High-tech gifts

A powerful laptop, a new tablet, a high-end smartphone? Maybe, but there are high-tech gifts that are less expensive and that are also guaranteed to please.

With the end of year closing in and the gift-buying ritual already in sight, planning ahead makes sense. The popularity of high-tech gadgetry is helping a lot, making it easier to choose what would certainly please the intended recipients. It is said that kids from 8-year old and up are now after tablets more than they look to receive traditional toys. As for the grow ups, few gifts would appeal to them more than high-tech goodies. And yes, this includes the ladies in the population; well, at least when it comes to presents in the sub JD1000 category.

Apart from the mainstream laptop, tablet or smartphone equipment line, countless devices and accessories can be found that come to nicely complete and enhance our experience with the main units. A direct, global search on the web would bring up on your screen hundreds if not thousands of such devices and accessories, advertised by manufacturers anxious to sell you just about anything. Most devices, however, are ridiculous and useless. Good filtering and wise selection will still leave several a large number of fine, practical and truly useful accessories or add-ons as they are sometime called.

Bluetooth speakers are a treat. They let you stream music out of laptops, tablets and smartphones instantly and wirelessly to the eternal speaker. If the quality of sound will not be on a par with that of a high end, cabled stereo system, it will still be much better than that of the tiny speakers that come built in laptops and other computer-like equipment. Just like it goes with any accessory, beware of cheap Bluetooth speakers. Most will produce horrible sound and need to be recharged all too frequently, leaving you frustrated. Look for brands like Creative, Jabra, Bose, JBL or Logitech, for example. Without going to extremes, Bluetooth speakers between JD50 and JD150 usually will do a good job.  

Still in the wireless division, charging pads for smartphones and tablets are gaining popularity. With the ever-increasing use of smartphones comes the need to recharge them frequently, often more than once a day. Connecting and disconnecting a power cable is a tedious affair and would even end up damaging the physical connection slot or plug. Wireless pads are practical and friendly. Just place the smartphone on the pad and the latter will recharge the battery. In this domain Samsung and Duracell are well-placed and sell excellent pads for about JD50-70.

In the same spirit, external battery packs also come in handy to provide backup battery power for users on the go. They are available in various power ratings, and can fully recharge a tablet once or smartphone two or three times. Prices start from as little as JD15 and go up to JD80 or JD100, depending on the power reserve the battery pack can hold.

Offering hardware as presents to your friends or beloved ones is not the only way to satisfy their high-tech desire. There are less tangible, but not less appealing gifts you can make them.

A subscription to a cloud storage service, for example, would show your sophistication and flair. Prove to your friends that you are in and know what the current trend is. Besides, cloud storage is slowly but surely becoming a must. Sooner or later we’ll all be using it and even relying on it almost completely. Dropbox and Google drive are some of the most reliable and best such services and cost about JD50-70 a year for massive storage space; probably more than you can use.

Let’s not forget small software applications. People are as happy to receive such gifts today as they are to get hardware equipment. You can either offer a virtual coupon for a pack of apps to download on Google Play (Android) or App Store (Apple iOS), or a software universal media player like J. River Media Centre, for instance. Typically, the package would take JD30-60.

In the end they all are toys, one way or another.