Hot Staff Picks For Great Tech Gifts
I'm a streaming nut who just so happens to have a sweet spot for Roku hardware. Given the plethora of apps and streaming services available for Roku devices, it's an easy recommendation and one that I hope to find wrapped under my Christmas tree. I’m a heavy Amazon Prime user, so Prime Instant Videos support is a plus, and we can’t forget support for Netflix, Hulu, and just about every streaming service under the sun. I think I’ve seen just about every episode of Curious George and Dora the Explorer thanks to Amazon Instant Videos – most of them multiple times. Throw in 4K capabilities and a super fast quad-core processor, and MIMO 802.11ac Wi-Fi and you have a media streamer that is quite future proof.
When I’m out on the go, I need something to charge my plethora of devices. Besides my laptop, I have my phone, my smartwatch and a tablet. If my wife is tagging along, I have to add in her smartphone as well. That’s why I always carry around an Anker PowerPort 4 USB adapter. This 40W charger will handle your most demanding devices including big ‘ol tablets and your run-of-the-mill phablets. It’s not expensive either, coming in at under $30 which makes it reasonably priced gift options for the hard-to-shop-for tech nerd on your holiday shopping list.
When I travel, I like to take a tablet with me if I don’t want to lug around my 4.5-pound 13-inch laptop. Granted, a tablet won’t allow me to get as much work done as I can on my laptop, but it’s great for checking up on email, surfing the web, playing some games, or watching a few movies on the plane if I’m not too keen on what’s playing on the overhead monitors. Amazon’s new Kindle Fire 7 is a bargain basement tablet that won’t break the bank, yet still offers a 1024x600 display, 8GB of internal storage, a microSD slot for expansion and up to 7 hours of battery life. And since it’s so cheap, I don’t mind handing it off to my three-year-old to let him enjoy some educational games on occasion. Throw in a nice hard case and the thing is darn near indestructible — even for the most abusive toddler.
As I mentioned before, I have a three-year-old son, but I also have a week-old son that just came home from the hospital. Call me a helicopter parent if you want, but I want to check in on my little guy sometimes without having to walk across creaky hardwood floors, which threaten to waken him. So I’ve got my eyes on the Infant Optics DXR-8 Video Baby Monitor, this puppy comes with interchangeable lens (a zoom optical lens comes standard, while a wide angle lens is optional), remote tilt, pan, and zoom and features a 3.5-inch remote color display that can last for up to 10 hours on a charge. At nearly $180, it isn’t cheap, but it does give me a bit of piece of mind when I want to keep tabs on my latest bundle of joy.
If you've got any hot gift ideas you'd like to share with fellow readers, please comment below. And be sure to stay tuned to HotHardware for full reviews of all of the latest tech gear this holiday season. If you’ve got your credit card queued up and ready to roll for the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, be sure to check out our Amazon store, which is loaded up with some HOT gear of course as well.
