When it comes to holiday gifting, my favs are practical high and low tech gifts for activities like cooking, health assistance, and fitting the person’s lifestyle. Not all of the picks on this list are new, but they’re all great choices for someone special on your list.
Mkicesky Comfort Cervical Sleeping Pillow
I have tried many sleep pillows, but none come close to the Mkicesky Cervical Pillow. Made to provide neck and shoulder pain relief, the Premium Memory Foam Ergonomic Orthopedic Contour Pillow walks the walk. It’s a Queen Size 2-in-1 Support Pillow for side and back sleepers with a removable pillowcase. Unlike traditional rectangular memory pillows the very affordable $44 Mkicesky Cervical Pillow employs an impressive ergonomic design cuddling your neck and shoulder whether you sleep on your back or either side. You have the same gentle support in all angles. Its contoured shape cradles the natural curve of your neck, promoting proper spinal alignment during sleep. Crafted from premium memory foam, this ergonomic pillow molds to your unique contours, ensuring a customized sleeping experience. Its design also distributes weight evenly, minimizing pressure on sensitive areas of your face and ears for enhanced relaxation and a restful night’s sleep. It makes me feel like I’m floating on air. Tailored for side, back, and stomach sleepers, it offers two height options to match your preferred sleep position. Its removable, machine-washable hypoallergenic cover promotes air circulation, helping to keep you cool and comfortable throughout the night.
Epson FastFoto FF-680W Wireless High-Speed Photo Scanning System
The original Epson Fast Foto launched eight years ago. It quickly scans stacks of album prints in seconds with auto restore tools, smart organizing, auto-backing in the cloud, and social sharing. How can an eight-year-old photo product still be in the market? Because it’s unique smartly filling the need to digitize countless of “orphaned” album prints long forgotten in shoeboxes and destined to disappear, taking unforgettable memories with it. “This amounts to billions of un-scanned photos, and every year countless photos are lost to fires, floods and other natural disasters, making it important to protect and preserve your family’s memories,” says Mike Isgrig, Vice President, North America Consumer Sales and Marketing at Epson. The company calls the $800 FF-6880W 2018 model “The World’s Fastest Photo Scanner” and it offers many improvements like speedy Wi-Fi connectivity, greater versatility, improved document scanning, Double-Feed Detection preventing jams, smoother scanning, and enhanced software with more powerful options for cropping, rotating, and restoring photos. Scan album photos at one photo per second at 300 dpi and you can stack up to 30 prints at a time with auto restore tools, smart organizing, auto-backing in the cloud, and sharing. Optionally, you can scan slightly slower with a higher 600 dpi resolution bringing the photo quality up to match today’s smartphones. It scans both sides of the print, converting handwritten information to text attached to the scanned photo’s meta data. Sweet! Its specially designed roller carriage handles most old prints from postage size to 8.5 inches wide accommodating long panorama prints too, something no flatbed scanner can do. FastFoto also includes a special handling sheet to protect small, old, damaged, or fragile photos. It supports easy uploading to services such as Facebook, Dropbox and Google Drive to share with family and friends anytime, anywhere. The Epson FastFoto app allows you to scan your old album photos directly to your smartphone.
Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Prestige 9900
For those who have been very deserving this year, the Philips redesigned Sonicare 9900 Prestige for $400 is all style and performance over all Sonicare models. It’s shorter and lighter with a smaller footprint on its upright charge base. It has fewer moving parts like a single touch start/stop button. The classy compact USB charge travel case is handy for charging from any source when away. It literally “rides” like a Cadillac starting and stopping ever so smoothly so not to jar your teeth as it speeds past 30,000 vibrations per minute. Its smarter using AI-fortified SenseIQ technology that adapts to and cares about your oral health like a human. It adapts to your cleaning style instead of following the “proper” cleaning techniques of the past. Sensing pressure at more than 100 times a second its base lights up if you are brushing too hard as it automatically and in real time adjusts to the proper intensity. SenseIQ basically keeps track and adjusts the brush setting to achieve proper oral care over time instead of bugging you for the perfect brush session every time you brush. This prevents you from developing bad brushing habits over time. It comes with Sonicare’s newest all-in-one brush head that cleans, removes stains, and massages gums without having to switch between pricey dedicated brushes. This toorhbrush comes in Champagne, Midnight Blue, Pink and Limited Edition Pink.
