Whether you’re buying for a new parent or someone who will soon be a parent, tech can be their friends for all the right reasons.
‘Tis the season for giving, and if you know someone about to find themselves as parents or maybe someone who has recently become one, giving can be a help, as well.
It’s not easy being a parent, but technology can assist. From lights and speakers built to assist with keeping the little one calm, all the way to cleaning tech built to make life easier, if you’re buying for a parent of young ones or someone soon to be, a little bit of tech can go a long way, like these ideas.
Mirabella Genio Portable WiFi Light
Price: $25
It doesn’t seem like much, but a light can make a lot of difference. If the person you’re buying for needs a night-light of sorts, or even a safety light that glows a certain colour for their kids, you probably want something you can control with your phone.
Mirabella’s Genio is one such as example, and one of the gadgets the writer of this guide still uses with his kids.
The portable lamp is easy to control, can be triggered at times throughout the day, and is portable. You simply charge it using USB and then detach it when you need to move with it. It’s inexpensive and a cinch.
Amazon Echo Dot
Price: $99
There are plenty of speakers for babies, some of them with diffusers or white noise built in, but we actually suggest something that’s been in use for the kids of this writer for ages: a smart speaker. And not just any smart speaker, but an Echo Dot.
Small and capable, Amazon’s Echo Dot provides just enough sound, as well as the ability to be triggered at any time, and with custom routines.
Need a rain noise on repeat? Program it using a simple routine and have it trigger before regular bed times or with a simple command. Want to wake the kids up with a song or two? Program that option, as well.
Eventually as the kids grow up, they may even work out how you talk to the speaker, and command it on their own. It’s not just a passive speaker, but a learning experience, as well.
Stoov Homey
Price: from $159
One of the more surprising additions, the Stoov Homey could end up being a godsend on the nights when mum and dad need to stay up with the kids, and it’s cold in the room.
Stoov’s Homey is a small electric heater of sorts, but encased in a hot water bottle design. It is both a heater for your lap to keep you warm, and a way to keep the kids beds warm without any risk of hot water burns.
While the Homey could be a little hotter overall, it can keep you warm when it’s cold, making for an easy addition to the parent’s arsenal.
Withings BeamO
Price: $499
Another handy gadget in the parent arsenal, Withings’ BeamO is a rather unusual one. It’s a multi-tool of sorts for your health, with a thermometer, ECG, SpO2 blood oxygen sensor, and digital stethoscope all in the one device.
Compact and clever, the Withings BeamO is a little like the bit of health-tech you didn’t know you needed. It’s basically a gadget to grow with.
Cubo AI Plus Baby Monitor
Price: $569
One piece of tech no new parent can escape from is the must-have that is a baby monitor, and there are different breeds of these.
There are basic baby monitors that come with the monitor for you to take with you, and then there are the more modern variety that turn your phone into the monitor, which is what the Cubo does.
Cubo’s AI Plus baby monitor is curious take on the tech that comes in the shape of a bird and looks down at the little ones. A lot of thought has been put into the design and some of the sleep analytics are genuinely interesting, making it a handy addition for parents who need a baby monitor in their lives.
Tineco Floor One S7 Stretch Steam
Price: $1199
Cleaning the floor of spills is just a part of life with kids, but cleaning it up from other messes, well, that’s going to happen.
Technology for cleaning has become quite big in the past few years, and mops are having their time in the sun. One such mop is grabbing our attention lately in the Pickr Reviews department, and it’s a steam cleaner that really works well.
Tineco’s Floor One S7 offers both a handheld vacuum of sorts you can use, while also allowing you to apply hot steam to the floor to clean things up. While that’s kind of the operating process for any steam mop, the Floor One S7 Stretch goes further by making it a breeze to use, and basically holding it and letting it work.
It’s so easy to use, even the younger ones in your house can help clean. So now there’s no excuse.
Roborock Qrevo Edge
Price: $2199
Of course, you can always opt for cleaning where you don’t have to do anything at all. Spend a little more, and that is entirely possible.
Easily one of our favourite robotic vacuums this year, a robotic vacuum could be one of the best additions to the home of a newborn or recent parents because it will help without being a hinderance.
Simply set up the Qrevo Edge and the robo-vac will get to work cleaning the house, dealing with vacuuming and mopping, doing it all rather quietly and easily. About the only thing you need to is remember to clean out the dirty mop water, and for parents, that’s going to happen less often than cleaning nappies, so it’ll be a cinch.
Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max
Price: from $2199
New parents and soon-to-be-parents all have two things in common. One is exhaustion, and we can’t fix that, but the other is photos, because they are going to take all of them.
But because no one ever really brings a camera around with them every day and all the time, upgrading a phone to a model with a great camera is really, really important.
Over in the iPhone camp, the iPhone 17 Pro Max may well be that model, largely for two reasons.
First, the camera is exceptional, and while on the same playing field as its sibling in the more standard-sized 17 Pro, the battery deal with the other half. A bigger phone means a bigger battery, and that potentially means more photos you can take before the battery says no more.
It’s just such a great phone and camera combo.
Oppo Find X9 Pro
Price: $2299
Over on the Android camp, the combination of an exceptional camera and battery go to the Oppo Find X9 Pro, which delivers brilliant for both of those aspects.
The camera on offer is clear, sharp, and offers fantastic portraits, while the battery just keeps going.
Easily one of the year’s best phones, the Find X9 Pro is a model that will let you keep snapping away as the kids grow. That’s exactly one of the things new parents will want.
