7 giftable subscriptions and 3 gift cards your geeks will love
Gift cards are a great way to get access to some amazing subscription-based Web services available these days. It's a personal, approachable and easy to track down gift that fits a wide range of budgets. We've clipped on a couple simple gift cards to round things out a bit.
With so many great options, we've left some of the more obvious ones off the list (cough, Netflix, hack, Hulu). One missing service gets a whole paragraph to shame its provider into having a gift option: Amazon Prime is a wonderful service that grants access to on-demand video, the Kindle Lending Library and free two-day shipping on nearly every product on Amazon, yet there is no way to directly buy a gift subscription. No excuses, Bezos, Audible, another of your companies made the list with a giftable subscription.
If you do want to gift your favorite geek a Prime subscription, there's a way, but you have to jump through some hoops. Prime subscriptions can only be purchased by credit card. So you would have to buy one of those reloadable Visa gift cards for the exact amount of Amazon Prime, $79. After that, you would have to detail what exactly that card is for, defeating the purpose of that Visa gift cards original intent. It's lame and it needs to be fixed.
On to the presents!
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1. Spotify The green giant of music is verging on ubiquity these days. A gift of the premium service will sever ads from the music, up the quality of the stream and, most importantly, unlock those mobile apps that are available on every mobile platform except Windows RT. The streaming service can be gifted in one, three, six and 12-month increments. Spotify is a great option for frequent party throwers (ads are a bummer at a house party,) road warriors and music aficionados of any stripe. Price: $120
2. Lynda Lynda's massive library of instructional videos is a treasure trove of tips and tricks for a budding digital creator. In-depth videos that cover Adobe's creative suites, the rudiments of programming, podcasting and more will keep your favorite creator's skill set up to date and growing. Lynda's yearly subscription price is only cheap if you compare it to college tuition, so do that when you swipe that card for your loved one. Price: $250
3. PlayStation Plus & Sony Music Unlimited PlayStation Plus recently went from a good deal to a great one. Last month, the $50 a year service that gives subscribers discounts and early access to new titles, as well as full-access to a rotating selection of games was expanded to the Vita. Between the PS3 and Vita titles, Plus subscribers have access to eighteen games this month. Another bonus is that Plus subscribers see a huge discount to Sony's Spotify competitor, Music Unlimited. Plus users unlock a one year subscription to Music Unlimited for $12 Price: $50 (+$12 for Plus)
4. Wired Wired will be celebrating its 20th birthday next year. The magazine's thoughtful coverage of technology's effect on governance, the economy and culture would serve any geek on your list well. The folks at Wired are a forward-thinking bunch, allowing iPad and Android tablet access for an additional $5 per 12-month subscription. Wired's holiday deal is hot, too: Two (print only) subscriptions and a t-shirt for $20.Price: $20
5. iTunes gift cards some would call it a safe bet, but most would call it useful. While Spotify is near ubiquitious, Apple simply is ubiquitous. Apple gift cards can be used for music, movies, games and apps on iOS and OSX. They can also be used to subscribe to iTurnes Match. They cannot be used to expand iCloud's storage space.Price: $15, $25, $50 or $100
8. Xbox Live Xbox Live is markedly different from PlayStation Plus. Instead of Sony's, "Give us money and we'll give you games!" We get Microsoft's, "Give us money and we'll let you let you watch the Netflix you already paid for!" That's not entirely fair, mostly because Halo 4 is out now. Pay to play for multiplayer access is lame in the age of Steam and PSN, but don't be the scrooge between a gamer and their Halo. Price: $59
9. Steam Speaking of Steam, the gift options on the PC gaming service are myriad. You can always, if you have or make an account, gift a particular game directly to another user, but a more effective present is a Steam Wallet gift card. This will allow your gamer to snag an almost assuredly absurd amount of games when they unwrap this gift in the midst of Steam's annual Winter sale.Price: $20, $50, $100
10. Evernote Premium Evernote is a great service. Evernote Premium kicks things up a notch or twelve. The biggest value-add for Premium is collaboration across notebooks. Evernoting loners stand to gain plenty as well though. First, ads are abolished, uploads are given a larger limit and notebooks can be stored offline. Best of all, your gift subscription comes with an absolutely gorgeous t-shirt. Price: $55
6. Nintendo Does your loved one have a brand new Wii U to play with? Do they live in Europe? Nintendo recently ended their point-based currency system in favor of cash listing. That means the new gift cards will only work on the 3DS and the Wii U and the point-based cards won't work on the 3DS and the Wii. This listing is for those forward leaning folks who are hungry to feed their new game-tablet-thingamabob.Price: $20, $35, or $50
7. Audible There are too many bookworms that are still skeptical of audiobooks. Use a gift Audible subscription to convert them. Available in three, six and twelve month increments, an Audible subscription is one audiobook credit a month. That credit can be used on any title in Audible's extensive catalog. Also consider Audible for those on your gift list with a long commute. Price: $45, $90, $150
