The man who gave you the gift of life probably hasn’t dropped any useful hints about a suitable gift – it’s just not what dads do – so we've scoured the internet to find the widest, weirdest, and most wonderful range of treats for the gadget-minded father. Any of these items are better than socks. Guaranteed.

Realistic (£5 to £100)

Recycled Rubber Mousemat

For the eco-warrior or petrolhead dad, Nigel’s Eco Store has a recycled car tyre mousemat. Heavy and durable with a high-grip finish it will offer a more controllable and rewarding computing experience while ticking all those green boxes and looking fairly decorative too.

£4.99 from Nigel's Eco Store

Frozen Guitar Swizzle sticks

If you need to show your love on a tight budget, how about a nice guitar-shaped ice tray that will create frozen axe hero swizzle sticks. They say, “I may be sitting in the garden with a Pimms, but I’m still a Rock and Roll rebel”, which is what every dad basically wants to say.

£7.95 from Firebox.com

BPM Runner's watch

If pater is a morning jogger or a late-night DJ (and most dads are one or the other) you could do a lot worse than treat him to the very stylish and surprisingly affordable Tokyoflash BPM watch. It will monitor his heart rate while running or help him match beats per minute when he’s manning the wheels of steel at your sister’s wedding. It includes a mini-torch to help with late night garage door dilemmas and makes ‘inspiring DJ noises’ apparently.

£32.60 from TokyoFlash

Portable record player

The old chap probably has a few vinyl records he can’t bear to car boot knocking around somewhere. Fredflare’s vintage-look turntable with AM/FM radio is ideal for listening to weird old progressive rock albums in the shed. It’s an all-in one affair with stereo speakers, a three-speed turntable that plays 33s, 45s and 78s with its long-lasting diamond stylus. It’s almost as if you’ve given him jewellery and got away with it!

£50 from Fredflare.com

Ultimate iPod remote

The Philips SJM3151 is the ideal gift for the sofa-bound music fan. It’s a remote and iPod dock combo which enables you to read the iPod’s display on the remote-control handset while you’re up to 90m away from the unit. That way your dad can control the front room hi-fi while he’s lording it over the barbecue. Unfortunately it’s not going on sale until the Autumn, but if you’ve forgotten to get him anything in time for Fathers’ Day you could always make things right by giving him one of these beauties for Christmas.

£90 from Philips

Generous (£100 to £5,000)

Home chilled-beer pump

If a love of fine beers numbers among your venerable ancestor’s hobbies, Firebox have something that might prove a bit more memorable than a bag of clanking cans from the off licence. The Wunderbar Beer Chill dispenser lets your old fellow enjoy all the benefits of pub ownership without the stress of closing time or the regular Friday night outbursts from Peggy Mitchell.

£139.95 from Firebox.com

Go-anywhere wireless network

If your dad’s a silver surfer but has that peculiarly fatherly enthusiasm for camping or (worse) caravanning you can combine his interests with the Phoebus 3G cellular wi-fi router. It’s a rather fetching pyramid-shaped gizmo which accepts any PCMCIA cellular card so you can re-create your home wireless network anywhere. He can dial up to the internet so he can form a Counter Strike clan with his pals on the campsite and play against other e-Dads from across the world.

$150 from Sewell Direct

The ultimate kite

If your dad’s the outdoor type perhaps a kite might be the answer. The Genesis evo 1 is an ultra-light (300g) top-quality kite that makes no compromises in the quest for the ultimate kite-flying experience. It costs a fortune, and doesn’t break down between uses, so this really is for the well-loved parent with an estate car.

Level One Genesis evo 1

£155 from Level One Kites

Jet powered Go-Kart

If you really like your dad, and he’s well-insured, why not get him a jet-powered go-kart? There’s a one-of-a-kind hand-built death-trap on eBay at the moment offering a unique opportunity for your pop to live out his Richard Hammond fantasies for the price of a decent motorbike. Given that it’s nothing like street legal he’ll be safer with this afterburner-equipped Mad Max buggy on a track than he would be with a Ducati on Britain’s perilous roads.

Currently standing at £5,000 on eBay

Don't even ask (£5,000+)

Ultimate football management solution

For every man, there comes a time when he abandons his dreams of playing for his national football team and takes up fantasising about being a football manager instead. RealTrack Futbol Lite enables the armchair Mourinho to monitor the position and heart-rate of his local school second eleven from a top-down, video game style perspective via a GPS satellite link. Guaranteed to psyche out the opposition before a ball has even been kicked.

POA from RealTrack Futbol

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