Mother’s Day gifts that will really help your mother
You can of course opt for breakfast or a bouquet of flowers. But wouldn’t you make her happier with a surprising alternative that will really make her happy? Help your mother with digital chores that she doesn’t have time to do herself, such as making backups and setting up a password app. Or give her a digital gift that she hasn’t thought of herself. In this guide you will find some useful tips for nice Mother’s Day gifts that you can also give to her remotely. Sometimes you may have to share your screen remotely or explain something via FaceTime, but she will probably know how to handle that!
- Finding stuff
- Read
- Stream movies
- Storage
- Inspiration
- Backups
- Music
- Passwords
- photos
- Digital services
#1 Don’t lose anything anymore
Is your mother starting to get a little forgetful and lose her things? Or is she just a slob? It doesn’t matter, everyone has their own character traits. An AirTag is a great gift: handy to keep an eye on her bag and keys, but also ideal if she is going away for a weekend soon. AirTags cost around 40 euros each, but there are also AirTag alternatives that are a lot cheaper (about 15 euros) and also work via the Find My network. Setting up an AirTag is easy to do and then it is self-explanatory how to find an AirTag. Next year you shouldn’t forget to (secretly) put in a new battery, so that your mother thinks everything works by itself. If you want to attach the AirTag to her handbag, a nice AirTag pendant is also a good idea.
AirTag prices
#2 Endless reading pleasure
Does your mother complain that all those addictive games on the iPhone mean she barely has time to read her favorite newspapers and magazines? Then you give her a helping hand by installing Readly on her device. This gives her access to more than 70,000 magazines, including from abroad. Close Readly for a few months and mother can enjoy browsing through articles from her favorite magazines. And she might discover some new titles too. The first month costs €0.99, but if you are nice you can also take out a few extra months (this costs €11.99 per month).
The nice thing about Readly is that you don’t burden your mother with stereotypical female topics, but she can choose whether she wants to read about opinion, science or technology. If your mother prefers audio books, Storytel is a better idea.
#3 Enjoy a movie
Nowadays, video streaming services are flying around your ears. Does your mother not yet have a subscription or is she ready for a new film offer? Then give her a video streaming service as a gift! If she likes films and series, it is more than worth it. Of course you have Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+. But perhaps it would be nice to choose something different, such as the relative newcomers HBO Max and Viaplay. If your mother likes arthouse films, Cinemember could be an idea.
#4 More iCloud
Does your mom complain that her iCloud storage is always full? Logical, because 5GB is quite little. For €12, you can give your mother something she can enjoy for a year: an annual membership to iCloud storage. Instead of 5GB, she suddenly has 50GB at her disposal. Just think about what else you can buy for €12: a very small bunch of flowers that are already in the compost bin after a week? Read more about increasing iCloud storage in the tip below.
You can also opt for Apple One, which gives you 50GB of storage and access to Apple Music, Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade. This costs a little more, but with a family subscription you can also share this with close family members… including your mother! Set everything up properly in terms of backups and mom will never have to worry about losing photos, messages and other precious memories again.
There are also very different services for making photo backups:
#5 Set up backups
We sometimes hear stories of people who have lost everything because their iPhone fell into a bucket of water*. “How is that possible?”, you may wonder as an Apple expert. Backups on iCloud are made automatically and it must be very strange if you lose something. That’s true, but your mother won’t be the first to mindlessly dismiss a warning about unsuccessful backups with the idea: “I’ll look into that later.” If your mother doesn’t make backups, then it’s time to do so. For the iPhone and iPad, iCloud or iTunes backups usually work, but also check whether a Time Machine backup is being made of the Mac.
She may not notice it immediately, but if the need arises, she will be eternally grateful!
*OK, usually it’s not a bucket of water a toilet bowl
#6 External storage
Now that we’re talking about backups: where do you make them? On a portable SSD of course, because they are lightweight and easy to carry. In terms of price, it is also very reasonable these days. For under a hundred euros you can get our recommendation, the Samsung T7. You can also find usable copies at Western Digital and Sandisk. They also come in bright colors of red and blue.
#7 Listen to music
Give your mother a ride back in time by digitizing her CD collection. This is possible, for example, with iTunes Match, which allows you to import your own CDs and store them in the cloud. Too difficult? Then don’t make it too complicated for yourself and just do it by giving her a subscription to a streaming service. You can choose from Apple Music, Spotify, Deezer and much more. We have created a handy overview in which we compare all available music services. You can opt for a separate subscription to Apple Music, but with Apple One, you also get 50GB of iCloud storage. Does your mother already have a subscription to a streaming service? Then consider good wireless headphones with noise canceling, so she can enjoy herself undisturbed. That may seem like an expensive gift, but you will also find cheaper alternatives at Sennheiser, Anker, JBL and Sony.
#8 Set up password manager
Does your mother keep losing her password? Install a good password manager, set it up and explain to your mother how it works. There are enough stories in the news about hacked accounts and leaked photos of famous celebrities that even the most tech-averse mother has realized that you better protect your password. Install a good password manager, whether it’s Dashlane, KeePass, or something else. Immediately help your mother set up two-factor authentication and explain to her how to generate unique passwords and enter them on websites.
You can also set up iCloud Keychain if necessary. This works well, but offers slightly fewer additional functions.
#9 Photo editing for cheap
Is your mother looking for “something like Photoshop, but not too difficult”? Then you need an app that offers enough options but is not too complicated. Pixelmator is a smart choice: this app has special templates for all kinds of photo projects, so you can create something special in a short time. Moreover, Pixelmator is a very good photo editing app, both on the iPhone/iPad and on the Mac. With a little practice, your mother will soon master it and all the forgotten childhood photos will come your way in a refurbished version.
#10 Share your digital services
Would your mother also like to use Netflix, Disney+, Spotify or Apple Music, but does she think ten euros a month for all those services is just a bit too much? You can save money by switching to a family or family bundle. Most services allow you to create multiple sub-accounts if you opt for a group or family bundle, so that you don’t get in each other’s way. With Spotify, all users must live at the same address, but with Apple Music this is not necessary. Videoland also has no problem if you share your account with your mother, if she lives at a different address (unlike Netflix). At Videoland, five people can create their own profile.
Sharing applies to many more services: with Microsoft Office 365 Home you can work with five users (who do not all have to live at the same address) and with services such as 1Password and Dropbox you could look at special bundles for small teams . You often don’t have to have a company to use a team or group bundle.
If you ensure that everything works and they don’t have to delve into the settings themselves, an (almost) free app or service suddenly becomes a valuable gift. Unless of course you have a mother who prefers to arrange technical things herself.
Would you rather give something physical? Then check out the iCulture Gift Guide for inspiration.
