Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide: for mom
Hi mom, we love you. Here are some gadgets we might like to buy you, which, in turn, could be gadgets your pal moms might get from their Engadget reading children. Please, try to have some patience with tech, the payoff is usually pretty good (or so we'd like to think). And hey, if not, that's totally fine. You can return it for some loot, or give it to dad.
Note to buyers: gadgets are good, but gadgets and flowers are way better. Gadget's flowers, and chocolate? Get outta here.
See also: for him, for her, for son, for daughter, for dad.
$0 - $100
- Seriously, kids, will you shut the hell up a minute? Mommy needs to think. Then the headphones go on and the world fades away -- see why noise-canceling is the only way to live? Give mom a break this year with the JVC HA-NC80 cans, with differing modes for wide frequency noise (screaming children) or low frequency noise (plane taking her away from it all).
~$60 - Shop for JVC HA-NC80
- If your mom is anything like our moms, she gets a little too into the holidays and winds up with a bunch of stuff that most would only ever use once a year -- but that she manages to keep around all year long. Enter the USB Snowman. 256MB of storage and his holly jolly nose glows blue.
$60 - Buy from Dynamism
- The Lids Off is one of those gifts that you give someone in your family, but you really don't mind if they give it right back. Or at least we don't, our poor little digits are so weakened and strained from 24x7 blogging we hardly have the dexterity to open up a can of pasta sauce -- let alone whoop ass. Let this jar opener do it for you, um, we mean her.
Up to $60, depending on options - Buy from Amazon
- If hanging your kid from the stall to watch while you use the ladies' room really doesn't bother you philosophically, check out the Babykeeper. It's a remarkably simple and effective solution for a common problem -- it merely comes with the price of wondering whether you're mentally scarring your child as you do your duty front and center.
$40 - Buy from Mommysentials
Noteworthy mention: Fire-retardant laptop sleeve
$101 - $250
- Mom loves her coffee and also loves her, um, weather reports, so why not pick up a gift that here combines two passions? Melitta's ME1MSB Smart Brew Coffemaker not only delivers fresh cups o' joe every morning, it uses the MSN Direct network to provide up to the minute weather information. Forecast: delicious.
$200 - Buy from Amazon
- Even if mom doesn't have the 1337 tech skillz of the one giving the gifts, Canon's PIXMA mini260 Portable Photo Printer should be a breeze to use. An intuitive scroll wheel lets her fly through menu options, and the 6,900 x 2,400 dpi resolution means those family photos covering the entire fridge have never looked so good.
$200 - Buy from Best Buy
- If she's still listening to her old audio cassettes on a beat up Walkman, it may be time to send her kicking and screaming into the digital age. Apple's 2G nano should do the trick; With plenty of color choices you're sure to find one that matches her handbag, and if you go RED, you can help out a good cause to boot.
$150 and up - Buy from Apple
$251 - $500
MotorRAZR V3i Dolce & Gabbana
- Not every Mom is into high-fashion, but if your mother is, you can bet she'll totally dig this D&G-branded handset. Just like your standard V3i RAZR, this is a quad-band phone, which is super-slim and seriously stylish in any corner of the globe, but now in that over the top gaudy gold way that only D&G seems to be allowed to bring.
$400 - Buy from Motorola
iRobot Roomba Discovery
- It's a sad truth that most men (young and old) don't nearly clean up after themselves nor their environments nearly as well as they should. So kids, if your Mom does most of the cleaning and you want to pitch in some way besides contributing actual labor, you might consider the iRobot Roomba Discovery, the classic vacuuming robot. Once she sees it in action she'll wonder why she spent all those years cleaning manually; robots seem to cause that kind of strange addiction.
$280 - Buy from iRobot
Adidas-Polar RS800
- If your Mom is a jogging geek, or is perhaps training for a marathon, then she'll definitely approve of the Adidas-Polar RS800 running computer. It'll give her all kinds of running data, including heart rate, speed, elevation and even "running efficiency." Just don't blame her when she goes for early morning runs and then hogs the computer to analyze her stats by the time you get up. (See also Nike + iPod.)
$370 - Shop for Adidas-Polar RS800
$501 - $1000
- Tape-based camcorders can be a major pain, so if you're looking for a simpler way to help mom record her precious memories, the hard drive-packin' Sony DCR-SR100 might be the way to go. The 30GB drive should be more than enough to capture the highlights of her weekly bridge game, and its three megapixel stills means she can at least sometimes leave her regular camera at home -- which is even better if she's still shooting on analog.
~$770 - Shop for DCR-SR100
- No matter if mom's working, retired, or a lifelong homemaker, she still deserves some pampering for having to put up with your nonsense for so many years. What better gift than an iJoy 100 Robotic Massage Chair, whose numerous rollers and pre-set programs will allow her to just "set it and forget it."
$600 - Buy from Living in Comfort
- Let's face it: mom's probably never gonna treat herself to multi-room audio. Maybe you should do it for her with the Sonos ZonePlayer ZP80 Bundle. Dad may need to help out a bit helping her hang of things, but once she does she can add satellite units as she sees fit, and the large, color remote will have her wondering why she's been holding onto that old One4All these past 10 years.
$1000 - Shop for ZP80 bundle
LG LSC27990TT refrigerator
$1001+
- Let the next time mom walks up to a television-free fridge be her last. LG's latest TV-equipped icebox, the LSC27990TT, goes big with a 15-inch 1024 x 768 display in one door and a smaller 4-inch piece in the other. With curious features like weather reports and a digital photo album, standing around the kitchen won't just be for the hungry anymore.
$3,600 - Shop for the LG LSC27990TT
Crestron TPMC-8X
- Sure, dad got a cool remote for the holiday, but just watch the look on his face when mom unwraps this bad boy. Ok, honestly we can imagine she'll be a bit intimidated. But that's where you enlist Dad's help to show her how the Crestron TPMC-8X does the whole home automation thing in style, offering support for Yahoo! Widgets, VoIP via dual echo-canceling microphones, Bluetooth, and fingerprint recognition on its generously sized touch screen. C'mon, somebody's gonna use this puppy.
$3,800 - Inquire with Crestron
