And, in case you’ve been asleep for the last few years, young people have deemed speaking to be passé, so they text message their thoughts.

T-Mobile has several new products arriving on the shelves just in time for graduation season, including the Motorola w490  ($19.99 with a two-year contract), which comes in flavorful colors like Bubble Gum and Heather Grape. The new and improved phone offers two more ways to personalize cell phones. The phone is equipped with a 1.3 mega-pixel camera with video capture, a music player and Bluetooth connectivity.

Additionally, T-Mobile’s new Sidekick Slide ($199.99 with a two-year contract) will be any grad’s dream phone as the full-QWERTY keyboard will make all of that texting a breeze.

Any parent or friend worth their technological salt knows that the iPhone (from $399, pictured right) is the biggest communication “statement” a teen can make. The iPhone’s amazing touch-screen can go from phone to music player, Web browser to photo album, locater map to video viewer to camera and more (thus the pricey price tag).

The Palm Treo (from $183.99) and Palm Centro (from 99.99) are also good phones and organizers. As for calling plans, Verizon and Cingular/AT&T offer deals and lots of phones that could fit into a college student’s budget.

If a phone itself is too costly, consider a gift of a cell phone plan for a period of time, or an offer to pay for minutes. Or buy them some tunes for their iPod with a gift card.

And don’t forget a digital camera like a Vivitar for $90 to a Canon Power Shot at $200. If they want more than still pictures, you can buy digital camcorders that start at $188.

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