By Richard M. Sherwin

(With Max Jay, Susan Davis, Amy Eller, Bob Plunkett and Erick Royer)

Friends, relatives and Frenamies seem to like calling from Walmart or Frys or PC Richards or even Best Buy and Costco. “I have got all the details and I need one final question answered before I get my holiday tech purchase.” Here are the most requested answers that we try to answer right before they purchase their gifts.

Question: What is the best top level Tablet for me and what is the best entry level Tablet for my kid?

Answer: While the new IPad mini is a fine product, it is not nearly as feature laden as the new LG or Samsung 8 and 10 inch devices, and more expensive. The Nexus 7 and 10 from Google itself might just be the best priced highest resolution, fastest running Tablet on the market.  With all of the brand name Android Tablets, you get a better bang for your money than any Apple IPad…a better warrantee and much better expandability. The new Sony Experia, Lenovo and Acer Tabs are terrific, but are priced too close to the Apple products and the mid-priced Kindle Fire 10 inch model HDX, has a wonderful screen and fast processor. However, the Kindle HDX, while a great all around family experience, does not support the entire Android marketplace so there may be popular aps that you cannot get. On the budget side, if you don’t require the latest and fastest operating system, you can save $100s with the Nextbook Premium 8se, Archos and Monster Tabs. These budget models cost under $150 and may not come with the most responsive tech support or might be slightly heavier than the more famous brands but for basic email, browsing, listening to music and watching videos they are perfectly good. We got many last minute calls on the Microsoft Surface because of the huge amount of advertising the company is spending, but so far the operating system is unwieldy for novice users, the price ridiculously high and the Apps weak.

Question: I purchased my first Smart phone and Tablet. I understand that hooking them up to my home WiFi will save money and also make browsing and downloading much easier and faster. How do I do that?

Answer:  Whether you buy an Android Tablet, IPad, IPhone or one of the many Android based Smart Phones, they all hook up to your home, outside hot spot or small business modem and router the same way. Simply go to the App market settings on the unit’s desktop or lower right hand corner. Choose the WiFi spot for your home or where you are staying and if the hot spot is secured by a password put it in and then hit connect. At many airport terminals, restaurants and shopping centers, free WiFi is available, but you must still go to your browser on the device and accept the conditions for that location.

Question: This holiday season I was going to upgrade the main TV in the living room and switch that TV to the den. I also budgeted more than $750 for that purchase. Some of the phrasing and the features and even the kind of HDTVs have changed since I last purchased a living room TV. Please explain some of those phrases and technical jargon and whether it’s worth it to get those features.

Answer: The highest resolutions, with the fastest refresh rate (how moving objects appear without blurring) are the so called Ultra HD units. However they run nearly three to ten times your budget and at present are really not worth it in that there’s very little content shot at that resolution. However, what used to be the highest resolution, 720P and fastest processing speed 60mz, has now been doubled since you last purchased a TV. 1080P refers to any TV or computer monitor display device that has the ability to accept 1080pixels in height and 1920 pixels in width. This ratio is about three times the resolution of your present TV.

The 120 hz that you see advertised on the better TVs refers to hertz field rate to eliminate flicker, compared to standard televisions. The newer, more expensive 120 hz TVs are not just twice as fast as your older TV, but also contain other technology in its processor to make your action movies, ballgames, car racing and similar programming much easier and clearer to view. Vizio’s Full Array means that there’s extra backlight on most of the screen and Sony’s Edge Light mean just certain spots on the screen have backlight. Confused by the terms LED (Light Emitting Diode) or LCD (Liquid Chrystal Display)? All the flat screens you see are LCD, but the newer models use LED for better contrast and sharper pictures. Plasma, a very popular picture screen is, unfortunately, being phased out with very few manufacturers producing plasma because of cost and because plasma TVs never caught on.

Question: Is it worth it to pay the extra $200 or more for a “Smart” TV?

Answer: No! Nearly all the Internet enabled WiFi based functions like Pandora, You Tube, Netflix, Tune in Radio and Amazon Video are available for as little as $39 for Google’s Chromecast and $69 for Roku or Netgear’s set top boxes. These devices are very small and upgradeable to add more Internet channels and operate as well or better than Smart TVs. They plug into your TVs HDMI port and once connected to your WiFi or directly to your router provide many channels of television that is streamed to your TV .

