By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
With Mother’s Day around the corner, there are various great technology gift ideas for Mum. Here are some proven winners.
Apple iPad Air or iPad Mini with Retina Display
My mom’s been struggling with her five-year old PC for a while and my brother and I need to provide tech support when something goes wrong. We looked at her use case which is web surfing, email, some social networks and looking at pictures of her grandkids.
I set her up with an iPad Air and was amazed at how quickly and easily she adopted to the multi-touch functionality. Most of her most used services, like Yahoo Mail, are available as apps which replicate and even improve on the functionality of their web counterparts. Best of all, since she lives far from me and my family, we can contact her easily via iMessage and FaceTime which is great for checking in on my 19-month old son. Together with the iPad Air, we pooled together to get her a nice case plus set her up with an iTunes gift card for purchasing apps or music.
CinemaNow Gift Cards
Available on gaming consoles, SmartTVs, smartphones, tablets and other devices, CinemaNow delivers HD quality movies and TV shows. The CinemaNow library contains approximately 3,000 feature-length films, shorts, music concerts and television programs from more than 250 licensors. This means mom has a great selection of content to enjoy and on any device she prefers. Video from CinemaNow is available for electronic sell-through Download to Own, in the home video release window including DVD burning using Qflix as well as rental time-limited viewing in the pay-per-view window.
The advantage CinemaNow has over competitors is that it features movies a lot earlier and even has specific titles available as soon as the Blu-Ray versions hit stores. It is the fastest way to enjoy recent content without having to rent or buy media. The disadvantage is that CinemaNow isn’t an all-you-can-consume for a price service, you actually pay for each individual movie or tv show episode watched.
iRobot Roomba 660 Vacuum Cleaning Robot
The Roomba line of robot vaccum cleaners has endured and improved through time. Ideal for larger floor areas that are preferably wood, parquet or linoleum, the Roomba 660 is an autonomous vaccum cleaner that charges itself and can memorize the area it needs to clean.
Roomba is smart enough to shift gears while cleaning various surfaces and can pick up dirt, dust and pet hair. This removes the tedious chore of maintenance vaccuming and can auto select between carpet and hard floors. Best thing is that it is bagless and easy to clean and can be programmed to run at certain times of the day.
Roomba technology includes a Dirt Detect feature uses an acoustic sensor to locate dirtier areas and spend more time cleaning them. The Virtual Walls feature makes sure you can keep the Roomba cleaning in the places you need it and away from areas you don’t. Best feature of the Roomba is that it saves mom’s time for other, more important things.
These are some awesome gifts that any mom would love to get.
