S4E12: ASCII Anything's Annual Holiday Gift Ideas Extravaganza

00:00:11:01 - 00:00:40:00
Speaker 1 (Angel Leon)
Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of Ask the in presented by Mosher Consulting. I'm your host Angela all measures director personnel. And with me today is producer Brian because we have our annual gifts for tech people. If you've been listening to the program over the past several years, we've basically surveyed our people internally here at Moser Consulting about the gifts that they'd really like to either get or give during the holiday season.

00:00:40:00 - 00:00:57:17
Speaker 1
So we've got several folks who responded to our survey that Brian spoke to over the last week or so. Just a programing note. I am not interviewing this episode because I was out on PTO during Thanksgiving week, so thanks for Brian for pinch hitting there for me. So Brian, how are you?

00:00:57:18 - 00:01:20:07
Speaker 2 (Producer Brian)
I'm doing great. And yeah, the folks at Moser are never shy about sharing the stuff that has caught their eye for the holiday gift giving season. We've got a number of entries that cover lower cost to higher costs. If you're looking for stocking stuffers, we've got one or two, I think, that are good candidates for that. And if you're looking for the big item under the tree, we've got those, too.

00:01:20:13 - 00:01:38:09
Speaker 1
Yeah. And, and before we recorded this, we, we actually got into a pretty good banter that we then realized, man, we probably should have recorded this, but we started talking about a couple of items. Number one, one that we've talked in the past here in one of our previous episodes, and that is the DJI Osmo six.

00:01:38:11 - 00:02:02:10
Speaker 2
Sheri Garvin submitted that to our gift chats and we were unable to link up because of travel and PTO schedules before. But she is who suggested the Osmo Mobile six. It's a gimbal for mobile phones and I have the Osmo Mobile three. Like I said before, chalk it up to producer error. I really should have hit record when we were talking about this earlier.

00:02:02:10 - 00:02:10:12
Speaker 2
So we're going to rehash this as best we can. But I am 100% upgrading to the six this holiday season.

00:02:10:12 - 00:02:10:23
Speaker 1
Yes.

00:02:11:04 - 00:02:32:07
Speaker 2
Oh, man, I really enjoy my three. I get a lot of use out of it. I use it at home. I bring it to work for Mosier videos that we're recording. I love it. I love the results I get from it, but I cannot wait to gift it to my daughter or someone else in my family that's interested in having it because I am so upgrading to the six as soon as I.

00:02:33:06 - 00:03:02:01
Speaker 1
Know I am on the same boat as you, I have the two and I'm really impressed with it. I actually use it for any sort of picture moment with my phone. This past Thanksgiving. I have family over, so I use that a lot to basically set up pictures, you know, with the family. I always use it for my annual holiday pictures where we do and we're that type of family that we buy the the PJs, the matching PJs and take a photo for the Christmas tree every year.

00:03:02:08 - 00:03:24:03
Speaker 1
I always use mine to do that, to set up the timer on my phone, get it. And you know, we do nice, nice pictures on that. But the six my gosh, I mean, talk about everything that you want, especially now with phones being magnetized that you can all you need to do is just basically put your photos back into the thing and it'll automatically clasp in it.

00:03:24:03 - 00:03:43:16
Speaker 1
You don't have to mess around with opening the clasp like I currently do, and making sure that it's level. And then when I turn it on, the phone has to level itself. And so that basically erases all of that set up that I go through every time I turn on my to my Osmo. Two So then you also got the built in selfie stick.

00:03:43:23 - 00:04:05:08
Speaker 2
Which is a feature. Honestly, I will probably make fun of yeah times even though I expect it will come in handy at some point. I'm like, oh, look, telescope's out and becomes a selfie stick. I am a selfie stick snob. I make fun of them any time I see them, anytime someone mentions them. But I have a feeling this is a built in feature that I will mock and yet probably wind up using.

00:04:05:16 - 00:04:25:23
Speaker 1
So as someone who's never own a selfie stick. Yeah. At all. I mean, I mean I've I'm not going to lie. I've used the Osmo to as a quote unquote selfie stick. It doesn't have a stick. It's really hard. Basically, I do the same thing with my phone, just extend my hand and take a selfie. But I'm actually looking forward to having that building selfie stick.

00:04:25:23 - 00:04:26:19
Speaker 1
I'm not going to lie.

