Accessories

Like a turtle, I love to carry my home on my back. If I can depend on a single backpack to organize and carry everything I need, whether for the day or a week, I’m immensely impressed. I’ve used backpacks in the past with pockets for laptops and side pockets for water bottles, but I didn’t realize it could get so much better. The Haven backpack by STM ($99.95) is encapsulated by the name. The designers of this tech bag thought of everything.

Backups are important. I just traded in a few iPhones in preparation of getting the next iPhone, expected to be announced on March 21. I backed them up to iCloud and to my Mac via iTunes. But there's an interesting alternative that started out as a Kickstarter. The MEEM Backup Cable ($69.99) from MEEM SL is a backup system in disguise. It looks like a USB Lightning cable that swallowed a flash drive. The cable is special because it has 32 GB of memory to backup key data from your iOS device. There is also a 16 GB version for Android. 

There are so many different fitness and activity trackers on the market now, and most of them track similar metrics like steps and calories burned. Spire ($149.95) caught my attention by providing a more well-rounded picture of health that tracks when you’re calm and focus based on your breathing. As important as exercise is to health, I think stress does even more damage than lack of movement. Spire helps you track both and uses the Spire app to bring you back into calm with short meditations you can even do at work.

Yet another HomeKit-compatible sensor from Elgato is Eve Weather ($49.95), which tracks outdoor temperature, humidity, and air pressure. In my previous posts in this series on HomeKit devices, I've covered iHome's SmartPlug and Elgato's Eve Room and Eve Energy. 

This year, Mother’s Day falls on May 8. That means it’s time to buy a gift and plan for flowers. I don’t care who you are, your mom waddled around for nine months and gained a tiger’s skin worth of stretch marks (or went through a strenuous adoption process) — the least you can do is get her a gift to show your appreciation. Even if your mom isn’t a tech pro, there are plenty of tech items she would love and get a lot of wonderful use out of. Here’s awesome Mother’s day gifts for the tech mom in your life.

I'm enjoying making my home smarter via Apple HomeKit-compatible devices. So far I've written about iHome's SmartPlug ($39.99), which lets you set up an on/off schedule as well as control an appliance remotely, and Elgato's Eve Room ($79.95), which lets you monitor volatile organic compounds in the air in a room, as well as humidity and temperature. In this post I'll cover a handy gadget from Elgato that lets you monitor how much electricity an appliance is using: Eve Energy ($49.95). Elgato has also given me Eve Weather and Eve Door & Window and I'll cover those HomeKit devices in future posts.

Until humans no longer require the arcane input method of typing on a keyboard, portable and sturdy wireless options will abound. Enter the ClamCase Pro ($149.99) iPad cover and keyboard from Incipio. Giving a nod to the MacBook's sleek design, this trim protector and input combo provide bottom and top cover to iPad mini.