You know the scenario: There is this at least one person in your circle of friends or your extended family circle who absolutely loves technical stuff. It’s the uber guy or girl who drools over the latest smartphone or tells you about their recent experiences with a 3D printer. Most of the time they won’t even care for a run-of-the-mill laptop or a fancy TV (probably because they’ve got their “standard” equipment already well set up)! The more niche the products the better gifts they are. Even if you have no clue what to gift them because they seem to have it all there always is a gap in the collection of their gadgets. And it’ll be up to you to fill this gap. The list below provides an overview about the latest and geekiest smart home tech gifts available.
First things first: What actually is a smart home?
The oxford dictionary defines a smart home as following:
A home equipped with lighting, heating, and electronic devices that can be controlled remotely by smartphone or computer.
This means you’ve an influence on all the things in your home which are connected to the internet and/or your computer. Want an example? As soon as you come home your coffee machine ensures a fresh and hot coffee is brewing, you’ll enter to a warmed up living room, and your favorite music is playing from your stereo – sounds great, right? But there are even more possibilities: Your smart home also can close your windows as soon as it’s starting to rain, close your blinds if it is too sunny, and is able to regulate your energy use.
Coming to the gifts: The mainstream of tech gifts
Your Bae might be an uber tech geek but hasn’t gotten into the smart home stuff yet. So let’s start simple: What about his/her cleaning skills? There is an automatic vacuum cleaner which is available for only $140.00. Or how about a smart thermostat which can be controlled via voice control and knows what temperature is needed in which room.
If you don’t want to spend too much, a motion detector for the lights might do it, too. Or if you or your better half are more interested in home security how about a door/window contact which recognizes if there is any unauthorized access? A more advanced tech-thing is the bio-matic fingerprint door lock or a mobile monitoring ball which you even can move roll around your flat remotely.
Security and cleaning the flat isn’t what you’re looking for? Then check this out!
Welcome to hell’s kitchen!
Looks like a device to hold eggs, right? It absolutely is! But it also tells you which egg is the oldest one or notifies you if you’re running out of eggs. By using the Smarter Fridge Cam you can have a look into your fridge while you’re e.g. out for shopping and the Smarter Mats tells you how much milk is left. The PanCakeBot pan-jacks your creativity in baking while the HAPifork will send out vibrations (or flashes) when it detects you’re shoveling food in too fast.
The name of the next gadget already says it all and doesn’t need any further explanation: Invoxia Triby. Wait – you don’t know what that means? 😉 It’s a kitchen memo and could become an important part of many family’s communications. Virtually a small social network on its own. It allows you to leave a message on the fridge which additionally appears on your beloved ones smartphone as soon as their device joins the Wi-Fi. If you forgot to add a memo you can do so when you’re not at home by using your smartphone.
You never know what you have until it’s gone. Toilet paper, for instance.
The bluetooth bath fan with LED lights will transform your bathroom into a music hall while heated toilets help you to enjoy… well, you know what. Others recognize your departure from the toilet and flush themselves. Digital faucets support you in reducing your water consumption, to save money, and to finally transition your bathroom into a smart bathroom.
Just two small tech gifts – for your living room.
What’s your current mood? Support or change that mood with your light settings. Avea will help you to transform your living room into a lighting attraction and Alexa to play your favorite music or to read audio books and much more – hands-free.
Don’t give up your dreams – sleep away!
This Philips Wake-up Light improves your entire waking up experience. Instead of being rudely pulled out of your dreams by a shrill alarm clock you will be roused by soft lights. A smart pillow ensures a healthy relationship by prohibiting you from snoring through the night and Luna, a smart mattress cover, has an integrated microphone and an array of sensors to monitor temperature, breathing, and heart rate. It even can fire off your Wi-Fi coffee machine in the morning!
For your nightly activities there are several toys which can be controlled by your smartphone. Why this is useful you ask? Weeeelllll, just imagine your partner being on a business trip. We’ll leave the rest of it to your imagination.
Last but not least it’s time for some magic 
Imagine you’re holding a presentation and the slides are just moving by the force hand gesture alone – without any trace of visible technical bits and pieces? Or you’re just moving on to the next song in iTunes – by a simple move of your arm. The Myo Gesture Control armband allows you to do just that.
Nearly every day a new gadget pops up. If you’re looking for a Christmas present there might be more current gadgets already available. What tech gifts will you get for your loved ones – or are you an addict yourself and will try some of the products?
