By Gary M. Kaye, Richard Sherwin, Susan Davis, and Amy Eller,

With Bob Plunkett and Jennifer Auspitz along with the staff of Digital Family Advisor and Tech50plus.com

Moisture/Temperature Sensing System – WallyHome Sensor –One of our favorite out of the box experiences ever for a sophisticated multipurpose sensor system.  Once moisture gets into your home you’ve got a problem such as with a broken pipe. WallyHome is a system of sensors that works with a central hub in your home, and can wirelessly alert you via an app (both on iOS and Android) if something’s wrong.  Additionally it can also send an email and text messages to alert you and a list of emergency contacts. Wally can also be controlled via a desktop program on your personal computer. It comes with 6 sensors. Simply put them around the house and look on your phone, computer or tables for temperature and dampness readings. It also alerts you if there is a water leak. The system will also work with the NEST thermostat system.  Price for the WallyHome system is $299, but you can add additional components as well.

Point and Shoot Camera – Sony DSC RX100 Mark III – Some reviewers say this is simply the best point and shoot camera on the market.  We won’t argue the point.  This will do most of the things those big SLR cameras will do, but will still fit in a purse.  It has a 20 megapixel sensor for getting good shots in almost any lighting condition.  And it has a fast and bright Carl Zeiss 24mm to 70mm lens to capture the action close and far away.  It also has a pop-up electronic viewfinder (EVF) to give you a great view of your subject, even in bright light conditions that might wash out an LCD screen.  Price is $800.

Smartphone – Nexus 6 by Motorola – This is the first phone to make use of Android’s newest operating system, Lollipop.  It has a bright, huge 6” screen, and two front facing speakers to deliver just about the best entertainment experinece you can find on a phone.  And with Lollipop you can easily move all of her apps and contacts on any of her current Android devices to the Nexus 6 with a single touch.  Price from most carriers is $199 with a two year contract.  Unlocked from the Google Play Store, it’s $649 , but its now available from Verizon and other major service providers at a vastly reduced price.

Fitness Monitor – Garmin Vivosmart – Let’s face it, there are a ton of wearable fitness devices on the market.  And most of them will keep track of your steps, your calories burned, and lots of other fitness functions.  The Vivosmart will also track your heart rate and sync up with your smartphone.  But one of the things we really like about the Vivosmart is that it can deliver notifications of calls, texts, and emails and not just from one brand of device, but from most of the top selling smartphone brands.  It’s sleek display is discreet, and it will help you keep moving in the right direction.  It’s available in a variety of colors, priced at $170.

Carry-On Luggage – Eagle Creek 22” Tarmac AWD  – Most major airlines now charge about $25 just to check a bag.  That’s prompted more travelers to take carry-on luggage very seriously.  Now it’s not just a convenience, its economical.  The Eagle Creek Tarmac AWD  makes the carry-on into a hi-tech art form.  The back is polycarbonate, protecting the bag with a hard shell.  The front is a resilient Bi-Tech fabric.  It has four sturdy wheels that swivel in all directions, making it a breeze to maneuver in tight airline aisles.  It has compartments both inside and outside the main cargo space, and includes a detachable cargo net that can be used to carry more gear, a coat hanger that attaches to the handle, and a zipper expansion area that can either add more capacity if you need it, or work as a compression system if you’re prone to overstuffing.  Price $230 and up.

Tablet Computer –  Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5” – We can’t begin to count the number of tablet computers in the market.  But we like the Galaxy Tab S for a couple of reasons.  For starters it has an extraordinary screen, with double the resolution of HDTV.  It is also very thin and very light.  Only ¼” thick, and barely over 1 pound.  That makes it easy to carry anywhere.  And with up to nine hours of surfing time, you will have lots of time to watch your favorite movies anywhere from an airline seat to the livingroom couch.  The Tab S comes in white or bronze. Price for the 16GB WiFi version starts at $500. It’s big brother a 12.2 inch tablet was also a hit with our team. Its screen really lets you enjor a movie or a wider newspaper and magazine reading experience and there’s no IPad that’s faster or even comes close to providing digital storage.

