Some usual – and unusual – holiday gifts.
And some holiday warnings.

By Jennifer Auspitz, Marc Burstein, Bob Plunkett, Arlene Rosenberg, Richard M. Sherwin, and Susan Davis

If you’re getting an unusual amount of invites from Amazon, Best Buy, Kohls, Costco, BJs, Walmart and major banks, eBay and many of the most popular financial or retail sites. do not respond! You didn’t win anything, you were not specially selected due to your great personality and you won’t get a 40% discount on your next purchase by filling out the customer survey.

The bad guys, bad actors, bad people, and spammers are cutting through the best anti-virus, VPM, anti-malware software and systems and literally sending these come-ons with email and web sites that are so realistic that the legitimate vendors can’t stop them. Just delete the email or mark it spam. If you have any doubts about the authenticity call the real phone numbers for these companies.

Now some good news:

Motorola, which actually started manufacturing mobile phones some 35 years ago, is bouncing back against the established leaders in the industry with a slew of good, better, best consumer models for this holiday season.

moto z⁴: This premium device gives a real bang for your buck as one of the world’s first 5G upgradeable smartphones. It features a massive 48 MP rear camera sensor with Night Vision mode, an expansive 6.4” OLED display and a powerful battery that lasts up to 2 days!

moto g⁷ family: The popular, sleek moto g7 family includes three impressive devices. Feed your creative side with the moto g7 and its 12 MP camera system, satisfy your on-the-go lifestyle with the moto g7 power that boasts up to 3 days of battery life, and stream all the Hallmark movies you want with the moto g7 play containing a Snapdragon 632 octa-core processor.

moto 1 family: The newest additions to Motorola’s smartphone lineup are content capturing kings. A quad rear camera setup on the moto one zoom ensures you’ll always have the right camera on hand to document the merriest moments of the holiday season. The moto one action boasts an industry-first ultra-wide action camera perfect for adventure seekers.

moto e⁶: Enjoy improved essential features for an affordable price with the moto e6. Perfect for a kid’s first smartphone, the e6 can power through an entire day on a single charge and it’s wide 5.5” HD+ Max Vision display is great for streaming holiday movies all season long.
moto mods: These attachments can transform any moto z family phone into a 5G device, gaming controller, smart speaker, 360-degree camera and more with just a snap.

5G moto mod: Get access to Verizon’s 5G network with speeds up to 10x faster than today’s wireless technology. Perfect for travelers, gamers, sports fans, and anyone on-the-go.

Smart Wallets?

Have you ever lost your wallet or keys?

Ekster® recently released the world’s first voice-activated tracker, meaning you can now track your wallet’s location with your phone; or using Alexa, Siri or Google Home.
This credit card-sized tracker is solar-powered, so don’t worry about charging yet another device.· When misplaced, you can now ring your wallet from your phone and vice-versa. The new wallets have a signature pop-up card feature to ensure easy access to your cards at all times. They offer RFID protection, so you know your cards will be safe from the growing risk of skimming and identity theft. The Ekster Parliament is a luxury Wallet for him as well as for her and comes at a price of $79 without tracker and $108 with a tracker. The Wallets are available to purchase online on (ekster.com), on Amazon.com or in retail stores like Macy’s.

The Phyn Smart Water Assistant

Belkin, the fast-growing smart accessory company recently launched Phyn, a new smart home device that finally makes leak detection and water savings simple and affordable for homeowners.

The Phyn Smart Water Assistant ($299) provides details as to how much water each fixture in a home uses, enabling homeowners to track their water consumption, identify areas of excess water use, and take meaningful action to conserve and save money. With no plumber required, this DIY device is easily installed under any sink with hot/cold water lines and power outlets.

Mobile notifications alert homeowners to all types of leaks. In the event of a major leak, Phyn can connect homeowners to a local plumber in minutes. It also monitors water usage and over time, Phyn learns a home’s system and shares water usage down to each fixture.
The unit’s patented pressure sensing sees the ice crystals forming in pipes before they have a chance to freeze and burst, allowing for you to take the precious time to take action and avoid damage.

