Top 8 Christmas Gadgets for Moms

by Lori Cunningham

Moms lead overscheduled lives.  There are plenty of gifts to give a mom to help her relax or even glam her up.  But what’s a gift that will help her to save valuable time or help her to pursue a hobby? Introducing  WellConnectedMom.com’s Top 8 Christmas Gadgets for Moms.  This isn’t your typical Christmas gift guide, as all items pertain to technology.  But rest assured, you’ll find something on this list that will appeal to any mom.

Top Eight Gadgets for Mom:

The Nook

Love to read books?  Do you carry around a large book around with you wherever you go?     Now you can buy your books electronically – called eBooks – can store them on a portable eReader.  The Nook is the newest eReader on the market.  The Barnes & Noble’s Nook weighs only 10.2 oz. has a 10 day battery life, and a 6 inch screen including a smaller color touch screen at the bottom.  The words of the book are black and white, but below is a touch menu screen which shows the book covers in color.

The Nook has an internal 2 GB memory and a SD card slot which allows up to 16GB of additional drive space.  Cool features include being able to download any complete eBook within Barnes & Noble’s network in their stores.  Read them at your leisure while in the store.  You can also easily download eBooks for free at your local library.  eReaders are great for books, magazines, magazines, and .pdf files.  Now you can take your entire library with you when on the go.  The Nook is the only color touch eReader on the market.  However, if you want to give one to a mom for Christmas, you’re going to have to give her an I.O.U.  The Nook just debuted in early December and they have already sold out.  More will be available in January.  The Nook retails for $259.  For more info. see The Nook.

To see The Nook in action, watch this video from Barnes & Noble’s:

iPhone or iPod Touch

The Apple iPhone is a great phone and tool for anyone.  There is so much capability packed into both the iPhone and the iPod Touch.  With both devices you can synchronize your calendar and contacts, upload your pictures, videos, and music, use the GPS system, check your e-mail, play games, set the alarm clock, use the calculator, phone home (iPhone), with many more activities available for free or purchase.  Currently, there are over 100,000 applications available for the iPhone – and nearly as many for the iPod Touch.   Compare that to Google’s 20,000 Android apps and Blackberry’s 2,000 apps.  There is virtually every application for any need. 

So what’s the difference between the iPhone and the iPod Touch anyway?

The iPhone and iPod are similar in many ways.  The main differences are that the iPhone includes a phone and a camera.  Because of the contract you buy with AT&T, you can connect to the Internet through their 3G network.  The iPod Touch does not have a phone or camera but it does have the capability to upload your videos and pictures to a TV, whereas the iPhone cannot.  Also, the iPod Touch connects to the Internet through WiFi, not the AT&T network.  So in order for the GPS to work, you need a WiFi connection — which is hard to get in a car.

If you already receive cell service or don’t mind switching to AT&T, the iPhone is the way to go.  However, if you don’t want to switch carriers or don’t mind carrying around a phone and an iPod Touch, the iPod Touch is a more economical way to go.  The 16 GB iPhone 3GS retails  for $199 plus the cost of AT&T’s 2 year contracted service and the 8 GB iPod Touch retails for $199.

miBook

   The miBook player is a handy LCD screen tool that helps moms (and others) to prepare meals, decorate and garden, have a healthy pregnancy, review parenting tips, figure out home projects, and even prepare for trips to NYC, Washington DC, Orlando, and more.  MiBook’s packaging states the miBooks are ‘revolutionarybooks that come alive with words, videos, and sound.”  The miBook gives step by step video instructions, pausing after each instruction, so you can follow along.  Now when you get distracted by chaos from the kids in the other room, no problem.  The video will pause at each step, so resolve your kids’ conflict, then come back and replay the step you were just at.  MiBooks keeps track of where you are, so you don’t have too.  MiBook looked like a great product so I contacted miBook to allow me to review it.  MiBook responded back right away and sent me a MiBook and several of their cooking series MiBooks to review.  The cooking miBooks contained 150 recipes on each miBook and the recipes I tried were very good.  I particularly liked the “Healthy Cooking for Kids” miBook, which emphasizes fresh meats, fruits, and vegetables.  It’s a great activity to do with your children.  I’ll have more to say on he miBook in the new year.  The miBook retails for $139.99 at Amazon with the Home Decorating and Gardening Guide included.

Baby Video Monitor

A baby video monitor is perfect for keeping an eye on your baby when s/he is sleeping.  Today’s baby video monitors are much more portable and technoligically advanced than those in the past.  Many video monitors have advanced signals so they do not receive interference from cordless phones, wireless devices, and microwaves.  In addition, some monitors even encrypt the signal for added security so the signal cannot be intercepted by outside wirless devices.  Today’s video monitors include infrared night vision so you can see your baby even in a darkened room.  Some also include a nightlight and lullaby music that plays from your remote control.   To save battery life, monitors stay in standby until the camera picks up movement.  Once movement is detected, your video monitor will turn on so you can see the baby.   Through research, Wellconnectedmom  found the Swann SW233-BDM ADW330 Digital Wireless FamilyCam Monitor and Camera to be a very good monitor.  Swann is a surveillance manufacturer and their cameras offer vivid pictures and sound.  The FamCam offers a 2.36″ color LCD and covers distances up to 165 ft. away.  The retail price of the Swan FamCam is $199, but it too is on sale right now at Amazon for $149.  The Swan monitor can also be found at Home Depot and Radio Shack.