00:04:26:21 - 00:04:37:08
Speaker 2
I think my son is looking forward to me having it as well because he's six three so his long arms are automatically the family selfie stick. You've got the arms to get everybody in the shot. Go ahead.

00:04:37:14 - 00:04:49:23
Speaker 1
It's really a blessing and a curse for him because now he's got an extended version of that. So you can you know, you can basically frame more people in the picture with the selfie stick built into the six.

00:04:50:05 - 00:04:54:12
Speaker 2
He still has to be in the photos. There's no getting out of.

00:04:54:12 - 00:05:05:22
Speaker 1
Yeah. So we were also talking about P.S. five and Brian was lucky enough to actually grab one this holiday season for his son and I believe one for your nephew as well. Is that.

00:05:05:23 - 00:05:17:01
Speaker 2
Yeah, we we wound up getting my wife was just kind of randomly surfing while we were watching a holiday movie waiting for spirited the Ryan Reynolds Will Ferrell holiday musical movie. It's really good, by the way.

00:05:17:17 - 00:05:18:07
Speaker 1
I saw it.

00:05:18:15 - 00:05:32:04
Speaker 2
You were waiting for that to spin up on streaming. And so she's on her phone and it's like, hey, you said P.S. fives were on back order or they were on an invite only to order. I'm like, Yeah, I was going to check back. She's like, Well, I'm on now. They say available to ship and like grab them.

00:05:32:21 - 00:05:44:22
Speaker 2
So we were we were able to get one for our son and our nephew. We just lucked into I have no secret code, I have no special trick for. It's just luck out like we did, I guess.

00:05:44:22 - 00:05:50:16
Speaker 1
Yeah. And you got the, not the digital version. You got the one that takes the this. Yeah.

00:05:50:17 - 00:05:59:07
Speaker 2
As our version as I understand it, the digital version is nearly impossible to find. That is the one that I wanted. But just having one available for purchase was good enough.

00:05:59:17 - 00:06:19:03
Speaker 1
Yes. No, no, that's we. I found that out. I mean, last year I talked on this same episode last year about it. I mean, I got lucky enough to get one as well, but I wanted a digital one and those were nowhere to be had. And this year I'm assuming it's going to be equally as hard as I think they've been washed out for two years now.

00:06:19:03 - 00:06:20:24
Speaker 1
One, I think it's been two years.

00:06:20:24 - 00:06:22:19
Speaker 2
It's going to be this is the second holiday season.

00:06:22:19 - 00:06:43:17
Speaker 1
The second holiday season. So for all of you out there, I mean, I'll give you the same tip I gave everybody out there. If you if you're on Twitter, follow one of those tech guys. I can't remember the magazine, the editor, what magazine I was following. He was, for some reason, dropping tips on when you know, the certain retail stores were going to drop.

00:06:43:17 - 00:07:06:06
Speaker 1
And so I was lucky enough caught one at the right time and boom, go online, buy it and got myself one. Follow those guys out there because, you know, Twitter might be in disarray, but certainly the people inside the people during the tweets are not. So go ahead and do that. But let's get into the list and the things that we have here that Brian spoke with some of our employees last year.

00:07:06:06 - 00:07:26:19
Speaker 1
And I got to say, the four different items that were on the list, I I'm very familiar with one of them reason being. So my mom was here visiting us for the holidays and we actually purchased one of these things. And it is actually the first one that you talk about, which is the Echo Show 15.

00:07:27:03 - 00:07:33:14
Speaker 2
All right. Joining us now is Angela Stephens. You wanted to tell people about the echo show 15. What can you tell us about it?

00:07:33:20 - 00:07:56:12
Speaker 3
Well, thanks for having me, Bryan. We are a little bit of an Amazon home. I've been an Amazon fan from very early on, so when they started coming out with devices, I actually got into the beta group for that first echo. So we've had one since its inception and recently did a little self splurging, bought myself a gift and got the echo show.

00:07:56:12 - 00:08:25:24
Speaker 3
15. I am quite an avid home cook and so I'm in the kitchen a lot and that's where our echo show lives. It is 15 inches, hence the 15 or at least I think that's what that's all about. It is a full touchscreen device and has it's framed, which is really nice. It has a very nice visual look and you can orient it either in landscape or portrait mode, depending on where you want to put it and how you want to use it.