Phyn works seamlessly with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant. And with IFTTT, users can have Phyn trigger actions with other smart home devices

The Phyn Smart Water Assistant is available online and at Best Buy.

The Next Generation of My Charge

A few years ago at a trade-only consumer electronics accessory show, we were shown a smallish mobile product battery charger. After using it, it outlasted the big branded companies by a few hours. Now four years later, myCharge, a Michigan-based manufacturer of portable charging solutions has introduced another group that still leads the product category in convenience and battery capacity.

myCharge has integrated built-in charging cords that emphasize portability and versatility, and powerful lithium polymer batteries that allow you to quickly charge your smartphone, tablet, eReader and other devices so they’re ready when you need them. myCharge can make your life a little easier and let you ditch your dependency on cables and wall outlets.

The company just released their Hub Universal line, which has built-in Apple Lightning and USB-C charging cables as well as wall prongs on the back to directly recharge the unit. myCharge also released their first solar-powered charger, PowerFold, and a charger that doubles as a nightlight, Power Lumens. http://mycharge.com/

Fingerprint entry for your home?

Tapplock One is a $99 padlock that unlocks via Bluetooth, fingerprint or Morse code (yes, really). It’s a flexible way to secure and monitor valuables without a combination code or key. So if you thought you’d always have to remember to turn your lock three times to the right, once to the left and back to the right again, those days are over.

Tapplock One is the debut model from Tapplock, and it’s available internationally, about $99. The padlock comes in sterling silver, gunmetal gray and midnight black finishes. On the front, there is a square fingerprint reader that the Tapplock team claims can unlock the padlock in under 0.8-seconds. Setting up the Tapplock is easy: just download the Tapplock app. There, you’ll create a login and pair the padlock to your phone via Bluetooth. Once you’ve paired them, you’ll be able to lock or unlock the Tapplock One and create fingerprint profiles and Morse code combinations in the app. The Tapplock stores up to 500 fingerprints, so you can grant access to a long list of friends and family before fingerprint entries run out.
Of course, adding people and fingerprints to the system requires the person to be physically present, and only the master account can make those changes. That’s good since it prevents a friend with shared access from adding another person without your permission.

Logitech’s Ultimate Ears takes on Amazon

While Logitech is an official Amazon retail partner, some of its Bluetooth speakers (indoor and outdoor) outperform Amazon’s own brand of Alexa’s in-depth and breadth of sound quality. Some of the units are also Alexa compatible.
One of the most requested demos at the DFA Lectures, the new Logitech Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 now comes equipped with even more bass, thanks to a lower cutoff frequency, 30 percent more battery life and a new IP67 rating, making it waterproof, dustproof, and able to float and deliver even bigger 360-degree sound than before and extra bass anywhere you need it.
With an all-new Outdoor Boost mode, extended 13-hour battery life, IP67 rating, and Double Up true stereo pairing Wonderboom 2 is ready to accompany you just about anywhere you want to go with booming sound to follow you every step of your journey.
With a redesigned button interface on the top, you can easily play, pause and skip tracks directly on the speaker. You can even pair two Wonderboom 2 speakers using the upgraded Double Up feature to enjoy a true wireless, left and right stereo experience, or simply party louder.
Each speaker comes in Deep Space Black (Black), Crushed Ice (Grey), Radical Red (Red), Bermuda Blue (Blue) and Just Peach (Pink).

BOOM 3 and MEGABOOM 3

One of our cross demographic Ultimate Ears favorites is the new Ultimate Ears BOOM 3 and MEGABOOM 3.  These portable, waterproof BluetoothⓇ speakers have been redesigned and engineered for applications like motorcycle jackets and fire equipment. Also new to BOOM 3 and MEGABOOM 3 is a Magic Button on top of the speaker for convenient music control. Each speaker has carefully balanced audio and 360-degree sound that lets you hear every note just as the artist intended. MEGABOOM 3 also provides deeper bass and improved clarity over the original MEGABOOM.
The all-new Magic Button allows you to play, pause and skip tracks directly on the speakers without fumbling around for your phone in a bag or far away room. When paired with the redesigned BOOM & MEGABOOM by Ultimate Ears iOS mobile app, you will also have one-touch access to all of your favorite playlists on Apple Music, which offers an entire catalog of more than 45 million songs. Music fans can also use the Magic Button to access their playlists on Deezer Premium—which offers 53 million tracks—on Android and soon on iOS. Additional music services will be added.

