LOCAL Houston | The City Guide JANUARY 2015 | Page 70

Local January 2015_FINAL_002houston 12/19/14 10:00 AM Page 70

TOOLS+GADGETS

GOOGLE INBOX
If you are planning to start your new year a bit more organized, you might
begin with your email inbox. Google recently rolled out a new email interface
for Gmail – clean, sleek and loaded with lots of productivity-boosting features.
The “pin” feature is great for important emails. Just hover over a message and
tap the push-pin icon; the message is put front and center in your inbox until you
un-pin it. You can even turn on a function that will only display pinned emails.
The new bundling feature helps you unclutter by automatically sorting email into
categories. The built-in categories include travel, purchases, finance and
updates, and you can also add your own. Emails of the same category will
appear together in your inbox. A “sweep” button allows you to archive whole
bundles at once. That saves you the trouble of manually going through and
archiving individual messages. The “snooze” feature lets you come back to an
email later. It will disappear from your inbox until you schedule it, so you won’t
have to keep reminding yourself you still need to answer.

SPARKUP® MAGICAL
BOOK READER
I wasn’t always available to read my kids a bedtime story when they were
young. Had the Sparkup Magical Book Reader been invented back then
they could have at least heard my voice reading their favorite stories. This
new educational toy enables parents (or grandparents, friends, etc.) to create personalized audio recordings of any illustrated children’s book. In other
words, it helps children to practice their reading skills while also providing
the emotional connection of a loved one’s voice. The Reader can store up
to 50 books at a time, and is a perfect way to encourage children to read
even when they’re not at school. Designed for children ages 3 through 8,
the Reader attaches to the top of a book and records the user’s voice while
tracking each page via its built-in camera. Afterwards, any time the device
is re-attached to that book, the camera recognizes its images and plays the
appropriate recording for each page. $59.99

DUX iPAD® COVER
Note to all you owners of a shiny new iPad: Congrats on your Christmas gift; now wrap it up
again. Not in wrapping paper but a protective cover. There are many on the market, and I am
fond of the dux from STM Bags. The dux combines a protective outer shell and screen cover
for an all-in-one rugged design. With reinforced back panel and corners, it meets US
Department of Defense Standard 810F/G protocols. This means the dux will protect
any iPad from drops up to 4 feet. It’s made with durable polycarbonate materials that
will repel the occasional spill or drip. The magnetic screen cover is a two-part
design. The main part covers the screen and saves battery life by turning off the
device when closed. The flap also functions as a stand in horizontal or vertical
mode to prevent it from slipping and falling. $49.99

Michael Garfield is known as “The High-Tech Texan®.” His radio program airs on
KPRC and iHeartRadio every Saturday 11am–1pm. See the full review of these
products at www.hightechtexan.com and follow him at @hightechtexan.

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