It’s the holiday season, and everyone is scrambling to throw together the perfect gift for the technology lover. With so many spectacular consumer electronics available, it can be overwhelming just thinking about all of the possibilities. Before you get in over your head thinking up the best gifts, try checking out this list of cool and practical tech.

chomecastGoogle Chromecast
The Google Chromecast has been out for a while, but it still makes a great gift for those tech-savvy people in your life. This is especially true for those who like to watch television. Chromecast basically turns any HDMI-supported television into a smart TV. This allows its user to stream content through various applications by connecting to your PC or mobile device. Using the Googlecast extension for the Google Chrome browser, you can stream services from Netflix, YouTube, and more through the television. Here are some of the apps supported by Chromecast:

  • Netflix
  • YouTube
  • Hulu Plus
  • HBO Go
  • WatchESPN
  • Showtime Anytime
  • and more!

The asking price for this useful dongle? A modest $35. Chromecast is a fantastic addition to any media-lover’s device collection.

seyvrSeyvr Power Saver Wallet
Mobile technology is the favored computing mode for the majority of people out there. Thanks to this, there’s a new emphasis on the battery life of mobile devices. The Seyvr Power Saver wallet gives travelers an exceptionally useful phone charger in everyone’s favorite money holding apparatus, the wallet.

The Seyvr Power Saver Wallet is slim and powerful, sporting a built-in 1,400 mAh Li-Po battery. This allows recharging via a USB cable in just under three hours, making it a good fit for anyone who does a lot of traveling. The wallet comes in brown or black, but the real value comes from its versatility. The Power Saver Wallet comes in models for both the iPhone (with a lightning charger on the iPhone5 and later models) and the classic Micro USB port, which powers the common Android and Windows-powered devices. The Seyvr Power Saver Wallet is available now at seyvr.com.

mobi eye-fiMobi Eye-Fi SDHC Card
Whether it’s for a hobby or professional reasons, people love to take pictures. It’s pretty likely that your camera doesn’t have digital transfer, so your images fill up your memory pretty quick. Eye-Fi from Mobi fixes this by letting you snap pictures with a point-and-shoot camera or your DSLR and then immediately lets you connect online, courtesy of the built-in WiFi from the SD card. This lets you kick corded communications to the curb and lets you immediately share photos via social media.

The Mobi Eye-Fi also integrates with the Eye-Fi Cloud, allowing you to back up all your pictures with a secure, easy-to-use web-based platform. All of this combined makes Mobi Eye-Fi a quality addition to any photographer’s toolkit. The Eye-Fi card comes with plenty of local storage, with 4, 8, 16, or 32 GB of storage.

ikettle
iKettle/wifikettle

With the Internet of Things taking the consumer market by storm, there are all sorts of devices which can connect to the Internet. Included in these is the wifikettle by iKettle. This unique appliance uses a WiFi-connected tea kettle which allows the user to control the kettle using their network connection. You can boil water with the click of a button.

The wifikettle is made for one specific purpose: to remotely allow you to boil water via your WiFi connection. The device comes in five distinct colors, allowing you to customize your morning wake-up call to your liking. The wifikettle is supported by iOS and Android mobile devices, and there’s no limit to the number of devices which can connect to it. For around $175, it can make a great addition to a modern kitchen appliance collection.

With these four devices, you can give a tech-savvy person in your life a holiday gift they’ll be sure to remember. What other devices would you suggest getting a techie for a gift? Let us know in the comments.

December 19, 2014
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