Hot Staff Picks For Great Tech Gifts
I own the original Band and love it. The Microsoft Band is part fitness tracker and part smartwatch, and handled both chores exceedingly well. The original Band, however, is somewhat uncomfortable to wear and sports a flat, touch-screen, that extends out over the wrist. The recently released Band 2 features a curved screen, additional sensors, software wristbands, and a larger, more sturdy, clasp. The new Band 2 looks cool too.
Getting pumped up with the right music is a great way to enhance a workout. Having a cord dangling from basic earbuds or headphones though, is an accident waiting to happen. But finding affordable wireless earbuds, that also sound good, can stand up to the rigors of training – and STAY IN YOUR EARS – isn’t easy. Photive’s PH-BTE70 Bluetooth Earbuds are usually heavily discounted on Amazon though, they’re water resistant, and with only a short cord connecting the buds and integrated clips to keep them in your ears, they’re perfect for the gym.
I want something new and powerful to connect to those wireless earbuds and Band 2, which is where the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL comes in. I like my phones big and am a fan of the Windows Phone / Windows 10 platform, so Microsoft’s latest octal-core powered wonder phone would be ideal. With a Snapdragon 810 at its core, a 5.7 quad-HD AMOLED screen, awesome 20MP camera, and all of the goodness of Windows 10, the Lumia 950 XL is the perfect replacement for the monstrous – but again – Lumia 1520 I carry around now.
I am itching to build a new system, and to achieve the kind of buttery smooth, responsive performance I want, the system will require some super-fast storage. The Samsung SSD 950 Pro NVMe SSD offers up multi-gigabyte per second transfers, in a small gum-stick M.2 form factor, and it perfect for a high performance PC, with the added benefit of not having to route and snake and power and data cables to the drive, thanks the M.2 interface.
Working out and building systems is hard work. You also need rest. And when I rest, there’s nothing I like more than gaming and watching movies. The NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV device is equally adept at both. You can stream PC games from your own GeForce GTX-powered PC or the cloud, play tons of native Android games, and the SHIELD TV is the ultimate device for NetFlix and other streaming services. There’s also an awesome build of KODI available that’s optimized for the SHIELD TV, that’s great for watching local or network-attached content, and can be customized with a myriad of plug-ins.
