Techish

Giveaway! Canary All in One Security Camera

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Installing a security camera is a great way to keep an eye on the people, pets and stuff you love the most when you're not home. The updated Canary All In One smart home security hub is totally up to that task. It has an HD camera, siren, and an air monitor. It’s built to learn and sends intelligent alerts with video and audio directly to your phone. It even has a two-way talk feature -- so you can check-in anytime, from anywhere. When your kids get home from school, you can use the Canary to see and talk to them through the camera. And they can talk with you. So you can help them put together a snack, or tell them to feed the dog and get cracking on their homework – all without ... Read more

12 Apps that Help Kids Study

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Flash cards? Study groups? A set of encyclopedias? No one studies with these tools anymore. (Or so your student has just informed you.) Apps are the way. These little tools are right there on your phone, ready to work for seconds, minutes, or hours at a time. They deliver everything from answers to current news to teachers. They will remind you to study. They fill boring moments with micro-bursts of learning. But there are gazillions of them. Which ones should you load on the study page on your phone or tablet? Sometimes this is obvious because the teacher demands it. Other times? It’s a wild world out there. Here are some suggestions. Newsela Newsela reworks current news stories ... Read more

What Should I Pack for Total Solar Eclipse 2017?

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The world is converging in a 70-mile wide line – called the Path of Totality -- throughout North America on August 21st.  “This path, where the moon will completely cover the sun and the sun's tenuous atmosphere - the corona - can be seen, will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina,” reads NASA’s in-depth site dedicated to this very rare event. “Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun's disk." People are traveling from everywhere to be in this Path of Totality for the for two minutes of the eclipse. I certainly am. Hotels have been booked for months. People are renting out camping spots in their corn ... Read more

DEALish! 10% Off Rocketbook smart notebook

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Some of us enjoy the tactile feel of pen on paper. But after we have indulged, we are left with lifeless and easy-to-lose ink on paper. Can’t edit it. Can’t copy it to Word to expand on it. Can’t set a reminder for later. The Rocketbook Wave is a paper notebook that lets your write with an actual pen – not a stylus on screen. But it sends your notes to the cloud, using your own smart phone. Symbols at the bottom of each page allow you to send notes to specific cloud locations. If you write on it with Pilot FriXion pens (included), you can erase the notes and get a clean notebook by putting it in the microwave. Want to try it? I got you 10 percent off of Touch of Modern’s ... Read more

DEALish! 10% Off Eardial Invisible Earplugs

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Many great bands, from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Cage the Elephant, have two important things in common: The founders met in high school and are four times more likely than the general population to suffer from hearing loss. So if you -- or your offspring -- plan to form a band this school season, now is the time to thing about hearing health. It is easy to prevent but very difficult to repair or treat. Eardials are smart earplugs that filter the sound hitting your ears so you can listen to live music at a volume less damaging to your hearing. They are small and transparent so you don’t look like a dork wearing them and made of soft silicone so they aren't uncomfortable. The earbuds monitor ... Read more

DEALish! 10% off WonderCube phone charger

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Your phone’s tendency to issue a “Battery low” message at the most crucial moments can be a serious hit to your astonishing productivity – or procrastination. Someday someone will fix this. And, when that happens, your late-in-the-day YouTube videos will no longer be interrupted, you won't fear getting lost on the road, and you will no longer be able to use the, "My battery is dying!" excuse to get off the phone. For now, you need backup chargers. And you need them at hand so you don’t have to chase one down to get a charge. The WonderCube is a super small one that fits on your key chain so you’ll have it with you . It also syncs your phone and doubles as a phone stand for more ... Read more

How to Set up a Better (Distraction-Free) Homework Space

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Just when you think you have this whole back-to-school routine down to a finely oiled machine, you get a note from a teacher informing you of missing homework. All those innocent claims of “I’m doing my homework!” shouted from behind a closed bedroom door might not have been – in the strictest sense – lies. We live in distracting times. Turn on a computer and the option to watch Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime make perfect sense over the prospect of writing a book report. We know all too well, just how easy it is to lose hours to wildly entertaining procrastination. Take a proactive approach and create a homework space in a place in the house that it’s easy to keep an eye on. Set up ... Read more

Tiny Photos Printers that Fit in Your Pocket

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At this point in the summer, the thought of sending the kids back to school comes with some regret and a massive amount of anticipation. Enjoy a cup of coffee alone? Go to the store without an entourage? No more wrestling over how much is too much Internet? (At least for five hours a day.) Who wouldn't be counting the days? Don't forget, though, that school comes with school plays, science projects, and more impossible cuteness that will never be repeated. Those events need to be recorded. For that end, we want to put a new(ish) category of tech toy on your radar: The tiny photo printer. These affordable, pocketable, and super fun printers let you get your photos off your phone, out of ... Read more