00:08:26:01 - 00:08:46:02
Speaker 3
When I started looking at them was when their refrigerators got really big, where people have like homes that are screens on their refrigerators. I don't know. Yeah, I don't need new appliances, but I was like, That's a really cool feature. It was somewhere where you can keep and the thing is we kind of use it for you can keep a running grocery list or shopping list of what for whatever.

00:08:46:08 - 00:09:07:14
Speaker 3
I can use it to watch recipes or cooking tips when I'm trying to make something new that I've not made before. So that's kind of cool. We can keep our calendar on it. So I have like any personal home related to do items. So and then, you know, like a lot of the other devices we have today, it has different widgets that you can add, right?

00:09:07:14 - 00:09:18:20
Speaker 3
So you can kind of or your screen to have whatever kind of information on it you want. I kind of customize the one in the kitchen, the show 15 to just have the things that I find most important access there.

00:09:19:04 - 00:09:31:20
Speaker 2
Now I cook, I bake, I do a lot of stuff in the kitchen as well. So knowing my approach in the kitchen, my style, how robust is it, how resistant to like things being spilled on it? Is it.

00:09:32:04 - 00:09:53:16
Speaker 3
Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I mean, I don't know, I have a I haven't actually researched like if it's waterproof, obviously I don't keep mine extremely close to any water, but I do keep it fairly close, a couple of feet probably from my stove so I can. And because the screen is so massive, it's a big screen. It really is.

00:09:53:16 - 00:10:11:22
Speaker 3
And people, when they walk in, they're like, oh, wow, what's that? You know? Okay, I don't realize. It's an echo right away because most people haven't seen one before. It's very nice. I can display a recipe in text in large font so I can see it from a few feet away or like a cooking video or tutorial if I'm doing that.

00:10:11:22 - 00:10:30:11
Speaker 3
I mean, I also use it obviously to play music or even sometimes like I'll pop a movie on when I'm doing like holiday or event cooking where I'm going to be in there for a while. It's not necessarily made to be beat up or right next to your sink, but one of the ways they advertise it or have it on their website shows that displayed in a kitchen where people are using it.

00:10:30:13 - 00:10:51:15
Speaker 3
It has different mounting features. So I got a stand because that was my preference. However, it does come with mounting hardware and then there are obviously some different types of mounts that you can buy for it, including one, I believe, where you could mount it on the front of your refrigerator. Like it's either sticky or, you know, some kind of adhesion thing on the back.

00:10:51:24 - 00:11:08:16
Speaker 3
All right. For those people who kind of want to mimic that refrigerator with the built in screen, look, I mean, the only downfall I see to that is that it does need to be connected to power. You'd have to run a cord to it, which might be a little weird running it to your fridge, maybe on the side versus the front.

00:11:08:16 - 00:11:29:13
Speaker 3
That might make more sense. Okay, but but it's meant to be used as like a home base. That's kind of how they promote it. Some of the pictures and videos you know, show it that way. So it's got all of the same gadgets that are available there. So Spotify, Amazon music, Hulu, Netflix, you can watch a full movie on it, stream, whatever you want to.

00:11:29:13 - 00:11:41:10
Speaker 3
So it's pretty nice. It's just as large as a lot of people's computer screen. So if you think about it from that perspective, you know, touch screen. So that's nice. Your hands are clean. You can touch it.

00:11:42:01 - 00:11:46:19
Speaker 2
Excellent. Okay. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate you joining us. And thank you for the information.

00:11:46:19 - 00:11:47:22
Speaker 3
Yeah, no problem.

00:11:47:24 - 00:12:09:03
Speaker 1
As Angela was mentioning, it is a very good looking display. It's got a nice frame to it. We I help my mom set it up while she was here. Really easy to set up. I mean, like like Angela was saying anything Amazon. The only thing that took a while was obviously the picture uploading from her Amazon pictures account or lack thereof because she didn't have the Amazon Pictures account.

00:12:09:03 - 00:12:29:03
Speaker 1
So we had to set that up and then get the pictures basically to flow over to the Echo show 15. But once they were there, I mean, I had to say I don't have a need for one of these things, but if I did, it would definitely be on my shopping list to grab because it is really stunning and you can obviously put it in portrait mode or horizontal mode.

00:12:29:14 - 00:12:53:07
Speaker 1
It's just so nice. It's got a built in camera. So and we call family members from them. You know, if you want to do a quick video call and we don't have our phones with us, we can just do it directly from them. So it's really nice. I can't imagine how nice it would look on those things. We didn't try that while she was here, but it definitely is nice the purpose that Angela was using it for the cooking and all of that.

