The Athlete
Whether the parental is into a lot of fitness or none at all and you’re politely jabbing him with a stick, we’ve dug up a few gadgets for you to be inspired by when it comes to Fathers Day shopping.
Jawbone Up Move
Price: $89
Need to get Dad off the couch and moving, but don’t want to pay too much? Awesome, because that’s exactly what this little circular gadget is for.
It’s barely bigger than a button, and yet can be worn on the wrist, providing an easy indication as to how much your old man is moving throughout the course of a day, while also working as a wrist watch.
Better, if you have your own Up device — say a smartwatch with the Up app or another Jawbone Up gadget — you can connect with him on the Up social network and challenge him to step duels, which should encourage him to move more if only to put you in your place.
Fitbit Aria
Price: $170
There’s a distinct possibility that your father is already part of the whole “get off of the couch” movement that fitness gadgets have helped to kick off. If he is and he’s using a Fitbit, the Aria WiFi scale might be an ideal gift.
In fairness, handing someone a scale might not be the nicest way of saying “Happy Dads Day”, but this might end up providing him and anyone else who loves him a better picture of his health than just assuming he’s good because he gets out of bed every morning.
Thanks to the modern smarts of today, you’ll find this little scale can track weight, body fat percentage, lean mass, and more, with this information available in interactive graphs, and you could even show this info to someone more knowledgable like a doctor.
Jabra Sport Coach wireless in-earphones
Price: $199
So your Dad might not just be lightly into fitness, but into it in a big way. No worries, that’s cool, because what if he’s into running every day, and what if he’s into training himself and keeping his body in tip-top shape?
One gadget comes to mind in this situation, and it’s a pair of in-earphones from Jabra.
These are the Sport Coach, a pair of Bluetooth in-earphones meant to tell you how you’re going as you run, while also providing you a bit of an in-ear coach while you work out, assisting with cross training and other activities that generally require a little bit of blood, sweat, and occasionally tears.
Sony Smart Tennis Sensor
Price: $249 (compatible tennis racket not included)
Perhaps your Dad is not only off the couch, but an avid tennis player. What then? What sort of technology caters to your father’s love for a game where one is supposed to hit a ball with a tennis racket?
Fortunately there is something, with Sony’s Smart Tennis Sensor, an unusual little gadget that sits at the bottom of a compatible tennis racket and is used to track the game of anyone using it.
You can use it with an iPhone or an Android phone, and this little gadget relies on a combination of technologies to work out strike zone, ball spin, where the racket hit the ball, and the speed the ball was careening at you and then the speed for your swing.
All of this can be stored for later, and you can even use the smartphone to record video of when you’re hitting, using this data to work on your game, which might be exactly what Dad wanted to get better at this year.