Laptop Computer – Lenovo Thinkpad Yoga 14 – This 14″ laptop has a 10-point multitouch screen, it’s built on a sturdy magnesium alloy frame to keep it safe from harm.  It takes advantage of the Yoga’s usage modes, laptop, tablet, tent, and display stand…  It has Lenovo’s innovative Lift ‘n’ Lock keyboard to enable smooth transitions between settings. It comes with Windows 8.1 and a speedy Intel core i5 processor. Lenovo claims it will get up to 8 hours of battery life, enough for a full day of work.  It’s available exclusively at Best Buy with prices beginning at $1100

Portable Flashlight – Nightstick Mini-TAC Pro MT-210 – This is a great little portable flashlight for nightstand, purse, or car.  It’s made from aircraft grade aluminum and needs only one AA battery to deliver 120 lumens of light.  Because it uses a single standard sized battery you don’t have to worry about either recharging or finding a specialty battery size. Price about $25.

Portable Hi-Res Music Player – Sony NWZ-A17SLV – You might consider this the ultimate Walkman.  It provides a wonderful hi-res audio experience in an attractive portable package at an approachable price point.  The unit will play almost all of today’s hi-res digital audio music formats, along with the common MP3 format that’s in your existing iTunes library.  The A17 has 64GB of internal storage, and you can add another 128 GB with a microSD card like the SanDisk 128GB SDXC card .  You can carry thirty hours of hi-res audio, and 50 hours of MP3s.  Price $300. And remember San Disk which made the smallest and possibly best MP3 player ever, is back and the San Disk Clip Sport provides more music per megabyte than any other player on the market.

Hi Res Headphones – Sony MDR-1A Headphones – This is the perfect complement to the Hi-Res Sony Walkman.  They provide a listening experience we found comparable to high end headphones costing several times as much.  The MDR-1A comes with a carrying case and with an extra audio cable that works as a controller for your smartphone. Price – about $300 from the Sony Store, but we’ve seen it online for less. As we said last month, the Plantronics Blue Tooth headphones have the best sound we’ve heard but also have the best wireless features in that the music stops whenever you take the headphones off and switching from noise cancelling to traditional listening is fast and easy.

Portable Music System – Tivoli Audio Music System 3 – We’ve long enjoyed the music quality from Tivoli Audio.  Now Tivoli has downsized its popular music system and added a rechargeable battery pack so it can go anywhere.  The unit has an AM/FM tuner, it supports Bluetooth, and also has an aux input.  Tivoli claims you can get 20 hours of playback time on a single charge.  It also has a built in alarm clock.  This will fit well in any room in the house from the bedroom to the kitchen and den.  You can also take it out to the back deck or on a picnic.  Audio quality is excellent.  Price is $300.

Photo Print – White Wall Acrylic or Metal Print – These days many of us have hundreds or thousands of photographs that sit on our computers, our smartphones, or our Instagram accounts.  But few of those ever make it to the wall or the desktop.  White Wall, a high quality photo finisher, has an array of amazing products including pictures behind acrylic plastic, and virtually indestructible aluminum.  They can be ordered in almost any size beginning at 4” by 4” and heading upwards to 5’.  Prices begin at under $10 and head north to about $700.

Smart Thermostat – Honeywell Wi-Fi Connected Thermostat with Voice Control – Everyone’s interested in saving energy these days.  This Honeywell Thermostat makes it easy to program the temperature throughout the week.  It has voice control, so you only need to talk to it to change settings.  It hooks up to your home WiFi network and allows you to set the temperature remotely.  So if you’re away on vacation you can set things up to lower the thermostat while you’re away, but have it nice and toasty for your return.  Price with voice control is just about $300.  A version with all the bells and whistles but without voice control is about $194.

Smart Door Lock – OkiDoKeys Access Pack – This smart door lock system allows you to come and go by using your smartphone as a key. It also comes with an RFID reader and several RFID tags so you don’t need to have your smartphone with you, or worry if your battery dies.  The Access Pack does not link to your home’s Wi-Fi so you don’t have to worry about the system being hacked.  You can share Bluetooth access with other family members or guests, and you can set up limits on what dates and times they can come and go.  That allows you to let in a service person or cleaning person, but only on a fixed timetable.  Price is $259.

