Twelve Days of Christmas, Holiday Gift Ideas: Media Players

The holidays are upon us. Black Friday and Cyber Monday are both over, and the December rush has begun. Whether you're shopping online, through retailers like Amazon.com, Overstock.com, or offline in retail outlets such as Wal*Mart or Target you can be a smart consumer. By using sites like PriceGrabber or Google Product Search or mobile applications like ShopSavvy (Android & iPhone) you can be sure you're getting a good deal.

Of course, the best place to start is to look at who you're buying for, and how much you're willing to spend on them. But to get you started, I've thrown together a list of some of the bigger consumer products of the year. Ranging from the cheaper stocking stuffers, to the more expensive presents this list has a little bit of everything, although it's definitely for the geekier folk.

Media Players

Sandisk Sansa Clip (2gb) $33

Sandisk's cheapest player is great for a younger kid with a limited library, or an older family member just getting into the digital media world. Some, of course, will point to iPod shuffle, but at double the price, without a screen or any real controls it's just ridiculous to consider. Sansa Clip is a well built, tiny music player in a variety of capacities, all at very affordable prices.

Sandisk Sansa View (16gb) $99.99

If you don't need 32gb (or more) of storage, Sandisk's Sansa View player is simply the best. For $99.99 it's one of the cheapest, yet well designed players with a decent amount of storage (16gb). Not only does it cost $80 less than the iPod nano, but it also can be expanded with a microSDHC memory card, which you can pick up (16gb) for around $40 on Amazon to double your memory.

Archoes 5 Tablet (250gb) $199.99

While the Apple Tablet may not be here until early next year, that doesn't mean you can't get a nice touchscreen tablet device. The Archos 5 Tablet features a 250gb of storage, with the Android OS on a 4.8inch touchscreen display. It's aimed at media consumption, whether it's audio, video, or web content, and while there's currently no (official) access to the Android Market, it's still a nice little device.

Microsoft Zune HD (32gb) $269.99

Microsoft's Zune HD is the best Zune ever. With a gorgeous OLED tochscreen display, HD video output, and full internet it just comes down to choice. If you really want to go iPod, you can get Apple's similarly priced iPod touch, although by the way things look it will be getting an update with a camera early next year. And while the Zune HD doesn't have a camera, it is slightly cheaper than the iPod touch.

This is the day one of our Twelve Days of Christmas, Holiday Shopping Ideas from Maverick Revolution.