AirPods

Ask any AirPod owner what they think of them and I bet nearly all will share how much they love them. I love mine so much that Julia recently commented that I haven’t been talking to her as much since I got them. What do I love most about my AirPods? They connect so smoothly as soon as you place them in your ear, and as soon as you take one out, they pause whatever you are listening too–perfect for when you have to interact with other people. Apparently, there are AirPod 2s launching at some point in 2019. These rumors actually kept me from buying my AirPods sooner, but I ultimately didn’t want to wait any longer.

Already have AirPods? Install this cool program on your Mac computer so you can connect your AirPods with one click.

Roomba i7+ with Auto Dirt Disposal

I’ve heard countless people share how much they like their Roombas. However, the biggest complaint I’ve heard is that they completely fill their bins after one trip around the house. That didn’t sound practical for our coming-and-going lifestyle, so I never bought one. Then, I saw an ad for the new Roomba i7+ with Auto Dirt Disposal. It’s the same great Roomba, but as soon as the Roomba gets back to its station, another vacuum empties the Roomba’s bin into a larger bin, which lets it run over and over before you need to empty the bigger bin.

Dyson Airwrap

You might be wondering. Why is this on my list? Is he finally sharing the secret to his curly hair!? Well, as the husband of someone who carefully considers every part of her outfit each day, I’ve grown accustomed to being the waiter in the relationship. After I overheard a conversation about the new Dyson Airwrap, I was intrigued. During a walk around NYC, I stumbled upon the Dyson store and decided to see it for myself. I was instantly sold on the fact that it’s actually a combination of a curling iron and blow dryer. Even more unique is that it’s clipless, but through some sort of magic, it sucks your hair onto the wand, and as you move the wand  closer to your scalp, it automatically curls hair around the wand. No twirling, clipping, or wrapping. That means that Julia can do her hair even faster, which means we are on time, or even early, to more things. Plus, Julia always looks fantastic! You can watch a video of the Dyson Airwrap in action on Julia’s Instagram Stories Highlights.

iPad Pro

As you know, we spend a lot of time on airplanes. In fact, my conservative estimate is that last year, we were on a flight every seven days, which adds up to about 50 flights in 2018. Flying out of Charleston, most planes don’t have TV screens to watch, so we bought the new large iPad Pro and load it with Netflix and Amazon Prime downloaded shows before flights. We then use a headphone splitter so we can watch shows together. Outside of entertainment, I really like how the new Apple Pencil 2 works compared to the previous version. I lost so many charging caps on the previous version. If you plan on sharing your audio jack you’ll need one of these and one of these.

Courant Charging Mat

We stayed at a friend’s house a few months ago, and on the bedside tables, she had charging mats for our phones. It seems like a small thing, but being able to place your phone on a mat and charge it was so convenient, especially for a function that we all do every single night. In November, I discovered the brand Courant, which makes these beautiful charging mats. While almost every new phone supports wireless charging, before buying one, do a quick search to make sure your phone is one of them. Available in 3 colors White, Grey, and  Black.

Grow Duo

I love to garden, and lately, I’ve been watching gardening shows by Monty Don (Britain’s favorite gardener). It has gotten me really into the spirit of gardening for 2019, and since Charleston has an early growing season, I’ll need to get my plan in place sooner rather than later. My biggest challenge is our travel schedule–when we are home, our plants look great, but as soon as we leave for a longer trip, they die. At the end of summer, I got one of these Grow Duo Smart Planters. They are really cool because they have sensors for soil moisture and temperature, air temperature, and light, which work together with the plant profile to auto-adjust watering and give plant care tips to you, the gardener. It was a little late to plant anything in the scorching Charleston heat by the time I got mine, but I went ahead and planted a lettuce mix with decent results. I’m committing to planting more this year, soI just ordered two more. They are actually priced at 50 percent off right now, and they can be connected to each other so that they can share one water source, but still keep custom water schedules.

Lume Cube Air

You don’t have to be a professional photographer to notice that the flash on the iPhone X and above creates an undesirable red eye effect, which actually makes people look haunted. It’s caused by the proximity of the flash to the lens, which are simply too close together. That sparkle in your eye is the light reflecting from the flash directly off of your eye and back to the camera. In my opinion, it’s a design flaw that I’m surprised wasn’t addressed with the iPhone XS. The problem is easily fixed by getting the flash off the camera, and after searching for over two years, I just stumbled across this new slimmed down version of the original Lume Cube. I’ve been using it a bunch, especially out at night–we used it the whole night on New Year’s Eve. We will be posting those looks soon so look out for a NYE in NYC recap.

HP Tango X

Finishing out my list of top tech gadgets for 2019 is the HP Tango printer. While we do have a paid partnership with HP, that hasn’t impacted how I feel about this printer–I love it. The simplest way to put it is: this printer just works. In a digital world, sometimes you still have to print, and now that we have such a reliable printer, we’ve found more and more uses for it. If you choose to get this printer, I highly encourage you to also sign up for the HP Instant Ink subscription, a monthly subscription based on your printing volume. The printer communicates to their ordering system to automatically send new ink when you need it. Even better, when you print photos from your phone using their app, those print for free!