5 Cool Tech Toys

Post date: Jul 23, 2016 6:48:55 PM

5 Cool Tech Toys that Make Life Easier on the Road—or at Home

A blog Post for July 23rd

My husband and I like to try out new tech toys. Here are five of my favorites.

1. Mini Travel Charger/Surge Protector with Dual USB Charging Ports -- Bestten (Amazon--$14.99)

If you’ve done much traveling, you know that hotels vary greatly in adapting to the digital age, and our need to charge multiple devices. A friend of mine and I spent a night in a hotel room in Indianapolis that had very few plugins for all of our mobile devices: we found one wobbly outlet above the sink and one outlet (without its cover) behind one bed. I came home and told Mike about it, and he recommended I look on Amazon for a portable power strip. I found this one by Bestten that has three plugins and two USB plugs; it comes with its own 18-inch long three prong plug. I won’t travel without it!

2. TaoTronics Phone/Tablet Stand (Amazon--$8.49)

As I begin doing more Facetime on my tablet and phone, I needed to find a better stand. I went to Amazon and found an inexpensive metal and plastic one by Taotronics for under $9. It holds either my iPhone or iPad and is both sturdy and portable. I can work on an article on my PC and do some fact checking on my iPad or make phone calls or send texts while working.

3. HooToo iPhone Flash Drive USB 3.0 with Lightning Connector External Storage Memory Expansion for iPads iPod and Computers, 32GB

We recently decided to upgrade iPads, so I began to look for ways to archive my photos: while I have them backed up to the cloud, I find it annoying that when I delete a photo from my iPad, it then removes it from the cloud as well. So I went back to Amazon, and found the HooToo USB flash drive that comes with a lightning connector – cool! It works with an app called IPlugMate and makes it easy to save your photos to the flash drive and then create a folder on your computer and transfer them there. Yes, I realized that I could also simply download sets of photos from iCloud to my computer, but who can resist a flash drive that has a lightning connector?

4. Atomi Battery pack. Bed, Bath and Beyond Bargain rack for under $10.

I was bragging about my iPhone’s fabulous battery, and never running down until a recent trip when I became a super user, using the navigation on my phone to get us to a play on time. Two hours later, I was low on power. My husband whipped out his sleek little battery pack and came to my rescue: amazingly fast, it charged up my phone during the last part of our drive. I had one from Verizon for my Samsung phone but gave it away, so I kept my eye out for another one and found this one at Bed, Bath and Beyond on the bargain shelf!

5. IPad Air 2 – Apple.

Mike inherited my iPad Air, and I upgraded to the iPad Air2, which is even thinner and sleeker. We looked for deals but went straight to Apple. I debated about whether or not to get the iPad Pro but decided that the cost difference was simply not worth it for me. I didn’t know if the 12-inch iPad Pro would be as efficient to travel with, and the 9-inch model seemed really pricey. So I got the 64 Gig iPad Air2 and I am loving it. The display is even nicer and it does what I want it to do: use social media, read books, check email, do research, take and view pictures, use apps, and draft articles. As a bonus, for the first time EVER, I was able to reuse my iPad case, which is a good thing, since Mike prefers Orange to Purple!

What are your favorite tech toys?

Updated July 23, 2016