Make Mom’s life easier with cool, yet practical, gadgets for Mother’s Day

By Phil Hornshaw

Finding last minute gifts for Mother’s Day doesn’t have to mean showing up at Mom’s with a wilted bouquet of flowers in hand. There are tons of cool tech devices that not only are quite useful, but will come as a fun surprise.

Gadgets to help Mom out

They might not be the most glamorous gifts, but sometimes the best things you can get Mom is something practical that will make her life easier. Take losing your keys. Who hasn’t pulled hair out over that? But there are lots of key-finder gadgets you can set Mom up with — some even work with smartphone apps and cases to turn her Android or iPhone into a key-finding display. (Um, mental note: Order one for ourselves, too.) Another handy item that is sure to get lots of use: a voice-activated grocery list printers. (Again, order two.)

Amazon sells a number of key-finding devices, including BiKN’s smartphone case-based key tags and more, as well as grocery list makers. You might also try cruising through offerings from The Sharper Image (which offers 8 percent Cash Back) and Brookstone (which offers 5 percent Cash Back) for other great items, ranging from digital golf gloves to tablet stands that are useful for displaying recipes while cooking.

Make e-reading easier

Another great gadget for gift-giving is an e-reader, such as Amazon’s Kindle or Barnes & Noble’s Nook. If Mom is already hooked up with a handy digital reading device, make it even more useful by decking it out with cool accessories. You can find solar-powered e-reader charging covers, as well as styluses, stands and more. All those items can help make a great gift even better, or reinvigorate an old gift and make it new again this year.