(As seen in USA Today) Columnist Jennifer Jolly reviews the best of the best Mother’s Day gadget gifts of 2016

Mother’s Day is coming up fast and that special gift that makes her feel all warm and fuzzy inside? Well it isn’t just going to make, or buy, itself. Here are 10 of this year’s most-wanted mom gadgets sure to show her how much you appreciate her, all year long.

Make Mom’s Life Easier

No idea what she really wants? Hmm… As a busy mom myself — most days what I really need —  is a clone. Sure, that’s still just sci-fantasy for now, but Amazon’s Echo($180) can feel pretty darn close at times. Echo is a hands-free speaker and personal assistant designed around your voice. Just say the word “Alexa,” the device wake-up word, and then ask a question, play music, have Alexa read the news, set timers and alarms, recite your calendar, and even to control lights around your home. And you can do all this from across the room, without lifting a finger.

Preserve Those Family Memories

Tweed Wolf: Gorgeous custom photo books with someone else taking care of the customizing. (Photo: Tweed Wolf)

If your mom is anything like me, she takes a lot of photos — then leaves them on her phone or piled up in boxes collecting dust. Buy a Tweed Wolf gift card for mom, and let its “do-everything-for-you” ($295) photo album service come to the rescue. Just sign up, upload all your photos and Tweed Wolf designers do the rest. They go through every image, select the best ones, edit everything so it prints perfectly and then send you a link to an online proof. You can ask for any edits, and once you approve, Tweed Wolf prints, binds, and ships your high-quality, hardcover album.

Replace Her Clunky Laptop

Now, time to bring moms digital life up to date. I admit it’s a splurge, but Mom will definitely appreciate the stylish new HP Spectre laptop ($1170). Despite its thin profile — it’s only as thick as a AAA battery — and striking black and copper design, the Spectre isn’t just eye-candy. This laptop is powerful enough to run any apps with top-tier Intel Core i5 and i7 processors and has nine and a half hours of battery life to keep going all day.

Upgrade Her Smartphone

We modern moms are always on the go, and need a speedy smartphone with all-day battery life to keep up with our busy lives. Enter the recently announced HTC 10($700), the newest Android smartphone hitting the market (available for pre-order now, ships in May). It has a vibrant 5″ display, great 12MP camera for catching all those family photos, and a super impressive two days of battery life.

Help Her Capture It All

A smartphone is fantastic for digital photos, but there’s still a certain nostalgic joy to having printed pictures. You can print out your photos at home, of course, but the Polaroid Snap camera ($100) makes getting prints fast and simple by instantly printing 2×3, full-color images to share or scrapbook. (Be sure to order the Zinc paper along with it, it does not come it!)

Let Her Know the Whole Family’s Thinking about Her

Flatterbox ($50 and up) is a new twist on the classic card — instead of sending a flurry of cards from across the country, Flatterbox lets you invite family members to submit thoughts, wishes, and anything else through its website. When the whole family’s chimed in, the company prints the sentiments on brightly colored cards and packages them in a gift box. It’s a great way to tell Mom everyone cares.

Stay Fit and Stylish

The new Fitbit Alta ($130) combines the basic features of a fitness tracker and a smartwatch, tracking activity as well as showing simple smartphone notifications. The sleek Alta won’t scream “gadget” when on Mom’s wrist: there isn’t a single button and interchangeable wristbands come in rubber, leather and stainless steel for a variety of looks.

Give the Latest High Tech Bling

Even though the Alta is a fairly sleek way to stay on top of smartphone notifications, it’s still a noticeable wrist-worn gadget and may not suit her style — but that doesn’t mean staying out of touch. Ringly ($260) is one of my favorite wearables because it doesn’t look like a wearable at all. This chunky ring vibrates and subtly lights up to let you know about smartphone notifications, and it’s likely no one else will even notice. The latest design features an emerald in an 18k gold-plated setting, but there are plenty of styles and colors to suit her taste.

Relax without Leaving the House

InstaShiatsu+ Neck and Back Massager with Heat: gets in there and works the knots out! (Photo: TruMedic)

Being a mom is a high-stress, full-time job and taking the afternoon off to hit the spa isn’t always — or even usually — an option. Thank goodness truMedic’s InstaShiatsu heated massager ($140) can give a great massage from anywhere. This cordless “kneading” massager actually gets in and works the knots out of my tired muscles. Ahhh-mazing!

Combine All Her Must-Have Gadgets

I love iHome’s high-tech take on a good ole vanity mirror ($150), which we moms know is a must. This 9″ distortion-free mirror has 7x magnification plus a built-in Bluetooth speaker and speakerphone. Now Mom can easily listen to music, take calls and even charge her phone all while getting ready to go in the morning.

