The Best Mother’s Day Gift Ideas for Techie Moms

Got a beautiful shot of Mom’s favorite? And by favorite, we don’t mean you—we mean her fur kid, the beloved she really dotes upon. Turn that digital pic (or series of them) into a custom pet portrait from Pet Portraits. The service promises it uses real digital artists—people! Not AI!—to create the artwork. It ranges in price from $59.95 up to $109.95, available as posters or on canvas. Digital gift cards are an option.

When she’s not home, the Furbo 360 helps her keep an eye on your fur-sibling; the cat version is just like the dog version, but with a feather toy on top. Not only will the camera watch the pets at night and track them by panning side-to-side, it will even dispense treats. Who’s a good girl/boy? You are if you buy this pet camera.

If your mother is an avid reader who’s running out of space on her bookshelf, consider getting her a Kindle ebook reader, which can hold thousands of books. The 2021 Paperwhite is still our best-value ebook reader thanks to its 6.8-inch screen. It has just 8GB of storage, not 32GB, but with its fast Wi-Fi, she can easily download books as needed. This device is waterproof, has an easy-clean flat front, and contains a long-lasting battery. If Mom is an Amazon Prime member, she gets access to one free ebook per month through First Reads.

For some readers, nothing beats the feeling of holding a physical book. With Book of the Month Club, Mom chooses one (or more) books per month from the club’s selection. If nothing piques her interest or she’s not done with last month’s title, she can skip a month. This subscription service also helps with discovery: It hunts down hot releases and offers early access to new books. Gift options include three months for $59.99, six months for $99.99, and one year for $199.99.

If Mom prefers to listen to her books on a walk, when she’s driving, or just while relaxing, consider an Audible subscription. For $7.95 per month, she can tap into a Plus membership with a rolling catalog of originals, audiobooks, and podcasts. A Premium subscription, which costs $14.95 per month, adds a credit for one premium title per month to keep as well as 30% off other premium titles, which are often more popular selections.

Does Mom love her iPad? She can get even more done with it, if she has a keyboard. The Logitech Slim Folio is a keyboard that doubles as an iPad case. Get one for any iPad from the 5th to 10th generation, including the 3rd Gen iPad Air. It not only allows for typing, but the function keys at the top also provide full control over media, screen settings, and more.

What could be better for Mom than a huge Kindle with a 10.2-inch screen for reading ebooks? Well, how about a Kindle ebook reader that lets her make notes on what she’s reading? That’s exactly what the expensive Scribe is for. It won’t be confused with a serious drawing tool (as an iPad can be), and it’s not waterproof enough even for reading in the tub. But if jotting things in the margins of a book is something your mom loves to do, this is the best high-tech equivalent.

The perfect smartwatch has a nice balance of tracking your health and fitness, along with full chronographic capabilities and beyond. Garmin’s 3rd Venu round-faced smartwatch does exactly that and shows it all off using a killer AMOLED display. Best of all, it can last almost two weeks without a charge.

Among our favorite smart home gym equipment is the Tempo Studio. Mom’s workouts don’t have to be endless cardio sessions; strength training is important, too. And with its sophisticated form-tracking and rep-counting software, challenging on-demand and live classes, and excellent trainers, the Tempo Studio is the best smart strength-training machine we’ve tested. It’s a splurge, but hey—Mom deserves it.

Winc will send four bottles to Mom’s door every month with no delivery charge. For some mothers, that’s huge; for others, it’s just a drop in the bucket. Either way, she’s going to be pleased. If you’re giving it as a gift, there’s a $60 gift-code minimum.

Everyone needs a nice look over their shoulder for the many video conferences that come up nowadays. The Elements Hexagons come with 7 panels in the starter kit and you can always get more with the expansion pack. Then Mom can decorate the wall and light it up any way she’d like.

A $729 “task chair”? Mom and everyone else at home will want to steal this mesh beauty with all the comfort and looks and extras one could want while sitting at a computer desk.

Sure, Mom says she doesn’t mind breaking out the ol’ bucket and mop. Trust us, she is lying. She wants you to love her enough to spend an ungodly amount of money on a robot that will do the floors for her. The Ecovacs Deebot X2 Omni is a $1,499 cleaner that vacuums, mops, cleans itself, and does it all over again. It will bring a shine to her hardwoods.  

When money is no object, turn to Dyson. The company is known for its sleek and expensive vacuums, but you can also blow your paycheck on hair dryers and air purifiers. If an air purifier was ever a justified expense, now is the time, and the Dyson Purifier Cool TP07 delivers. It will purify the air in Mom’s home while acting as a Wi-Fi-controlled smart fan to cool her off. If you have $650 to spend, this top-of-the-line device is worth serious consideration for any family member.

Designed with the latest iPhones and AirPods in mind, the $59.99 Satechi Magnetic 2-in-1 Wireless Charging Stand does exactly what you and Mom expect: It charges those devices and looks great while doing it.

Upgrade the vibe at Mom’s place with colorful smart lights. Wyze offers an affordable option with its Bulb Color, which supports device-triggered automations, schedules, sleep routines, and more—and you can control it with your phone and voice. Customize the bulbs’ glow to settings including Night Light, Cozy, Bright, and Energized, as well as preset color scenes, including Energy, Gaming, Movie, and Meditation. If Mom has recessed fixtures, get the Wyze Bulb Color BR30.

