Technologies

13 Mother’s Day Gifts for When You Can’t Be There in Person

Don’t let distance deter you from celebrating your mom on Mother’s Day. Here are some of the best gifts to give your mom when you can’t be in person.

Mother’s Day is the one day of the year dedicated to the woman who dedicates all her time to you, so make sure to celebrate her this year, even from oceans away. If you don’t live close enough to be there in person for Mother’s Day, there are still so many thoughtful gifts at your disposal to make your mom feel special. It might not be the same as physically being there, but it goes a long way towards letting your mom (or Grandma) know how much she means to you.

Sure, there are the old standbys like flowers and cards, but how about a sweet gift for the sentimental mom, or something practical that will make your mom’s life easier? To help you find just the right gift for your long-distance mom, we’ve created a list of the best Mother’s Day gifts for when you can’t be there in person. These thoughtful and unique gifts will demonstrate your love can truly go the distance.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Disney Plus

For the mom who’s a kid at heart

If your mother loves Disney but hasn’t tried Disney Plus yet, give her the gift that keeps on giving: all the Disney she can watch. Your mom can watch popular shows like The Mandalorian and finally see what all the fuss is about with Encanto. We rated Disney Plus as the best streaming service for kids at heart, so if your mom loves nostalgia and wants to stay on top of the latest releases, she’ll love Disney Plus.

$80 at Disney Plus

Mixbook

For the sentimental mom

When you can’t be with your mother in person, a personalized photo book of all of your moments with her can fill in the gap. Mixbook, one of CNET’s best photo books, allows you to create the ultimate gift by uploading photographs from your phone, computer or social media sites like Instagram and Facebook, and from there build your book, calendar and more with just a few steps.

See at Mixbook

The Sill

The Sill «Easy Care» Bundle

For the plant-loving mom

The Sill is a plant marketplace with a wide variety of fantastic plant choices for plant parents of all kinds. The Easy Care bundle is the best present for a mom who enjoys plants, but prefers a low-maintenance option. In this bundle, she’ll get the pet-friendly peperomia obtusifolia and a drought- and low-light-tolerant ZZ plant.What’s more, as one of CNET’s best places to buy plants online, your mother will adore this present’s quality.

$60 at The Sill

Amazon

Kindle Paperwhite

For reading on the go

The Kindle Paperwhite is our best all-around ebook reader for a reason. It features warm light settings, a longer battery life and is completely waterproof. For a better viewing experience, this edition of the Kindle Paperwhite sports a 6.8-inch display, perfect for a virtual book club.

$140 at Amazon

$140 at Target

$140 at Best Buy

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Cuddle Clones

A cuddly reminder of her favorite pet

If you have a mother who adores her pets, consider getting her a plush animal to provide a constant reminder of her affection. You begin the Cuddle Clones process with the pet’s name, then you follow up with the type of pet and finally the breed. After that, you go through a sequence of simple questions and picture uploads, and voila your mom will have a fuzzy version of her pet in eight weeks.

See at Cuddle Clones

Amazon

ArtPix 3D Crystal Photo

A 3D photo to treasure

This ArtPix 3D Photo Crystal is another cool way to preserve a special picture, but in 3D. This is accomplished through the use of laser engraving that brings any photograph to life. You can fully customize this gift by font, size, background and more. And this present can be enhanced even further by including a base and LED lights, but the crystal itself is plenty to convey your affection.

$80 at Amazon

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Homesick

Homesick ‘Thank You Mom’ Candle

Fancy candles are a mom staple

There are a variety of ways to express gratitude to your mother, but a candle (together with a handwritten letter) is a wonderful touch. This candle is 13.75 ounces and will burn for around 60 to 80 hours. Created with a natural soy wax blend that includes notes of bergamot, lavender, sage, jasmine and other fragrant aromas this candle will brighten her day.

$38 at Macy’s

Etsy

Handwriting Bracelet

A personalized bracelet will make her day

Does your mom love jewelry and keep all your old handwritten papers from childhood? Why not combine her two loves with this customizable, handmade bracelet made from gold, rose gold or silver. Once you decide how you want it engraved, you can write the message and choose an image matching the way you want it to look.

$42 at Etsy

Uncommon Goods

Long Distance Friendship Lamp

A sweet way to let Mom know you’re thinking of her

If you want to let your mom know you’re thinking of her in real time, this is the gift for her. No matter where you are, this lamp will work like a charm by lighting up and transmitting a colorful glow to her when you touch it.

$125 at Uncommon Goods

Amazon

Eufy RoboVac 25C

Make Mom’s life a whole lot easier

The Eufy RoboVac 25C is rated CNET’s best affordable robot vacuum. It has a powerful suction that is effective on both hardwood and carpeted floors. Pet hair and other little dust piles are easily picked up by it. And while it isn’t the most advanced robot vacuum, it is more than enough to allow your mother to relax while something else cleans up the mess.

