GRAND Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 45) NiNteNdo dS Again, it’s hard to overestimate the love that today’s teenagers have for video games. While many teens play games on personal computers or home video game consoles, everyone loves having something to do while on the go. The Nintendo DS is wildly popular, the successor to the GameBoy of the 1990s. It has two screens that fold together to make a slim, attractive case. The lower screen is a touchpad, which allows for all sorts of unique gaming experiences, and there is a large array of titles available for the system. The newest version of the DS, the DS Lite, has a clearly illuminated screen for playing even on planes and buses. It retails new for $129.99 and comes in a variety of colors. To accompany the system, there is a wide variety of highly regarded games available. Some titles that will have wide appeal for teens, regardless of gender, include New Super Mario Brothers—a sequel to the classic Nintendo game of the same name ($34.99); Mario Kart DS—a fun and fast racing title with cute characters, fun for girls and boys ($34.99); Pokemon Diamond/Pokemon Pearl—two versions of the same game, a grand adventure where players befriend fantastical creatures ($33.99); The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass—an exciting game where a young boy sets out to explore caves and discover adventure ($34.99). Netflix ANd GAmefly SubScriptioNS Games and movies are can’t-lose gifts for teenagers; but given how expensive they are and how finite an experience they offer, it sometimes seems like a waste. Why not give your teen a gift that will give them new movies, all the time, for the price of about one movie a month? Netflix and GameFly are two services that send entertainment media through the postal service, directly to your home. Netflix deals with movies, and you’ve almost certainly seen the ads or their distinctive red envelopes. A short-term subscription to Netflix is perfect for a teen, allowing them the chance to exercise some independence in their entertainment choices. Netflix subscriptions now even allow the option of watching movies right on your computer via a streaming broadband connection. GameFly is a similar service for console video games. They support every major console system (including the Nintendo DS, above); so no matter what types of games your teen plays, they’ll find something to enjoy. Just as with Netflix, teenage gamers can queue up the titles they’re interested in and they are shipped out through the mail. Both companies offer a number of different options for short-term plans, varying by the number of movies or games you can have out at once. To just give them a taste, go for the one game- or one-movie-out-at-a-time plan, for three months. Netflix offers this for $27, and for GameFly that will cost $47. ipod touch there are a few good reasons not to get an iphone for your teen this year (which we go into elsewhere on the list). None of those reasons apply to the iPhone’s sister device, the iPod Touch. An update to the incredibly popular portable music player, the Touch features a very large screen (perfect for watching video on the go) and a touch-sensitive interface. This allows teens to navigate through their music and media with the flick of a finger. And for teens without a cell phone that allows Internet access, it’s a two-for-one offering: The iPod Touch lets users get online via available wireless networks. Make sure to get the Touch at the online Apple store (http://store.apple.com/us) or an official Apple retail location; there are a lot of disreputable dealers, especially online, that will sell Apple products for more than the retail price that Apple sets. They’re already expensive luxury items, so I’m inclined (as a consumer) to deal only with the company itself. The official Apple stores are perfectly fine places to buy them as well. The Touch comes in three different varieties, with the different prices indicating how many songs the device can hold. The “smallest” device is $299. NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2008 GRAND 45 http://store.apple.com/us
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