Image via GWImages/Shutterstock
This Sunday, 15 June, is the day to celebrate paternal parents. To help in the search for the perfect gift for a pop, here’s the tech gift guide for Father’s Day presents.
For fit fathers
Never before have sport and technology been more entwined, with fitness-tracking products once reserved for elite athletes now available for the average consumer.
If your dad is fitness mad, there’s a variety of activity-tracking accessories to choose from. With the Samsung Gear Fit (€200, Carphone Warehouse), Sony SmartBand (€82, Expansys), Garmin’s Vivofit (€134, Littlewoods Ireland), the Jawbone Up (€98, Harvey Norman) and the entire Fitbit range and more, there’s a device for almost all budgets and needs.
Samsung Gear Fit
But there’s more to sports gadgets than wearable technology. There’s the Adidas MiCoach Smart Ball (€299, Adidas) to help dad practise his strikes, or the Zepp GolfSense wearable golf-swing analyser (€100, GiftsDirect.com) for your putting papa.
Zepp GolfSense Swing Analyser
You could even get your cyclist dad a handy mobile phone mount for his bicycle – such as this one for €20 from PhonesOnline.ie – so he can make use of fitness technology already available on his smartphone. Or, if he’s more of a rugby fan, you can get a Samsung Galaxy Trend Plus in the Leinster colours exclusively from O2 for €150 on pre-pay.
Fergus McFadden, Sean O’Brien and Mike Ross at the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Trend Plus in Leinster Rugby colours
For camera-loving care-givers
There’s something about becoming a dad that can turn a man into a keen documentarian. For these dads, there are moment-capturing gadgets, such as the tiny but durable GoPro (€249 for the Hero3, Harvey Norman), or Canon’s pocket-friendly Legria Mini (€335) with a vari-angle LCD that helps put the cameraman in the picture. Canon is also offering cashback on the Legria Mini and other cameras and camcorders in its range as a special Father’s Day offer.
Canon Legria Mini
For media-mad minders
If your dad’s a telly addict, why not expand his viewing capabilities with a Chromecast (€40, Argos), which brings online video to your TV.
Tech-savvy daddies may have their streaming needs already covered with a streaming-media drive such as a Roku device. If so, AirCastLive is offering free downloads of its video-casting app up to 16 June so that sons and daughters can send video messages from a big screen.
There are also dads who are stuck in the Eighties when it comes to tech, and for them you can help bring their music collection into the 21st century with a tape-to-MP3 converter (€70, Giftsdirect.com). Beware: this device may be used by your dad to put recordings from his days as a struggling musician online – yikes!
Zennox Tape-to-MP3 Converter and Player
For DIY dads
If your dad is a maker, hacker or tinkerer, get yourself down to the Science Gallery’s MakeShop on Lincoln Place in Dublin.
Here, you can find all manner of bits and bobs just waiting to be assembled into something incredible. From hands-on materials like Sugru to Arduino kits and Raspberry Pi boards, to instruction books on how to use them all, you’ll surely find something to put a maker’s hands into action in this store. You could even sign him up to a workshop while you’re at it!
Raspberry Pi image via MakeShop on Facebook
Main Father’s Day image by GWImages via Shutterstock
