Black Friday is upon us—that special time of year, when, post-turkey, we scramble to the stores to find the best deals. Here’s a pro-tip: the hottest gifts this season are tech gadgets. Skip past the throngs and head straight to the electronics section.
Wearables: Wearables—so named because you can actually don them—are the next big thing in gadgets. Smart watches and fitness bracelets once seemed the province of James Bond, but now everyone can feel like a spy. Though you’ll have to wait for Apple’s iWatch till 2015, you can already pick from a variety of watches made by Pebble, Samsung, LG, and Misfit that do far more than tell the time.
They can—by syncing with your phone- flash your caller ID, display your incoming texts, tell you the weather, and more. And then, there’s the Fitbit series, the Charge, the Flex and the One, which tracks all your movements, counts your calories, and tells you what you ate for dinner last night (okay, we’re just joking about that last part.) Try them all on for size in the store.
E-readers and Tablets: Paper books are so 20th century. E-readers, digital readers that can hold thousands of books, are the most convenient way to carry all your current novels with you on vacation.. There are a plethora of both e-ink readers and full color tablets (like the iPad) that can serve as a reader with access to all the other media—TV shows, movies, and music. (Not to mention, the profusion of Android-based tablets on the market).
Smartphone Cases and Accessories: If you’ve got a finicky teen, he or she probably got bored with their phone the second they opened the package; but if they can switch their case every day, they might stay entertained a lot longer. Get a tough case for klutzes, a clear case for minimalists, and graphic case for the visual artists. If you’ve got a photog in the house, consider picking up some camera phone add-on lenses; they clip on the phone’s camera and can give you a fisheye, macro, or wide-angle shot in a snap.
Headphones: The big oversized headphone have made a comeback. It used to be only DJs wore these larger over-the-ear headsets, but now that a certain rapper has made them stylish, with a myriad of color combos, everyone wants to be seen in their fresh headsets. If you don’t want to be that flashy, in-the-ear headphones are still very much en vogue and are more comfortable and powerful sounding than ever.
With countless items to pick up, tech is the way to go for Black Friday.
