The gadgets I recommend for your holiday shopping list
Tested, trusted, and on sale—your ultimate guide to gifting tech this season!
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This week, I attended the LA Auto Show! Looking at cars is always fun, especially when they’re super shiny and high-tech. The best part? No salesperson lingering in the background waiting to close a deal.
First Up
Since Amazon started its Black Friday sales early, it’s the unofficial kickoff to the holiday shopping season.
With that in mind, I spent most of my newsletter time this week compiling my Holiday Gift Ideas list. It’s by no means complete, but you’ll find many great products that I have personally tested and love. Many are already on sale.
My holiday shopping advice - start early!
My list is below. I recommend that you bookmark it as I continue adding more products as I see them. If you need a recommendation for something I didn’t include, reply to this email and let me know!
Some other places to look for holiday gifting inspiration?
Here’s Consumer World’s Top 10 Tips To Bag A Black Friday Bargain.
TV Segment Recap
There are no more excuses. It’s time to start using a password manager. Here’s my guide to what I recommend!
Adrienne in Huntsville, Alabama, wrote in to say that she finds lots of great recipes on Instagram but needs a way to save them all. That inspired me to download a bunch of recipe-keeper apps and see which one works best.
My favorite? Umami because it works on both iPhone and Android, imports social media recipes, and more. Plus, the free plan is generous, and the paid upgrade is fair.
After my report aired, I discovered an even slicker app called Flavorish, which has a good dose of AI to help you import recipes, but that feature can get expensive.
Tech Tidbits
Google Play named its best apps and games of 2024.
If you're still using an iPhone with iOS 8, your iCloud backup is at risk of being deleted as of December 18, 2024.
Download This
Looking for a super private web browser? Check out Aloha. It reminds me of my other favorite private browser, Firefox Focus, but it has an added benefit—a built-in VPN.
These browsers protect your privacy by default and Firefox Focus lets you delete your history in a tap.
Dealspotter
Amazon Music Unlimited now includes one free Audible audiobook title to listen to each month! Keep in mind that right now, you can snag three free months of Amazon Music Unlimited.
Tech How To
At this point, you’ve probably heard lots about Bluesky and yes, you can find me there!
The user names can be wonky, but neat thing is that they have a “Following” timeline that shows just your followers’ posts in reverse chronological order.
In other words, there is no algorithm to mix things up. In fact, you can access multiple feeds like Discover, Popular With Friends, Mutuals, Science, Art and more.
Part of the appeal is that you can “slice and dice” your timeline in lots of different ways.
But here’s a little trick - by default, the app shows you the Discover feed when you hit the home button, but you can change that to your Following feed.
Tap the hashtag in the upper left-hand corner and hit Edit. Then, tap the thumbtack for Following (vs Discover) to make it your default. You can do this to make any feed your default.
Feedbag
Love your show. Cannot stop listening 😆😆😆
-Tony
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If you want to upgrade to a paid membership, you’ll support my time and effort in compiling this and get access to the archive on the website and my podcast ad-free.
In the spirit of the holiday shopping season, you can see my holiday deal offer here.
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Remember to tune into my radio show this weekend. In Los Angeles, it’s on KFI AM 640 on Saturday from 11 AM to 2 PM PT. You can listen anywhere by streaming on the iHeartRadio App or asking Alexa to “stream KFI AM 640” to listen instantly.
You can also listen later to the podcast.
Guests this week:
🛍️ BestReviews' Digital Content Director Jacob Palmer shares top holiday deals and gift recommendations across popular product categories.
🛍️ Wirecutter's Senior Deals Editor Nathan Burrow shares strategies for finding the best Black Friday deals and holiday gift recommendations.
🤖 BakeBot AI creator Babette Pepaj discusses how artificial intelligence is transforming home baking and recipe development.
That’s all for now. Have a great weekend.
Rich