Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users, which is more than double the number of users Twitter has. The main focus of the platform is visual data, so it makes sense that videos are a popular addition to the social media site.

Figuring out ways of catching new leads using Instagram Live videos shouldn’t be a series of campaigns where you throw something at a wall and hope it sticks. Instead, try the following tactics for lead generation:

1. Highlight Your Products

About 60 percent of people on Instagram say they’ve discovered a new product after seeing it on the platform. However, you can’t just create a spammy video that says “buy this from me.” People on social media notoriously dislike spammy content.

Instead, you must highlight how your products or your brand helps people and improves lives. Showcase a customer with a story to tell or offer info on how your company works for a cause you truly believe in. It’s OK to highlight the product within the video, but the main push of the video can’t merely be to sell.

2. Push the Customer Experience

Customer experience (CX) is one of the most critical elements of company growth. If customers have a fantastic experience, they’ll become loyal to your brand and they’ll also tell others about it.

Ken Schmidt, former director of communications for Harley-Davidson and a motivational speaker, believes changing the narrative of what people say about your brand to other people will attract more customers. You must turn your customers into brand ambassadors. Encourage your biggest fans to go live with their videos.

3. Give Something Back

Some of the best video campaigns tie into giving back to a cause. What does your brand stand for? If you give your employees paid time to volunteer at a local pet shelter, share a video of them grooming dogs and feeding cats. Highlight different animals from the shelter who need a home.

One of the keys to altruistic endeavors is to not do good deeds with an expectation of getting anything in return. If you’re only volunteering to try to make sales, consumers will see right through that. Pick a cause you believe in and promote it without expecting anything in return.

4. Host a Live Q&A

One way of grabbing leads for a live video is gathering questions before the live video. People send you their email and a question, and you give them the option to opt-in for your mailing list. Most people will opt in because they are already interested in what you have to say.

You then read the questions during the live Q&A and answer each one. Another benefit of hosting a live Q&A is that those with featured questions are likely to share the content and attract more eyes to your video.

5. Offer a Workshop

Marketers use webinars as a lead generation tactic, and Instagram Live offers an option for a similar scenario. Promote your live workshop ahead of time and make sure the information is something your target audience desires. However, hold back some of the more advanced information.

At the end of the workshop, share a link where viewers can sign up to get a free advanced seminar. Creating insider, advanced content allows you to gather their email addresses and generate highly targeted leads.

Try Different Tactics

Instagram Live gives you an opportunity to try out different ideas and adapt your marketing campaigns as you go. If something doesn’t work well, set it aside and try a different method. The videos that generate the most leads are ones you should repeat. With a little practice, you’ll gather enough new customers to make it worth your time and investment in live videos.

The post How Your Business Can Use Instagram Live to Capture Leads appeared first on Tech Web Space.

In a classic scenario of our reach exceeding our grasp, multiple industries are rushing headlong into a convenient and efficient industrial future powered by the Internet of Things. From agriculture to energy to health care, the IoT is just about everywhere. Unfortunately, so is its evil doppelgänger.

What Is the Shadow IoT?

First, it’s essential for consumers and business representatives alike to understand something critical about how connected devices and equipment work.

In short, they’re always on. Every piece of remote network storage, every fitness wearable and medical device, every smart television and monitor, every connected lightbulb, thermostat, smart light switch and Internet-connected video camera? They’re always connected and always “dialing home.”

You might know where that “home” is — or at least think you do. The problem is, we can’t “trust” these devices and “verify” later. The threat is already here. We’ve got WannaCry 1.0, 1.5 and the soon-to-come WannaCry 2.0 as proof. It’s not always the case that individual devices or software makers are practicing unethical data harvesting. Sometimes, the fault lies with corrupted or counterfeit components finding their way into otherwise trustworthy supply chains.

The shadow IoT is what happens when all of these many connected devices get hacked into, compromised and quietly used in the background of your network for data theft and other nastiness by remote third parties.

Why Does It Pose a Threat to Consumers and Businesses?

Why is this a problem in the first place? It starts with two pieces:

• Many connected device manufacturers haven’t looked before they leaped. In other words, some of the products under your roof might’ve reached the market before the companies responsible for them had thought through the security implications and vulnerabilities or pushed a firmware update to plug those vulnerabilities.
• Technological limitations, rather than garden-variety human hubris, is another unfortunate roadblock to patching up the Shadow IoT for good. Many of these device manufacturers make them in a way that maximizes profitability, rather than security robustness. That means they often don’t even have enough onboard computational power to provide adequate security layers and reliable functionality.

