Holiday Tech Gift Guide: Gifts for Young Adults

What holiday gift does the young adult really need? Whether you’re shopping for the post-grad who needs some tech basics for one of their first real apartments, or for the forever sleepy college student, here are some great gifts for the young adult you know.

Roku Streaming Stick

You would be hard pressed to find a teen or twenty-something paying for cable these days – pretty much everyone uses some collection of streaming options, like HBO GO, Hulu and others. If your young adult doesn’t yet have a streaming media player to watch Netflix on a bigger screen than their tablet or laptop, the Roku Streaming Stick is one of the best options out there.

Roku, the only pocket-sized streamer with a quad-core processor, costs $49.99 and provides access to more than 350,000 movies and TV episodes. You can stream just about anything, including live sports, news, music and TV. The easy-to-use search function allows you to find out and compare where your favorite movies or TV shows are free or cheapest to watch. Plus, you never have to miss an episode, since you can easily transport your streaming stick and plug it into any TV.

Philips Wake-up Lights

If your college student or post-grad is struggling to get out of bed in the morning, look into sunrise alarm clocks. Recently gaining in popularity, wake-up lights slowly brighten up your room, simulating a sunrise for a natural, seamless wakeup.

One of the most popular wake-up lights is the Philips HF3520/60 ($169.99), and for good reason. An Amazon #1 Bestseller, the HF3520 allows you to wake up to a colored sunrise simulation or get drowsy with the help of the sunset simulation. It also includes features such as nine-minute snooze, five different natural wake up sounds, over twenty brightness settings and a dimming display so your room isn’t over-lit at night.

If your budget is tighter, however, the Philips HF3500/60 ($69.99) is also a very good option. Though there is no sunset simulation, the HF3500 includes sunrise simulation with white LED lights, light brightness settings, snooze capability, backup alarm chime and a lamp light mode.

HP Sprocket Photo Printer

For the photo-obsessed college kid, check out the novel HP Sprocket Photo Printer. This portable cell-phone sized device allows you to print colorful 2×3 photos and stickers directly from your smartphone or tablet. The printer connects through Bluetooth, so you can print anytime, anywhere, as long as you have a Bluetooth enabled device.

At $129.99, the Sprocket comes with a USB cable, a pack of printer sheets and the download for the Sprocket app so you can customize photos before printing.

Remind your young adult to download the Fasetto app so they can easily back up the digital copies of all the great photos they’re printing out on their new Sprocket. Fasetto also makes it easy to share the digital versions of photos with any friends or family who also use the app.