Question: I am confused by the term Blue Tooth, Home PNA and DLNA and NFC. I know my smart phone, my car and even some loud speakers and Tablets and PCs have these technologies. But  what’s the difference they all seem to operate wirelessly? I think my teenage son has all these in his room.

Answer: All the above mentioned terms are newer forms of wireless technologies that can connect your smart phone to your car, your portable devices to speakers or PCs and cameras and stereos and MP3 players or all devices to each other. Blue Tooth is mainly used to connect audio from one device to another. Consequently, your smart phone connects to the car’s audio system so you can hear and talk from your car’s speakers for safety and convenience. DLNA is an industry-wide standard for sharing data over a home network. You can stream your home video or pictures or music from a DLNA certified device. Some Blue Ray players, Tablets, smart phones and stereo equipment come with DLNA technology inside.  Your DLNA equipped device can stream video from your laptop to your TV, for example, or play an MP3 track or show digital pictures from your mobile phone to your TV or play a digital audio track on your hi-fi system or print a photo from your Tablet on your home printer.

Home PNA is a wireless technology that uses your home’s electric power line (AC) to connect devices like computers, TVs, and more. Home PNA creates a home network without the need for passwords or complicated computer software setup.  In some cases, it is better and easier and has a wider range than WiFi but to date not all devices in the home are compatible with the technology.

Finally the newest wireless connectivity technology is called NFC or Near Field Communications. NFC  is  a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to connect to each other via  radio communication by simply  touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few inches. NFC usually adds very little to the cost of a product, so it is catching on very quickly with manufacturers and is slowly but surely being made available on many new digital devices.

Question: What are the best ways to use my Kindle Fire and my Kindle HDX for games and educational Apps.  So far Zoodles seems to be too difficult for parents or kids on the Kindle even though it is an award winner on other devices and I’ve heard so much about Kindle’s all-encompassing children’s section.

Answer. Kindle FreeTime is a free app built from the ground up to help give parents peace of mind when it comes to Tablet use. Parents can create a profile for each of their children and choose what books, apps, games and videos they want to give their kids access to. Kindle FreeTime is free on every Kindle Fire HD and Kindle Fire HDX. When kids use Kindle FreeTime, it’s like they have their very own, personalized Tablet. The background color and fonts change to a kid-friendly design. They only see the titles that they have access to see. The home screen carousel shows their recently viewed titles. And, they can even navigate visually to content based on characters or topics – for example “Cinderella,” “Dinosaurs,” or “Puppies.” With Kindle FreeTime, parents can set daily limits for Kindle Fire HD use, or restrict certain categories – like games and video – while leaving unlimited time for reading. The Kindle Fire HD is designed to stand up to accidental bumps and scrapes. The state-of-the art display is 20 times stiffer and 30 times harder than plastic, so you can let your child play without worry.

Easy alternatives to kids Apps on the Kindle are the 1000s of free educational games, learning programs and animated learning aides available at Google’s Play Store available on all Android Tablets. Apple’s ITunes store also has some of the most famous (for adult) learning programs, but some of them have a small fee.

Question: I am a radio buff and now live far away from where I was born and raised. While I am able to receive many stations on my Tablet and Smart phone, I was wondering whether there were any standalone radios where I can still pick up my old home town stations and all the thousands of stations and podcasts I have been hearing about. I don’t like to tie up my home PC that way.

Answer: Standalone Internet radios have become very rare since many Apps on Tablets, Smart Phones and even TVs can do the same thing. But a few manufacturers on the low to mid-priced level are maintaining nice quality units that not only give you thousands of worldwide radio stations but also offer specialty radio features like Sirius-XM, Pandora, Slacker and also offer a form of home audio sharing in which your existing digital music can be played on the Internet radios and with some model offer different stations in different rooms.

Higher end Internet radios are also a dwindling group. Our favorite device is the now discontinued in the U.S Squeezebox by Logitech. It’s still available on Amazon and EBay for under $70. Sangean America makes a Bose like Tabletop radio priced from $150 to $300 depending on features; Coby and Grace Digital make decent units priced under $70 and of course you can go full throttle with units from Bose, Sony and Denon who have the whole spectrum of Internet radio built into some of their tuners. Sonos has a home network version costing from $200 to $400. Tivoli, one of the first higher quality Internet radio makers makes a terrific unit, but It does not have any of the Pandora like features.

