How do you find the right tech gift for dad? Look for smart ways to enhance his digital life.
- The newest 12 megapixel Samsung Galaxy S7 is the indisputable king of camera phones. It lets you capture photos in 0.15 seconds with a larger and faster F1.7 aperture for quality photos in low light.
- Epson WorkForce ET-4550 EcoTank™ All-in-One Printer cartridge-free printer comes with up to two years of ink in large built-in tanks – the equivalent of 50 sets of cartridges. Its mobile wireless printing capabilities include AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, mopria and Epson Connect. Works with Windows 10/8/7 and Mac computers.
- The SRS-XB3 speaker pumps out punchy bass. Bluetooth or one-touch NFC makes connecting any music source easy and the “analog” mini-jack input is standard. You can hook up two XB3 units for an even better stereo experience.
Here are some other smart accessories any dad would like:
- From Canadian Caseco come two car mount choices. The Core 360° features a swivel-ball mount which attaches securely to your car’s panel via two-sided tape. It comes with a ring you attach to the back of your phone or phone case which magnetically attaches to the 360° in any orientation or angle. The even smaller Mountie model simply clips on the car’s air grill and uses the same phone ring to magnetically hold the phone. Available at Telus, CPR and Staples.
- A remote phone camera shutter and speaker? Yes! The Logiix Blue Piston Nomad Bluetooth Speaker is a portable wireless Bluetooth speaker for Android and iOS phones. It fires your phone camera or video shutter from up to 10 feet away. Comes in five colours. The microSD slot lets you load music to directly listen to music with a surprisingly good speaker.
- The TP-LINK 10400mAh Portable Charger is compact with a 1-amp and 2-amp USB charge connector and enough juice to charge several phones. It also doubles as an LED flashlight.
- The new Roku Streaming Stick has a quad core processor offering more power and speed than competitors Amazon Fire TV stick and Google Chromecast. I found it has a more live TV-like experience. It includes nifty features like being able to listen to a big TV screen movie privately via the Roku Mobile App, which also lets you play personal video, photos and music on TV using the Play On Roku feature. For newbies, Roku offers paid and free streaming media access via an Internet connection at home or even a hotel or dorm room with its own WiFi. Its “streaming” stick connects to the HDMI port of TVs and laptops. Netflix, Spotify, Cineplex Bloomberg TV, sky NEWS, HappyKids, vimeo and twitch are but a few of the channels you can subscribe to, using your big home TV or device on the go. You can search through all your channels, watch a popular movie or TV show immediately, or follow it in the Roku Feed to receive automatic updates when the availability or price changes, or the movie or TV show becomes available to watch for free. The kit includes the Roku Streaming Stick with built-in HDMI connector, point anywhere remote with two AAA batteries, USB cable and power adapter.