In my last post, I looked at tech – or tech-adjacent – gifts for the kiddos. Now let’s get into the holiday gifts for the grownups in our lives. Maybe even gifts for ourselves. (Just don’t tell anyone!)
As with tech gifts for children, there’s no lack of sources for suggestions for tech gifts 
for adults. Two that I liked were the gadget lists from Consumer Expert Tech and from The New York Times Wirecutter. Here’s the items that I found most intriguing and/or practical.
If you’re a traveler, you might want to take along a Muama Enence with you. This is a translation device that claims to turn you into a fluent speaker of thirty-six languages. Looks very interesting, but I will note that there are other translators that support a lot more languages (and get more stars on Amazon, too).
Tired of your phone battery draining at just the wrong time, but not interested in carrying around a bulky charger? The Charge Card Wireless is the size of a credit card, so you can slip it in your wallet and power-up when needed.
If you live in a place where the winters can get mighty cold – a place, like, say Syracuse NY – the VolteX Unisex Heated Vest can help keep you warm when you’re out there brushing off your car, shoveling your front walk, taking the dog out when the temperature has plummeted to single digits. (Not that I’d know anything about cold weather…)
Admittedly, the WoodRanger Mini Chainsaw caught my eye because it, well, looks like a toy chainsaw. It uses the latest in quenching technology to keep it from heating up, and it lets you take care of mini gardening and landscaping projects, one-handed.
Even if you’re all tuckered out by shoveling in your heated vest or pruning with your mini chainsaw, you still may have a hard time falling asleep. Yet who wants to take a sleeping pill unless they absolutely have to? The Chill Pill is a little handheld device that sends out electronic pulses that quickly lull you into sleep. ZZZZZZ….
I’m a lifelong engineer so you can trust me when I tell you that, with the possible exception of the mini chainsaw, I’m usually not drawn to anything cutesy. But I did get a kick out of the Victrola Rock Speaker Connect, a Bluetooth speaker that’s, well, shaped like a rock. It’s designed for outdoor listening, so it’ll fit right in.
And if the noise from the speaker – or from the mini chainsaw – gets to be a bit too much, Loop Switch ear plugs provide three noise reduction levels. Perfect for concerts, where the noise can definitely get out of control.
It won’t fit in your wallet, but the Belkin MagSafe 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand will let you power up three devices at the same time. (And, I hate to say it, but it looks cute.)
Bird feeder in your backyard? Probably not as techy as the Netvue Birdy Feeder, which lets you feed the birds and take photos and videos of them, and any squirrels who may chance by. And it comes with color night vision, so you can also capture any raiders – avian and non-avian alike – who visit after dark.
Sure, we had a drone on our tech toys for kids list, but what’s a list of tech toys for grownups without a drone on it? The DJI Mini 3 gets props for ease of use. The one downside seems to be that it doesn’t come equipped with obstacle-avoidance sensors like more expensive drones have. You’ll just have to pay a bit more attention to where it’s flying.
My favorite item just might be the Bambu Lab A1 Mini, a 3D printer billed as a “thing maker.” At less than $500, this is a home version that’s relatively affordable. It won’t let you print “trickier materials” – the article mentions ABS and carbon fiber – but you could still make an awful lot of things with it. And what engineer doesn’t like to make things?
That’s it for now. Wishing you happy holiday shopping, even if you’re just shopping for gadgets for yourself!