To be blunt, if it has an IP address, it’s a likely target of data thieves, whether the device is primarily in somebody’s home or on a company’s network. But realistically, what are the threats here?

In a corporate setting, even one compromised networked device can give hackers and malware architects a convenient way into the larger network. Companies must consider what data security measures are necessary. To mix metaphors, even one weak link in your cybersecurity chain means the whole house of cards can come down on you. Some IoT devices leave ports open on your network without necessarily meaning to, which renders even your home or company firewalls effectively useless.

How Can We Protect Our IoT Devices?

In an ideal world, every device released for purchase to private consumers or corporate purchasing agents would be 100 percent secure by design. Each device would have a fixed number of tasks it could perform and would be locked out of performing work outside the scope of its design. But that’s not the world we live in.

Step one is acknowledging how widespread the threat is already. New technologies are understandably exciting purchases to consider, and they often arrive boasting they’ll help us gather more data or work more effectively. But making purchases blindly, without considering the consequences or performing proper vetting on the vendor or manufacturer you’re thinking of working with, isn’t optional anymore.

In short, verify now and trust later. Here are some other things to do:

• Isolate portions of your network containing IoT devices that don’t need access to the greater Internet. Admittedly, this negates some of the advantages of connected devices in the first place. But in many cases, this is a viable solution if you’re not sure about the security cred of the devices or software you’re using.
• Find out how to update your IoT devices. It’s not always intuitive, unfortunately. You might find yourself navigating an ungainly menu on a control panel or entering a companion app on a computer or smartphone. Updating desktop operating systems has gotten easier, thanks to automatic background updates. Until IoT device manufacturers come up with a similar solution, find out how the update process works, then check it manually and regularly. That is how known vulnerabilities get patched — and ignoring this functionality leaves you at risk.
• If you represent a company that has a bring-your-own-device work policy for employees, you need a comprehensive, well-written, well-publicized and easy-to-access company policy for bringing these devices to work and performing work-related tasks on them. No matter how robust your networks and equipment are, there’s little guarantee every employee is equally conscientious unless you’ve made your expectations and the nature of the threat well-known to all.

Perhaps it sounds like a last-ditch solution, but it’s also possible to have your network administrators automatically receive a notification when they detect unidentified connected devices or activity.

Get to know your security software or the vendor you work with for your Internet architecture. And if they don’t know what you’re talking about when you mention IoT vulnerabilities or the Shadow IoT, run in the other direction and find somebody who knows what they’re talking about.

Use This as an Opportunity

As we’ve seen, the threat is real. But so are the opportunities the Internet of Things brings to households and organizations alike. The message here is not that technology has leaped beyond our ability to control it. The takeaway is that maintaining Internet security, like everything else in life, requires ongoing learning and vigilance.

The post How Dangerous Is the Shadow IoT? appeared first on Tech Web Space.

The U.S. recruitment market, which is worth about $200 billion, is primarily led by businesses like LinkedIn, Monster and CareerBuilder. These online job boards can connect job-seekers with employers, though they lack the machine learning and AI sophistication of Google’s job-hunt platform.

As a result, Google seems likely to disrupt the job-seeking industry, spearheaded by technological innovation in AI and machine learning. So, just how is Google helping create employment opportunities for job-seekers?

The Power of Google Jobs

The launch of Google for Jobs last summer confirmed Google’s serious entry into the job-seeking market. Google is striving to power smarter search and recommendations within job boards, career sites and other job-related platforms. Specifically, AI search technology will provide job-seekers with more relevant, personally tailored results than ever.

Anyone can use Google Jobs now. Simply use Google’s regular search, typing in a query like “insurance jobs near me.” The results will show relevant insurance jobs near your location, in addition to providing filters that can help narrow down your search, like showing jobs posted in the last three days and specific roles.

You can click on More Filters to sift through listings by title, location, date posted, job type, employer and state. You can also turn on email alerts for specific searches, which can come in handy when you’re looking for a particular position.

Google Jobs even includes criteria like commute time, working hours and salary-range estimates, extracted from employer review sites like Glassdoor.

