Three High Tech Christmas Gifts I'd Want If I Were a Teen

Looking for that perfect high tech Christmas gift for your teen? Say no more. Today's teens have choices we could only pretend to have back when I was a teenager. Our versions of a mobile phone was the "Walkie-Talkie." The only thing we knew about computers was that guys in lab coats used them and Hollywood had us convinced they'd one day take over the world. (Okay, Hollywood was partly right.)

Depending on the percentage of geek in your offspring, they're bound to find any of these three gift ideas unforgettable. At the very least, I hope to make your shopping a little bit easier, by at least pointing you in a direction of where to look. Some of my younger friends shared these ideas with me on Facebook. I gotta say, I'd probably still enjoy one of these myself. Hint-hint.

Droid X2 Smartphone $0.01 to $469.99 This isn't just a phone. It's a phone, camera and computer on steroids. The dual core 1 GHz processor takes a surfer on the web at speeds once only dreamed of. Not only can users access the web from the phone, the display can be connected to an HDTV. When I was a teen, the very idea of a portable phone was usually only seen on Star Trek or Dick Tracy comics. But even those guys didn't imagine what mobile phones can do now.

iPad 2 $499.99 to $829.99 The first time I saw an iPad, I realized we're now living in "the future." And the iPad 2 is even thinner, lighter and has approximately ten hours of battery life. These amazing machines will give your teen all they might ever want in surfing the web, gaming and video chat. Yup. All we need now is the flying car and we're all "The Jetsons."

Orion SkyQuest XT10 IntelliScope Dobsonian Telescope With Object Locator Around $729.99 Perhaps your teen already has the latest phone or computer and wants something truly unique. If they have a love of astronomy and find space fascinating, it would be worth it to spring Orion SkyQuest X10. I still remember my first experience seeing the Planet Saturn through a telescope. Even with as fascinating of an experience as it was, it still took my science teacher a good half an hour to just find the celestial body in the first place (and he had been an amateur astronomer for years).

With the software package, today's teens can fin any particular object quickly. And without the extra feature, they can learn to find those objects the old fashioned way. Either way, it's a tremendous learning opportunity.