming headsets -- When you're playing interactive video games against others on the Internet, why compromise the sounds of the game with the conversation of the gamers? Have both with high-end headsets designed for the interactive gamer. $80.	Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Notebook card -- The card plugs into the side PCI port in a laptop to deliver high-quality sound. Plug speakers or headphones into the card for a great movie-watching, game-playing, music-listening experience. $99. Also consider: Thumb drive -- These miniature USB drives, which come in many shapes, colors and brands, are fast replacing floppy disks as a way to move documents, music, photos and more from one computer to another. A one-gigabyte drive, which plugs into a USB port, holds about as much data as about 70 floppy disks. $60 and up.	Portable speakers -- Great for the traveler, a set of portable speakers -- powered by batteries, electricity or both -- can enhance the hotel experience when you plug an MP3 player or laptop into a sound system that folds up to fit nicely in a suitcase. There are many brands to choose from. $50 and up.	Zooba -- It's where the book-of-the-month club meets Netflix. Members list the books they'd like to receive in the mail every month -- not the ones someone else selects for you -- by creating and updating a list. Visit http://www.zooba.com/ for more details. $10 per month.
$$$	The Firefly is a working cell phone that calls -- and receives calls from -- numbers pre-programmed by parents. The phone itself is $99, and minutes are $10 for 40 minutes, $25 for 100 minutes and $50 for 200 minutes. Visit http://www.fireflymobile.com/ to learn more. Also consider: the iPod Shuffle, a flash-memory iPod that stores 512 megabytes ($99) or one gigabyte ($129) of music on a device no bigger than a pack of chewing gum.	iPod Nano -- The ultra-popular, thin-as-a-pencil music player holds two gigabytes ($199) or four gigabytes ($249) of music. Also consider: the Sidekick II, a "smart phone" with service by T-Mobile that also plays games, surfs the Web and allows users to send and receive instant messages while on-the-go. $250 and up.	DVD recorder with TiVo -- Never miss an important show with TiVo. Better yet, burn that show to a blank DVD and watch it on the bedroom TV, on the car's built-in DVD system or on a portable player during a cross-country flight. $299.	Bluetooth headset -- Bluetooth is a wireless technology designed for close distances, such as the phone on your hip (or in your bag) and the earpiece on the side of your face. The headsets come in many sizes and shapes (designed for comfort in your ear) and brands. From $50 to $150.	XM2Go portable satellite radio -- Few stations devote themselves solely to Big Band music or Frank Sinatra-era tunes from the 1950s. But XM Radio has them. And a portable player -- tell Grandma it's just like a transistor radio -- allows her to walk around the house while strolling down memory lane. $200; Also consider: products that operate on the competing Sirius Satellite Radio network.
$$$$	Desktop computer -- With prices the way they are and so many people leaning toward laptops, a top-notch desktop PC with several years of use ahead of it can be found at a bargain price. The eMachines model T6524, for example, comes with 200 gigabytes of hard drive space and Windows Media Center Edition 2005 -- all for $600.	The PlayStation Portable -- The name alone tells you that this is a gaming device, but the portability and its capability to play music and video clips puts it into a new popular league. $250. Also consider: Xbox 360 -- The highly anticipated, more-than-just-a-gaming-console hits the shelves this week. $300 and $400.	Digital camera -- The prices are down, the resolutions are up and the choices are plentiful. Hobbyists should look for three megapixel or better. $300 and up. Also consider: a digital camcorder. Tapes are being replaced with small recordable DVDs for quick camcorder-to-DVD-player viewing. $500 and up.	BlackBerry -- The BlackBerry 7105t may look more like a phone than the traditional BlackBerry. It's both -- and much sleeker than the older versions of the e-mail device. $300. Also consider: Palm Treo 650. It's a smart phone that checks e-mail, surfs the Web, plays games, shoots pictures and video and, of course, keeps a calendar and address book handy. $250 and up.	Laptop computer -- A laptop computer can bring Grandma into the 21st century, but settling for the basics in a machine instead of grabbing a top-of-the-line unit will keep from breaking the bank. Take the Dell Inspiron 2200, for example. It comes with built-in WiFi, a 40-giagbyte hard drive, a CD burner and more -- all for less than $700.

The Washington Post - November 20, 2005

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