Question: Should I buy and Xbox One or a PlayStation 4 this holiday season?

Answer: What you buy should depend entirely upon what type of entertainment you consume most. If you are a gamer (i.e. a lover of video games that requires the best   console for that purpose) your best bet would probably be the PS4. It is slightly more powerful than the Xbox One, giving it the ability to put out games with a consistently better frame rate and slightly higher resolution. On paper it sounds like these things are meaningless, but rest assured: Frame rate and resolution are two of the most important things when gaming. The PS4 will also connect to most of your video delivery services like Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon Instant.

The Xbox One’s aim is to tie all of your multimedia services into one box (hence, Xbox One). Unfortunately this has a negative effect on the console’s ability for gaming, but does allow you to connect to all of the same services the PS4 has and then some. The biggest draw of the One is its ability to network to your cable box and essentially become another DVR. You can watch TV, Skype using the Kinect camera (that comes built in) and play games all on the same console. The gaming experience will not be quite as pure, but it will bring you one step closer to a future where you don’t have to worry about a tangle of wires and a stack of black boxes for every service.

Question: All I want for Christmas is a home phone with two lines and three extension phones that doesn’t interfere with my office speakers and includes a nice basic answering machine. I noticed all the major stores have home phones on sale this time of year but they only have one line. I attach my Magic Jack to the second line and even sometimes use my Skype standalone phone on a second line.

Answer: You rarely find two line phones at a mass retailer or even wholesale club. You’ll have to go online to Amazon or to Office Max or Staples. Because consumers and even small businesses are using their mobile phone and only require a one line home styled phone, quality manufacturers producing these phones have dwindled.

But when you go to an Office superstore or to an online retailer the best choices for you are almost exactly like their single line relatives.

Panasonic and AT@T brands are the most reliable, I would stay away from Vtech as their branded phones seem to have the most technical problems. Clarity and GE, and Uniden are right in the middle. Also don’t expect the kind of discounts you can get with a single line phone.

Question: During the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales, I saw some old time famous brands like Sylvania, Magnavox, Polaroid, RCA, Westinghouse, Emerson, Philips and several others with TVs, stereos, cameras, Tablets, mobile phones, home phones with prices way below those of Panasonic, Samsung, LG, Sharp, Toshiba and famous brands that I was accustomed to for many years. The salespeople, for the most part, say that these legendary brands are just competing better, but my kids claim that these legendary brands like RCA and Magnavox are just bought and paid names from out of business brands and to stay away from them. Then I saw product ratings in magazines and on-line rating services that touted new brands like Visio, Hisense, Apex, Seiki, Element, Sceptre, Sansui, Funai and many others that were also in the mix. What’s an old time consumer to do?

Answer: Sylvania, Magnavox, Polaroid, RCA, Westinghouse were once proud brands whose names were either purchased or leased from other companies or from manufacturers no longer in business. Westinghouse (Now Westinghouse digital) is one of the older mostly more reliable old-new brands, while Sylvania, Magnavox, Polaroid, RCA have had their brands name sold and resold for many years and no longer represent the original company at all. They, like Hisense, Apex, Seiki, Element, Haier and Sceptre, offer a full array of products built in China or Taiwan concentrating at the mostly entry level of consumer electronics. While they do have U.S. based offices, they but do not always include the best components and do not have the best customer or tech support. But for many consumers, choosing these lower priced products are the only way to get a larger screen TV, affordable Tablet or stereo system. Visio, now the largest TV maker in the world, started as a budget consumer electronics maker, but poured a lot of profits into research and development and is the only “newer” brand to achieve both financial and commercial success with highly rated TVs and audio equipment.

Visio, which debuted phones, computers Tablets a few years ago, smartly stopped making them this year as they couldn’t achieve commercial or financial success in those categories, but concentrating on becoming the very successful TV maker it has become. Philips, which used to own the Sylvania and Magnavox brands, has been alternatively in and out of business in North America and for a while had Funai , a maker of other CE brands make its products and now it is not clear who and what they are. Insignia is Best Buy’s house brand whose products have performed pretty well for a number of years now.