Surf report: best tech gifts for Mom

• Flex band monitors activity%2C sleep
• Garmin nuvi understands voice commands
• Outbox brings snail mail to the web

We certainly hope we didn't have to remind you, but Sunday is Mother's Day. For the lovely woman who always put you first, we have a few gift suggestions if you still haven't found one of your own (shame on you).

Fitbit band is effortless to use

In my experience, fitness trackers make great gifts. Athletes love knowing how active they are while the sedentary, inspired by the numbers they see, find motivation to keep moving.

There are more health gadgets than ever before, and just this Monday, Fitbit added one more to the mix. Its latest, Flex, is a 24-hour tracking band that monitors activity and sleep. A direct competitor to the Jawbone Up (a $130 tracker that made our gift guide for health nuts back in December), Flex logs steps walked, distance traveled and floors climbed in the day. Night mode, which is activated by tapping the band rapidly four or five times, monitors the duration of sleep and number of times woken up.

While Flex is the newest, shiniest tracker on the market, there are some limitations to take into consideration. Unlike the Fitbit One ($100), which clips onto clothing, the band lacks a screen, so it's hard to tell exactly how many steps you've taken without looking at the app. However, five LED indicators provide general feedback, each light signaling that 20 percent of your step goal has been met (when you've reached your goal, the band vibrates and all the LEDs light up as sort of a mini celebration).

The primary advantage the water-resistant Flex has over the One is that it's worn on the body day and night, so it paints a more accurate picture of overall activity. This is especially the case with night mode because sleep tracking on the One is a nuisance, requiring you to remove the tracker from its silicon holder and place it in a wristband that is worn throughout the evening. Compared with Up, Flex is not as feature filled (for example, while both have silent alarms, Flex vibrates you awake at a set time each day while Up does so at an optimal time relative to your sleep cycle within a window of time) nor is its sleep insight as robust (Flex will tell you duration and number of times woken up while Up breaks down its data to deep and light sleep), but Flex wins in convenience, syncing wirelessly with compatible devices over Bluetooth 4.0.

There are plenty of health tracking options, but not one is perfect yet. For now, Flex is the leading contender for those who don't want to deal with the hassles of switching between modes or syncing manually. Plus it comes at a very attractive price of $100.

A welcomed back seat driver

A back seat driver mom wouldn't mind, Garmin's nuvi 3597 ($350) provides directions with a human touch to take the stress out of driving.

While it can't keep aggressive pedestrians from darting into the street or calm drivers suffering from a case of road rage, the company's top-of-the-line GPS navigation device offers smarter directions while using natural-language processing to understand voice commands. Garmin doesn't just use street names when giving directions. It guides drivers by providing context with landmarks, buildings and traffic lights, and also prepares them for exits and interchanges with 3D lane guidance. Instead of struggling to read street names, mom can drive with ease, following easy-to-understand instructions, such as "turn left after the Starbucks."

The hardware is likewise sleek with a brushed aluminum exterior, capacitive touchscreen and magnetic mount. The mount, which affixes the GPS device to a windshield or dashboard, includes a mini USB port for charging, so detaching and reattaching the unit is a snap. Here's to anxiety-free driving.

A personal assistant to manage mail

If there's anyone who deserves more me time, it's mom.

Taking the tediousness out of managing mail, Outbox updates the snail mail experience for the 21st century. Armed with a fleet of "unpostmen," the company collects users' mail three days a week, bringing it to a processing center where letters are scanned and uploaded to the Web. Interacting with a beautiful iPad app, you can organize the high-resolution scans into folders or request original copies, which show up at your door the next time the unpostmen swing by. Since much of today's mail is junk, Outbox also gives you the option to unsubscribe from senders of bulk mail with the click of a button.

Outbox ($4.99 per month, first month free) has put in security measures every step in the process to give users ease of mind. The collection process: All unpostmen undergo background checks, which according to the company are stricter than the ones postal workers go through. Uploading and storage: Data that Outbox stores is protected with 256-bit AES encryption. After that: Any mail that isn't requested within 60 days is shredded and recycled to protect against identity theft.

Mom's in luck if she lives in Austin or San Francisco, where the service is currently available. But co-founders Will Davis and Evan Baehr tell me that demand in urban centers around the country is high, so keep an eye out as Outbox expands.

Aromatherapy to help her relax

Does mom have a hard time relaxing? (Between the mail opening and stressful driving, we'd guess so.)

Jasmine to the rescue. Powered by ultrasonic technology, this elegant aroma diffuser from Stadler Form releases fragrance to help her relax. Shaped like a bowl, Jasmine ($60) has two modes: continuous and interval. On the latter, the 100-milliliter tank can last a full 24 hours without refill, misting for 10 minutes and resting for 20 before starting up again.

All that's needed to get this working is water and a few drops of an essential oil. The scent is mild, but it's enough to fill up a room (or in my case, make the entire floor of my apartment building smell like a peach Bellini). If you do indeed get this as a gift, drop by a store and pick up some fragrances as well because no samples are included in the box.

Upgrade the library

When we look at the demographics of e-readers, it's apparent that women, especially those 45 and older (sound familiar?), love these devices.

If mom is still bringing paperbacks to bed, a Kindle might be the upgrade she needs. When the Kindle Paperwhite (beginning $119) was released last fall, it shed some fat (e.g. audio output, keyboard) while bringing some much welcomed features on board, most notably an e-ink display with a built-in light, allowing people to unwind with a good book in bed without needing a lamp.

Even with this illumination, Amazon has created a reading experience that's easy on the eyes, helped by the screen's higher contrast and sharper resolution. At 6.7-by-4.6 inches, it's shaped roughly like a paperback, minus the thickness, making it portable and comfortable for one-handed reading.

Furthermore, Amazon's ecosystem has a vast library that often includes discounted prices for Kindle versions. If mom's already an Amazon Prime member, she can also borrow books from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library. (With a few exceptions, such as the "Harry Potter" or "Hunger Games" series, most of the titles available are little known.) Overall, the Paperwhite is a solid e-reader perfect for bookworms.

Minimalist leather accessories for her gadgets

Does mom suffer from Giant Bag Syndrome? Though we have to admire her preparedness — who else always has snacks, hand sanitizer and pepper spray on her? — there are times when she could stand to benefit from slimming down her belongings.

Incase's Pathway Field Bag ($170) is a superb-looking bag that's all about minimalism. The cotton twill fabric and leather accents give off a classic yet understated look I adore. Though it won't work for every occasion, the svelte physique is ideal for carrying work essentials: a laptop (up to a 13-inch MacBook Pro), tablet and other small accessories. Adding extra polish to this stylish bag are magnetic clasps that secure the bag shut. Its slender frame makes this ideal for the ultra organized, a perfect fit for neat freak moms.

A fantastic complement to the Pathway Field Bag is Beamhaus' Billfold ($90) for the iPhone 5. Combining wallet and phone in one easy-to-carry accessory, the leather bifold pocketbook holds an iPhone on one side, while the other has slots for cash and up to five cards. The highlight of Beamhaus' product line is the quality of materials used. The leather is sourced from Chicago-based Horween Leather Company, known for producing hides that age gracefully with use, exposure to sunlight and time, which in some way gives this billfold a timeless quality.

E-mail Alice Truong at techcomments@usatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter: @alicetruong.