Last-minute Father’s Day gadget gift guide for dads who golf and those who want to rock

NO IDEAS for Father’s Day? We’ve got you covered with five tech-savvy gift suggestions to suit dads who want to dance, gung-ho golfers, and forgetful fathers.

DON’T panic but Father’s Day is this Sunday and, if you’ve procrastinated, you’re going to need to come up with a plan and a greeting card quickly.

All dads are different — bad jokes notwithstanding — but we’ve rounded up five new gadgets that may please the man in your family.

Garmin Approach S60

4.5/5 / $579-$699 / garmin.com.au

The Garmin Approach S60 is a smartwatch designed for golf with a 1.2-inch touchscreen.

With 41,000 courses loaded into its slender body and a 1.2-inch screen to show you exactly how far to hit the ball, this golfing watch could provide your father with close to an unfair advantage. It’s also surprisingly easy to use for a sporty device, with touchscreen selections so you don’t have to memorise what its three crowns do, and a straightforward menu system.

Its accompanying app will also let you scrutinise your golf game after you’ve played, and you can pair with an accessory called the TruSwing if you want to analyse your swing too.

On the smartwatch front, the Approach S60 will also let you change its face, customise it with widgets, record your daily step count, and deliver alerts from your phone.

One battery recharge buys you 10 hours of GPS-tracking on the golf course or 10 days as a watch.

Apple AirPods

4.5 out of 5 stars / $229 / apple.com/au

A pair of wireless AirPods may suit fathers with iPhones. Picture: AFP PHOTO/Josh Edelson

If your Dad carries an iPhone, these wireless sound machines should make your shortlist. AirPods are seriously useful for three reasons. First, they connect to an iPhone seamlessly, using optical sensors and an accelerometer to detect when they’re in your ears and pair to your handset in seconds. Second, you can double-tap them to summon Siri, who can whisper sweet facts into your ear. Third, the case doubles as a battery pack, adding to their five hours of listening time per charge.

They also filter out background noise while you’re on a phone call, and you can use just one at a time. Gift-buyers should be wary of three things, though: they’re in such high demand you’ll have to find them in a store, they don’t have volume controls, and their strange appearance is polarising.

Nest Cam Outdoor

4 out of 5 stars / $319 / nest.com

The Nest Cam Outdoor camera streams video to smartphones.

Nest’s outdoor camera is suited to security-minded fathers who want to monitor their front door or check on the garage when they’re away from home.

The modestly sized camera features a 130-degree wide-angle lens to capture as much as possible, a 3-megapixel high-definition resolution for clear video output, and eight infra-red LED lights to capture footage at night.

Naturally, its body is also water-resistant to withstand rain, it sits on a magnetic base and can be mounted to a wall, and you must attach it to a power point, though it comes with an extended cord that can reach back inside the home.

The camera connects to a wireless internet hotspot to stream video to your phone, though it can also send alerts when it detects movement and when it identifies a human outline.

Lander Moab Case

4 out of 5 stars / $60 / au.bodyguardz.com

The Lander Moab cases uses insulation to protect the phone inside it.

This slender phone case makes a big promise: to keep your phone at an optimal temperature in all seasons.

It attempts this using Thermoline insulation to ensure the Apple iPhone’s metal body is protected from both the cold and the oppressive Australian heat. It’s hard to test whether this really works with the case covering the phone but the Moab case is grip-friendly and comes with an optional lanyard to stop you dropping it.

It also features well-crafted rubber edges, and flared covers around the phone’s buttons that actually make them more comfortable to use and easier to find without looking.

Read more: A history of iPhones: How has the iPhone changed over time?

Chipolo Plus

4 out of 5 stars / $40 / studiosilo.com

Chipolo Plus is a disc-shaped Bluetooth tracker.

Fathers who can’t remember where they put their car keys, or even their car, may like this traceable disc that connects to Apple and Android smartphones with Bluetooth.

To track anything at all, you just physically connect this disc to it — helpfully, it can easily be connected to a set of keys or the zip of a purse or bag — download its smartphone app, and connect your phone to it using Bluetooth. If you ever lose the item, you can track it inside the app, assuming it’s within a 60m radius, or make it sound an alarm.

Alternatively, if you find your chip but not your phone, you can press its body for the phone to make a noise. Unlike other Bluetooth trackers, this has the loudest speaker on the market but, like its peers, its battery is not replaceable and will only last a year.

Originally published as Last-minute Father’s Day gadget gift guide for dads who golf and those who want to rock