00:12:53:07 - 00:13:09:11
Speaker 1
I mean, that is great idea because you basically have a 15 inch tablet on your kitchen counter that you can basically grab information from watch videos on how to do things and basically just do it. But it's, it's really nice.

00:13:09:23 - 00:13:29:23
Speaker 2
Yeah. I'm still finding bits of custard from the dessert that I made for the kitchen for Thanksgiving, the office Thanksgiving pitch in. So I'm not I still don't know how robust and resistant to liquid they are. So definitely if you cook like I cook, check into that before you put it anywhere near where you.

00:13:30:03 - 00:13:30:10
Speaker 1
Think.

00:13:30:24 - 00:13:34:21
Speaker 2
You might like it on day one. I'd ruin it with some type of meringue.

00:13:34:21 - 00:13:56:06
Speaker 1
Well, I mean, if you can then hang it up on a wall, if you're able to it, it does come with the hardware to do that. So that's another nice thing that you can actually hang it up on a wall. I don't Angela mentioned maybe sticking it to the side of your fridge, etc. If you've got the space I actually like, I visualize my kitchen and I know the exact place where I would put it.

00:13:56:06 - 00:14:07:14
Speaker 1
It would be like right underneath our counter. I would mount it to the wall horizontally and it would probably look great. Really easy then to look at kind of far away enough that I wouldn't mess it up.

00:14:08:03 - 00:14:25:15
Speaker 2
It's kind of you to assume that there's anywhere in the location that I wouldn't still be able to do it. My cooking style is mostly everything turns out good with the things I make taste good, but my cooking style, I think is most accurately described as Tasmanian devil. The whirling dervish of Just Chaos.

00:14:25:20 - 00:14:35:19
Speaker 1
Got it, got it. Okay. Well then, I mean, I'm sure you might have a wall around your kitchen that you can actually prop it up. I'm guessing it'd be far away, you know, but I think I go to.

00:14:36:03 - 00:14:40:09
Speaker 2
Stick it behind a clear trash bag, like it's in the first couple of rows of a Gallagher concert.

00:14:41:00 - 00:15:10:14
Speaker 1
There you go. All right. All right. Peter Gallagher, next on our list, William was talking to us about the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook go. I must admit, I'm not too knowledgeable on the girl. I think I know a little bit about Chromebooks. They seem to be a very nice OS for computers. I personally I don't have any experience with it, so but it was really nice to listen to William talk about all the different things that he can make.

00:15:10:14 - 00:15:14:13
Speaker 1
It obviously very useful for him so what was his conversation like?

00:15:14:18 - 00:15:32:20
Speaker 2
That was good. The advantage of the Chromebooks is just the reduction in price because they don't lose a lot of memory. They don't have like, you know, you're not keeping things specifically on it. You're accessing them through the Chromebooks interface, you're not keeping them locally. So it's just I think it's a price break on a laptop and yeah.

00:15:32:20 - 00:15:51:14
Speaker 2
And he's very happy with his. He was excited about it. I don't own one either, but it was a good conversation. Joining us now is measures William Harrison. And we want to thank him very much for participating in the company's Slack channel. And his suggestion this year was the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook go. William, what can you tell us about it?

00:15:51:20 - 00:15:55:24
Speaker 2
What what appealed to you as a as a gift? Well, the portability.

00:15:56:08 - 00:16:02:12
Speaker 1
Usefulness and then that particular model.

00:16:02:12 - 00:16:05:00
Speaker 2
Well, affordability, that's another.

00:16:05:00 - 00:16:20:22
Speaker 1
Big one. And then, if I remember correctly, the ability to use a SIM card for cellular service. That's a really, really, really.

00:16:20:22 - 00:16:36:11
Speaker 2
Big one for me. Okay. So that's a secondary service that you subscribe to, to put a SIM card in it, and then you're connected. Anywhere you go through that device, you don't have to go through your your cell phone's Wi-Fi hotspot. Like you say. That's a cool feature. I wasn't aware of that.

00:16:36:17 - 00:16:51:15
Speaker 1
Yeah, it was. That was my understanding of it. Now, I mean, Samsung also offers, you know, higher, higher level versions, but they're in the, you know, 9 to 1100 range, very, very useful.

