Here are five digital gift ideas that can please the entire family at home and help you get more out of the digital content that you’ve already paid for or created. I’m only recommending items that I’ve owned or used extensively in my own home for this portion of our Holiday Gift Guide.
No, you can’t take any of these gifts to go, but they’ll all enhance your mobile technology experience in one way or another and they won’t completely break the bank. All of them make great family gifts if you’d rather buy one big item than lots of little ones.
Logtiech Squeezebox Duet
I set up a Logitech Squeeze Box in my living room a few months ago and it’s by far the biggest crowd pleaser when we have friends and family over. The Squeezebox Duet connects to any notebook’s shared music folder, online radio stations and music services to give you virtually unlimited tunes to stream directly through your home theater’s receiver.
Our friends and family members have fought over who gets to use the Squeezebox’s remote to create new Pandora stations. The Squeezebox Duet remote has a 2.4-inch LCD that displays track info and helps you navigate through the various services. The second part of the Squuezbox Duet plugs into your home theater system or a pair of powered speakers.
This is my top gift recommendation for true music lovers. This product doesn’t jump off the shelf and it’s kind of a tough concept for a lot of people to grasp, but once you get it in your home you won’t be disappointed. Logitech’s recently dropped the Squeezebox Duet’s price by $50 to $349.
HP PhotoSmart C6380 or Epson Artisan 800
A good all-in-one printer/scanner/copier makes a great gift because the entire family can share it. Instead of just reliving Christmas past by flipping through your photo albums, pull out your favorites and copy them for your loved ones. Email or share old photos 
with family members who can’t make it home for the holidays and make keepsakes for everyone before they head back home for the new year.
I just bought an HP PhotoSmart C6380 and have been very happy with its performance so far, especially since I scored it on Black Friday for $119 from HP.com and will get an additional 40%
cash back on the purchase from Live.com. It has an MSRP of $199, but HP and just about everyone else selling it is discounting it significantly.
The Epson Artisan 800 is another all-in-one printer that I’ve enjoyed using. It costs $299, but has some nice features that the HP C6380 doesn’t have, like a document feeder so you can scan multiple pages automatically. Amazon.com has the Artisan 800 on sale for just $229 for the holidays.
HP MediaSmart Server
If you have a multi-computer household the MediaSmart Server is a godsend. You can centralize and stream all of your photos, videos and music to any device in your house or any computer in the world. The MediaSmart Server automatically backs up all of your computers onto four hard drives, which can be upgraded at will. If that’s still not enough you can add USB and eSATA drives. It runs on Windows Home Server and has a customized interface to make setup and maintenance a breeze. The MediaSmart server with 500GB of storage is $459 from HP.
SlingBox Pro HD
The SlingBox Pro HD makes it easy to extend your home TV experience to your notebook no matter where you are. The SlingBox Pro HD makes it possible to avoid the hassle and expense of buying a second HDTV and cable box for your bedroom. I’ve been using a SlingBox for over a year now and I think it’s the best way to get the content you’re already paying for onto your notebook. The SlingBox Pro HD will set you back about $245. If you’re on a tighter budget and don’t mind dropping HD from the equation be sure to check out the SlingBox Solo for $129.
Sony Playstation 3 (PS3)
This is my favorite console gaming system because you get so much functionality for your money. Of course you get to play some amazing games, but you also get an excellent Blu-ray player and multimedia powerhouse. With a few clicks you can connect the PS3 wirelessly to your notebook or home network. You can stream music, videos and photos onto your HDTV instead of huddling your family around your notebook. The PS3 makes standard DVDs pop on your HDTV thanks to some nifty upscaling technology. Various bundles and configurations are available, but $399 is the going price for the 80GB version this Christmas.