For as long as gift-giving has been a tradition, there’s also been the inability to come up with good gift ideas. Whether it’s for your mom, dad, sister, brother, partner, friend, colleague, they, them, him, her, cat, dog, secret Santa, or for a White Elephant party, it can often be tricky to select the perfect present for your recipient. Price can also be a huge factor in holiday shopping — whether you have a tight budget and / or a long list of friends and family members to buy gifts for. This season can make things pretty rough on your wallet.
So as the 2017 holidays approach, I have put together a tech gift guide of the many wonderful things that would make great presents for all ages, sizes, genders, and budgets. At the very least, we hope these recommendations spark an idea for what you might gift your loved ones.
Google Home Mini
Last year the perfect tech gift was the Echo Dot by Amazon. Small, easy to use, and low cost, it got a lot of people into the smart home movement in a very simple to use and comfortable way. This year Google is getting into the game in the very same way. Easy to step up, use, and inexpensive with some Black Friday deals as low as $29 and $10 gift card with each purchase (see Target) when normally $49.99. Start small with setting alarms, timers, asking for the weather today and tomorrow, asking simple search questions. Next thing you know you will be pairing the Mini with smart lights and asking Google to turn on the bedroom lights or turning off the living rooms lights. Only down side is because of how small it is, the speaker is ok, but not something to use to play music at a party or small get together.
Amazon Echo Dot
Last year's last minute Holiday gift champ is back and for good reason. Inexpensive, very useful, simple to use, and like all successful tech, waits for you to use it, not the other way around. Very very similar to the Google Home Mini, it's better in that it has more skills available to you to use and a 3.5mm headphone jack so you can plug in a better speaker since, like the Mini, this speaker is not the greatest. The downside of the Dot, more so Alexa, she doesn't have the knowledge base of the Mini so if you ask her something simple like "How tall is the Empire State building?" she might not respond with the right answer. But, the Dot is compatible with a lot of other smart home systems if you want to get into security cameras, smart lights, smart doorbell, and more.
Amazon Echo
It's the Amazon Echo Dot but bigger and with a better speaker, even better than the original Echo. Literally. That is it. Oh and in different materials to look nicer in your living room. The speaker on this is definitely one you can host a party or small get together with. It also has a 3.6mm headphone jack so if you want to hook it up to an even better speaker, go for it.
Google Home
It's the Google Home Mini but bigger and with a better speaker. Literally. That is it. The speaker on this is definitely one you can host a party or small get together with. Yes it does like look an air fresher from a company you know and it is about the same size. Retailing for $129 but with Black Friday deals coming soon, it could become much cheaper. A fun feature with Google Home and Mini's is Broadcast. This turns 2 or more Home or Mini into a speaker system for your house. You can tell those in other rooms that dinner is ready or wake everyone up.
Amazon Echo Spot
Think Amazon Echo Dot with a screen and a front facing camera. Retailing for $130 and just bigger than a Magic 8-Ball, Spot can give you a visual look at information you ask for like weather, news, and your upcoming schedule. You can also make video calls to someone with another Dot or the bigger Echo Show.
Amazon Echo Plus
If you have see the original Amazon Echo then you know what the Echo Plus looks like it, except it will come in a gun metal grey and white this time around. The changes are in the inside. With a better speaker than the original Echo, louder, and with an integrated smart home hub, the Echo Plus aims to be the central smart home assistant in your home. With the integration of a smart home hub inside this time around, it does away with the need for smart hubs from other companies to control things in your house, like Phillips' Hue smart lights. In the past, you need to but Phillips' smart hub to control their smart lights. But with the new echo plus, you don't need to spend the extra $60 to get their smart hub. It will also control ZigBee lights, locks, and plugs that you have installed in your home. This would be for someone who is already into smart home automation, but would like some of the clutter reduced.
Amazon
Google Home Max
(While this is not out yet, it is still suppose to launch mid December so that is why I am including it here. I didn't include the Apple Home Pod, which is a direct competitor to the Google Home Max as it's release was recently pushed to second quarter 2018.)
First let me say that is product could be a little on the beta testing side for whoever you buy this for. It will also be $399. I say beta because while Google had an event showcasing the Max, there wasn't a proper hands on demo of it, not even for tech journalists. It suppose to be a Google Home with a massive speaker tuned to make music sound amazing and perfect in your home. It uses Google's AI (Machine Learning) to feel out, a kin to sonar, where the walls are around the device to know how to properly project the sound from the speaker while using the volume you want it at. Sound complicated? I think so as well. But that is machine learning for you and why this device is $399.
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