Temu, the Chinese e-commerce platform, has been relentlessly spamming me with advertisements ever since I picked up a set of 50 drill bits for $2.99, with free shipping. Some of the deals from Temu are genuinely good – flash storage cards, USB cables and battery packs from established brands feature on the website at a fraction of the cost you’d pay in-store in New Zealand.
But would I buy a non-branded smartwatch ($26) or a TV soundbar ($78) from Temu? No chance. You get what you pay for with generic brands. Still, the explosion onto the shopping scene of Temu this year seems engineered for our fiscally constrained times. The site offers a quick, cheap deal, but gamifies the shopping experience in a bid to have you leaving its store with your virtual shopping cart piled high. Few gadget lovers will be expecting a new iPhone or flat-screen TV for Christmas this year. But there are still plenty of compelling options you can pick up as gifts for under $100.
Here are six cut-price gadget options to keep the tech lover in your life happy.
Apple AirTags
An acquaintance of mine recently lamented on Facebook that she’d lost her one and only car key. Replacing it was set to cost several hundred dollars. If she’d only attached a location tracking AirTag to her key ring she could have looked for it via the Find My app on her iPhone. AirTags connect to the Find My network that is formed by all the other Apple devices that are out there. The tags are water and dust proof and the battery lasts for around a year. An ideal accessory to keep track of anything valuable.
Price: $59
JBL Go 3
Sometimes you just want a little speaker to take with you to the beach or park which you can connect to your phone to play some music on. The JBL Go 3 is designed with that exact purpose in mind. It’s tiny, waterproof and offers up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge. The speaker is quite stylish too, coming in a range of different colours. You clearly won’t get a big sound out of this, but it beats playing music or podcasts directly from your tinny smartphone speaker and is easy to slip into your bag.
Price: $69
Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) Smart Speaker with Clock
If, like me, your morning routine includes an alarm clock wake-up call, followed by catching the 7am news on the radio, then checking your calendar schedule for the day, an Echo Dot smart speaker can streamline the entire process. The Alexa-powered smart speaker allows you to set up routines, automated procedures that can extend to adjusting lights and thermostats. You can ask Alexa questions, have her tell you what appointments are in your calendar and play podcasts and music. The physical LED light on the Echo Dot helpfully displays the time too. With Amazon planning on adding generative AI functions to Alexa in 2024, the Echo Dot is also about to get a lot more intuitive.
Price: $79
Joby GripTight ONE GP Magnetic Impulse
If you’re sporting a late-model iPhone, you’ve got a great camera in your pocket. But if you want to take decent videos, particularly if you have Youtube stardom in mind, you need a decent tripod to get just the right angle. The Joby GripTight One is designed for on-the-go video recording. It has legs that can wrap around objects for a secure hold, as well as magnetic feet so you can securely attach it to a metal surface. A clamp mount houses your phone.
Price: $87
Kodak 256GB microSD card
You can never have too many microSD cards floating around. They are great for adding quick and easy storage to cameras, smartphones, computers and a host of other electronic devices. The price of SD cards has plunged in recent years. If you have an Android smartphone with limited storage and a microSD card slot, boosting capacity with a 256GB (gigabyte) microSD card is a great idea, especially if you take a lot of photos and videos. Make sure you also pick up a SD card reader if you want to plug the pint-sized microSD card into a regular-sized card slot.
Price: $50
DishTV SmartVu Android TV dongle
An Amazon Firestick or Google Chromecast device is great if you want to convert an older TV to have smart TV options. But neither of them supports the Freeview app for watching live free-to-air channels with the electronic programming guide. Instead, you need to get a SmartVu dongle to do that. The device is based on Google’s Android TV software, so has good compatibility with the video-streaming apps and acts as a Chromecast device allowing you to display sources from a phone or laptop on your TV screen. It plugs in via HDMI port. The $149 dongle supports 4K, ultra-HD video, but your ageing TV is unlikely to display 4K content anyway.
Price: $99
