What should you get that special someone this holiday season? It’s the time of year we all ask ourselves what might put a smile on the faces of a family member, partner, friend, neighbor, or colleague. To help make the holiday shopping experience a little easier, here are five new products to come just in time for the holidays that might make the perfect gift.
Robot: Your New Home Companion
Amazon announced a slew of new products for the holiday season. While most of them are updates on existing products, the Amazon Astro ($999.99 to $1,449.99) is something new. This household robot can follow or find you to deliver reminders or alarms, offer entertainment, bring something to someone else in the house, and more. You can use its camera—with a periscope—for video calls or to check in around the house when you are away. And with a Ring Protect Pro plan, Astro can serve as a security bot that proactively patrols your home. For now, the product will be available in limited quantities via invite.
Cooking: Making Life in the Kitchen Easier
The Instant Pot is an already well-known pressure cooker, but its latest iteration, the Instant Pot Pro Plus ($169.99), aims to make cooking even easier with wireless connectivity and a companion app. This 10-in-1 multi-cooker now lets you control it wirelessly from your smartphone to monitor progress and even release steam. And it pairs with the Instant Brands Connect app powered by Drop to offer more than 1,500 recipes with interactive, step-by-step meal preparation to help guide you through the process.
Fitness: Strengthening Mind and Body
In addition to helping you keep track of your fitness, heart health, and sleep, the Fitbit Charge 5 ($179.95), adds a new feature that will allow you to monitor your mental well-being. As Fitbit’s first tracker with an EDA sensor, it can measure your body’s response to stress through tiny changes in the sweat glands on your fingers. And each morning you can get a Stress Management Score in the Fitbit app to see if you are mentally prepared to take on the day or if you need to recharge.
Photography: Instant Printing Smartphone Photos
Would you love to have physical copies of the photos you take on your smartphone? Fujifilm’s instax Link WIDE ($149) is its newest smartphone photo printer and its first to print wide-format (86mm x 108mm) pics. Using the companion app, you can select photos as well as edit, resize, apply a filter, add text or a QR code, and explore other options before sending them to the instax Link WIDE to print your phone’s photos in seconds.
Headphones: Self-Charging for Infinite Playtime
The Urbanista Los Angeles ($199) might not be the headphones of choice for extreme audiophiles, but they do offer a unique feature for more energy-conscious individuals. The headband includes Powerfoyle solar cell material that converts all light—outdoor and indoor—into energy to deliver what the company says is “virtually infinite playtime.” The headphones also offer hybrid Active Noise Canceling with an Ambient Sound Mode so you can still be aware of your surroundings.
