Mom deserves our best because she gives her best. Whether it’s helping her to pamper herself or enjoy a favourite hobby, she will surely enjoy the best today’s technology has to offer. Still haven’t gotten your shopping done yet? Check out our Mother’s Day Gift Guide along with these additional last-minute favourites for every mom.
Ninja Foodi 13-in-1 Pressure Cooker Steam Fryer with SmartLid
Ninja’s flagship Pressure Cooker ($350) is no regular pressure cooker, as mom will soon find out. It cooks, slow cooks, sautés, steams, and air fries. There are enough features in this beast to satisfy the cooking demands for the whole family. From baking to sous vide to simultaneous broiling or hot air cooking your chicken under the upper smartlid and veggies in the bottom, this pressure cooker impresses. Steam, crisp or air fry while unlocking flavours. 13 one-touch programs unlock even more versatility with included recipes and hundreds of online and book choices. The best part after the serving? It’s easy to clean.
Samsung’s Very Different Screen Projector
Surprise mom with the Samsung Freestyle Full HD 1080p HDR Portable LED Projector ($1,150). It’s small, easy to stow away, and works anywhere in your home – on tables, shelves, even floors. The size of a Hunt’s 680 mL pasta sauce can, the Freestyle has a unique 180+ degree swivel base that can project big screen movies across the room. Even take in a movie from the bedroom ceiling. It projects from 30″-100″ optimizing colour based on an off-coloured walls. Once turned on, the Freestyle’s auto keystone corrects skewed images for a perfect rectangular and sharp image screen. It even auto levels if it’s on an uneven bed cover. It includes a similar Samsung TV remote control with lots of premium Samsung TV content or pre-installed apps like YouTube, Netflix, and more. It comes with a smartphone-like charger and can run off appropriate portable batteries wherever you go. The built-in 360 degree 5W speaker impresses if you are relatively close to the whisper quiet LED projector. With built-in Samsung Bixby and Amazon Alexa, you can control the Freestyle with your voice. Got phone content to share on the big screen? Mom can mirror her mobile wirelessly and if she already has a compatible Samsung phone she can simply tap it with the Freestyle. One more thing: if mom has a compatible Samsung TV (2017 Samsung Q70 and above) she can watch its content in another room on the Freestyle.
Sonos Wireless or Bluetooth Portable Music at Home and Away
If mom wants to enhance her Sonos speaker music listening surroundings at home or away, there are several choices that will do the trick. The Sonos Move is ($499) Sonos Roam ($229) light for walks and on bikes, and the even more simplified and most affordable (minus a microphone or auto tuning) recent Sonos SL ($199) can offer a 2.1 surround music experience in a Wi-Fi-connected home. Simply combine two speakers (mix and match either model) in stereo mode and include the Move in your “room” designation anywhere in your home Wi-Fi range, even in the backyard in inclement weather. The Move has rich bass and crisp stereo while the Roam offers a unique cord-free movable audio experience. (Note: 2.1 does not work in Bluetooth mode).
Dusk: Electrochromic Smart Sunglasses with Audio
Ampere’s much-awaited 26g polarized Dusk transitional sunglasses (US$382) magically change their brightness by phone app or a small physical button on the side rim to the best outdoor comfort level. The classical Wayfarer-style timeless design also accommodates two unobtrusive open ear voice assistant speakers with 20-20,000Hz frequency and one-button access to music controls including pause, next, and back as well as phone call controls and a hidden mic. The 110 mAh battery allows for seven days of paired tint adjustment and four hours of listening. It charges to 80% in 15 minutes or 100% in 45 minutes using a 2mm braided pogo pin cable. They are light and come with a case. Frames are made with TR-90 nylon with IPX4 water-resistant rating. The lenses are shatter and scratch-resistant polarized TAC. This all really works!
Huawei Watch GT 3
Huawei’s finely re-tuned Watch GT 3 ($429) has a high-resolution 1.32” 466.466-pixel screen can show busy moms essential status information at a glance. Plus, it keeps on ticking for a week without a charge (two weeks for the bulkier 46mm model). This watch is designed for mom’s health as well with many features like an improved heart rate monitor with eight photodiodes and a comfortable curved glass lens that eliminates any external interference for more accurate heart and all-day SpO2 monitoring; five GPS systems for more accurate on-watch map positioning and keeping track of adversely changing air pressure and tidal changes for mom’s most challenging outdoor adventures; Route Back Navigation that shows the way back onscreen on complicated walks or runs; and personal AI workout coaching and music playback without phone during mom’s more than 100 sports modes. It can be linked to compatible exercise equipment for instant progress monitoring and keeps track of vitals with alarm settings like breathing, stress, and sleeping, and records menstrual cycles. It also offers daily goals and, of course, also does the usual watch stuff. Mom will also love the huge collection of watch faces so she can refresh the look to suit her mood.
Mom as the Family Photo and Document Archivist
For the mom who is the keeper of many things in the family, consider making her the official photo and document archivist with Epson’s unique FastFoto FF-680W Wireless High-speed Photo Scanner ($670). It will quickly digitize those forsaken album prints hiding in allbums, shoeboxes and dusty shelves. It scans a stack of prints, even in different size prints, with a safe proven roller mechanism that will not “chew up” small prints like conventional full sheet scanners do.
Scan thousands of photos as fast as one photo per second (for 300dpi quality or a few seconds more at 600dpi) and save in JPG or TIFF format. Thumbnails are created for each batch of photos. You can turn auto enhancement on especially if the group of older photos to be scanned are faded. You can also take advantage of FastFoto to rotate, crop, enhance, restore images as well as apply red-eye reduction. FastFoto optionally scans both sides of photos recognizing any handwritten notes, digitally attaching to the scanned photo.
The FastFoto software guides you when you initiate a batch scan on how to describe and categorize like year or season. Unlike older FastFoto models the FF-680W phone app which includes instant phone app notifications, for example, of a double-feed detection skip to slow down, stop or resume the scan process from your phone. It also enables you to capture the voice of loved ones and create slideshows, so you can easily share stories about your photos right from your smartphone.
You can upload images directly to Dropbox and Google Drive.
FastFoto also scans documents and can save in PDF searcable format for easy searching archived documents. The much improved OCR performance works best when scanning Times New Roman and Arial pages when converting the scans to a Word document.
Yana 360° Body Pillow
For moms who toss and turn in bed or shuffle pillows around, look no furter than the Yana 360 Body Pillow starting at (US$199). It will soon become mom’s favourite sleeping companion fitting like a glove with generous curves to wrap around in. It provides support wherever you need it most and even supports sitting in bed for a cozy reading. Choose between natural latex fill or latex-free natural cooling gel– both can be customized to your desired fullness and hold their shape night after night. It can be tied in a decorative knot for compact storage when not in use. Yana comes with a removable pillow cover that makes laundering a breeze. Last minute pre-orders are perfect timing with deliveries later in May.
Indoor Tabletop Rubbing Alcohol Fireplace
This portable Colsen fire tabletop ($100) fueled by smokeless, odorless rubbing alcohol can be used indoors or outdoors. It uses only 70% or 91% Iso-propyl alcohol as fuel that can last up to an hour. It is light and easy to transport so you can move it anywhere. Use it as small personal fireplace to add warmth and ambience to your desk, side table in your living room, centrepiece for your main dining table, or anywhere outdoors. It’s quick and easy to use with no mess, or clean-up and easy to extinguish.