Device dilemma

DeShawn Jackson’s showpiece Christmas gift in 2006 was an iPod Nano, just like it was the year before.

But his mom, Geriane, didn’t shell out $150 for the snazzy, new, red Nano because last year’s model is an outmoded dinosaur. She bought it because DeShawn left the old one in a movie theater, a school locker or someplace other than his pocket and hasn’t seen it since late spring.

“These things are too expensive to keep losing,” said Geriane Jackson, waiting in line recently with her 15-year-old son at Panera Bread in Grand Blanc Township, Mich. “He better keep this one.”

The explosion in portable electronic devices – MP3 players, cellular phones, laptop computers, mini video games and so on – has revolutionized holiday gift-giving for the ‘tween, teen and college-age set.

But the pricey micro-size gadgets present a whole new nightmare for gift-givers: They’re easy to lose or steal and expensive to replace.

Mary Anne Haney of Grand Blanc knows firsthand. Her 16-year-old son, whose name she withheld to avoid embarrassing him, has lost two cellular phones, a laptop computer and an iPod within the last two years, she said.

“He’s cut off,” she said. “We’re not buying him any more of them until he shows a little more responsibility. He’s got to learn the hard way.”

Two and a half decades ago, the $12 Rubik’s Cube topped the heap of holiday gift items among middle- and high school-age children. These days, it’s the MP3 player, which goes for anywhere from $40 to $500, depending on the type and how many bells and whistles are on it.

An estimated 10 million Apple iPods were expected to be shipped worldwide for the holiday gift-giving season.

Some of the devices, such as Apple’s teeny iPod Shuffle, are no bigger than an eraser. The little gizmos easily could disappear into the wedges of a movie theater seat or someone else’s shirt pocket.

“People spend a lot of money for these items for children of all ages,” said Amy Lipton, owner of Stuck on You, a company that makes vinyl labels for a variety of items, including personalized ones for electronic devices.

“Easily, everything is $100 or more,” she said. “These are not the kinds of things you want to be losing.”

Stuck on You sells the stick-on labels, which Lipton says can withstand water and all other conditions, through its Web site www.stuckonyou.biz). Other services, such as LostiPods.com, allow people to track their lost iPods via the Internet.

But many of the lost or stolen devices never will be reunited with their owners.

DeShawn Jackson suspects that his iPod slipped out of his pocket at a movie theater. Once he realized it was lost, he knew he’d probably never see it again.

“I don’t think somebody who finds an iPod is going to turn it in,” he said.

Haney said she wishes she had labeled all of the electronics her son has lost. That would have at least created the possibility for the return of one or two of the items.

“I think there are a lot of people who would return things if they know how to track down the owner,” Haney said. “I wasn’t thinking. When you buy these things, you just assume it’s not going to get lost.”

Adding to the potential of the high-priced, high-tech blues is all of the recent holiday season transit, to and from malls, to the homes of friends and relatives and out of town.

At Detroit’s Metro Airport, unclaimed items in its lost-and-found are auctioned. Almost 100 MP3 players, palm pilots, CD players, video games, cameras and other electronic gadgets were auctioned in 2003-04, Metro Airport Spokesman Michael Conway said.

“And you’ve got to think that at least that many and probably more were reunited with their owners,” he said.

And it’s not just ‘tweens and teens who are flakes when it comes to keeping track of their digital goodies. Martin Janoway of Fenton, Mich., said he’s lost a BlackBerry and a laptop while traveling, but luckily both were recovered.

“I’ve left my computer on planes a couple of times,” Janoway said. “I’ve been lucky.”