Is your mother into home decoration? Then she probably loves to freshen up her home with new paint colors. If she is on the prowl for a color, and she carries a “fan deck” to match it, upgrade her to the Color Muse colorimeter, a tiny scanner that exists for one reason: to help her pinpoint the paint color(s) of her dreams.

The Cricut Maker 3 is an electronic cutting tool. It’s like a printer—with a knife! The device handles all sorts of materials (including leather and wood), cutting items fed into the 12-inch feeder slot into the shapes Mom needs for arts and crafts and beyond. It’s not cheap, but it beats potential X-Acto accidents.

The only thing mothers want to see more than their kids is their phones. Now they can have both, by making a photo grid phone case, covered in pics of the children, from Casetify.

A special phone case can make Mom feel fancy; but to make it truly useful, add a PopSocket, the grips-plus-stand gadget. PopSockets let you customize a case for her iPhone, and you can add a grip that attaches via the MagSafe, or even add a full MagSafe Wallet. You upload the art or use the images provided to design the case.

Most earbuds are so large and gangly they would hurt to sleep with. QuietOne buds are designed specifically for sleeping, with “premium quality” active noise cancellation. They’re supposedly small enough to sleep in and roll on for side-sleepers. And they have a 28-hour life on a single battery charge. Sounds (like the cure for) exhausting!

If your mother is prone to losing items like her keys and wallet, and she uses an iPhone, get her the AirTags. They are our Editors’ Choice for trackers to find lost objects. Get one for $29 or four for $99—Apple will even engrave each tag with up to 3 characters of your choice. It’s handy to put in a purse or slip into the pocket of a wandering child. The tracking is accurate, the battery in each tag is replaceable, and it works from a distance. (If Mom is an Android fan, get her the Tile Mate.)

If Mom has the heebee-jeebies about germs, then she’s probably aware that her smartphone is ultra-disgusting. We are on the fence about the effectiveness of UV sanitizers, but ultraviolet light does kill COVID, among other things, so it can’t hurt. PhoneSoap, unlike many others products on the market, backs its claims with lab tests. The Pro version can hold any size phone or phablet. And its own surface can handle a disinfectant wipe, which your germaphobe mother is sure to use.

Many of today’s best TVs have built-in streaming capabilities, including support for Google’s Chromecast, Roku, and Fire TV. But dongles and media streamers can make older TVs smart in a flash, and Google’s Chromecast has been a popular and affordable option for years. Just plug it into Mom’s TV, then connect to Wi-Fi through the Google Home app, and she can “cast” any supported streaming service (Netflix, Max, Hulu, and more) from her phone to her TV with a few taps. If she’s got 4K, get the $49.99 upgrade.

If Mom already has a Roku, she needs the Voice Remote Pro, which adds hands-free voice control and other useful features. That includes a headphone jack for private listening. Just plug a pair of headphones into the remote, and it will mute any audio going to the TV and redirect it through those headphones, so only Mom hears what’s playing. And when Dad or the kids lose the remote, she can just say, “Hey, Roku, where’s the remote?” and it’ll beep until found.

Is Mom ready for some backyard parties this summer? JBL’s portable Charge 5 speaker delivers surprisingly powerful Bluetooth audio from a compact, waterproof frame, making it the ideal travel companion for going just about anywhere. It’s one of the best outdoor-friendly speakers, and it earns our Editors’ Choice award.

Maybe your mom wants some books full of pictures of those grandchildren she never gets to see except on FaceTime. Download the Recently app for iPhone, and it automagically pulls images from your camera roll and sends them off to be printed on bound archival paper into a “collection-worthy photo magazine” she’ll be happy to keep on her shelf. Let the app decide on the pics, or you choose. It costs $12.99 per month (12 books per year), or get fewer of them (just four per year) by paying $14.99 per quarter. Cancel anytime, like when the kids get ugly.

Put Mom’s green thumb to work immediately growing tomatoes, basil, and lettuce (seeds included via the proprietary Smart Soil pods) in the app and touch-controlled $289.95 Smart Garden 9 Pro. She programs the lights and the watering. Once the first crop is done, she can start another, any day of the year.

Hailed as an invention of the year by Time in 2020, Gardyn’s latest Home Kit is serious hydroponics at a level that rivals a full food laboratory (with a $899 base price to boot, not including the monthly membership fees for new seeds). Each kit is “AI-powered” to grow multiple plants, all year, so you’ll potentially have fresh produce every single day. The box includes the full five-foot-high Home Device (with grow lights, water tank, and cameras for spying on veggies), plant starters, and all the plant food and extras needed to get growing.

Building on the rep of the excellent Litra Glow light, the Litra Beam is a 15.75-inch light bar on an extendable arm that can deliver color temps from 2,700 to 6,500 Kelvin at 400 lumens—in other words, it makes Mom look great on camera.

Whether Mom makes her own TikToks or just needs better lighting for her video calls, a ring light on a tripod can make all the difference. Yesker offers an affordable 14-inch model complete with a phone holder (you want the camera in the middle of the light), a four-level tripod, a hot shoe, an extra USB port for powering another device such as the phone, and a color-temperature control.

Is Mom ready to record her podcast about how great a job she did raising you? Help her sound her best with a lavalier lapel microphone. This $99.99 Razer Seiren BT uses Bluetooth to record directly to PCs or smartphones while clipped surreptitiously to a shirt, making it great for on-the-go vlogging. It even has two windsocks, one foam and one fuzz, to help cut down on wind noise.