Smart Watch – Samsung Gear Live – While many of Samsung’s smartwatches only work with selected Samsung phones, the Gear Live uses the Android Wear operating system that makes it compatible with most late model Android phones from most manufacturers.  It has a variety of fitness functions, and will provide phone and email notifications.  It is also voice equipped so you can interact with Google Now to get directions, information, etc., right from your wrist.  It has a very stylish metal case and you can swap wrist bands.  Price $200

Robotic Vacuum Cleaner – Neato Botvac – Cleaning the floors is something that always needs to be done.  But it doesn’t have to be a chore. The Botvac uses laser vision to work its way around objects, and avoid stairs.  And you can mark off any areas where you don’t want it to go.  The Neato works on all floors: wood tile carpet, linoleum, etc. It claims to be the best on the market for cleaning up pet hair.  And it’s smart enough to go back to its charging station when it’s running out of juice then pick up where it left off.  There are several different models ranging from $379 to $429.

Speech Recognition Program – Dragon Naturally Speaking – Home Edition – If that important person in your life likes to talk but doesn’t like to type, Dragon is an ideal solution.  With a little bit of training you’ll be able to write emails, send letters, write a novel, surf the web, or dictate homework assignments while seldom having to hit a key.  Dragon Naturally Speaking is a great productivity tool and fun to use at the same time. Price for the Home Edition begins at $100.

Media Streaming Device – Roku 3 – There’s a world of great video and games out beyond the cable box.  And the best way to get to it is with a media streaming device like the Roku 3.  It’s easy to setup, connecting with your HDTV and your home WiFi network.  Roku gives you access to channels from the most popular like Netflix, Hulu Plus, and YouTube, all the way to the obscure such as DogTV and Africa Live.  The remote control comes with a headphone jack so you can enjoy video without disturbing anyone else.  Price $90 -$100.

Wireless Home Music System – Sonos Play 3 and Sonos Boost – Unlike Bluetooth speakers or even WiFi based music systems, Sonos creates its own network that rides on top of your home network.  Sonos has been the gold standard for home wireless systems.  Now a new device and software upgrade has made the system even better.  Start with the Sony Play 3 Speaker System at $299, which will let you listen to almost any music service or source.  Then add the Sonos Boost for $99.  The Boost significantly improved the WiFi performance of the Sonos system, even with WiFi systems that have connectivity issues.  Sonos delivers great sound quality and the speakers can be placed just about anywhere, or they can be linked as a stereo pair, or made part of a home theater system.

Travel Mug – Contigo Travel Tumbler Stainless Steel Mug – There are a lot of travel mugs to keep your morning coffee warm until mid-day.  We’re partial to the Contigo for a couple of reasons.  It effectively keeps things warm for five hours or longer.  It has a double lock system that protects against accidental leaks, even if you knock it over next to your computer keyboard.  The stainless steel finish pretty much stops anything from sticking to it.  And the open access design means all the elements in the mechanism are exposed in the dishwasher so no bad stuff will accumulate.  Price $30.

Charging Synching Cables: We get that Ventev Mobile, a division of TESSCO Technologies, really understands us. Which is no small feat out there in the tech world where all too often we all become tangled in the spaghetti and long for days of digital Detox. At least Ventev gives us a color choice with their Charge sync cables, eliminating all doubt about who belongs to what cord in the charge pool. These are great, flat no-tangle cables now in 6 foot lengths so they can even reach into the back seat of your car. Oh shall we all stay connected!!! They are available in Gray, white, turquoise and pink for micro USB at 19.99 and for Lighting at 29.99.

As we are all hitting the road this fall the Powerdash r900 is a must for any road kit. This 2.1A rapid car charger AND portable back up battery is a godsend. Small enough to fit in your clutch it can give you 3 extra hours talk time and you can recharge it via USB if you like, all for 39.99

The Powercell 3015 is slim and fits in your back pocket or purse. This portable charger is slick and smooth in pure white or gray. With it you get up to 12 hours talk or 10 hours internet Love it!

You get 25 hours talk, 18 hours 4G internet, 20 hours video playback and 100 hours audio, dual ports. All for 74.99

Bluetooth® enabled LED Light Bulbs: The AwoX StriimLight Wi-Fi 8W E26 Light Bulb Integrated Blue Tooth Speaker and Wi-Fi Extender stream music and light up your home with changing colors. They easily connect to your Blue Tooth music device whether it be a Tablet or mobile phone or Blue Tooth enabled music player. The SLC-B13 model (Under $80) includes remote control, or use the free AwoX Smart COLOR Control mobile app to control lighting and color (requires Bluetooth ® 4.0 or higher).• Energy-saving LED bulb, 100-240v, fits standard E27 socket and the speaker grades out nicely at 13W speaker, 200Hz-20KHz. http://www.awox.com/connected-lighting/awox-striimlight-wifi/#tab4