Digital Picture Frame

 Digital picture frames are a great way to keep your pictures “alive” throughout the year.  No longer are they stored in a drawer, photo album, or filed on your computer.   Digital picture frames show digital pictures in such a vivid display and they are fun to watch just to see what picture will come up next.  Today’s digital picture frames have come a long way.  The frames are now less expensiveve, can hold more pictures, and some can even connect wirelessly to your computer anytime a new picture is added.  Digital picture frames can display family picutres, but they are also great for showing off your child’s scanned in artwork.  Down the road, it’s more than likely that digital picture frames will be commonplace and multiple will be used throughout the house in different sizes.

Because of the power adaptor needed, digital picture frames do not need to be running all the time – just turn it on when you feel like seeing your pictures.  Having guests over and using your digital picture frame is a great way to show them what you’ve been up to – as their interest allows.  If they’re intrigued, they’ll watch more, if not, that’s ok too.  For further information on what features to look for in a good digital picture frame, see the wellconnectedmom’s review on digital picture frames.  I recommend getting a as big a digital picture frame as you can afford (8 inches minimum) and ensure it’s WiFi capable if you have a wireless network at home.  Digital picture frames retail from anywhere $$90 up to over $200 for a 8″ frame.

Hand Camcorder

 One thing moms always need but never seem to have with them is a camera/video camera.  So many great moments could be captured if only mom had her camera.  Smartphones are helping in this area immensely, but smart phones are limited because they typically only shoot at 1 – 3 megapixels.  Several years ago the Flip Video Camcorder entered the market and changed the way camcorders are used.  Flip Video Cam’s are called “Flip” due to an USB arm that can extend from the camera and connects to your computer.  Uploading videos is effortless and the video can easily be shared with YouTube.

Now that the Flip has been out for awhile, there are a number of hand cam competitors with prices as low as $40 to past $400.  After trying both the Flip Ultra and the Sanyo Xacti CG10 (pictured), Wellconnectedmom recommends the Sanyo Xacti.  The Sanyo Xacti is more beneficial to moms because it includes a 10 megapixel camera and a camcorder.  In addition, it has a 5x digital zoom (Flip has a 2x zoom), a Lithium-ion battery and charger, a flash, a larg rotating LCD screen (making self-portraits easy), a SD/SDHC slot (for cards up to 32GB), and many more advanced features.  The main disadvantage is that the Sanyo Xacti cam requires a USB cable to connect.  If you’re looking for the easiest way to download videos, the Flip is the best way to go.  If you want a camera and camcorder with enhanced features, choose the Sanyo Xacti.  The Flip Ultra retails for $129 and the Sanyo Xacti retails for $165 the price just dropped, now it’s $149 at Amazon.com.

 Wii Fit

The Wii Fit has revolutionized the way moms are “squeezing” in time for their workouts.  No longer do you need to go to a gym or hire a personal trainer.  All you have to do is turn on your Wii and buy Wii Fit and the balance board to  get started.  OK, perhaps it’s not all you have to do.  Regular exercise is still good – in fact it burns 50% more calories than a workout on your Wii.  Nonetheless, the Wii Fit makes it fun to work out and if it’s fun, you’re more likely to do it.  The Wii Fit features lots of games so you don’t even realize you’re working out.  Exercises include ski racing and jumping, strength training, yoga, calisthenics, step aerobics, jogging, and hula hooping.  The more you play, the more games and levels you “unlock,” so the game stays interesting.

The Wii Fit will also help you track weight to let you know how you’re progressing as you workout with the Fit.  A Wii Fit trainer will walk you through the exercises to help you do them right.  The balance board can sense whether you’re out of balance or could be standing incorrectly.  The personal trainer tries to motivate you by telling you “good job.  Besides the Wii Fit, there are many new fitness games available to help you expand your workouts.  The new fitness game by Jenny Mc Carthy ($66.99)  includes a video camera and can detect whether you doing a particular exercise correctly!  What will they think of next!  The Wii Fit retails for $109.95.

 Netbook

A netbook is a computer that is smaller and less powerful than a laptop.  Netbooks weigh under 3 lbs., are very portable (they can even fit in larger purses), come in a variety of colors, and typically have keyboards that are 70-90% the size of a normal laptop keyboard.  Moms will love the portability and convenience of  being able to check their e-mail, surf the web, upload and edit pictures, and work on documents.  A netbook can easily handle the loading of additional programs and games, as long as they are not graphically intense.    WellConnectedMom.com recommends buying an 11 ” screen netbook with either an Intel N270 or N280 processor.  The minimum hard drive space should be 160GB and 1 Ram of memory.  A netbook retails typically from $269 to $400, dependent upon the model.

So, what do you think?  What are your suggestions for “must have” gadgets for mom?  Add a comment below and give your feedback.