Holiday Buying Guide: Tech Lovers

With Black Friday behind us, the holiday season is officially here, and that means gift shopping for those people near and dear to your heart. This week we’ll be highlighting some great buys for the people in your life who enjoy anime, video games and tech.Today we'll be looking at some great gift ideas for the techie in the family. Click on the vendor link to go straight to the item. 1-Year Subscription to "Wired" Magazine ($20 - Amazon)The techie you know loves to be on top of the latest trends in technology, and most assuredly appreciates a wider view of the industry as a whole. Wired provides some great insight into everything and anything tech, and with the great deal Amazon is offering on a year long subscription, it could be a great gift that keeps on giving. Anker 10,000 mAH External Battery ($22 - Amazon)Few feelings surpass the dread a techie feels when their favorite device is rapidly approaching a dead battery. With the Anker external battery, you can put their mind at ease. With a solid 10,000 mAH of power, this battery (which is about the size of a 5" smartphone, though a bit wider and heavier than you might expect) can provide just over 3 full recharges to the latest smartphones, and can provide almost a full recharge of an iPad Air. Also, if you hurry, you can grab this great accessory for a shockingly low price at $22! Hurry! Techo Universal Camera Lens ($25 - Amazon)Smartphones have been slowly but surely encroaching into the field of higher-end cameras for some time now. With each new generation the megapixels go up, the hardware's improved and the gap between professional cameras and the phone you carry with you everywhere slims just a bit. This impressive lens helps to close that gap just a little bit more. Compatible with a wide range of the later generation phones, including Samsung Galaxy's and iPhones, this makes a great gift for the techie in your life who's always capturing moments on their smartphone camera; and at $25 it's even easy on the budget! Philips Hue 2nd Generation ($80-200 - Amazon)The Philips Hue brand first took off a few years ago with the ability to control your lights with your smartphone. You could adjust color, on/off, and different lamps in the house with ease. Now, with the 2nd generation it adds a very fun feature: voice control with iOS 9 and Homekit on iPhones. "Hey Siri, turn the living room lights on" is now a totally natural thing you could say. If your recipient already has the Hue lights and an older "bridge", all you need to do is buy them the new 2nd generation "Bridge" and it will add that functionality to their current lights. A great buy for any tech lover. Coin ($99 - Coin)Ok, I have to start out with a retraction/editorial confession: I need to go back to my original review of the Coin and improve the score. Since my review I have used the card much more extensively, and also worked out my niggling doubts regarding the app and its compatibility with different stores. While I stand by my belief that Apple Pay is still a superior option, the Coin has definitely grown on me, and would make a great gift for the tech lover on your holiday gift-list. The newer model has NFC built in and can support various membership and credit cards with ease. A good buy. Powerbeats 2 Wireless In-Ear Headphones ($140 - Amazon)While I'm sure there's an audiophile out there who resents this recommendation, if any of the Beats lineup deserves some praise, it's the Powerbeats. These wireless headphones are comfortable and provide great sound, and now are offered in a wider variety of colors as well for the techie that really appreciates color-coordination. You'll almost never pay full price ($200) for these, and right now Amazon's got them for about 30% off. Apple Watch ($350 - $17,000 - Apple)Apple's first new product line since the introduction of the iPad in 2010, the Apple Watch had a bit of a tumultuous launch, with an online-only approach and extremely limited supply which resulted in 8-10 week delays for many hopeful early adopters. Even still, since Apple has cleared that initial hurdle the Watch has taken off in terms of interest and popularity. While you might not be spending $17,000 to get that special someone in your life a solid gold Apple Watch Edition, at $350 the 38mm Apple Watch Sport is a great gift. Focusing on timekeeping, communication and fitness, the Apple Watch brings extensive functionality to your wrist, including the ability to store 2 GB worth of music that can be listened to with bluetooth headphones, tracking heart rate/activity away from your phone and much, much more. Just be sure that your gift recipient is sporting at least an iPhone 5, as it's not compatible with earlier iPhone models. That's it! I hope our guides have been helpful, and that you find that special someone just the right gift for the holidays! In case you missed our previous lists, you can find our list for anime lovers here, and gamers here.