00:16:52:02 - 00:17:02:08
Speaker 2
But you start shying away from the affordability feature that you mentioned earlier. When you get into that kind of you're talking about price range and like affordability kind of falls off at that point. Yes.

00:17:02:11 - 00:17:06:07
Speaker 1
Yes. And, you know, and for for the features that it.

00:17:06:07 - 00:17:07:15
Speaker 2
Offers and everything, it's.

00:17:08:22 - 00:17:14:05
Speaker 1
I mean, the affordability factor plus all the features and everything makes for a good package. But in my opinion.

00:17:14:05 - 00:17:19:15
Speaker 2
That was excellent. Okay. Well, great. Thank you very much for bringing it to our attention. We appreciate it. No problem.

00:17:20:04 - 00:17:45:08
Speaker 1
I mean, honestly, they don't break the bank, which is nice, especially nowadays with inflation and all that. They're not that expensive. So if you're looking for a good for a good alternative to your PC, the Chromebook go might be a good way to go. I mean, they're not a stocking stuffer by any means, but if you can get one at a decent price, which I think they're decently price, very good entry level price for anybody out there that's interested.

00:17:45:15 - 00:17:53:00
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's more of an under the tree location rather than hanging from a stocking, unless you're stocking is substantial and well anchored.

00:17:53:08 - 00:18:15:02
Speaker 1
Yes. Yes. All right. And up next, we have another item that I'm a little bit familiar with, the next blade, digital photo frame. Personally, we've been looking for things like this. And so when I heard the conversation that you had, it was great because this actually brought a lot of good new information to my ears. Tell you that much.

00:18:15:08 - 00:18:18:11
Speaker 1
But what can you tell us about your conversation about the next blade, digital photo frame?

00:18:18:18 - 00:18:54:13
Speaker 2
Yeah, Kari brought it to our attention and just the ability to upload to a central location and have it just feed out to whoever you've given them to as long as they're all sent to the same folder. It makes distributing your digital photos to family members in that just that much easier. They just automatically load. I think there are like you can do video clips does include a speaker so she did give that caveat that be aware that if you're walking through your house at night occasionally you might hear a random voice because it's a video, but you may want to turn the speaker down on the House.

00:18:54:13 - 00:18:57:04
Speaker 1
If yeah, that that might be clips.

00:18:57:21 - 00:18:58:23
Speaker 2
You know, like why.

00:18:58:23 - 00:19:03:07
Speaker 1
Is Uncle Johnny talking? I always like to say.

00:19:03:07 - 00:19:22:24
Speaker 2
Yeah, but she was very happy and the family members that she had given them to also liked them very much. It's just a really efficient way of sharing digital photos with everybody and like really easy to use, really easy to set up. All right. Joining us next is Carrie Porter Ellis. She's here to talk about the next play digital photo frame.

00:19:23:07 - 00:19:49:04
Speaker 3
Well, I have to say, I've researched a lot of digital photo frames and this one is my favorite. It can hang or sit on a table. It can be a portrait or a landscape frame. And what's even better is you can get frames from multiple people and link it to one account. So when you upload photos, you can tell which frame to send to see if you have five frames in your house.

00:19:49:04 - 00:20:12:12
Speaker 3
You can specify a playlist for each one. I can send photos of my little daughter to her grandparents and have them instantly. It will play short video clips on the frame and it has beautiful transitions between each of the photos or video clips. It really is just overall a nice package. It doesn't have any problems. It was really easy to set up.

00:20:12:12 - 00:20:30:06
Speaker 3
I know I gave one to my grandmother last year and she absolutely loved it. So if you're not able to sit in the same room or see each other very often, you can at least still share updates. You can add text or photos. It has a wide range of possibilities and probably the best one I found so far.

00:20:30:12 - 00:20:54:22
Speaker 3
They do offer a plus subscription which gives you more video time. So it goes from 15/2 videos to a minute long videos and yes, you can hear the audio straight through it. So if you get startled by somebody talking in your house all the sudden, please be aware you're probably getting the video come through. That has startled a few people in my family, but they also then have more storage space and everything, so I highly recommend it.

00:20:55:01 - 00:21:16:11
Speaker 1
Honestly, if you go to their website, they show a lot of the good features that it has. It does talk about the video feature. I mean, I don't know about that one. I might, you know, keep it low or muted. Oh, yeah. But it is a nice gift. It does have a lot of functionalities. It is a smart frame.

