Merry Christmas! Moms do a lot for their families. They often put family members first above themselves. This year’s tech Christmas gift ideas include ideas for family fun, different ways to interact and store family pictures, a remarkable product to help with stress, get rid of those nagging pains, and even one to help her jumpstart her car without needing to ask for help.
These gifts are helpful gifts that any mom would appreciate…
Top 10 Tech Christmas Gift Ideas for Moms
TouchPoints
Last year we introduced to our readers ReliefBand. ReliefBand uses proprietary programmed pulses to send a signal to relieve nausea. It really works and I don’t travel on boats/ships without it. TouchPoints is a similar device in the sense that it uses using neuroscientific technology, involving electrical pulses, to relieve stress by over 70% in as little as 30 seconds.
In fact, to be more specific, “TouchPoints use Bi-Lateral Alternating Stimulation Tactile (BLAST) stimulation to give the user a gentle vibration that affects the brain and alters the body’s fight, flight or freeze response.”
TouchPoints can even help improve focus and performance for people with Parkinson’s, Autism, and ADHD…even insomnia. Best yet, mom can share touchpoints with her family.
TouchPoints come in a set with two TouchPoints and two wristbands. Slide the TouchPoints into the wristbands and wear a wristband on each wrist. TouchPoints can be used daily preventatively for 20 minutes and throughout the day as needed to calm the mind.
Although the wristbands are useful, TouchPoints can also be held in hands or clipped to clothing on opposite sides of the body. They do not need to touch skin to work as long as you can feel the tactile stimulation.
TouchPoints comes in two versions – 1.) Basic, offered at a reduced price, has 3 settings to help with sleep, calm, and anger and 2.) Original with 6 settings to help with calm, sleep, focus, anger, performance, and cravings. In addition, TouchPoints Original comes with an app, offering additional customization.
When mom isn’t using TouchPoints, she can give them to anyone in the family having stress or anxiety, sleeping issues, or even a child anxious about an upcoming test.
TouchPoints Basic kit for $135 or the Original kit for $240, directly from the TouchPoints website. Wristbands are also offered in assorted colors, starting at $20.
MyCharge AdventureJumpStart
One of the most frustrating things that can happen to a mom (besides misbehaving kids) is when her car breaks down. Moms have schedules to manage, carpools to run, and a never-ending list of errands to run. She has no time for the car to break down.
It’s inevitable that the car battery will die, usually at the most inopportune time. If she doesn’t have cables in the car, it makes the task even more unbearable trying to flag down someone who 1.) has the time 2.) has cables and 3.) knows how to use them.
The MyCharge JumpStartAdventure is the perfect solution for moms. True, she most likely won’t use it often, maybe even once every 2 years. But when it’s needed, it’s a lifesaver! The battery jump cables are mini cables and connect into a powerful portable battery pack.
With quick instructions, she can jumpstart her own car in minutes! It’s truly amazing. No rummaging through the trunk looking for jumper cables, no asking people to help, no needing the person helping to move their car next to hers. She just pulls out the MyCharge AdventureJumpStart, connects the cables, turns on the battery pack, revs the engine and it starts!
Even better, when not in use for an emergency, the MyCharge AdventureJumpStart can be used as a portable battery pack (without the jumper cables) to charge her phone and the family’s devices. She can even keep it charged in her car so it never needs to be removed and forgotten in the house.
The My Charge MyCharge AdventureJumpStart rechargeable 6600mAh portable charger is available at Best Buy for $49.99 plus free shipping (A $50 savings right now!)
My Cloud Home Duo Drive
Moms have thousands of precious, irreplaceable family photos that they cherish on their phones and PC’s. As a part of their heritage keeper role, they store away lots of memories taken on family vacations, their children’s birthdays, first steps, and award ceremonies, and all the events surrounding their family.
