No one wants to be that family member. Y’know, the one that routinely forgets birthdays, public holidays, or to prep their presents before the holidays start.
We’re not judging. On the contrary, we’d like to offer some assistance in this case because we’ve all been there.
If you have an avid techy, gamer, or generalist geek in your family/circle of friends, and you’re after an easy-to-execute last-minute gift for them this festive period, you’ve come to the right place. While the gift may end up being a voucher or digital subscription, that doesn’t make it any less valuable.
The folks you totally didn’t forget to buy presents for will agree.
“I’ll just get the presents from my car.”
Showmax subscription
Perfect for the serial streamer with a taste for local flavour, a Showmax voucher will lift any South African’s spirit. It’s also a nice alternative to the typical Netflix or Amazon Prime — it should offer more variety in terms of content.
Showmax vouchers can be purchased at any local Pick n Pay, Builders Warehouse, CNA, Dis-Chem, Game, Makro, HiFi Corp and Incredible Connection stores. A one-month voucher will cost R100, a three-month voucher will cost R300, or a six-month voucher will cost R600.
Stuff Magazine subscription
A Stuff Magazine subscription is a tech lover’s ideal partner, offering a bimonthly (that is, every two months — not the other one) dose of tech news, gear reviews and cool buying guides.
If you’re a gadget enthusiast and we know you are (this is even a good option for the younger techies), a year’s subscription to Stuff Magazine is an excellent backup present. Grab a one-year sub that includes six issues for just R200 here. What, you didn’t think we were going to include Stuff on this list?
Adobe Creative Cloud Photography
Know someone who’s a budding streamer or content creator? Forgot to buy them a shiny new camera? Again? They need all the help they can get, so we’re certain they’d appreciate a boost to their editing workflow with an Adobe Creative Cloud Photography subscription.
A one-month subscription will set you back around $10, or R200. This will give them access to Lightroom and Photoshop, along with 20GB of cloud storage.
Spotify Premium Gift Subscription
You can never go wrong with free music, even if you’ve gone wrong with your presents purchases. Whether they already have a Spotify subscription or not, we’re certain a few months of paid-for tunes will put a smile on even the crankiest aunt’s face.
You can find these at many tech stores as well, like Incredible Connection. Or buy them online – a three-month subscription for Spotify’s Premium plan is just R180.
Steam gift card
If your geek opts to drive a PC and not a console (we’re not judging, except when we are) it may be worthwhile dropping a Steam gift card in their inbox.
Steam makes it almost annoyingly easy to buy your friends digital gifts. If you know of a specific game that person’s been after you can go ahead and buy a digital copy of that game and send it to your geek directly. Seriously. You can add a little message and everything.
Xbox Game Pass
Another gaming-specific gift, but this time for console fans, Xbox Game Pass offers one of the best deals in gaming (this may be a bit controversial, but it’s also true). It grants the owner access to a monstrous catalogue of games for a monthly fee.
For the base subscription, you’ll pay R80 per month but Game Pass Ultimate will cost a fair bit more. You can sign up for your buddy or buy a gift card online before heading over to their house to exchange “gifts”.
Ster Kinekor subscription
Some geeks are film-obsessive. Ster Kinekor has just the offering no one actually asked for but some folks are just dying to exploit. For just R290 per month, you gain access to Ster Kinekor’s cinemas four times a month and also get discounts on snacks.
It feels like the cinema’s answer to a Netflix subscription, so if you know someone who would make good use of such a subscription, you can buy one right here. There’s also a more expensive tier if you’re feeling guilty about forgetting to get ‘real’ presents this year.
Ucook subscription
We’re going out on a limb here to say that folks obsessed with cooking are also geeks. There are loads of numbers involved. It calls for considerable attention to detail. There are many ‘right’ ways to perform each task but the best is probably the most optimised. You get the picture. This is where Ucook comes in.
Another proudly South African option, Ucook offers a food subscription service that delivers meal kits to your home, after which you cook the food yourself. It’s an interesting concept and may be a great gift idea for someone keen to delve deeper into cooking as a hobby.
Rentoza subscription
Gamers are so hard to buy for. The hardware isn’t exactly cheap. Or always in stock. If need be, you can opt to buy your favourite gamer a gaming console on a subscription basis via a service like Rentoza. As an example, you could ‘rent’ the PlayStation VR2 kit from the service for R1,070 a month over 18 months.
We’re not entirely sure where services like Rentoza fit into the market, but if you’re after the goods without the commitment, it’s worth checking out. You can balance the sometimes absurd installments with the knowledge that broken presents are Rentoza’s problem (but read the terms and conditions before playing Dark Souls, maybe?)
