This week on App Chat:
Cool Tech Gifts for Father’s Day
Need a cool gift for dad? Check out these three options. The ABC TV video gives you an overview and you will find more details below including pricing, retailers and platform support.
Cool Tech Gifts for Dads
Are you looking for the perfect gift for Father’s Day? Here are some tech ideas that are great for the man with a mobile device who likes to show off his tech skills!
I use all of these devices and they are my top picks for dads!
Don’t forget to share these ideas and blog with your friends, wife or family! They are probably looking for gift ideas for dad, too.
Runtastic® App with Runtastic® Heart Monitor
Runtastic App: Free
Runtastic App Pro: $4.99
Platforms for Apps: iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Phone
Runtastic Heart Rate Combo Monitor, Bluetooth Smart+5.3kHz: ~ $68.96
Platform for Heart Monitor: iPhone 4S & 5
Retailer: Amazon.com
The Runtastic® Heart Rate Combo Monitor, Bluetooth Smart + 5.3kHZ communicates directly with the Runtastic app, tracking your heart rate while exercising. The monitor straps to your chest and using Bluetooth technology transmits your heart rate to your detailed session information in the Runtastic app on your iPhone.
While exercising you can monitor your heart rate through a visual graph and numerical display. Your heart rate is graphed on your route which is saved with your session history. You can customize your heart rate target zone settings to fit your specific needs.
The Runtastic app is excellent for beginner through advanced athletes and helps make exercise fun and rewarding. It tracks walking, running, biking, hiking and several other activities.
The base features are free and stores each sessions training history including:
- Distance
- Elevation incline/decline
- Calories burned
- Speed
- Route map
- Distance markers along the route
- Voice feedback
- Pulse reading
- Integrated music player
- Competition
Video Demonstration
Link to heart monitor at Amazon.com
Runtastic.com
Complete App feature list
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Nest® Thermostat (2nd Gen) and App
Thermostat: ~$249.00
Nest App: Free
Platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android,
Retailers: Home Depot, Best Buy, Lowe’s, Apple, Amazon
I have 5 Nest thermostats installed between my home and office locations. It is excellent in design, performance and usability.
Approximately 50% of your home energy use comes from your heating and air conditioning units. The Nest is not only technology for your comfort and convenience but it is designed to help control your energy expenditures by intelligently learning how to best regulate your most used energy consumption device.
Check out some of Nest’s new features at Nest.com/blog.
Notes: You must have wireless Internet access at your home or office for the Nest to function. Nest is compatible with most 24V heating and cooling systems.
More Info:
Video Demonstration
Nest Thermostat at BestBuy.com
Nest.com
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HP Printer with Wireless, AirPrint and HP ePrint Technologies
Color Printers: ~$250.00 – $450.00
BW Printers: ***Delete***
Platforms: Apple, Android, Widows Devices (not for all functionality)
Retailers: OfficeMax, BestBuy, Amazon, etc.
There are many questions on how to print from your smart phone or tablet. There are multiple ways to accomplish this but HP makes it easy with their full featured printers.
Dad will love printing pictures, reports or any document on the HP Wireless Printers with AirPrint and HP ePrint capabilities.
When buying an HP Printer look for the symbols that say: Wireless, AirPrint and HP ePrint. Each of these features offers the following unique capabilities:
Wireless: No more cables! This feature allows your printer to be set up on a wireless network that you can print to from your desktop and laptop computers (on the same network) without being connected by a cable.
AirPrint: This is Apple’s technology for printing wirelessly from the iPhone or iPad while on the same wireless network. Airprint enables you to print directly from you iPhone or iPad from any app that supports printing. For example, if you are in QuickOffice®, Evernote®, Photos® or Better Homes and Garden’s Recipe app you can print your document, photo or recipe directly (wirelessly) from your iPhone or iPad.
HP ePrint: This cloud service from Hewlett-Packard enables you to have the printer on your wireless network that you can print to from anywhere in which you have email access. When setting up the printer with HP ePrint capabilities, it is assigned a unique email address at hpeprint.com (ex: yourprintername@hpeprint.com). You can be across town, across the country, or across the world when you send an email with an attachment to the printer’s email address. It will print the email and attachment at your office or home where you have the printer installed! You can print pictures, excel docs, word docs, pdf docs, etc. If your email message is blank and only has the attachment, the printer will only print the attachment.
It is amazing and surprisingly useful.
You can be on any computing device (smart phone, tablet, laptop, etc. with email access) and it is independent of the operating system. Therefore, HP ePrint works with Apple OS, Windows OS and Android.
I use the HP LaserJet Pro 200 Color with all of these capabilities, and love it, but there are other HP options in varying price ranges, too.
More Info:
Video Demonstration
HP LaserJet Pro 200 Color at OfficeMax.com
HP.com
iPadWisdom – To Go! Pocket Guide
Pocket Guide: $5.25 ea
Resellers: eBay, iPadWisdom.tictail.com
Are you looking for a less expensive gift or a nice addition to what you are giving dad? Here’s a great solution: The iPadWisdom-To Go! pocket guide. It is loaded with tons of tips and tricks and helps you navigate you iPad in a time saving manner.
The pocket guide has been used by major corporations, private companies, schools, and individuals. This pocket guide helps you “Get Smart, Be Smart”!
More Info:
About the Pocket Guide
Pocket Guide Store
Tech Tango Today 