Skip to main content

Holiday party planning gone digital with these gadgets and online tools

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Everybody likes going to parties – it’s the planning of parties that can get overwhelming. Thankfully, you no longer have to run to the printers to get invitations done, or hire a clown to entertain the kids (unless you want to). These Web services and gadgets are designed to add something memorable to your festivities, all without added stress.

Invitations

Not a graphic designer? No problem. Web services such as E-vite and Pingg offer templates for various kinds of get-togethers, from children’s ice skating parties to baby showers and birthdays. You can also upload your own photos to personalize the event, and when guests RSVP via e-mail, the sites will keep an accurate headcount of who’s set to attend. If you’re feeling a little less formal, you can also use Facebook Events app, and guests have to option of posting comments and questions about the party. Basically, it’s good for those who don’t want to communicate with their party guests on the phone and send a mass message without being annoying.

Setting Up

Anyone can decorate their home with streamers and banner and call it a party, but you can go the extra mile with some techy gadgets made just for these special occasions. Mood lighting is a fun way to set the tone, and we’re a fan of bulbs like the Philips Hue. Each comes complete with Wi-Fi connectivity, multiple LED colors, and brightness levels that you can adjust straight from your iOS gadget. If you’re not an Apple person, this ThinkGeek multicolor LED light with remote is also a good alternative.

For those who want to really go the extra mile, check out the Belkin WeMo. This Internet-connected device uses motion sensors to trigger gadget activity, so you can program a series of events. For example, the WeMo can set fake snow to sprinkle down when someone rings the doorbell, or make the lights flash on and off when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Day. The possibilities are endless.

Food & Drinks

While we can’t help you with the best recommendations for cupcakes in your area, here are some party favors that can add a little personality to the party. Fred & Friends offers a kitschy line of ice molds, from footballs to hearts to robots and brains. There are also guitar-shaped drink stirrers and adorable, reusable party picks shaped like soldiers and mustaches if you plan to have hors d’oeuvres lying around. Weird? A little, but definitely cute and memorable.

The Fun Stuff

instaprintGuests love leaving a party with some cool favors to take home, and what’s cooler than Instagram these days? Instaprint is a located-based device that receives Instagram photos via hashtags and prints them out in real-time. All you need is a reliable Internet connection and a specific hashtag to pass around to your guests so they can retrieve a print before they depart. Photos are also sent straight to Instaprint’s server so if guests want multiple copies, they can access the online gallery for future prints.

Party games are also a fun way to get guests mingling, and although you can go the route of traditional board or card games, we do recommend the Xbox Kinect or Wii U for some serious laughs. The array of friends are both kid and adult-friendly so guests of all ages can have a good time.

Lastly, it’s no party without some cool tunes, but if you don’t want to sit down and craft your own playlist, music streaming services like Spotify or Rdio offer public playlists ready for sharing.

[Image via Konstantin Chagin/Shutterstock]

Natt Garun
Former Digital Trends Contributor
An avid gadgets and Internet culture enthusiast, Natt Garun spends her days bringing you the funniest, coolest, and strangest…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
AI turned Breaking Bad into an anime — and it’s terrifying
Split image of Breaking Bad anime characters.

These days, it seems like there's nothing AI programs can't do. Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, deepfakes have done digital "face-offs" with Hollywood celebrities in films and TV shows, VFX artists can de-age actors almost instantly, and ChatGPT has learned how to write big-budget screenplays in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, AI will probably decide who wins at the Oscars.

Within the past year, AI has also been used to generate beautiful works of art in seconds, creating a viral new trend and causing a boon for fan artists everywhere. TikTok user @cyborgism recently broke the internet by posting a clip featuring many AI-generated pictures of Breaking Bad. The theme here is that the characters are depicted as anime characters straight out of the 1980s, and the result is concerning to say the least. Depending on your viewpoint, Breaking Bad AI (my unofficial name for it) shows how technology can either threaten the integrity of original works of art or nurture artistic expression.
What if AI created Breaking Bad as a 1980s anime?
Playing over Metro Boomin's rap remix of the famous "I am the one who knocks" monologue, the video features images of the cast that range from shockingly realistic to full-on exaggerated. The clip currently has over 65,000 likes on TikTok alone, and many other users have shared their thoughts on the art. One user wrote, "Regardless of the repercussions on the entertainment industry, I can't wait for AI to be advanced enough to animate the whole show like this."

Read more