$96 at Walmart

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Amazon

Oxo Brew 8-Cup Coffee Maker

For the coffee-loving mama

2020

Making coffee should be as simple as possible, but to accomplish it properly, you’ll need the perfect coffee maker. The Editors’ Choice winner, the Oxo Brew eight-cup coffee maker, is our favorite drip brewer. This machine will make your mother a cup that will rival any coffee shop. The Oxo Brew has a single-cup filter basket, precision settings for better water temperature, a double-wall vacuum and it’s small enough to fit on your mother’s kitchen counter.

Read our Oxo 8 Cup Coffee Maker review.

$199 at Amazon

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the million roses

The Million Roses

Long lasting florals to show your long lasting love

Show your mom how much you love her with a box of long-lasting roses. These real roses can last for up to three years! Although they can be pricey, these beautiful flowers are well worth the money. They come in a variety of colors and bouquet sizes.

$103 at The Million Roses

On Holiday

On Holiday Pickleball Set

For the active mom

Give your mom the gift of America’s favorite pastime — that’s right, a custom pickleball set. On Holiday’s custom pickleball set is great for any active mom or mom looking for a new hobby. For $144, you can pick two paddles, a set of balls and a bag. All of the paddles have unique designs, so you can pick the one that best suits your mom’s personality.

$144 at On Holiday Pickleball

More for Mother’s Day

Technologies

Microsoft Is Testing Letting Copilot AI Interact With Your Whole Desktop

The new feature for Microsoft’s Copilot AI will give it greater access to the contents of your screen.

Microsoft has confirmed an upcoming expansion to its Copilot AI chatbot’s screen-sharing abilities: Soon it will be able to process your entire desktop, not just certain parts of it.

The company said Tuesday that this expansion of Copilot’s Vision capabilities has begun public testing. This update, now rolling out to the company’s Windows Insider program testers, will allow the AI chatbot to view, process and react to all aspects of a user’s desktop, where beforehand it was limited to specific apps or windows.

With this update in place, Copilot should be to process and react to multiple windows and apps at the same time. Microsoft touted the ability for it to assist with all aspects of a project you might be working on.

The Vision feature can be activated by selecting the «glasses» icon and selecting which desktop you’d like to share, and can be closed out by hitting «Stop» or «X» in the composer.

«When you share your desktop (or any specific browser or app window), Copilot can see what you see and talk to you about it in real time,» Microsoft’s blog post said. «It can help analyze content, provide insights, and answer your questions, coaching you through it aloud. Get tips on making improvements to your creative project, help with improving your resume, or guidance while navigating a new game.»

Technologies

Smart Cameras Power a Robot Umpire at MLB All-Stars for the First Time. Here’s How the Challenges Went

The auto-umpire system has debuted and is on track for regular season use, but accuracy could be an issue.

If umpires draw your ire for bad calls, you may soon have a new target: Major League Baseball used its ABS, or Automated Ball-Strike System, to call pitches at the July 15 All-Star Game for the first time. If trials this season go well, it will probably be adopted for the 2026 regular season. But challenges against the camera had an unusually high rate of success.

The ABS uses Hawk-Eye cameras, a technology increasingly common in games with high-speed objects. The cameras judge how a ball travels — in this case, over the strike zone — and are equipped to make a preliminary call.

A human umpire, along with batters and pitchers, have a couple of seconds to review the footage and challenge a call if they think the automated system was wrong. It’s a system the MLB has experimented with since 2019 and is finally ready to bring to the national stage.

This approach has caused some controversy, particularly because the Hawk-Eye cameras are programmed to see the strike zone very differently from human umpires. Instead of the standard cube shape that’s underpinned strike zone knowledge for decades, the ABS uses a two-dimensional rectangle standard that’s automatically adjusted to extend between 53.5% and 27% of the batter’s height. Batters are measured before each game.

Those worried about discrepancies now have new fuel for their worries. In the July 15 game, which the National League won in a home run derby after nine innings ended with a tie, four out of five challenges to the ABS and umpire Dan Iassogna’s combined work were successful. That’s much higher than the ABS spring training test, where teams won only around 50% of their challenges.

The MLB hasn’t revealed definitive plans on whether the ABS could replace umpires altogether, but at this time the human-based, real-time reviews from the umpire appear to be an integral part of the system.

The league did not immediately respond to request for comment.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for July 17, #297

Here are hints and the answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle for July 17, No. 297.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.

My blue group hint for today’s Connections: Sports Edition is geared toward Saturday Night Live fans, but if you know your basketball, you should be fine. I think the green group is even easier than the yellow group, but that might depend on how much time you’ve spent on the water. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: WKRP.

Green group hint: Ahoy!

Blue group hint: The only prescription is more cowbell.

Purple group hint: Fancy fores.