Google’s Presence in Job-Seeking

Rather than competing directly with job boards like Monster and LinkedIn, Google has the strategy of partnering with such sites. These sites benefit from Google’s AI sophistication while providing Google with actionable data it can use to evolve and improve the matching process.

For over a decade, job-seekers online have seen very little regarding innovation. Google is seeking a change in the job-seeking market. Effectively, Google’s partnerships with other job-market platforms will expedite the industry’s growth into a more accurate, technologically impressive expertise.

In response to Google, job sites like Indeed are amplifying their dependence on AI. Indeed utilizes AI and data to bring out the most relevant jobs, personalized to the user searching for the job.

It also uses AI to evaluate candidates’ résumés and identify how much its information aligns with what a company is seeking from a candidate. Google is having an impact on others in the job-seeking market by getting them to expedite their reliance on AI and technology.

Expediting the Job-Seeking Process

Google is focusing well beyond easing the process of finding a job online. Connecting directly with recruiters is another option for job-seekers, in addition to informing users of jobs even when they aren’t looking.

Integrating the job search and recruiting process is a point of interest for Google and others in the job-seeking niche. Various sites have the right idea, with LinkedIn’s social media aspects and news feed being the most prominent. Chatbot apps can also play a role in connecting job-seekers with employers and recruiters. Intertwining social elements into job boards can pay off.

Traditional job boards will remain an essential part of job-seeking online, though the presence of AI will be increasingly unavoidable. Google and other sites will continue refining job-seeking platforms that tailor job results with more personalization and ease than ever.

The post Google Enhances AI to Support the Job-Seeking Market appeared first on Tech Web Space.

While this connectivity is increasing convenience and comfort, it is also creating vulnerability. These connected vehicles are at risk of being hacked, even though car manufacturers are trying to downplay the threats.

Who is at risk, and how can drivers make their cars hack-proof?

Car Hacks in the News

Car hacking hasn’t put driver’s lives in danger — yet — but that doesn’t mean it’s not happening. The most shocking was a demonstration by Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek, two hackers who discovered a vulnerability in Jeep’s firmware that allowed them to take control of the car, including everything from the radio and climate control to the steering and transmission systems.

During the demonstration, they were able to take control of a Jeep being driven by a writer from Wired and eventually shut down the car entirely, while the driver had no power.

This is the most dramatic example of car hacking, but even if hackers aren’t taking control of cars on the road, they’re still making life harder for car owners. One London resident lost his new Volvo not once but twice — a device allowed the hacker to clone the car’s key fob signal, which also controls the vehicle’s keyless start system, and drive away without ever setting off an alarm.

This same vulnerability exists in nearly every make and model of car that relies on keyless start and a key fob for entry. A hacker can clone the fob’s signal, be in the car and driving away in less than a minute.

Hacking and Autonomous Vehicles

Current cars aren’t the only ones that are vulnerable to this style of automotive hacking. As more and more self-driving vehicles start hitting the streets, these vehicles could also be hacked. As autonomous vehicles begin to evolve and we reach level five autonomy — which is a car that can drive itself and may not be equipped with a steering wheel and pedals for the driver — the risk of these hacks raises even more questions.

Who would be responsible in the event of a hacking related accident in an autonomous vehicle? Is it the driver, who had no control over the car, either due to the hacker or the fact that the car wasn’t designed to be driven by a human being? Or would it be the responsibility of the hacker or even the car manufacturer?

It’s questions like these that perfectly illustrate why we can’t afford to downplay the risk of automotive hacking.

Creating a Hack-Proof Car

Manufacturers need to be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to network security. In the case of the Jeep demonstration we mentioned earlier, the company responded immediately by shipping a firmware update on a flash drive to all affected owners so they could update their car’s software and close the back door that allowed the two hackers to take control of a vehicle remotely. They also recalled 1.4 million affected models.

Car owners can take some steps to help prevent hackers from being able to take over their vehicles:

• Update Your Car’s Software: Keep your car’s software up to date. An out-of-date system is more vulnerable to hacks — look at the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled the UK’s National Health Service. The virus was able to take hold because the offices affected were using an old and out-of-date operating system.
• Keep Wi-Fi Off: When you’re not using the BlueTooth or Wi-Fi in your car, make sure to shut them off. An open signal, even one that is password protected, is an invitation to hackers.
• Strategically Store Your Fob: When the car is parked, store your key fob in a Faraday Bag, or even in the freezer. This will keep tech-savvy car thieves from being able to clone the fob’s signal and unlock or start your car.
• Set Your Own Password: Finally, just like any other password, it’s essential to protect your car’s Wi-Fi password and to change it from the default password that it was set to when the car was delivered. If you have a hard time remembering your car’s password, keep a note of it in your wallet or your home — not in the car.