00:21:16:11 - 00:21:44:12
Speaker 1
It does smart face framing for you. So it's really nice. And speaking of uploading things, we've got another item that you spoke with Samantha about. It's the skylight calendar. I got to say, I had no idea that this thing existed. And as soon as I started hearing the draft for your conversation with her, I got really excited. Honestly, I went looking for it because it's a dedicated calendar and it's really cool.

00:21:45:00 - 00:21:50:01
Speaker 1
I mean, I'm not one to get, you know, very excited.

00:21:50:01 - 00:21:53:07
Speaker 2
But if you're going to this is the calendar to get excited about.

00:21:54:18 - 00:21:55:04
Speaker 1
Yes.

00:21:55:13 - 00:22:07:16
Speaker 2
Okay. Joining us now is Samantha Parrish, who is going to talk about the skylight calendar suggestion that she contributed to our holiday gift extravaganza. Sam, welcome. Thank you very much for participating. We appreciate it.

00:22:07:24 - 00:22:36:11
Speaker 3
Thanks for having me. Bryan and I was excited to share because I seriously love this thing. I bought it for myself for a birthday gift, so that's how much I love it. It's not the cheapest technology I've ever purchased, but it is the skylight calendar. So you may have heard about the skylight frame previously, which was where you could send a frame to a family member and then you email pictures to it and those pictures pop up, which is kind of cool for those maybe less techie family members that don't always look at their phones.

00:22:36:11 - 00:22:55:16
Speaker 3
Right. But the calendar I have up, it's similar technology, right? I hang it up on my wall. It has an email and I auto sync all of our calendars to it. So I have a school calendar, each of my kids sports calendars. I've got three children and I project manager Mosher. So I'm also a little nerdy when it comes to scheduling and having just a nice visual.

00:22:55:16 - 00:23:11:11
Speaker 3
So I'm just hoping other people out there are as well. So I link to all my calendars. I gave my husband very specific instructions to not link his calendar because I do not want to see all the stuff he keeps on there. But and then it's color coded by child by schedule, however I want. So each of my kids has a color.

00:23:11:11 - 00:23:27:05
Speaker 3
I have a color, the family has a color, my husband has a color, those kind of things. And I can see it. You can change how you view it. You can view it by day or by week or by month. You can set reminders, you can set chores. It saves me a lot because my kids, I have to order them lunches for school in advance.

00:23:27:14 - 00:23:45:12
Speaker 3
So I used to have two monthly calendars up on the wall the current month and the next month, but now I just go ahead and put it straight in the calendar and my kids can look at it and they can say, okay, I don't need to make myself a lunch for this day or I do. And then the other feature that I love is the dinner feature, so I can put what's for dinner and it keeps it up there all day.

00:23:45:12 - 00:24:00:10
Speaker 3
So the first week I got it, I got home from work and my husband said I went ahead and started dinner because I saw we were having stuff bell pepper. So if that doesn't pay for itself and your husband making dinner for you, I don't know what will sell. Very nice. The skylight calendar.

00:24:00:21 - 00:24:03:03
Speaker 2
Excellent. All right. Thank you very much. I really appreciate it.

00:24:03:10 - 00:24:04:15
Speaker 3
Thanks, guys. Hope you enjoy.

00:24:05:04 - 00:24:10:23
Speaker 1
Her. Joy in talking about this was really good, especially at that bit about her husband actually starting to make dinner.

00:24:11:10 - 00:24:12:05
Speaker 2
Dinner? Yeah. Yeah.

00:24:12:16 - 00:24:18:21
Speaker 1
Maybe it's ahead for people out there, you know, maybe get one of these for your household and maybe your husband will start cooking more.

00:24:19:14 - 00:24:42:03
Speaker 2
Yeah. And also husbands or wives. It's really easy to make someone in your household today if you just pay a little bit of attention. Yes, you can find really simple things that you can do to help somebody else out. That's like that's why we refer to them as partners in some circumstances. It's really easy to find, just like a little thing that you can do, like, Hey, this will make their day easier or better.

00:24:42:03 - 00:24:51:04
Speaker 2
I'll take something off their plate. Look around. This is a tool that can help you do that more easily. But even without it, I'm sure this it would be appreciated.

00:24:51:14 - 00:25:15:15
Speaker 1
Yes, absolutely. No, I mean, even without access. Exactly. Just pay attention a little bit to finish here. I went online and I did a little search on popular gifts for 2022. And I got a list here from a very reputable magazine slash website. And I've been perusing and getting to, you know, techie gifts. I mean, number five on the list is a mini pocket projector.