The thought of losing these pictures strikes terror on any mom. In an ideal situation, photos would be automatically backed up from her phone and computer on an ongoing basis. Also that she would be available to access them through her phone and tablet no matter where in the world she may be.
The My Cloud Home Duo Drive by Western Digital (WD) makes this all possible. It plugs into the home’s network and can even back up all the computers on the home network. It’s called Duo because it has two external hard drives – one for saving Mom’s data and the other for replicating this data (a backup of the backup data!) in the rare event the first My Cloud Home Duo drive fails.
The My Cloud Home Duo becomes that one central place in mom’s home to store all content, including pictures, videos, documents, music, and more. Not only can it save files from home PC’s, but any or all family smartphones, laptops, and tablets. It includes a file search to help her easily find files and she can access everything via the My Cloud Home app. Each family member can have their own private space in which they allow access or not dependent upon their needs.
Best yet, there’s no monthly fee! The MyCloud Home Duo is available at Best Buy for $309.99 with a 4 TB in total, 2 bay personal cloud. Includes free shipping. Other larger TB sizes are available (up to 16 TB).
Jeopardy & Wheel of Fortune
Who doesn’t love Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune? Recently Ubisoft introduced Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. These two trivia and puzzle solving games are great for the whole family to play. Watching Jeopardy and Wheel on TV is fun, but playing in your own family room is even better.
The sets of in these games are strikingly similar to those on TV, and they even show you little advertisements of the prizes you won. Both games have different modes so you can play quick rounds, family, or career rounds. No around to play? Mom can play the Xbox One computer or even venture out with online players.
The family mode in Jeopardy has separate categories which are more inclusive and fun for kids and parents, so everyone wants to play longer.
Jeopardy has over 2,000 clues to answer throughout the game and Wheel of Fortune offers over 4,000 puzzles.
The America’s Greatest Game Shows Wheel of Fortune & Jeopardy – Xbox One game can be purchased through Amazon for $19.99 plus shipping.
MagiStir for Moms with Babies
MagiStir isn’t suited for all Moms, but if you know a mom that has a young baby at home, MagiStir is a tremendous tool in helping to feed baby. Just pour in water and baby formula into MagiStir, press the button once and it will blend and warm up the formula to the perfect temperature within 90 seconds. There’s no guesswork in getting the temperature right and no worry of formula clumping.
In fact, MagiStir works well for refrigerated bottled breast milk too in getting it stirred and warmed to the perfect temperature. MagiStir uses a magnetic stirrer that you put in the main canister for stirring. If the formula is already at the right temperature, just press the button twice to stir out any clumps.
But the MagiStir does more. Take out the magnetic stirrer and replace it with the magnetic basket to sterilize small items like pacifiers, bottle nipples, and more. The water is heated to a boiling point to ensure sterilization. The water gets very hot.
You can also add chilled baby food containers or milk bags to MagiStir™ to activate the defrost setting. Never use a microwave again when feeding baby.
The MagiStir is so handy, moms will find themselves using it throughout the day for bottles and sterilizing the binky that constantly falls to the ground. And MagiStir grows with you. As baby grows into toddlerhood, binkys drop even more. In addition, the valves used on the inside of sippy cups are perfect for MagiSitr to sterilize.
We no longer have babies in our household, but MagiStir can still be used to warm up your cup of cold coffee or to make hot chocolate to the perfect temperature, removing any clumps. Just the other day I had hot coffee as a sample at a store and both my son and burned our mouths pretty badly. That won’t happen with MagiStir!
We love the versatility of MagiStir, it’s a fantastic tool for mothers with babies and toddlers.
MagiStir just finished their Kickstarter campaign and the company is lining up distributors now. You can purchase a “sample” through the MagiStir for $99 including shipping.
Porte Play Tech Pouches
On a day-to-day basis most moms carry a phone, a phone cord, a plug for charging, and possibly a portable battery. Or, most likely if a mom had young school-age kids, she’s carrying around their gadgets and chargers in addition to hers! I know, I’ve done it…and still do!
