Here's top
10:
1-GOOGLE
PHOTOS (Free.)
If you take lots of pictures and want to keep track of
them, this is the app you need. It makes automatic backups of everything you
shoot, and thus is a great tool for sharing photos and especially videos, since
there are no storage limits. (Alert--Google lowers the resolution of photos and
videos slightly, but I haven't had an issue. I've been able to order prints as
large as 20x30.)
The app has
greatly improved since the initial launch in May. Searches for photos not taken on smartphones were sketchy at the
beginning. Now they're much more accurate. But an additional tip: be sure
to tag as many photos as you can, and make albums for them for even better
search results.
2-SONY RX10II and A7SII ($1,300 and $2,999)
What
are memories of a great year without a fantastic camera?
Sony's
RX10II is the ultimate travel camera, with a light body, a built-in
24mm to 200mm lens, full manual controls and 4K video shooting. It has a
one-inch image sensor, ten times the size of a point and shoot, but slightly
smaller than a DSLR. TheA7SII is
a full-bodied, while still compact, camera with droolworthy features, and is
the sequel to what was my favorite camera from 2014.
The A7SII still shoots in the lowest of light, but now you
get even better results in even darker situations, and it has the most
impressive 4K ultra-high-definition video I've ever seen in a camera.
3-APPLE TV (Starts at $149.)
While Apple didn't innovate
much in digital streaming with 2015's Apple Music, it did move the living room
needle forward with Apple TV. The revamped version of the streaming media box
brings apps to the TV, with a great remote with voice-activated Siri search.
The choices are so many, Apple TV comes to the closest I've seen to being able
to cut the cord and never miss broadcast and cable TV. This is by far my
favorite streaming media box, besting Roku, Amazon and Google Chromecast,
thanks to the remote and interface.
4-YOUTUBE MUSIC (Ad-free subscription $9.99 monthly.)
The music lover's dream, and the video network's answer to Facebook, Spotify and
Apple Music. YouTube has the widest, most diverse collection of music online,
with music videos, late night TV and live performances, documentary footage and
more. The app is available for free or $9.99 monthly for the ad-free version,
and brought innovation to streaming music by creating an endless music mix
based on your tastes. (Subscribers also get access to YouTube Red, the
premium service that will begin offering original programming from YouTubers
and others in January, as well as Google Play Music, a streaming music
service similar to Spotify.)
5-NEXUS 5X: ($375.)
If the new features on the iPhone didn't
wow you this year, or if the $650 entry-level price threw you off, take a good
look at Google's state-of-the-art and rather affordable Nexus 5X. The Nexus
rivals the iPhone feature for feature, with a beautiful 5.2 inch screen,
compared to the 4.7 inch iPhone 6S. And it sells for $375 without a contract, a
bargain in techland.
6-HBO NOW ($15 monthly.)
This was the year HBO bypassed
cable operators and let us pay for HBO directly, for viewing on home-streaming
units like Apple TV and Roku. Imagine that for $15 monthly, you could watch an
entire channel's roster of shows and movies, whenever you want. And on top of
that, you also have access to every single title in the HBO library, every
episode of the Sopranos or Curb Your Enthusiasm, for instance.
Very simply, forget Netflix, Hulu and the rest — HBO Now is simply
the greatest TV app ever.
7-Ricoh Theta 360 ($350.)
We played with a lot of cool
cameras this year, but the 360 was the only one we saw with two lenses--one on
the front and one on the back. The Theta gives you a wild, 360 degree,
spherical view of the world, at an affordable price, and is way more compact
and less pricey than larger, similar rigs, like the new 16-camera GoPro set-up
for $15,000. The 360 is a conversation piece that will really wow people when
you show them your spherical view of the world.
8-Yamaha Silent Guitar (around $449.)
Cool! A true,
travel guitar that fits in an overhead compartment on an airplane, and has
battery power (2 AAs) to plug in headphones and rock out from the hotel room
— or wherever. Even with just your headphones on, the guitar is amplified
and sounds like you're rocking through a great Fender amp. So you can groove in
style without bothering the neighbors. However, if you do want to plug in and
play for the crowd, you can go directly into an amp as well.
9-RING ($199.)
One of the niftier new gadgets of the
year is the video doorbell, which links to your smartphone to let you know
who's at the door, without having to get up out of your chair to find out. The
unit is pricey, at $199, but when you're standing at a waterfall near Portland,
Oregon and get a ring, like I did, and can actually communicate with the FedEx
driver back home to leave a package across the street, well, how novel is that?
10-IOS9 (Free.)
For years, consumers have been
complaining about Apple's upgrades of the IOS mobile operating system, saying
it played havoc with their phones, sometimes to the point of making their
devices inoperable. The software each year got bigger and bigger, but this
year, Apple took the refreshing step of going the opposite route, with a
smaller version that fixed a lot of bugs and made iPhones more operable. My
favorite feature--low-power mode. Once the battery starts running down, IOS9
closes down apps and Siri and dims the lights, to give you one extra hour of
juice. And if that doesn't make the upgrade worth it, what does?
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