00:25:15:15 - 00:25:26:19
Speaker 1
Kodak, meaning pocket projector. I, I don't know why I would use this. You know, maybe the younger generation maybe to watch movies with their friends right off of their phone, etc.. You know, I.

00:25:26:19 - 00:25:42:13
Speaker 2
Have a projector that I hook to my laptop or a DVD player, even in some cases, VCR, if it's an old enough movie that I haven't gotten a more recent copy of, but it's such an old projector that it comes in a rolling Samsonite style suitcase.

00:25:42:14 - 00:25:43:00
Speaker 1
Wow.

00:25:43:11 - 00:25:54:11
Speaker 2
But we use it for movies like we put out a collapsible screen. We put them on the side of our house in the summer, like a little drive in movie theater with our neighbors and that. So a pocket projector could be very cool.

00:25:54:21 - 00:26:11:04
Speaker 1
Yeah. I mean, I'm just throwing that out there. I mean, maybe the younger generation just hook up their phone to it, and instead of just watching something on their phone, they could just project that against a wall. So that's pretty cool. Moving on, number nine, for those of you who have Apple products, there's a three in one charging station for your Apple processor.

00:26:11:04 - 00:26:32:24
Speaker 1
You got for your iPhone, your Apple Watch and your AirPods. I know Melinda once talked to us about hand warmers that she got. So there's a rechargeable hand warmer coming in at number 12. So very, very cool gifts this year. And of course, I mean, we talked about frames, etc., stuff that basically you can give to your loved ones this year.

00:26:33:00 - 00:26:51:21
Speaker 2
Speaking of Melinda, real quick, I want to hit a definite stocking stuffer option. Was the phone holder for airplanes that you can hook on to the seat in front of you that will hold your phone so you can watch it. Hands free on a plane. I saw her use one on a business trip that I was on with her.

00:26:51:21 - 00:27:07:14
Speaker 2
We flew to Baltimore. She had that. I'm like, Where did you get that? And she told me. I was like, All right, I am totally getting one of those or multiple versions of those. Got it back from the trip immediately. Forgot the second she mentioned it on the slack channel. I went to Amazon, found it and bought two of them.

00:27:07:14 - 00:27:22:20
Speaker 2
So I've got one for me and one for my wife. Is a stocking stuffer. It's a small plastic easily fits in your carry on bag or your pocket. You're going on a plane, pull it out, clip it to the tray table or the on the seat in front of you. And you're good to go for the flight.

00:27:23:00 - 00:27:24:10
Speaker 1
That's very useful.

00:27:24:10 - 00:27:43:02
Speaker 3
Honestly, my thing was I was sitting in my seat holding my phone, so my hands were busy holding the phone, you know, on the ascent. And do you think you can't put your gear a little desk down on the airplane? It was uncomfortable. My shoulders were uncomfortable. My hands were tired of holding it. I've literally seen people drop their phones because they're just tired of holding it on their right.

00:27:43:06 - 00:28:11:23
Speaker 3
I started Googling and came across this thing. It's just this little black foldable plastic thing. But you it unfolds like an octopus and it snaps right onto the tray table on your airplane seat and then it's adjustable. You can tilt it any angle you want. The air, the tray can be closed. The tray on your seat can be closed while it's clipped on so you can use it during ascent and descent of the plane.

00:28:12:13 - 00:28:32:16
Speaker 3
It's fantastic. You just put your phone right in. It adjusts the angle. I've literally had flight attendants walk by my seat and go, Where did you get that? I need one of those because they fly more than any of us. They fly hopper flights to to get them back and forth where they're kind of passengers. And I've had different people stop me, ask me where I got it.

00:28:32:16 - 00:28:40:05
Speaker 3
Everybody at work or as soon as they travel with. So yeah, it's definitely amazing. You bought one Brian I think they're like ten bucks online. Yeah.

00:28:40:14 - 00:28:59:02
Speaker 2
Yeah. And if you set up a watch on it because I got mine through Amazon who we are not sponsored by in any way, shape or form, but that's where I got mine. And you can set up a price watch. There are services and other apps that you can download to pair with Amazon that will let you know when they, Hey, this thing just went on sale.