Car hacking isn’t just something you see in the movies anymore. As cars get smarter, it is quickly becoming a reality, and it’s important for both manufacturers and car owners to address this threat directly. We can’t afford to downplay the potential risks here — as cars continue to advance, it could become a threat to human life.

The post Why We Shouldn’t Downplay Car Hacking Threats appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Cookies aren’t the only way companies can track you online. Another method that has more recently come to light is browser fingerprinting.

Here’s how it works. When you visit a website, your device shares information about itself with that site, including details about your operating system, hardware, settings, time zone, language, active plugins and more. While this information doesn’t include identifying factors like your name or address, with a detailed enough description, a company can identify you.

It’s like when you try to explain what a person looks like. Describing their hair color isn’t enough, but the more descriptors you give someone, the easier it will be for them to pick the person out of a crowd. It’s the same with web browsers. This tactic works because browsers are very rarely exactly the same. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, just one in 286,777 other browsers share the same fingerprint as a browser. The subtle differences between users enable companies to identify them.

Uses of Browser Fingerprinting

Banks were the first to use browser fingerprinting. They developed it to help prevent fraud. It enables them to determine when someone is trying to access financial information from a device that isn’t associated with the account holder. If the bank detects unusual activity, they can alert the customer and check if the login is legitimate.

Advertisers, however, now also use browser fingerprinting to identify web users, track their online activity and send them more relevant ads. The more they know about a user, the more personalized they can make their advertising messaging, which is why user data is so valuable to so many companies.

The government could also use fingerprinting to monitor user activity, even if those users take steps to hide it.

Advertisers and other entities already use other methods too, such as cookies and trackers on apps to monitor user activity on computers, smartphones, and tablets. Browser fingerprinting is just one more strategy they can use to get a clearer picture of who you are based on your online activity.

Preventing Browser Fingerprinting

Privacy regulations are starting to address browser fingerprinting. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which entered into force in May of this year, require companies to get user consent to use this method. Some tech companies are also working to make it harder to use browser fingerprinting. Apple recently announced that the latest version of its internet browser, Safari, will feature a simplified system configuration, which will make all Macs look more similar to websites.

You can test how unique your browser is using a tool from the Electronic Frontier Foundation called Panopticlick. This tool compares your browser fingerprint to those of other users who have used it and rates your uniqueness and identifiability.

There are also some strategies that people who are concerned about their online privacy can implement themselves to make it harder for websites to identify them. Users should be aware, though, that some of these methods may cause some sites not to work correctly.

The browser Firefox is one of the best options for those who value privacy. In the “about: config” menu of Firefox, choosing the settings “privacy.resistFingerprinting = true” and “webgl.disabled = true” will make it harder for sites to track you. You can also use the Tor browser, which is designed to anonymize web activity. Use the default version without any plugins so that you don’t stand out from other Tor browser users. The downside of this browser is that it’s slower than most.

You can also use a virtual private network or VPN. When using this tool, instead of connecting directly to a website, your browser will connect to the VPN, which will, in turn, connect you to the website. This process hides your IP address from the site. The method might not stop browser fingerprinting on its own, but when combined with other tactics like using browsers with privacy protections in place, it may be more effective.

How Does Browser Fingerprinting Affect You?

Browser fingerprinting can be both positive and negative, depending on how it’s used. It can benefit users by protecting them from people who are trying to hack into their bank accounts. Advertisers can also use it to tailor their marketing efforts to your interests. Some people might not mind this, while others might want to prevent it from happening. How you react to browser fingerprinting depends on your views on online privacy.

The post What Is Browser Fingerprinting, and How Does It Affect You? appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Did you know, for instance, that increasing your Yelp score by a single star can boost revenue for your business by as much as 5 to 9 percent? A Moz study has also shown that online reviews influence two-thirds of all buying decisions.

It begs the question: How do you foster them? Sure, there are reviews on sites like Amazon, press portals and blogs — but how do you, as a business owner or manager, incorporate reviews into your own site, social profiles or brand portals?

Here are some great ways to do that.

