Who can keep up with all the gadgets, gimmicks and after-market parts for smartphones and computers nowadays?
It’s like drinking from a fire hose.
But we’ve been drinking.
Here are five gizmos that are like the Duracell bunny on steroids: They keep going and going and going – and they’re still performing.
Now, nobody wants to give any of this stuff up. Maybe you can live without it. But living with it will be something else.
The grandchildren can’t imagine a world without them. They are the true digital literati, aka geeks, around this shop. Of course, they were stunned to learn there once was a world, in a place far, far away, where phones were connected to walls with wires.
“What’s a wire?” the youngest asked. (He hasn’t taken the Basic Electrical course at PLI yet. But it=s early. He just finished a humongus Star Wars Leggo build-out with 88 pages of directions. Solo. During lunch.)
Hang on to your hats. Go for the gusto!
1. Alexa, aka Amazon Echo. $179 on Amazon. This thing will rock your reality. Say “Alexa” and it lights up, instantly turning into your personal maitre’d and gopher. Get whatever you want B hit tunes, oldies, the weather, just plain info – you name it. Child controls are cool (“Do your parents know you asked that?”). Outstanding voice input, instead of hunting and pecking on a goofy keyboard, just might change your entire outlook – and info. Alexa understood all of our grandchildren instantly B and they could not stop asking Alexa.
2. Luminid Touch Light-up cable. Stop stabbing in the dark for your charger cables. $16.99 on Amazon. Flash Lightning or Micro USB. 3-ft.
3. Nut Smart Trackers. $9.99 on Amazon. The cure for lost keys, dogs, wallets, and all the rest of the stuff that gets misplaced. In reverse, it will find your phone by pushing the Nut. Built-in alarm for stuff that disappears. GPS locater reads on your Android or Apple smartphone.
4. Zus Smart Charger. Your wife wants this. It will even find your car! Built-in parking meter time alert. Blazing fast charging too. $29.99 on Amazon. 4.8 amp, 24 watt charger works on Galaxy Note, iPhone 5 and later. You can get a gold plated one too. $499. Right.
5. ZeroLemon SolarJuice 20000mAh Dual USB Port Portable Solar Battery Charger. $39.99 on Amazon (skip the 1000mAh version; this is worth the extra $10.) Outdoor, water resistant. Even has LED night light. For iPhone 6, iPhone 7, Galaxy Note 5, Note 7, LG G5, iPad, Samsung and More.
Note: PLI tests no products and has no lab, yada yada. PLI faculty reads lots of stuff, buys stuff like Tim Allen on “Tool Time” and lets you know if it really lived up to its hype. You could do worse. But don’t be sending in hate mail if something sounded better than it works for you. Caveat emptor and all that.