If you’re struggling to find a unique, out-of-the-ordinary gift for someone special this holiday season, here’s some help.
RELATED: Part 1 of Gadget Guru’s gift-giving guide.
Mini drone
The DJI Spark mini drone is built with intelligent flight control options, along with a mechanical gimbal to support a camera with a sensor producing 12 megapixel images.
Aside from its tiny design, the Spark’s biggest feature very well could be its intelligent flying modes. The drone also comes with gesture-recognition abilities, which allow it to be operated without a smartphone or controller.
The drone has a maximum speed of 31 mph in sport mode without wind and a maximum service ceiling above sea level of 13,123 feet.
Quick Launch technology with FaceAware allows the drone to lift off from your hand by facial recognition.
It’s built with a rechargeable battery for 16 minutes of wind-free flight at an average of 12.4 mph, and users will have a worry-free flight using the flight autonomy to ensure the drone returns safely.
The drone costs $499 without a controller, $699 with a controller.
More information: dji.com/spark
Smarter Coffee
If you’re a coffee lover, how great would it be to wake up and simply speak a command to get the java brewing?
The Smarter Coffee machine ($249.99) does that with the help of Alexa Google Assistant. Or, remote brew from your bed by using the Smarter app.
The updated Smarter Coffee also improved controls for coffee strength and temperature, offering the option to pre-heat the water before brewing for a more-enriched brew.
The Smarter app also enables users to set the start time through alarms with wake-up mode.
A home-mode setting lets Smarter Coffee know when you’re home to start brewing.
Or, if you choose, use it the customary way way on the LCD control panel.
More: smarter.am
Microphone
Blue’s Yeti Blackout USB microphone and Assassin’s Creed Origins bundle ($139) is first and foremost a microphone. The special-edition package also includes one of the season’s hottest games, Assassin’s Creed Origins (for PC).
I have been using Blue’s products for some time and they are nothing short of amazing, producing the highest quality mic I’ve tried.
It’s as easy as plug and play without the need to download or install software. It has a driverless installation and produces high-quality recordings.
More-advanced users will love the Yeti controls for microphone gain, mute, headphone volume and pattern selection, adding up to full control of recordings.
It is an ideal gift for anyone needing a mic for vocals, musical instruments, podcasting, voiceovers, interviews, gaming, field recordings or conference calls.
The Yeti is Mac and PC compatible.
More: bluemic.com
Contact Gregg Ellman at greggellman@mac.com. Follow him on Twitter: @greggellman
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