If you have a big purse (a necessity for most moms) you tend to carry more. My young teenagers find it most convenient to “drop” their electronics in my purse for easy carrying (for them!). But here’s the thing, with all of cords, chargers, and gadgets, things get jumbled in my purse. Separating what belongs to who or even finding my cord becomes a mess.
Porte Play Tech recognizes that life can get messy…especially our tech life. They have created some fashionable cases to make storing and toting tech easier. Porte Play Tech created pouches and organizers to tidy up Mom’s tech so she can find just when she needs it in a timely manner, rather than rummaging through her bag.
With a Porte Play Tech pouch in my purse, I can find my cord and chargers easily. I can also have one for each of my kids. The zipper pulls are made of beautifully strong metal and the nylon cases are classy yet durable.
I use the small organizer for my mini surge protector and power cords for when I travel. The larger organizer is great for all the cords, power banks, earbuds, and even other items like chapstick, a pen, small snacks, and more when I am on an airline.
Instead of placing my big backpack at my feet, I can grab the large organizer and my tablet case for my iPad so I have everything I need for my flight; it’s very handy. I call it my “flight Pack.” In the past, I had the various things throughout my backpack so I needed by huge backpack at my feet in case I needed something. Now, I grab my flight pack and stow my backpack in the overhead above.
Porte Play Tech as a number of tech organization options and their prices are very reasonable, making it economical to purchase several tech solutions.
Porte Play Tech solutions are available on their website ranging from $11.99 to $19.99, including free shipping!
Adobe Photoshop Elements Software
The other day a friend showed me a beautiful picture of her entire family – a portrait she was very proud of. It truly was picture perfect. But what made this picture even more amazing was the fact that one of her sons never posed with the rest of the family for the picture. With two sons in college and one out-of-state, she gave up on the possibility of getting the whole family together for their yearly portrait.
Instead, four of the family members posed and left a spot for the out-of-state son who couldn’t join them. Later, a friend “Photoshopped” him in and you couldn’t even tell. Now, we’ve all heard of people being “photoshopped” in before, but only professionals have been able to do this successfully.
Not anymore! With Adobe Photoshop Elements anyone can do it now! With the easy steps provided in the photomerge compose tool, you can crop your own family members into a photo! It works great and it’s fun.
In fact, there are all sorts of tools mom can use to make her pictures “picture perfect,” like a tool to ensure everyone in a group shot is looking at the camera. Often times one child has their eyes closed or is not smiling or has his/her eyes closed in a family shot. Photo merge will look at all the shots you’ve taken and blend together the best of all of them so each person looks their best. This is perfect for families!
There are too many great features to list here, but one last one to share is Adobe Photoshop Elements’s amazing cataloging capabilities. It will help tag each of your photos so you can easily search for a family member, a pet, friends, and even sunsets, beaches, and specific locations (if geotags are turned on in your phone or camera). It’s super simple to find things now. Photo Premiere even auto-curates to help you find the best shots from the latest vacation, awards ceremony, or graduation…whatever you’re looking for!
Adobe Photoshop Elements is available on Amazon for $69.99 ($30 off) including free shipping.
Samsung Note 8
If you’re a regular reader of The Well Connected Mom, you know that the Samsung Note is our favorite phone. Why? It takes amazing pictures with depth and tremendous resolution that can easily be blown up without deterioration.
The new Samsung Note 8 has an expandable MicroSD slot so you can expand the memory up to 256GB, you would be hard-pressed to run out of memory. Just think of all the pictures and videos moms could store on it!
And the built-in stylus allows you to take notes on the spot, always having a pen handy. In fact, as you write it can translate your words into written text, it’s really amazing.
The new Samsung Note 8 does all of this and more. We are especially impressed with the new dual camera and Live Focus feature. It allows you to blur out the background to your liking, resulting in amazing SLR quality pictures. With the Live Setting function on, you don’t even need to figure out the background blurring on the spot, you can do it later, anytime after you’ve taken the picture.
