MEGATech Guide to Alternative Valentine’s Day Gifts for Gadget Lovers

February 14th has somehow become a very important date on the calendars for a lot of people out there, but perhaps you’ve grown weary of all the overpriced flowers, chocolates and greeting cards. Maybe that special person in your life is more of a techie and that’s one of the biggest reasons why you love him or her. So, why not celebrate in true gadget geeky fashion with some alternative Valentine’s Day gifts geared toward the more technologically-inclined?

This list is certainly not meant to be exhaustive, but it should help you get those creative juices flowing when it comes to an extra special present for an extra special person. Indeed, it really is dangerous to go alone. Take this. You’ve still got time to get that Valentine’s Day shopping done before February 14.

Antec Mobile Products SP1 Bluetooth Speaker

You don’t need a giant speaker to get giant sound. If your significant other happens to be something of an audiophile, he or she may be interested in the Antec Mobile Products SP1 Bluetooth mobile speaker. The little brick of a wireless speaker is available in a number of different colors and, despite its relatively compact proportions, it pumps out some pretty bass-heavy tunes.

We reviewed the SP1 not that long ago and it comes highly recommended. You can use it wirelessly over Bluetooth with your smartphone or tablet, but you can also use the standard 3.5mm audio jack to connect it to just about anything else. Get it sync’d up with your mobile device, play some Marvin Gaye and you just might “get it on.” MSRP is $100, but it can oftentimes be found online for less.

IDAPT i4+ Universal Charger

Earlier this week, we took a look at the IDAPT i1 Eco universal portable charger, but the love of your life probably has more than two gadgets that need to be charged at any given time. And this is one of the better ways to do it.

It’s called the IDAPT i4+ and it’s a desktop universal charger that makes use of that IDAPT interchangeable tip system. It comes bundled with a couple of microUSB tips, a Apple 30-pin tip and an Apple Lightning tip, so that should cover just about everything. IDAPT has made many improvements over earlier models, giving us rubberized buttons to replace the tips and–as per my suggestion–they’ve added a USB port on the side too. It’s all dressed up in a slick glossy black finish and it even slays vampire power by cutting off the juice when your gadgets are fully charged. There are red/green indicator lights for each slot too, telling you when your gadget is done charging.

MSRP is $60 and the IDAPT i4+ comes in your choice of black or white.

Mimobot Star Trek USB Flash Drive

You may have seen an assortment of Mimobot USB flash drives featured in some of Beth’s roundups here on MEGATechNews and for good reason; they’re super sweet. It doesn’t really matter what is the personal interest of your Valentine, because the fine people at Mimoco have so many different designs from so many different sources that you’re bound to find something he or she likes.

While a big part of the appeal here is that you get a flash drive that looks like Spock from the Star Trek series, it’s even better that he comes pre-loaded with a bunch of exclusive content, including desktop icons, wallpapers, and sound effects. You get Batman stuff if you get the Batman one, Star Wars stuff if you get Darth Vader, and so on. They come in a range of capacities too, but you can expect to pay about $20-$30 for an 8GB drive. The more popular ones quickly become collector’s items too.

Pink Motorola DROID RAZR M Smartphone

I got myself the Motorola RAZR HD LTE toward the end of last year and, needless to say, it’s been a marked improvement over my old Samsung Galaxy S Captivate. Motorola’s designs have come a long way in the last couple of years and the RAZR HD’s little sister, the Motorola DROID RAZR M, is quite the looker too. She shares many of the same characteristics as her bigger brother, like the Kevlar back and Gorilla Glass front, but in a slightly more compact size.

And, just in time for Valentine’s Day, Verizon Wireless is offering a pink version of the DROID RAZR M for people who like pink smartphones. You get a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, a dual core 1.5GHz processor, NFC support, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and an 8MP rear-facing camera. And yes, they’ve kept the RAZR M quite slim with just a 8.3mm profile too. Pick her up for the lady (or gent) in your life for $49.99 on a two-year contract with Big Red.

Mad Catz Street Fighter x Sanrio Arcade FightStick PRO

You could say that the fighting game community got a huge shot of revitalizing adrenaline when Street Fighter IV hit the scene a few years ago and Mad Catz has been capitalizing on that heat with its line of FightSticks ever since. They sponsor many top players and they’re constantly working to improve on the fighting game experience.

While you could certainly get the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 TE S+, something even more unique is the Street Fighter x Sanrio limited edition Arcade FightStick Pro. This is essentially the same as other Mad Catz FightStick offerings, but it’s decked out in that odd Sanrio crossover. Chun-Li is Hello Kitty, Keroppi is Blanka and Pochacco is Ken. This is certainly one Valentine’s Day gift that the fighting game lover in your life will never forget.

It sells for the same $160 as other TE FightSticks from Mad Catz, but supply is limited.

Gadget Geeks Can Be Romantic Too

There’s nothing quite as romantic as cuddling up with your Valentine, playing some Street Fighter while listening to some chiptune through your Bluetooth speaker that is streaming from your smartphone charging on a desktop dock, all while Spock is practically decapitated on the side of your laptop. Yeah, that’s Valentine’s Day.