What to get Mom for Mother’s day? Here are some gadgety gift ideas I showed on ABC’s World News Now this week. Full product details below the video.
SAMSUNG DV300F WiFi DUAL LCD SMART CAMERA $199
Moms love taking pictures, lots and lots of them, but two things still get in the way of snapping and sharing that perfect shot. Your kid’s attention and the time to upload your pictures to your computer or a photo-sharing site like Shutterfly or Picasa.
Samsung is looking to solve those issues with the DV300F. It has built-in Wi-Fi so if you take a great picture of the kids and want to share it with Grandma or post it to Facebook right away, you can. As long as you’re connected to Wi-Fi, whether its at a Starbucks, a hotel room, or your own home, you can share.
If you’re the type of parent who makes silly faces and causes no end of embarrassment trying to capture your child’s attention, you’ll enjoy the animation feature that pops up on the front screen of this dual-screen camera. Set it off and your child is guaranteed to look right at the camera when you want…no more staring off in the wrong direction.
This is a 16-megapixel camera with an 18x zoom, comes in black, red and silver.
The self-portrait mode opens the screen on the front for a perfectly-framed shot of you and that celeb that passed by, or a family shot with you in it.
http://www.samsung.com/us/photography/digital-cameras/EC-DV300FBPBUS
Sharing Photos
iPhoto $5
iPhoto is a great app and Mom will always appreciate a photo book make out of memories. The iPhoto app for is now available for mobile devices like the iPad and iPhone for $5.
Editing photos is easy because it uses finger gestures, which is just what the tablet was designed for. It’s also a great way for Mom to get organized and work on pictures and albums a little at a time, like in between soccer games or waiting on the carpool line.
Photo books and Calendars start at $19.99
CARDS APPS FREE
If you want to personalize your greeting cards, there are many options. Apple’s CARDS app, a free download, gives you 21 designs to choose from. Insert your own photos and text, and they’ll print it on premium paper and mail it for you. Couldn’t be simpler. Cards are $2.99 if sent within the US, including postage.
http://www.apple.com/apps/cards
TREAT FREE/SUBSCRIPTION
You can buy Mom an annual subscription to Treat.com where she can make and send cards for all occasions at a discounted rate. It works much the same way as Apple’s Cards; upload pictures, choose text, and they’ll send the card for you, though Treat has a much bigger selection to choose from. The typical cost of a card is $2.99. A yearly subscription costs $11.99 which makes most of the cards available for $1.99 each. A $5.99 plan makes the cards avail for $2.49.
Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight $139
Here’s something for Mom that’s great in bed!
Sure to solve the nighttime tussle of ‘honey, can you turn out the light?’ the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight is Barnes and Noble’s lightweight E Ink e-reader with a built-in light. Not an external one that attaches to the outside, this one is made up of patent-pending technology that lights up the page just enough for you to see in the dark. In fact, it’s adjustable so you can turn it up or down, depending on how much light you need. It’s incredibly easy on the eyes, and, since the infrared touchscreen has built-in anti-glare technology, this is one e-reader that can perform out by the pool as well as in the bedroom.
With over 2.5 million titles to choose from and the ability to lend a book to a fellow Nook user, plus a battery that will last a month, this is a gift Mom can set and forget.
Belkin Chef Stand and Stylus $39.99
If Mom likes to use her iPad in the kitchen to follow recipes, you know sometimes it can become a gooey, chocloate-coated mess. The Belkin ChefStand and Stylus keeps Mom’s sticky fingers off the screen. Yes, Mom’s can have sticky fingers too. The stand holds the iPad off the counter and angled so she can see it, and the stylus has a magnetic tip that wakes up the tablet and helps to navigate through the recipes. Keep the mess for the mixing bowl!
http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=557467
FITBIT ARIA Wi-Fi SMART SCALE $130
Attention: This may not be the best gift idea for your Mom, so choose wisely. If the Mom in your life is someone who actively enjoys fitness and health, and might want a little motivation or jump-start in tracking goals, this Wi-Fi connected scale could be just the thing. The FitBit Aria scale not only looks great, sleek glass and thin frame, but it adds a high tech twist to getting weighed. Every time you step on it, not only is it sending your weight to your FitBit account, it’s also measuring your Body Mass Index (BMI) as well as lean/fat percentage. No worries, none of this is made public, unless you want to share it.
FitBit says the default settings on your weight are marked private, though you can share your weight and other fitness info with other friends on the FitBit network.
What’s nice about seeing your weight plotted out online this way is you can track your progress with a graph, not just a number every day that either goes up or down. A graph lets you step back and take a look at the bigger picture and try, along with diet and exercise, to meet your over fitness goals.
You can make fitness a family affair; the Aria scale can accommodate up to 8 accounts in all.
This full article and video can be found on abcnews.com
Andrea Smith 