With its 6.3 inch super HD screen, ultra-thin bezel with infinity edges, the strongest phone glass available, and 6GB of RAM to multiprocess, the Note 8 is the best phone on the market. And did we mention it’s waterproof too?
If mom loves pictures (and which mom doesn’t?), the Samsung Note 8 will be a hit for those moms who want more from their phones and their collection of family photos nearby. Running out of memory will be a distant memory.
The Samsung Note 8 normally retails for close to $1000 but at Best Buy with $0 down and a special price of $26.50/mo for 25 months with zero APR, you can save $300! Plus they have a special Midnight Blue color only available at Best Buy.
MyHeritage DNA Kit
DNA kits are all the rage these days. Where did your family come from? What is your true ethnicity? Will there be any surprises? Do your parents even really know where the family came from? We recently tried the MyHeritage DNA Kit to get some of these questions answered and were surprised by the results (more in an article at a later time).
As moms are typically the “heritage keepers” passing down family stories and genealogy to their children, a DNA kit this Christmas can be a fun and even eye-opening experience. MyHeritage has been around for 14 years with over 93 million users worldwide. They analyze DNA to determine which portions are estimated to originate from 42 supported ethnicities – the largest number offered by any other DNA testing service.
And with over 8.3 billion historical records to search from, it’s a great service to begin or extend your family genealogy search. I subscribed to a monthly service (provided) a couple of months ago and already have found over 1,700 relatives. MyHeritage helps you find new relatives every day, it’s a super easy service and it’s lots of fun too.
Once mom receives her DNA kit, she’ll take 2 swab wipes of inside her cheek and send it back. She should receive her online results within 4 weeks. All data is private and secure with multiple layers of encryption.
OSKA Pulse
Does mom have a nagging pain that just doesn’t seem to go away? Perhaps mom has back pain, muscle soreness, tendonitis, carpal tunnel, sciatica, knee pain, inflammation or swelling, joint stiffness, or more?
There are a number of products on the market to treat the pain, but only with their continued use. Products like ibuprofen, painkillers, steroids, even TENS (Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Simulation), which doesn’t use drugs, are designed to lessen the pain.
The OSKA Pulse is new on the market and is a new pain relief health-tech product that uses PEMF (Pulsed ElectroMagnetic Fields) to help treat pain. It is FDA registered, effective, and 100% drug-free.
The Pulse’s PEMF signals send biophysical signals that blood, muscle, ligaments, and even bones respond. There are no known adverse side effects and Mom can feel relief within minutes. The OKSA Pulse is small for portability and rechargeable for the utmost convenience. Perfect for after workouts, Pilates, running, tennis, yoga, and even exhausting travel days.
The Pulse works for both temporary recent pain and long-term, chronic pain. It comes with a patented compression wrap belt to strap the OSKA Pulse easily to your back, knee, shoulder, hip, wherever it’s needed.
The chosen winner of the 2017 Tech.Co Startup of the Year Award, the OSKA Pulse is sure to bring much-needed relief.
The OSKA Pulse sells for $399.99 through OSKA Wellness with free shipping.
There’s our list of the Top 10 Tech Christmas Gift Ideas for Moms for 2017! We think you’ll agree there are some amazing products available for mom to help make her days easier – whether easing pains, stress, managing her day,or connecting in new ways with her family near and far. Have a tech gift idea? We want to hear it! Leave it in the comments below.
Looking for gift ideas for kids? See our Top 10 Tech Christmas Gift Ideas for Kids 2017 guide. Our gift guide for Dads will be published soon.
From our family of writers to yours, may you have a very blessed Christmas this year!
*We were given most of these items, amongst others, for consideration and testing for possible inclusion in our Christmas Gift Ideas Guides. All opinions are our own.
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