Dear Masked Geek,I’m not all that tech savvy, but most of my friends and family want techy gifts. I need holiday gift ideas for them, but I only have a budget of $450.00 for six people. Can you help me? There are two PC gamers, an amateur photographer, a full-time college student, a busy mom, and a grandmother.

If you have any ideas please let me know,
-Desperately seeking ideas

Dear Desperate,

Wow, that’s a lot of gift ideas, but of course I can help you with this, it’s what I live for. Let’s see, around five hundred bucks, huh? I can work with that.

The Gamers: There are all sorts of good new games out right now. Call of Duty: World at War, Left 4 Dead, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, and Dead Space are all good choices. $39.99-49.99, each.

The Amateur Photographer: Amateur or not, every photographer needs a camera, and the Canon A590IS 8.0 megapixel point and shoot is a nice choice with a lot of features. $149.99

The College Student: Two words – Flash Drives. There are few things more frustrating than not having a copy of a paper that you need on hand, and a flash drive can help. The SanDisk – 2GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive is a good one. $19.99

The Busy Mom: Since you can’t buy someone more time, helping them multitask a little might help. If you have to use a cell phone while driving you should have a wireless headset, and the LG – Bluetooth Wireless Headset is a great way to go. $69.99

The Grandmother: What grandma doesn’t love photos of the family? With the Kodak – EasyShare 7″ LCD Digital Photo Frame all you have to do is pop in a memory card and she’ll have a slide show of all her favorite photos. $99.99

Total: $439.94 – Everyone’s covered and you have a whole $10.06 left over to spend on wrapping paper and eggnog.

Happy holidays, and I hope that helps,
– The Masked Geek

All prices are approximate from information available at the time of printing.