Ninja Woodfire 8-in-1 Outdoor Oven
Ready for no hassle, brick oven-inspired results, like charring, caramelization, blistering and crunch for premium textures and flavours? Reimagine what you can cook outdoors with the $400 Ninja Woodfire Outdoor Oven. This electric outdoor oven unlocks 8-in-1 versatility with a wide temperature range of 40-370°C (105-700°F) for premium flavours, textures, and results at the touch of a button. Add smoky flavours to anything you make with just a 1/2 cup of pellets with Ninja Woodfire Technology. 8-in-1 functionality includes 12-inch Pizza, Max Roast, Specialty Roast, Broil, Bake, Smoker, Dehydrate, and Keep Warm. The excellent included quick start guide is quite detailed, simplifying the making of artisan pizzas, the oven’s specialty, from making dough at 370°C for just three minutes. You can choose from five different settings to satisfy any pizza craving: Neapolitan, Thin Crust, Pan, New York, and Frozen. There are dozens of recipes and detailed cooking tables. Choose from several pizza modes with longer cooking times at lower temperatures that automatically look after the whole sequence until the pizza is done. It will take up to a 12-lb. turkey, 9-lb. pork shoulder, 12-lb.. prime rib dinner with veggies, 12-inch pizza, full sheet-pan meal, or a standard 9×13 casserole dish. The 700°F (370°C) charring also takes place when baking other foods like chicken in the oven with potatoes, then automatically switching to a lower traditional temperature for the rest of the cooking. It includes a cover, removable smoke box, pellet scoop, roast rack, quick start guide, pizza stone, and heavy-duty Pro-Heat Pan to withstand temperatures higher than a kitchen oven.
Ninja Luxe Café Premier Series
For café quality coffees at home the slickly designed Ninja Luxe Cafe Premiier Series for $700 takes you from instant-coffee maker to wannabe barista. It’s three machines in one: brew perfect espresso, well-balanced drip coffee, and rapid cold brew. With Barista Assist Technology, you get customized grind-size recommendations from its 25 adjustable settings. There’s weight-based dosing, and active brew adjustments for temperature and pressure for balanced flavour, delivering café-quality brews and removing the guesswork from the process. A Dual Froth System combines steaming and whisking at the same time to effortlessly create perfectly textured microfoam and removes the trial-and-error from manual frothing with four preset programs. It handles plant and dairy based milk. I was even impressed with how smart the accessory storage is designed. The gift of that perfect cup of java, awaits.
Chamelo Music Shield sunglasses
The Chamelo Music Shield sunglasses are unique with their tint-adjustable lenses and built-in audio. The lenses can be adjusted from 63% to 17% Visual Light Transmittance (VLT) in less than 0.1 seconds using a built-in slider. This makes them perfect for changing light conditions, whether you’re running, biking, or working outdoors. The hidden speakers provide impressive open-ear audio, allowing you to enjoy music or take calls without blocking out your surroundings. They are designed with an enhanced grip, impact-resistant lenses, and a sleek high-wrap design for comfort and durability.The glasses offer over six hours of built-in audio battery life and can be quickly recharged in about 30 minutes. The 180 mAh battery powers 100 hours of tint-adjustment They are IPX4-rated for water resistance and sweat-proof, making them suitable for intense workouts. They are available for US$349.
EpiqVision Mini EF22 Portable Laser Projector
The portable Epson EpiqVision Mini EF22 laser projector comes with big features for $1,300, affording an up to a 150-inch bright screen using laser-array 3-chip 3LCD projection technology. It produces a sharp Full HD picture with HDR colour, 1,000 lumens of colour brightness, and 1,000 lumens of white brightness for a bright display, even with dim lighting. The 360-degree swivel-stand with tilt ability maximizes your viewing options so you can always get the best picture. What most impressed me is the automatic vertical and horizontal keystone correction (in photo above) allowing me to project 45 degrees off centre in a smaller room and still get a perfect rectangular 150-inch screen. Of course, there is manual control for even more extreme projecting angles and adjustments. It’s easy to set up with an onscreen guides for sign-in to Google TV, Netflix, Disney+, and more using the included remote. The internal stereo speakers are plenty powerful but you can connect to your better quality audio sound system for impressive surround with Dolby Audio. It includes HDMI for easy connection to gaming consoles and streaming devices like Apple TV, Roku, or Amazon Fire TV. The virtually maintenance-free 20,000-hour laser light source with no lamps to replace offers a long carefree watching experience. That’s more than 8,000 movies!