Identify Your Ideal Third-Party Portals

Before delivering review channels on your site, blog or social profiles, consider the existing sites that would offer considerable benefits for your brand. Restaurants and local businesses, for example, can benefit greatly from a bevy of Yelp reviews. Other brands may be more concerned with Google or Amazon reviews, or maybe even content updates on something like Facebook or Angie’s List.

Whatever the case, identify the best third-party channel that matches the needs of your business and your customers. Then, work on encouraging your customers to use said service to provide feedback and share their experience.

Encouraging your customers is pretty simple, and may include asking them directly in-person, directing attention to the review site on promotional materials, or even starting a contest or campaign that asks them to post a review. Just don’t force them to post a positive one.

Customer Testimonials

Whether you sell products or a service, you can always post customer testimonials that share user experiences about your offerings. The best part about testimonials is that they can be shared anywhere. You can display them on a website or blog, on promotional materials and content, in video ads or even via social media.

Testimonials also have the added benefit of being presented from the perspective of the customer, so they tend to appear more genuine and authentic than, say, press reviews or video promotions.

Embed Video Reviews

There’s a new form of press in the current market, often referred to as an influencer. These are essentially people or consumers that share their own experiences and opinions with the world at large, and have amassed a large following as a result. Popular YouTubers, for example, are exactly the kind of people we’re talking about.

It’s a good idea to leverage these influencers in several different ways. For starters, you can reach out to them and offer exclusive products or goods simply for providing a review. The attention their review will garner — positive or negative — is enough to gain your brand exposure.

You can also take existing reviews and embed them on your company site, product pages, social media and everywhere else you have purview. Sharing these reviews shows you are confident in your products and are willing to support community discussions.

Mobile App Reviews

We keep talking about hosting reviews on websites or social media, but there’s one channel that’s also highly influential, and that’s mobile. About 90 percent of adults in the United States own and use a cellphone.

That’s why it’s a great idea to segment or create an entire section of your mobile app for customer reviews and related content. If you have an online marketplace within your mobile app, then reviews for each product or service you offer are a no-brainer.

Learn to include them naturally in blog and product-related content. Share them via mobile news feeds or social posts. Just learn to spread and leverage the influence that such reviews provide.

Product Comparisons

Sometimes, visual content is better than writing or presenting a wall of text. That’s certainly the case with charts and comparison-style reviews. Take a look at how Amazon compares products across varying brands.

You don’t necessarily need the accompanying text with those review scores, either. You can see at a glance which of these TV sets is more coveted by consumers, along with pricing info and specifications to boot.

Buyer’s Guide

Less a conventional review and more a user-friendly or beginner’s guide for selecting various products or services, buyer’s guides are a great collaborative form of review. The idea is to help new customers through the buying process by identifying strengths and weaknesses in your products and services in order to help them decide which is most ideal. You may or may not incorporate user and peer review information within the guide to back up what’s being discussed.

This works especially well when you offer products or services in multitier levels. You might explain, for example, why a customer would want a higher tier over a lower one, and what that means for their experience.

Customer Reviews Generate Trust

The most important thing to remember is that customer reviews help boost your company and brand’s reputation by increasing trust and authority. You might initially think to silence or eliminate negative reviews, but that’s a bad idea.

Instead, focus on providing a positive and healthy customer experience, and you’ll soon find the positive reviews and comments outweigh the bad ones. It’s also good form to respond to reviews publicly when you have the ability to do so. You might consider responding via social media or directly via comments on a site or review portal.

All in all, reviews are a great way to encourage customers to come forward and share their experiences, especially when you host them or highlight them through your own portals and platforms.

The post 6 Ways to Welcome Customer Reviews for Your Brand appeared first on Tech Web Space.

1. Ensuring People Don’t Miss Out on Complementing Items

Amazon is famous for its recommendation engine, which suggests things people should buy based on past visits to the site. Data suggests that up to 35 percent of Amazon’s sales come from that recommendation engine.

Amazon doesn’t reveal the secrets behind its recommendation algorithm, but the most likely reason it’s so successful is that the technology works when people already have their wallets open, ready to enter their credit card numbers. Adding something extra doesn’t seem like a big move.

A company called MLveda also made a recommendation engine for Shopify-powered online stores so that other merchants can test out manual or automated recommendations on their target audience.

