Electronic Gadget Gift Ideas

Iplayfarmer · Dec 4, 2009

This is a pretty tech savy group here, so I hope to get some good responses to help me choose a gift for my 8-year-old daughter.

Last night she asked Santa for a cell phone or a laptop. Neither is something I really want her to have just yet, but it clued me in to what she's looking for. She want's a cool, fun electronic gadget. I think what she really wants (but doesn't know it yet) is an ipod touch. It has the wifi capabilities for internet, it has games, and it has media playback. The problem with the ipod is the price tag. We try to keep Christmas spending more moderate. I'm also not sure how comfortable I am entrusting my 8-year-old with a $200 electronic device no matter how grown up or mature for her age she may be.

Here's a list of features that would be nice to have in an electronic gadget in the order that I think she'd want them. Chime in with suggestions for gadgets that might have some of these features but will cost about half of an ipod touch or less.

audio playback
video playback
Data storage (phonebook, date book, etc.)
voice recording
WiFi
games
tween age "cool" factor

I'm also open to any other gift suggestions for this kid based on what I've shared.

OKnewguy · Dec 4, 2009

You might look at some of the Zunes. There are 4gigs and 8 gig units that are complete flash memory based. In general this means that they do not have moving parts (no normal hard drive), and they should be substantially tougher then the hard drive based units. Their battery should also last longer.
I bought one last year for my doughter (14 at the time) and she loves it. She really wanted an I pod, but I despise the apple software that was necessary to store files on these things. I greatly prefer drag and drop.
BTW, I picked up the 4 gig at tigerdirect.com for 50 or 60 bucks. I think you can get the 8 gig for close to that now.
Some of the nicer zunes have wifi too.
Good luck, Dave

2manyrocks · Dec 4, 2009

The 4GB Philips unit was on sale at Walmart for something like $29 or $39 on Black Friday, but I have reservations about the media content that children are exposed to with these devices. When we watch a DVD as a family, I can see what it is and turn it off and explain what's not right about it. These personal media devices make it difficult for parents to monitor what our children see and hear.

Our child likes to make up plays with her friends. She likes to make pictures with our cameras. So we're giving her one of the smaller video recorders.

dmccarty · Dec 4, 2009

How about a DS game system. Small and portable. There is a newer system called DSi. Not sure of the difference since the older kid has a DS so the youngest is getting a DS so we don't have arguments.

We have a variety of Sandisc MP3 players. Some are the size of a big Now or Later candy. We bought a family Wii a few years ago that we and the kids play quite a bit. We just bought the Sports Resort game for the Wii. The basic games that game with the Wii are what we play the most.

The wifey's laptop monitor died so we bought a stand alone monitor. The laptop monitor was too expensive to repair and it has other issues but it works, at least for now, well enough for one kid to use to access the net. The other child has another system to use. There was some arguments about the new monitor.

Both systems are in the study with my desktop system so I can watch what they are doing.....

A family that computes together stays together or something like that.....

Our oldest is your daughters age by the way. Both kids have cheap mp3 players. They both want cell phones and laptops for their rooms. I don't think so.

The oldest is already getting phone calls from a boy.

Just be forewarned.

I have been taking photos for 25+ years at this point and have built up an expensive camera system. Our oldest wants to take photos and I let her as much as possible. This year she wanted a camera like daddy. Well that is not going to happen since it is very expensive but we did look for a used camera body. But we could not find what I wanted for her and I don't think she would use the camera much in comparison to something else she wanted. So we took the used camera money, too much I might add, on what she wanted. It is mentioned below.

Our oldest loves first person shooter games. Shhhhhh. Do not tell her, but she has an XBOX hidden over the fridge.

I set it up today before she got home from school. Way cool. There is a game she plays on the PC as a demo that I bought for her for the XBOX. Its very nice. I *** REALLY *** did not want to put the XBOX back into hiding.

Especially when the PC version died on the laptop after downloading for a couple of hours.

Kids sure are fun.

Later,
Dan

Egon · Dec 5, 2009

A meccano set with some electric motors!

Iplayfarmer · Dec 5, 2009

I realized another thing that she might like to have on the gadget is a camera. I think the ipod nano has a video camera, but I can't find if it has a still camera or not. One would tend to think that if it had a video camera it would have still capability, but I can't find anywhere that spells it out.

A coworker's husband has a nano that he was given as payment for something. She said he'd probably sell it to me cheap. That might be the option I go with.