Okay, hopefully this gives you a great place to start and lots of ideas to make her day magical. What’s your favorite Mother’s Day gift – that you’ve either given or received? Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments section below. Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted in Digital Parenting, Girlfriend's Guide, Great Gadgets, In The Press, TechNow, TechStyled, Top tech news

Most moms I know deserve a medal. But this Mother’s Day, anything totally awesome will do just fine. A homemade card. You cleaning the bathroom. A gorgeous gadget that will keep her connected with you. Here’s a veritable bouquet of the best fresh tech gifts for all kinds of moms.

START EVERY DAY WITH GORGEOUS FLOWERS

Here’s a way to let your mom wake up to fresh flowers every day of the year. The limited edition Soundfreaq Sound Rise Flower Freaq ($80) is a super modern wireless speaker, high-tech alarm clock and USB charging station bathed in a beautiful bouquet of wildflowers. Super Mom of seven — Cortney Novogratz — designed this with her business partner husband, Robert, specifically for Mother’s Day. The whole package says fun, hip, artsy and super cool. Anything that can help her manage her brood with such style, gets a huge thumbs-up from me!

FOR THE CHIEF MEMORY OFFICER MOM

Moms are often the “Chief Memory Officers” of the family. These days that means a little less scrapbooking and a little more iPhone Camera Roll organization. You can gift Mom peace of mind with this modern 1TB Vivint Space Monkey Drive ($150 for the drive plus $50 subscription). It automatically backs up photos the second she takes them on the hard drive and to the cloud. When she needs to make more space on her phone, two taps makes sure they’re safely stored, then deletes them off her phone. She can back up more than 300,000 photos and access them right from the Space Money App any time she wants to take a trip down Memory Lane.

While Space Monkey works its magic at home, the teeny-tiny 128GB Sandisk iXpand Flash Drive ($149) is small enough to slip into a purse or pocket and still hold all the photos, videos and documents near and dear to Mom’s heart. It plugs directly into an iPhone or iPad and can automatically back up an epic amount of information: 3 million documents, 50,000 photos, 18,000 videos or two years’ worth of music (played 24/7 for all 730 days). The real beauty of this device for busy moms: no more running out of space on her smartphone and missing the moment her child scores a goal. (Not that I would know about that personally or anything … cough … cough.)

Even with all these great gadgets to secure, store and save our most prized memories, there are days when we have to print out a photo right away. The new Polaroid Zip Instant Mobile Printer ($130) makes that a snap. The palm-sized printer uses Bluetoothto connect with your mobile device and prints out your favorite photos in less than a minute. It’s just like an old Polaroid, but it works with a smartphone! You don’t even have to wave the 2 x 3 print in the wind to get the picture to appear or worry about smudging it because it uses Zink zero-ink printing. There’s also peel-off backing on the prints, so you can turn them into stickers. I am in love with this gadget!

THE GADGET GRANDMAS GO GAGA OVER

Since I’m completely stuck on photos this year, let me add one more — the first Wi-Fi digital photo frame designed with complete non-techies in mind. (Hint: This is what I’m getting my own mom and mother-in-law!) With the Pigeon Frame ($119 ), you can send photos and videos straight to the digital display from an app on your smartphone. The magnetic frame displays the pictures from you, your kids or your siblings and has speakers to play video. Once it’s hooked up to Wi-Fi, you or your mom won’t have to be friends on Facebook to share photos anymore. My own daughter is very happy about that.

BLING IT ON

The Misfit Shine got a glam upgrade with the Misfit Swarovski Shine ($149, preorder). The activity tracker snaps right into the reversible crystal pendant or pairs with a bracelet. Nothing about it looks too fitness-y or techy, so it’s perfect for ladies who are not afraid of some glam. The Shine pairs with the Misfit app to log your sleep, food, weight and physical activity. Oh, and it’s solar powered, so she won’t have to worry about charging it. This is hands-down my No. 1 pick this year.

If Mom wants to track her notifications more than her fitness, Ringly ($195) is another great way to go. This statement bauble blinks and vibrates discreetly in unique ways for each different kind of notification. It looks like a stylish ring, but it’s actually a classy way for Mom to know what’s happening without staring at her phone.

HELP HER TAKE A LOAD OFF

A lot of moms tell me what they want most is a little help around the house this Mother’s Day. If you live in a major city such as San Francisco or Chicago, start-up Homejoy will help you book a certified cleaning pro in a few clicks, for as low as $25 per hour. Just tell them how many bedrooms and bathrooms, and someone can do it while you take Mom out to brunch. If Homejoy doesn’t service her city, check outAmazon Home Services. It recently teamed up with TaskRabbit and other professionals to offer everything from in-home deep cleaning to DIY furniture assembly and everything in between.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted in Digital Parenting, Girlfriend's Guide, Great Gadgets, TechNow