2. Reducing the Steps People Have to Go Through to Buy Groceries

Retailers have tried to cut down on the amount of friction consumers encounter by redesigning their store layouts, making signage easier to understand and taking other steps to make the shopping experience more pleasant.

Merchants in the grocery realm help people shop for necessities without leaving home. Services like Peapod and Instacart encourage people to fill up their carts by clicking links for the items they want to buy.

A worldwide poll says that while people are warming up to the idea of online grocery shopping, they still prefer in-person shopping. However, a quarter of people around the world shop online for groceries now, and 55 percent say they’d try it in the future.

Then, there’s the AmazonFresh Pickup service, which is like a drive-through for grocery shoppers. People select items online, then come to the drive-through to receive their products — all bagged up and ready to take home. This trend illustrates how brands want to cater to people who need to buy groceries but don’t want to disrupt their busy lives too much — or maybe even leave their home — to get them.

3. Helping Shoppers Get Their Groceries Without Waiting for Cashiers

It’s frustrating to have a cart full of products you want to buy and then have to wait 10-15 minutes to pay for them, but that’s what can happen if you’re at a store during a busy day and there aren’t enough cashiers to handle the demand.

People are accustomed to self-checkout machines that let shoppers scan their own items. However, some companies are trying to make that process even more convenient. Panasonic, for instance, showed off an improved self-checkout scanner that detects the items inside a shopping basket with help from electronic tags. The design of the basket also saves time because the bottom drops out and puts the goods into a bag while a person pays.

4. Providing Convenience to Businesses and Customers

Most retail stores get new merchandise every season or more often and use signs to promote it and spread the word about sales. Recently, stores have started depending on digital signs to better engage their customers.

The dynamic images of digital signs make it possible to highlight limited-time offers and program the signs to show off the latest content.

Digital signs meet the needs of particular kinds of customers too. For example, a shop that caters to tourists might have a digital sign advertising upcoming events in the area — plus items to help guests enjoy those experiences even more.

Furthermore, a quick-service restaurant could use digital signage to speedily update its menu board and use attention-getting display tactics to call attention to things like allergens or money-saving combo offers. Also, many digital signs have LED backlights, which are energy-saving and extra-bright.

5. Optimizing Customer Engagement Via Smartphones

Research collected by Google found that 42 percent of respondents use their smartphones for information while shopping in stores. Most of them find what they need to know through search engines, but others go to retailers’ websites, whether related to the store they’re in or another one in the area.

Many stores offer free Wi-Fi but require users to provide their names and email addresses first. Once retailers have those details, they can use the information to reach out to shoppers and tell them about sales or in-store events, such as demonstrations.

Since consumers often struggle to find their way around stores they don’t know well, an in-store shopping experience on an app might include an interactive map that updates as people move around. Then, they don’t have to look for sales associates to get advice about where to find certain items.

If smartphone users have geolocation technology activated on their smartphones, nearby merchants can show them advertising that might urge them to stop in the store and see what’s for sale instead of just strolling by it while walking around a city.

Technology Has Forever Changed the Retail Sector

This list highlights some of the most substantial changes technology has brought about for shoppers. As innovations continue to occur and retailers look for ways to attract customers, we’ll see even more high-tech advancements come to stores.

The post 5 Ways Tech Is Changing the Way We Shop appeared first on Tech Web Space.

Here is a list of 13 cool gadgets for Father’s Day any dad would love to have!

1. Biolite PowerLite Mini ($44.95, Amazon)

If Dad loves the outdoors, or just likes to have a bright LED light handy for jobs around the house, the PowerLite Mini is a great choice. It provides 135 lumens of light, has a rechargeable battery and can last for up to 52 hours on low. It also doubles as a backup charger for his smartphone.

2. Logitech K380 Multi-device Bluetooth Keyboard ($32.27, Amazon)

You might have grown up with a touchscreen in your hand, but Dad probably hates trying to text on one of those tiny keyboards. This portable Bluetooth keyboard pairs easily with multiple devices and makes it easier to type on anything compatible with Bluetooth.

3. DJI Spark Drone (DJI, $399)

As fun as drones are, learning how to fly them can be an expensive exercise. Instead of fighting with a remote control, why not wave your hands around?

The DJI Spark Drone allows Dad to use hand gestures to control the flight of the drone. It also comes with a 1080p, 30-frames-per-second HD camera, so you know he’ll be using it to take great video of every upcoming family event.

