Coursera
This is the go-to website if there’s anything you or your dad have always wanted to learn (or if he makes claims like “I used to know Spanish, but forgot”).
Coursera is a sea of free online courses from the world’s best universities where you can learn anything from math to photography to jazz improvisation. The best thing about it is that you can go through any of the available classes at your own pace and take as long as you want without worrying about grades. However, if grades is what you want, there are live sessions that can last anywhere from one week to a few months during which the professors will grade your homework and give you feedback.
Upgrade to Xfinity’s X1 Platform
No doubt that all the international sports tournaments are already keeping fathers glued to the couch, but now you can help him make this tradition “a thing of the future.” If dad is a Comcast Xfinity customer, you can upgrade him to the X1 platform free of charge. This cable-box not only lets you catch up on past games through Video on Demand, but it has a bunch of cool new features released just in time for all the current sporting events, like the ongoing double-action of Copa America and the UEFA EURO 2016, and the long-awaited Rio 2016 Olympics in August. You can speak to the X1 remote commands like “Copa America” or “how many medals does the USA have” and you will then be taken to a specialized guide for whichever tournament the voice command is relevant to. There you’ll have the option to watch live matches, look at minute-to-minute updates, and even find out about team and player stats. Everything is available in both English and Spanish and in fact, the remote can recognize a wide variety of accents and regionalisms. You can also download the
X1 app to take this same technology on-the-go.
Free Dad Apps
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| Picture courtesy of iHandy Ltd. |
There are several apps that are a must-have for any father-like activity, so why not download them together and you’ll at least be looking at the same thing at the dinner table. For example, to pay the bills or deposit checks, companies like
Bank of America and
Capitol One offer very secure and user-friendly apps that can even be set to open only with a fingerprint read. The quintessential paternal activity of grilling can also be enhanced (or learned) with apps like
Grill Time for iTunes and
Grill Recipes for Android (‘Kiss the Cook’ apron not included). There are also handyman apps like
iHandy level which can help you align anything from a painting on the wall to a board onto a tree house, that is, if you’re building a tree house. You can also give your dad the gift of not having to carry a flashlight on the utility belt by downloading the
Flashlight app on his phone.
Test Drive a Brand-New Car
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| Photo Courtesy of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A |
A simple but very engaging gift. Just take your dad to a car dealership so you both can look at your favorite cars with the same desire you have for actually getting it, then the salesperson cannot refuse but to get on the passenger’s seat and let both of you (one at a time) take him for a ride. It’s a wonderful experience that you’ll be talking about for the whole ride back home. Even if neither of you are able to buy the car right away, you’ll definitely know what it’ll smell like when you do.
A Free Autographed Headshot from a Celebrity
There is a website called
Celebrity Merchandise that will ship to you autographed pictures of A-class movie actors at no charge. Now, we cannot attest to their legitimacy or even know how they’re able to turn a profit without even charging for shipping, but reputable sites like Digital Trends have attested to the actual delivering of the pictures.
