These Smart Tech Gadgets Make Great Father’s Day Gifts
Father’s Day is just around the corner, and this year I think you should be smarter about what you get him. With all the Wi-Fi and app-enabled technology on the market, your gifts can do more than just offer Dad a quick laugh or another tie or coffee mug he won’t use.
These nine clever tech gifts will help him free up more time to spend with family and inspire his inner nerd, sports geek, or home brewer.
This robot lawn mower
There’s no better gift than taking a chore off Dad’s to-do list. There are plenty of robotic lawn mowers on the market these days, but few are as good as the ones in the Mammotion line. The new Luba mini is ideal for lawns up to a quarter of an acre and costs half as much as the full-size Luba 2. Setting up this particular mower is also pretty fun—you can think of it as a big remote-controlled machine.
Fitbit Sense 2
If dad isn’t in a rush to buy a fitness tracker, Fitbit’s current Father’s Day sale is slashing the price of the Sense 2 by 20%. The Sense 2 tracks steps, sleep, ECG, oxygenation, heart rate, and even offers GPS. It comes in a few manly colors, including graphite, platinum, and blue mist, and your purchase includes a six-month subscription to the Fitbit app.
ChiliPad Smart Bed Cooling System
There’s no more universal family conflict than the battle over what temperature to keep the bedroom (and how many blankets to put on the bed). But now there are smart climate control systems for sleep that can make this eternal struggle a bad memory. Using a Chilipad allows each person to control their exact sleep temperature: Cooled or heated water flows through coils in the sleeping pad, and each person controls their side via an app or controls on the device itself.
Smart Smokehouse Brisk It Zelos
Meat smokers spend a lot of time standing over the grill – even at night. The Brisk It , a smart smoker, eliminates this requirement by managing the smoking process to your exact specifications, without your direct involvement. You can use it to manage and monitor every aspect of the process with a beautifully designed, easy-to-use app. Brisk It grills also come with Vera, an artificial intelligence system that will find recipes for whatever you’re trying to create and send the appropriate program directly to the grill for execution.
Huupe Mini Smart Basketball Hoop
The baseball hoop is a dorm classic, but Huupe is a grown-up version that’s perfect for offices, dens, and even family rooms. It has an LED screen (which is also a TV and is loaded with a variety of streaming apps) that provides different backgrounds depending on the game you choose. You can load it up and play with family members or people around the world. Everything from a remote control and hardware for hanging on the door to a basketball pump is included.
Smartref refractometer
Any dad who’s into homebrewing (or winemaking, mead-making, or any alcohol, really) has probably sweated over some of the most important steps in fermentation. Smartref is a modern take on an old tool: a refractometer that measures sugar content and moisture levels. This app-enabled version can take lab-quality Brix and wort measurements, and even tell you how to fix beer problems.
Ting Fire Monitor and Aqara Water Valve Controller
When combined, these two devices can do more than just give dad a discount on home insurance — they can provide legal peace of mind. Ting plugs into any outlet and constantly monitors for potential electrical problems that could lead to fires. The Aqara Water Valve Controller plugs into your main water line and checks for suspected leaks anywhere in the house, intervening if there’s an unexpected leak. Both are passive tools that you monitor from your phone, and together give any home-owning dad (or anyone who owns a home) one less thing to worry about.
Rayban Meta Glasses
If you haven’t tried smart glasses yet, they’re a real treat, both initially and in the long run – you can’t help but grin like an idiot when you put them on and feel like you’re experiencing the future. These Meta Raybans are particularly good value for money and give you the ability to take photos on the fly, listen to audio and take calls via built-in speakers, and, most importantly, ask questions and get immediate answers from Meta’s AI. Lifehacker’s resident dad, Steven Johnson, gave them a solid thumbs up .