Gift cards become the gadget

Are you taking the easy way out by handing out gift cards this year? Who can blame you? Shopping during the holiday season is exhausting when you have a million other things to do. Lucky for you, Target and Best Best buy have redesigned their gift cards this year by adding some fun tech features sure to please the recipient.

Target's WOW! gift card, for example, doubles as a disposable 1.2-megapixel digital camera with 8MB of on-board memory that can hold about 50 images. The best part is the card also includes a gift voucher for 40 free prints so your loved ones can print all their holiday pictures. The digital camera runs on AAA batteries, includes a USB cord, software, instruction manual, and it even has a self-timer. You do have to purchase a $50 gift card to get this digital camera, but considering most spy digicams that size go for a lot more, I'd say that's a good deal. If you have an avid concert goer or citizen journalist on the list the gift is definitely worth it. Like most gift cards this one doesn't expire, and can be reloaded any time so it can certainly double as pay-as-you-go credit card too.

Best Buy, on the other hand, is also sprucing things up with a holiday gift card that features built-in speakers and a mini-headphone jack. CNET says you can plug in your MP3 player, and rock out to your favorite tunes around the Christmas tree or you can pack it up when you travel so you can listen to your iPod in the hotel room. I'm sure the speaker quality won't be the greatest, but it's better than receiving a boring plastic card in a box. You also have to shell out for the $50 gift card to get this special edition speaker card, but this could make a nice gift for music lovers or someone getting a music player this Christmas.

Personally, I like the digital camera gift card, but what about you? Which card to you like?