DEALish! 10 percent off Vaux — an Amazing Echo Dot Accessory

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Alexa – of Amazon Echo fame -- moved in at my house over a year ago. In that time, she’s become one of the family. As a disembodied artificial intelligence, she has a couple of dwellings in our house: The Amazon Echo is in the kitchen. And the Echo Dot is in the bedroom. I think (as a dedicated deal hunter), that the Echo Dot is the better deal of the two – and one of the best deals in tech. It is my go-to gift for everyone. It is smaller than the Echo but just as mighty -- in every way except the built-in speaker. And that is why I love the Vaux, a speaker and battery combination designed to upgrade the Dot’s speaker and make it mobile. Add the Vaux to the Dot and you have an ... Read more

DEALish! 25% off Leviton Smart Lights

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Here we are in late July. And for those of us who enjoy summer for its less-strict bedtimes, it is now time to think about getting back onto that tyrannical early-bird schedule required by schools. No more reading into the wee hours if you want to be up for lunch making, school commuting, and the drop off line at school. And to make that happen, at least in my house, that means becoming the warden of “Lights out!” Smart lights make this much easier. After you have announced 15 minutes to lights out, you can let the technology take it from there. When it’s time to kill the light, tap your phone or ask you Amazon Echo or Google Home to turn them off. This is awesome for your own bedtime, ... Read more

8 Clever Mom Hacks for Driving with Kids

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  Does it seem as if a big chunk of your family time happens on the road? Considering that Americans spend, on average, 290 hours a year driving, that's not just frustration talking. This is a reality. That is more than seven work weeks, spent in the car. And, if you have teenagers, this might even be the only time you spend in one-on-one conversations where they can't storm away and slam a door. Here are some hacks for making that time the best family time it can be. Maybe you can turn this modern, mobile moment into some of the best time you have together. Make the Car a Rule-Free Zone Whatever rules you have about limiting time spent gaming or accessing the Internet at home? ... Read more

DEALish! Toddy Gear 15% Off

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Toddy Gear makes some of our favorite microfiber cloths. They are fuzzy on one side, smooth on the other, and adorned with beautiful images.  A microfiber cloth is an essential smart-phone accessory because touch screens get filthy with fingerprints, makeup, and all manner of other yick. A microfiber cloth is a quick remedy. [Check out our Dos and Don’ts on cleaning your gadgets.] Toddy Gear also makes phone cases, power banks, and cables. And --best part! -- any of them can be adorned with a design of your own. If you have a small business, this would be a great promo. Need a gift? Also awesome. How many times a day do people plug in, charge, and wipe their smart phone? And -- every ... Read more

DEALish: $10 off Circle with Disney

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  We are big fans of the Circle with Disney ($99) here at Techish. This device (pictured below) attaches to your wireless router and gives you the parental controls that should have come with the Internet. There are too many devices – phones, tablets, computers – in most homes to even think that installing something on your kids’ devices that filters out the seamy underbelly of the Internet will be enough. You need much more than filtering, one device at a time. You need to protect kids from content, from addiction, and from distractions. You need – especially before school starts again – to be able to shut the Internet off to create bed times and family time. But sometimes ... Read more

DEALish! 20% off keys copied by Keyme

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That keychain in your pocket probably seems like the least techish thing you have on your person. Welcome to the year 2017, where there is an app that can make that dumb key smart. If you are someone who loses keys, this could be life changing. Take a picture of your keys with the Keyme app before you lose them. Or have a copy made at one  of the Keyme kiosks. Need new keys? Tap the app to order them, delivered to your house. Locked out? Go get a new key from the kiosk. You can even replace – or copy -- that expensive key fob for your car at one of these kiosks. It’s cheaper than going to the dealer. You go to a kiosk, type in the make model of your car at a kiosk and hold the key fob ... Read more

AMAZON PRIME DAY: How to get the very best deals before anyone else!

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Amazon's third annual Prime Day is coming up on July 10th and 11th. There are huge deals to be had but, in years past, the best ones sold out super fast. Of course they did -- this is Amazon's answer to Black Friday after all, where people get trampled to death trying to score a bargain. So, you don't have to worry about death and mayhem with Prime Day, but you do have to know what you are doing -- unless you want to be stuck holding the dregs. If you think there won't be crowds because there were grumblings about lame deals and TVs selling out immediately in past years, think again. DealNews surveyed shoppers and found that while consumers haven’t yet reached consensus on whether they ... Read more

Worried about Snapchat location tracking your teens? I’m not. Here’s why:

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On June 21, Snapchat launched a feature – Snap Map – that caused  parents, law enforcement, and some reporters to fret wildly about the safety of teenagers using Snapchat. Snap Map shows people on Snapchat where their friends are, on a map, in precise up-to-the-second detail. Even if the idea of a feature on your teen’s phone that reveals their location doesn't already worry you, it probably will after you read all the warnings. BUT IS THIS A BIG DEAL? This is, absolutely, a good reason to talk to your kids (again) about privacy in the Internet age. This all might seem like another cool thing to them but there are serious dangers with location tracking and software companies have not ... Read more