We all know him. Maybe he’s your husband, your brother, your “bro”, heck maybe he’s even your dad; the guy who has everything and is always ahead of the curve when it comes to the latest in tech. Every year you pull out your hair agonizing over what to get him and every year he gives you a polite “Wow, thanks…” as he searches through the wrapping paper for the gift receipt.
Well this year we’ve got you covered. Surprise Mr. Cool with one of these amazing, out of the ordinary tech gifts. You’re welcome in advance.
It’s not enough to use a tablet like the Apple iPad 2 for drawing and sketching out ideas. Alpha geeks need a device that can sense 1024 different levels of pen pressure, uses both infrared and ultrasonic technologies to sense your pen movements, and something that then translates your notations in analog for reproduction in the digital realm. The Wacom Inkling is essentially an analog-to-digital converter for sketches, notes, and drawings. The device is accurate to within 2.5mm.
Announced quite some time ago but now available for purchase, the Line 6 Mobile In is an ingenious add-on for either the iPhone or the iPad. The 30-pin connector snaps into place on your Apple device, and then you can connect a guitar directly into the quarter-inch adapter. The free Line 6 POD app helps you adjust the tones used for recording. The Line 6 supports up to 24-bit/48 kHz audio.
The terms “triple capsule array” might be meaningless to most of us, but for someone who wants to record an analog sound or your own voice directly to the computer, this technical feature is a godsend. It means you can record in cardioid (a circle), omnidirectional, bi-directional (two sides) and stereo. This microphone connects using USB but also supports the standard XLR professional connection.
One of the smartest inventions of the holiday season, at least if you are a techie, the HP Wi-Fi Touch Mouse doesn’t require a USB adapter, which is easy to lose. Instead, the mouse connects over a Wi-Fi signal directly to your computer, bypassing a router as well. (An included HP app creates an ad hoc Wi-Fi network just for the mouse to use.) To scroll in a browser, you just slide your finger over a touch sensor.
This RC car can flip over and still keep going, thanks to wheels that work both right side up and upside-down. You control the car with a controller that casts a beam of light, which makes it easier to perform stunts and drive the car over the included ramp. There’s a speed burst mode as well. To charge the car, you connect using a small wire into a charging box that is powered by AA batteries.
One of the most brilliant robots you can buy (for the price), this dancing bot looks like a Pokémon or maybe a rubber duck. When you play music, the bot dances to the beat and you can even poke the device as well and see how it reacts. The MyKeepon bleeps and purrs sound like it has some form of sentient intelligence, even if it is really just responding to sound waves recorded with an internal mic.
Available in white or dark blue, the Dyson Hot Fan Heater streams an even flow of hot air around a room at up to 99 degrees. The entire fan swivels in a 360-degree arc, oscillating the hot air around the whole room instead of just making your feet warm. You can push the base to adjust the flow lower or higher. The air multiplier tech squeezes air through tiny holes instead of using a fan, which means the entire device is safe to touch anywhere and produces more heat than a normal hot air fan.
These powerful video binoculars use a 10x optical zoom and a variable digital zoom from 0.9x up to 20x. Yet, there’s more techie features than conventional binoculars: You can record what you see at 60 frames per second or the more theatrical-like 24 frames per second in full 1080p video resolution. For still pictures, you can capture them at an impressive 7.1 megapixels. As an added bonus, you can capture 3D photos and videos too.
Rivian tops owner satisfaction survey, ahead of BMW and Tesla
Can the same vehicle brand sit both at the bottom of owner ratings in terms of reliability and at the top in terms of overall owner satisfaction? When that brand is Rivian, the answer is a resonant yes.
Rivian ranked number one in satisfaction for the second year in a row, with owners especially giving their R1S and R1T electric vehicle (EV) high marks in terms of comfort, speed, drivability, and ease of use, according to the latest Consumer Reports (CR) owner satisfaction survey.
Hybrid vehicle sales reach U.S. record, but EV sales drop in third quarter
The share of electric and hybrid vehicle sales continued to grow in the U.S. in the third quarter, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported this month.
Taken together, sales of purely electric vehicles (EVs), hybrids, and plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) represented 19.6% of total light-duty vehicle (LDV) sales last quarter, up from 19.1% in the second quarter.
Tesla’s ‘Model Q’ to arrive in 2025 at a price under $30K, Deutsche Bank says
Only a short month and half ago, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told investors that outside of the just-released driverless robotaxi, a regular Tesla model priced at $25,000 would be “pointless” and “silly”.
"It would be completely at odds with what we believe,” Musk said.