Other upgrades to Boom 3 and Megaboom 3 include a new IP67 rating so the speakers are not only waterproof and drop proof, but also dustproof, making them ready for any adventure. Improved Bluetooth range up to 150 feet enhances portability and the speakers float, so you don’t have to worry about losing them at the bottom of a pool, lake or river. For added convenience, Boom 3 and Megaboom 3 are compatible with the Ultimate Ears POWER UP charging dock (sold separately) for a simple, wireless charge, plus you can charge the speakers upright thanks to the repositioned USB port.
The new Boom 3 and Megaboom 3 are both Alexa compatible.

Logitech’s Jaybird subsidiary also has an award-winning in-ear headphone.

JAYBIRD VISTA earbuds are some of the lightest, most compact, and most advanced headphones we’ve reviewed. Vista has an IPX7 waterproof rating Yes you can swim), 16 hour battery life with charging case- 32 hours of uninterrupted independent bud use- 5 minute quick charge seals against elements- secure and comfortable sport fit ear gels- jbs1 wireless technology- premium sound with customizable eq- stereo phone calls, all for around $179.99.

BYTES AND PIECES

Netflix has warned that it’s ending support for some of Roku’s oldest players very soon, including the Roku HD, HD-XR, SD, XD, and XDS as well as the NetGear-branded XD and XDS. In reality, those devices stopped updates five years ago, but their literally 1000s in use.

While Netflix and other streaming services have been notifying consumers for years, several consumers we know still used the outdated devices for some basic streaming services like YouTube, Pandora, and Sirius-XM.
In fact, some of our readers who still use composite connections old fashioned plugs) and not HDMI for their old TVs and are still happy with those devices don’t have to change. However, the new Roku’s and other streaming devices are all HDMI based and some of those streaming boxes cost only about $15.

Notification Wars

Are you getting too many notifications on your mobile phone or tablet from companies you’ve purchased products from…or maybe Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are annoying you seemingly twenty times a day? Simply go into your phones or Tablets settings, find notifications and opt-out of any don’t want to hear from. If email and texts and calendar events need to be adjusted go the same setting and turn on or off those notifications.

Comcast skips commercials?

The giant technology conglomerate‘s latest X1 remote control for its Xfinity cable offers a fast forward setting that automatically stops when commercials are over! when you fast forward through some recorded programs. Simply spot the vertical line at the bottom of the program and fast forward to that point. Not call TV channels have joined this application and it’s still not as good as TiVo’s legendary thirty-second skip, but it’s pretty good. The updated X1 service also provides a lot more verbal commands to change channels, look at your bill, instant sports scores and many more verbal functions.

Verizon customer support diminishing?

Verizon’s mobile business, FIOS TV and Internet services have been increasingly knocked by its enormous customer base.

Apparently the massive layoffs earlier this year affected its legendary great support system. On the Internet side of the business, the purchasing of AOL, Yahoo, and other web content providers were too much for the Basking Ridge, NJ to handle. Its own internal and external Verizon.net email service is now handled by the depleted AOL customer service. Verizon’s legendary best in class FIOS service has also taken a hit with longer delays for repairs and long waits on the phone when calling with questions.

T-Mobile and Sprint merger troubles?

Many customers of both mobile phone services have been complaining that many of the features promised in their new ad campaign are not working. For example, you can’t browse and be on the phone at the same time. So-Called unlimited data plans sends which should have a zero balance when customers get bills, those bills have a ten-twenty or thirty dollar fee.
a spokesperson claims that most of these issues will go away when the full merger takes place. But a Sprint store manager told DFA not to hold your breath.