By Jeanie R. Wakeland
Guys are supposed to turn all mushy and romantic while finding their girlfriends or wives the perfect gift – just when they're feeling bummed out by the end of football season.They know – or should know – that supermarket roses and drugstore perfumes won't cut it. So what's a guy to do?Well, there's good news. Many men would rather hang out at high-tech stores than Macy's perfume counters, and lucky for them, many of these testosterone-laden consumer outlets will offer gifts this year that will please her while making Valentine's Day shopping cool for him.Now, some of these romantic gadgets do not come cheap. But with a dozen roses starting at $65 a dozen and up, some of the electronics prices are in the same ballpark, and she will think her man is the best.Think pinkDoes the girl love her music? Apple's iPod Nano is now pretty in pink. The third-generation iPod has 8 gigabytes of audio capacity, can hold 2,000 songs, has a full-color display screen and a 24-hour battery life for $199. It also comes in several other colors, including red. The smaller iPod shuffle is also available in red and holds 240 songs, selling for $79. Sadly, there are no Apple stores in Queens, but V-Day shopping is a great excuse to cross the East River and visit the Apple store at Fifth Avenue and East 59th Street in Manhattan. It is worth the trip just to see the striking glass cube entrance and to descend the glass staircase to play with all things Apple – and the store is open 24/7, 365 days a year.However, if Manhattan is a bridge (or subway) too far, the pink iPod Nano is also available at Target stores at 135-05 20th Ave. in College Point and Queens Place, 8801 Queens Blvd. in Elmhurst. The Nano and Shuffle iPods also are sold on the Web at apple.com – and gifts can be engraved at no extra charge.The woman who is busy and beautiful can always use a pink Blackberry Pearl smart phone for $149 with a two-year service contract from Verizon Wireless. The company opened a new 3,100-square-foot store at Bay Terrace shopping center at 23-70 Bell Blvd. in Bayside Feb. 1, and is highlighting this phone with a 64-megabyte flash memory/32 megabyte RAM that can integrate her e-mail, phone lists, browser and calendar. In addition, it can give her spoken turn-by-turn directions, has an LCD screen, a 2.0 mega pixel camera, a media player and Bluetooth technology and can be password protected. Plus with every old, unused cell phone turned in at the store, Verizon Wireless will donate $5 benefit the Center for the Women of New York (formerly known as the Queens Women's Center.) Love of her lifeThis gift may be the one that wins her heart – a pink-and-silver Sony Reader e-book reader preloaded with 14 Harlequin romance novels.For $320, the man who understands the romantic heart of his woman can give her one of only 200 special-edition readers engraved with her name, monogram or a special message of love. The PRS-505/HQ weighs less than 9 ounces, is smaller than a paperback book and can hold up to 100 romance novels or other e-books. The books preloaded onto the reader are by popular Harlequin romance authors Cherry Adair, Anne Stuart, Maureen Child and Kate Hoffman as part of the “Bundle of Valentines” package. Find more information about the Sony Reader at sonystyles.com.