Sonos Ace Wireless ANC Headphones
The first ever Sonos Ace headphones for $470 complete the audio cycle of the Wi-Fi based speaker system integrating Sonos with other devices in a personal listening environment. The custom-designed driver tuned by industry-leading producers, engineers, and artists provides a high-fidelity sound experience like Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio and dynamic head tracking, which surrounds you in a hyper realistic three-dimensional soundstage. Turn your head and you feel like you are walking around the musicians. It offers audio streaming over Bluetooth, USB-C, and 3.5 mm (cables included). Active Noise Cancellation blocks external sounds for maximum immersion and Aware mode lets you hear what’s going on around you. Plush memory foam ear cushions and an extendable headband offer exceptional all-day comfort and fit. The sound quality compares with leading headphones, especially the bass, well-balanced to cover every music genre. A cleverly designed minimalist single slide/push button control allows to play/pause, next, previous, volume up, volume down, answer/end call, decline call, noise control, and voice control. You get up to 30 hours of battery life with ANC enabled plus rapid charging that gives you three hours of battery life in just three minutes. It has wear detection, too, pausing the music when you take the headphones off and resuming when on. It seamlessly switches between two devices like taking a call while watching a movie and TV Audio Swap allows for switching audio from a compatible soundbar to the headphones with a simple switch button.
Sonos Sub 4 Subwoofer
Every Sonos speaker, even the smaller models have decent bass presence for their size. But once you “feel” a Sonos Sub bounce sound off your skin, you experience the full spectrum of music. Not just in songs but TV shows and streaming movies where low frequencies are used for upcoming scenes of impending danger, otherwise missed in the absence of a sub. It’s difficult to walk away from a good sub experience like the new Sonos Sub 4 for $850. It may look like the previous Sub 3 but has more than enough improvements that appeal to discerning listeners. For example, it’s rarely boomy and noticeably plays rapid staccato bass sequences with no muddiness, like metal band music. This, thanks to the increased processing power and enhanced memory for more enhanced sound. It’s backwards compatible pairing with the Sub 3 for an even more heart thumping experience. The Sub 4 has updated Wi-Fi radios for more reliable connections. Like the Sub 3, the Sub 4 features custom dual woofers with a force-cancelling effect to prevent buzz or rattle, ensuring clear and powerful bass. And the finish stays smudge-free. Like previous Subs, the newest Sonos Sub runs through parent speakers like Sonos Arc, Beam Gen 1 and 2, Ray, Era 300 and accessed through them.
ASUS Zenbook S 14 Laptop
For a laptop with no compromises, the ASUS Zenbook S 14 for $1,800 has it all. Size, weight, performance, endurance, and it’s AI ready for work, play, 17-hour binging with one battery charge, and more. It impresses before you even open the Ceraluminum high-tech ceramic lid. The all metal 1.19 cm-slim body barely hums in ASUS “whisper mode,” and it’s cool on your lap while you feast yourself on the 3K ASUS Lumina OLED 120 Kz touchscreen display. It’s powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra 5 (Series 2) processor and features 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB SSD drive. The 40 TOPs rated NPU AI Engine offers exceptional capabilities like productivity assistance, text and image creation, faster photo and video editing, and built-in security protections. It features advanced noise cancelling acoustics in meetings and precise background blurring in web meetings. The four-speaker audio system is tuned by Harman Kardon and is Dolby Atmos ready. It comes with Windows 11 Home, Windows Hello facial recognition and a 72Wh battery, for all-day autonomy and fast-charging technology.
Kingston Workflow Station
Transfer video, photos, and audio from multiple sources at once. For folks who have amassed a lot of media drives and USB sticks the Kingston Workflow Station ($125 – $225) when fully accessorized, can read and write data between up to eight card sources or connected camera/smartphones when fully accessorized (as in photo). An ample supply of included quality long and short USB cables with up to 1E+1 Gigabits Per Second speeds facilitate specific needs. Used by producers or multimedia enthusiasts, it comes with one double SD card reader. But you can fill the remaining three slots with a combination of a double microSD and combo USB-C/USB-A readers are available separately. Each reader can be directly connected to a PC, too, with a shorter USB cable.