Tech Gifts for Dad, 2012 Video

Tech Gifts for Dad, 2012 Video Transcript

Father�s Day can be a tough one for gifting, dad�s tend to buy themselves gear all the time. But I�ve got a great sure-fire list that, as long as your dad isn�t that dumb-ass in the AT&T Wireless commercial who can�t figure out how �the cable�s invisible�, is gonna� make him obsessively play with his new gift the whole time you�re at brunch. Good times. ---------------------------------- #5 Amazon Kindle 2011, the basic Kindle. Bells & whistles aren�t the point with e-Book readers and this one gets that. Compact, light, endless battery life and and a great read- anywhere screen, plus it accesses Amazon�s massive bookstore. Not touch screen on this $79 model, Dad will need to be on Wi-Fi to download books and there are a few ads, but they�re unobstrusive. Unless Dad�s illiterate, you can�t go wrong here. And even if he is, you can upload PDF drawings to it. #4 same street, different address: The Asus Transformer Prime. A full blown tablet, not just a reader, and one that we love for being thin, light, HD, and 8-megapixel. It�s like a handful of gifts in one. You can probably skip the keyboard dock thing that turns it into sort of wimpy laptop. Doing that keeps us right at $500 for one of the best iPad challengers. #3 staying mobile here, the HP Folio 13 ultrabook laptop. Light, thin without being trendy, long battery life -- just like a tablet, but this is a full-bore laptop with a great keyboard and plenty of power and storage. $899 brings it in $100 below the cheapest MacBook Air which would still need Windows installed at extra cost if that�s dad�s OS. #2 is a great TV. If you�re got the scratch, get him the Panasonic TC-PST50. Even the jaded CNET TV editors think it has a great picture and thanks to being a plasma you�ll get that great picture almost anywhere you sit in the room. Like if he�s in front of it watching golf and you�re over on the side chair stone bored. It is a 3D set, but nobody cares so its fine that it doesn�t include any 3D glasses. You can get a 50� for about $1,500. #1 the Motorola Droid Razr Maxx. There�s a pretty good chance Dad doesn�t have a smartphone yet and this one would CATAPULT him out of the 19th century. It�s got an alluring combination of super fast 4G data and crazy battery life -- hence the MAXX moniker -- along with all the other features of today�s Android superphones. On the downside its only on Verizon and kind of a problem if Dad has small hands (commiserate with Mom on that one). Like most top phones it $200 with contract. Check our whole CNET guide at dads.cnet.com. I�m Brian Cooley, thanks for watching.