00:28:59:02 - 00:29:12:09
Speaker 2
If you've been looking at it and want to buy it, you can save 20% right now. So I got I got a twofer. If it wasn't a two for one, but it was a it was a two device package. And I think I saved like 20 or 30% on I think it wound up being like seven or $8 each.

00:29:12:15 - 00:29:14:17
Speaker 2
So like you're usually 10 to 12.

00:29:14:22 - 00:29:26:22
Speaker 3
If you have a long flight coming up or if you travel a lot, if you have a friend who's a travel warrior, road warrior, buy this for them. I swear. Else change your life. Ten bucks never brought so much joy.

00:29:28:00 - 00:29:36:12
Speaker 1
It definitely sounds like a cool gift. Something that I would have been. I don't travel that much anymore, but certainly I would. I would appreciate that.

00:29:36:12 - 00:29:51:15
Speaker 2
But little fit on a tray table apparatus. I'm pretty sure I could get it. I could figure out how to make it work in my car as well. Yeah. The kids in the or even me, if I'm sitting in the back seat and don't feel like holding my phone and watching that video on a long trip, totally use that.

00:29:51:21 - 00:30:08:14
Speaker 1
Yeah. And she mentioned also her milk father. I mean, she she mentioned that as well on the Slack channel. She does have some great ideas. This isn't so much a stocking stuffer, but I mean, for those coffee lovers out there, even for the people who are not coffee lovers, I mean, if you want to just froth your milk, they're.

00:30:08:14 - 00:30:10:05
Speaker 2
Going to make your hot chocolate even better.

00:30:10:05 - 00:30:11:13
Speaker 1
Yeah, exactly.

00:30:11:13 - 00:30:12:06
Speaker 2
It just is.

00:30:12:23 - 00:30:36:18
Speaker 1
Yeah. And we got a couple of people who are speaking of I know we mentioned at the beginning bigger gifts. Somebody mentioned wanting to purchase one of those refrigerators with the green on it. That also got a lot of interesting conversation going on our Slack channel. I personally own one of those. That's why I don't need one of those Echo Show 15 tablets because I've got that thing in there and it's actually gotten a lot better over the years.

00:30:37:00 - 00:31:00:01
Speaker 1
Mine is now four years old and they just a company that makes them just actually added a TV service to it for free. A lot of obscure channels. I'm not going to lie, but they do have some news channels and things, kind of like recording on loop. If I want to just watch a quick video clip of the news of the day or the World News, I can just tune into one of those channels.

00:31:00:02 - 00:31:05:08
Speaker 1
It does have Spotify, you know, any music. It does come with a built in Alexa.

00:31:05:19 - 00:31:15:18
Speaker 2
So it's like the channels that you get when you're filling your car with gas at the gas, like the gas pump channels or if you show up early to a movie and they're doing like the pre movie role.

00:31:15:21 - 00:31:36:02
Speaker 1
Yeah. Kind of like a combination of all that. Yes. Also, if you have the same brand on a TV, you can actually hook those up via wi fi. And so then you can portray your TV on the on the tablet in the fridge. So that's really nice. Oh, nice. Unfortunately, the TV I've got nearest in my living room is not that brand.

00:31:36:08 - 00:32:02:23
Speaker 1
The one thing I do appreciate about that specifically, it's their app. It does come built in with three cameras on the inside of the fridge. So if I'm at the grocery store and I realize I forgot something, I can actually open the app and look inside the fridge, which I think is phenomenal. The only thing I wish it had was actually cameras on the inside that reflected the inside of the doors because those three cameras only reflect the back of the fridge, not the door.

00:32:02:23 - 00:32:23:11
Speaker 1
So if you put your gallon of milk on the door, you don't juice, etc., or any condiments and you don't know if you need those, then you can't see. So but that's my only gripe, really. That's maybe too much. But. All right. Well, thank you for joining us for this episode of Ask Anything. We're really hope that you got something out of this and out of all these gifts.

00:32:23:20 - 00:32:38:07
Speaker 1
As always, we will have some show notes with some of the information of the gifts that we discussed here, specifically the ones that are going to be discussed during the interviews that Brian conducted. So, Brian, again, thank you very much for pinch hitting for me this week and we will talk to you all soon.

00:32:38:08 - 00:32:40:09
Speaker 2
Thanks for listening, everybody. Happy holidays.

00:32:40:15 - 00:32:53:02
Speaker 1
Happy holidays.