10 Techie Gifts for Mom Under $50

I thought today I would help all the procrastinators out with buying a gift for Mom. In case you forgot, tomorrow is Mother’s day. Here are some gifts that any mother would love that might help bring Mom into 2011.

1. A Mozy.com backup account. If mom has a computer, she’s definately going to want to backup her files. No better way to do this than online and automatically. A 50GB account is 5.99 a month, with a discount for a year. Make sure you set it up to back up the really important files.
2. A webcam. Now that everyone has high speed internet, video conferencing is a reality. No better way to get closer than through a webcam chat session. This is a great way to communicate with distant relatives face-to-face via Skype. These have come way down in price and are now less than $40 for a really nice 720p Logitech webcam.
3. Create a photo/music montage using Windows Movie Maker or iMovie. This might be the poor person’s gift, but it is sure to tug on mom’s heartstrings. The modern equivilent of a hand-made card, simply add lots of pictures with transitions over her favorite song. You’ll have her email forwarding the file on to her friends in no time with this one. This one might be free if you already have a computer and the pictures.
4. A Remote Computer Cleanup from GetMorePC. Mom might have picked up some malware or some viruses over the last year. Make sure her system is clean of old files and registry errors that might slow the system down by buying an hour of offsite support from GetMorePC for $40. We can even sing for her, at your request. Call 865-406-4015 and schedule one today.
5. An AT&T iPhone 3GS. Mom will never know what she’s missing until she gets a fancy new smart phone and is able to sync her contacts to her gmail address. If she’s eligible for an upgrade, you could get her the AT&T Apple iPhone 3GS for $49.99. Unfortunately, she’ll still have to deal with the dropped calls and spotty reception of AT&T’s network, but she won’t notice with such a cool phone!
6. A Verizon Android Phone. With Google integration and a seemless network, Verizon Android phones might be the gift mom’s been needing. The Samsung Continuum is a Galaxy S phone running Android and its only $49.99. The LG Ally is another Android phone for $49.99. I think the price may be online only, so you might have missed the deadline for this, unless you feel like getting it overnighted, which might put you over the $50 budget.
7. An Amazon Cloud Account. Okay before you go off on me for this one, the Amazon Cloud Drive is actually really cool. For $50 per year, you get 50GB of storage space for music, pictures, documents or whatever online. And with music, you get the Amazon Cloud Player that allows you to stream your music to any computer or Android device. You could help her rip all her music to MP3s and upload it to the Amazon Cloud so she could listen to it at work or wherever.
8. A USB Drive full of her favorite music. This is actually two gifts in one. First you go buy MP3s from Amazon.com for $.69 a piece, or albums for $5 a piece. Then you go get a 4GB or 8GB flash drive and download them all to it. Amazon allows you to do whatever with your MP3s once purchased, so you can simply load them on the flash drive and bring it to her. Maybe even put a little bow on it for presentation. You should be able to get a lot of songs onto a flash drive, since they’re only about 1MB per minute, so you’re looking at 4,000 to 8,000 minutes of music!
9. A Bluetooth headset. This would actually be probably one of the best, most used gifts for mom. Most every phone today has bluetooth connectivity for hands free operation, all they’re missing is the Bluetooth headset. I love the Plantronics Explorer 240, which I got for $30 at Wal-Mart. She might need some help pairing the device to her phone, but I guarantee, once she gets used to Bluetooth handsfree operation, she’ll use it everyday, and love you for it.
10. A Sixmonth Subscription to Netflix. This is another gift she’ll love to use, especially if she has an Internet connected blu-ray player or television. The gaming consoles all also have Netflix integrated, so she’ll be able to watch Netflix wide array of movies and TV shows from any number of devices. At $8 per month, six months would be $48. That’s a long enough time that its still useful, but a short enough time that if she doesn’t use it, you don’t feel like the money has been thrown away. This might take you helping her getting it going, which is just what your mom wants to do: spend some time with her son/daughter.

Whatever you decide to do for Mom, remember to do it with love and appreciation for all the hard work and kind words she’s given you over the year. Thanks Mom!