There was a day when a simple construction paper card emblazoned with crimson crayon hearts and lovingly misspelled words was all it took to liven up Mother’s Day. But those days are likely gone as a little more is expected from a thirty year old man. Okay, so maybe I am talking a bit too much about my own situation. As much as I think my mother is completely happy with a Hallmark greeting or a dozen imported Tropicana Roses, I know she really wants something a bit more…well, hip. We are talking about a woman who claims OnStar is her best friend and snubbed her nose at a “kind of small don’t you think” 250mb external hard drive. So, this year I am looking for something different and I am pretty sure a few others are as well. So, I have taken a few moments to make a sort of 5 Best Tech Gifts For That Very Special Mother.

Part of being a mom is about being aware of where everyone is and when. So what better way to do that than to have the ability to call and TXT right at your fingertips? But simple cell phones are so…2005. So why not get your Mom the new BlackBerry 8100c Red Pearl? A major update to the popular 7105 brings the BlackBerry experience to a whole new level. The BlackBerry 8100c Pearl is not only thinner and lighter, it also sports a memory card slot, a music player, and voice dialing. Other features, such as Bluetooth 2.0, EDGE high-speed data, and the popular SureType keypad make this a complete mobile office solution. And of course, legendary BlackBerry push email is fully supported on the BlackBerry 8100c Pearl. And did I mention it is red? The color of all those hearts you used to draw on your cards? Service is available through Verizon, Cingular, AT&T and almost all cell companies. The price of the phone depends on the service you sign up for.

You don’t Momma taking her eyes off the road to talk on the phone when driving your younger sister to soccer practice do you? So why not give her a Bluetooth headset to free up those hands? I personally prefer the Motorola HS 850 Bluetooth HS850 which can be purchased here. At about $70 it is a non-evasive little device that will neither mess up your Mom’s hair or cause a silly indentation in the side of her head like those ridiculous headpieces.

Speaking of soccer practice, I am sure that your Mom, if she is like mine, hardly goes anywhere without her digital camera. But with you being somewhere else you don’t get the luxury of seeing all those pictures. That is why a years subscription to Flickr is the perfect Mother’s Day gift. It is inexpensive ($25 for a year), can be purchased online and can help her organize photos into albums and note who is in each one, the year it was taken, and where.

Once you’ve got access to those images there is really only one thing left to do - print them out for deal Mom. Well, I guess it is 2008 so you don’t really need to print them out. You could simply display them digitally or, better yet, let her display them digitally with a Kodak EasyShare SV-710 7-Inch Digital Picture Frame available here for less than $80. Imagine how excited Momma will be to know she doesn’t have to choose one picture for the frame. She can choose up to 250mb worth of images. And that is a lot of soccer shots, piano recitals, Grandbaby pictures and family reunion shots. But if she is, in fact, a little more traditional than perhaps you can take those shots and have them printed in a custom portrait book by Lulu. Let’s face it. If you’re willing to put a little work into, a printed photo album is a very thoughtful and personal gift that any mother will break into tears over. Lulu lets you upload photos and create photo books (in hardcover or paperback) with a minimum of fuss. The real effort is in wittling down her gargantuan photo collection into something more manageable. Hardcover books run a mere $26 for the first 20 pages.

So don’t settle for a cardboard collective of someone else’s poems or an oversized balloon with a cheap carnation. Do something extra special for that extra special woman in your life!