4. Hydra SmartBottle ($59.99, ThinkGeek)

Making sure Dad stays hydrated can be a chore. Why not make it fun with the Hydra SmartBottle?

Not only does it hold 20 ounces of whatever liquid you want to drink at a time, it doubles as a phone charger, lantern and Bluetooth speaker for playing music or use as a speakerphone add-on. Plus, it comes with access to a free app to make sure Dad is drinking enough water.

5. Amazon Echo ($99.99, Amazon) or Echo Dot ($49.99, Amazon)

If your Dad hasn’t already invited Alexa into his home, this Father’s Day is the perfect opportunity to hook him up with an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot.

The Echo has more functionality than the Dot does, but both give Dad access to Alexa, Amazon’s virtual assistant, who can play music, read the news or control his smart appliances — once he gets some. Maybe next Father’s Day.

6. Worx Landroid Robotic Lawn Mower ($910.21, Amazon)

Is your dad obsessed with having the perfectly manicured lawn? Or does he love playing with remote-controlled toys?

The Worx Android is a Roomba for the lawn — Robotic lawn mowers can mow up to a quarter-acre on a single charge, and automatically returns to its dock to recharge or if it senses rain. If you’ve got a small lawn that doesn’t have elevation changes of more than 20 degrees, this can be a thoughtful Father’s Day gift — but you might want to get everyone to pitch in, because it’s a pricier option.

7. GoPro HERO6 Black Action Camera ($392.22, Amazon)

You can’t go wrong with a GoPro, and this super-easy-to-operate sport camera will be the perfect gift for any dad — even the one who still can’t figure out how to program the DVR. It can record 4k video at 60 frames per second, it’s small enough that you can attach it to a drone or a helmet and it takes killer slow-motion video.

8. Prynt Pocket Instant Photo Printer for iPhone ($149.99, Amazon)

Does your dad have an iPhone, but absolutely hates the hassle of trying to print the pictures he’s taken with it?

This handy little phone add-on lets you print 2” x 3” photos directly from your phone. It only works with iPhones — sorry, Android dads — but it has one additional neat little trick: It lets you “embed” videos in your photos. If you hover over the photo with an iPhone, the video clip will play!

9. Braun Series 7 Electric Foil Shaver ($169.97, Amazon)

If Dad’s been shaving his facial hair with the same tired, dull, old razor, it’s time for an upgrade. The Braun Series 7 Electric Foil Shaver is a smart razor — not only does it get the job done faster, it reads and adapts to Dad’s beard. No more too-close shaves or having to shave it all off because he accidentally trimmed one side shorter than the other.

10. Huckberry Electric Toothbrush ($52.99, Huckberry)

No, we’re not saying Dad has bad breath, but a nice electric toothbrush can be a thoughtful gift. Think of it as saying “I care about you because I care about your oral health.” Ok, it’s kind of corny, but this fantastic electric toothbrush, which comes with a 6-month supply of brush heads, more than makes up for it.

11. Away Carry-On Suitcase ($225, Away Travel)

If Dad travels a lot, he knows trying to find an outlet to charge a phone or laptop in the airport can be a nightmare. Instead, opt for a smart suitcase with a charging pack that can power most mobile devices.

It’s TSA-compliant — the battery is fully ejectable, so if you need to check your bag instead of taking it as a carry-on, you can just remove the battery and carry it with you.

12. ETape Digital Tape Measure ($26.97, Amazon)

If your dad is handy, he can always use new tools. This digital tape measure takes the guesswork out of measuring, with an easy-to-read digital screen that will tell Dad exactly how far he’s measuring. If you’re looking for a great Father’s Day gift that won’t break the bank, this digital tape measure might just measure up.

13. Fitbit Ionic Smartwatch ($287.50, Amazon)

Whether your dad is a bodybuilder or is just trying to get fit, the Fitbit Ionic Smartwatch can help him track his steps, his heart rate and even give him guided workouts. It’s even completely waterproof, so if swimming and fishing are more your dad’s speed, you won’t have to worry about it taking a dip and getting ruined. It’s more expensive than your average Fitbit, but it’s got plenty of bells and whistles to make it worth every penny — you might even want one for yourself!

These gifts are perfect for all sorts of dads, from the fitness enthusiast to the tech aficionado. No matter what you get Dad this year, though, just remember it’s the thought that counts.

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