It was a big week in the world of tech. You can preorder Apple’s newest iPhones, Watches and AirPods now and have them in your hot little hands (wrists and ears, too) by the end of the month. IFA — the world’s largest consumer and home electronics show showcasing thousands of the latest gadgets from stair-climbing vacuums to “AI” kitchens — wrapped up in Berlin.
Fall is an ideal time for tech makers to show off their latest do-everything devices to win you — or rather your every last dime — over just in time for the holidays.
But we’ve lived with a menagerie of shiny, bright, glowy, smart-ish gadgets for several years now. What’s worth your time, energy and hard-earned money?
Here’s what I showed off on the “The Today Show” this week for a segment called “Gearing Up For Fall Tech.” These are a handful of the newest gadgets that solve everyday problems and make our lives a bit easier without breaking the bank.
For the record, I do not get paid by any of these brands or make any money from these recommendations. Many of these devices come straight out of my EDC (that’s “everyday carry” for anyone not as obsessed with this Reddit trend as I am).
To help you stop sleeping with your smartphone
By now, we all know that our cell phones mess with our sleep. It’s not just the blue light of our gadgets confusing our brains into thinking it’s still daytime. It’s also the constant notifications and magnetic pull of FOMO to “just check social media one more time” in the middle of the night that’s making us all cranky and tired. It has to stop already.
The Amazon Echo Spot 2024 is a great new “smart alarm clock” option that wakes you up, keeps you connected much more subtly and helps you start — or end — your day right.
It’s built for the nightstand and has a display that makes it easy to set alarms, the time, weather or song titles at a glance. You can customize the clock faces and colors and ask Alexa to play your “Go to Bed” or “Rise and Shine” playlist. You can also use it to check the weather and set routines like “turn off all the lights” at night or “turn on the connected coffee pot” before you even roll out of bed.
It comes in three colors and currently costs just under $80.
Clean your gross gadgets
Our gadgets are gross. Smartphones carry ten times more bacteria than a toilet seat, and earbuds have 2,700 times more bacteria than a kitchen cutting board. Keyboards and remote controls — all of it is just — ew.
I clean all my gadgets at least once a week with tools I already have around my house. But how often do I carry a soft bristle toothbrush, toothpick, Q-tips and safe cleaning fluid everywhere I go? Never.
For cleaning on the run, the VICHYIE 20-in-1 multifunctional cleaning kit on Amazon saves the day dealing with a gross gadget on the fly.
I like that it’s low-priced, self-contained and has a ton of different tools, yet it’s compact enough to fit into a purse or backpack.
That said, it’s cheap ($13) and feels like it. Among the included tools are an AirPod cleaner pen, flocking sponge, mini soft brush, lens brush, camera brush, screen cleaner spray and even the lid that doubles as a wiping cloth. You won’t feel like a pro cleaner with these, but they do the job in a pinch, especially when your keyboard sticks on a plane, which mine just did last week.
A scratch- and smudge-resistant laptop
You know what won’t need a whole lot of cleaning? The new ASUS Zenbook S 16 (starting at $1,400) premium laptop made with a mix of ceramic and aluminum mainly used in aerospace and luxury watch industries. That means it’s scratch- and smudge-resistant. It’s super lightweight yet durable and houses a 3K display, six speakers and super robust hardware for all the work, study, entertainment and gaming you could ever need.
Also? The quick-access Copilot AI Assistant key delivers handy doses of artificial intelligence directly to your keyboard so you can streamline your workflow and sail through your to-do list.
A ‘world first’ for portable backups
This is a world first and a no-brainer, WD’s My Passport Drive (starts at $70) holds worlds of info so you’ll never, ever, ever lose a precious photo, video, school or work assignment ever again.
The company says it’s the world’s first 2.5-inch portable hard drive to hold six terabytes (TB) of content. That’s enough space for around 1.5 million photos, 600 hours of full HD movies and up to 1.8 million eBooks. Yet the gadget itself is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and tough enough to take along on all your adventures.
A tire inflator that fits in your cupholder
The AstroAI L7 Tire Inflator ($21 at the time of publication) is an on-the-go emergency tire pump that supports up to eight car tire refills, yet weighs only about one pound and fits into most car cupholders.
It’s great for bike tires, basketballs and everything you need to add air to from time to time without pumping it by hand or blowing so hard your eyeballs feel like they’ll pop out.
I like the bright screen on the front of the device, which updates pressure data 200 times per second so you don’t overpump your tires. It’s also a handy emergency tool with a built-in three-mode flashlight (flashlight, SOS, strobe) and USB-C/USB ports for device charging.
Inexpensive earbuds with a novel new ‘twist‘
British tech brand Nothing makes the stylish budget CFM Buds Pro 2 ($60) earbuds with a literal twist. There’s a “Smart Dial” feature on the case that you can use to control volume, play/pause, skip tracks and a whole bunch more. This is a great feature versus fumbling with touch controls on the earbuds or picking up your phone whenever you need to adjust something.
You can also press the Smart Dial to control noise cancellation, activate the voice assistant, switch to low lag mode or mute your microphone during meetings. It’s customizable, too.
The Buds Pro 2 promise 11 hours of battery life on a single charge and produce a big bass sound from their 11mm drivers.
A water bottle that carbonates on the go
One of my favorite fall gadgets is this portable bottle that carbonates your go-to water of choice — anywhere, anytime, at the push of a button. The 16-ounce Aer1 water bottle from a small startup in Brooklyn, New York, called Aerflo, comes with finger-sized carbonation capsules filled with beverage-grade CO2.
Pop a capsule into the little canister under the lid, screw the lid back on, then tap the top to fizz it all up. You can customize two or three taps for a milder sparkle or four to five for a tiny bubble explosion every sip.
I was blown away by how well this worked and how incredibly simple it was to set up and use. Scan a QR code to get a step-by-step guide along with pro tips, like the colder the water you put in, the more bubbles you get right away. I also found out that juice doesn’t work as well — because the juice molecules “get in the way” of the CO2 — so it’s best to add flavors to the water after you carbonate it.
It’s so simple yet solves such a big problem for people like me who love sparkling water but hate all the cans and bottles I go through to quench my bubbly habits.
The system comes with 13 reusable CO2 capsules, each capable of carbonating the equivalent of four 16 oz. water bottles. When a capsule runs out, you replace it with a new one from the included pack and send the old one back to the company in a pre-labeled, pre-paid, included mailer. The company says this costs up to 70% less than buying single-use bottles or cans. The cost is $99 for the bottle and 13 capsules.
Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer tech columnist and on-air contributor for “The Today Show”. The views and opinions expressed in this column are the author’s and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY. Contact her at[email protected].
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