Holiday Gift Guide 2016: Best in home and health gadgets and electronics

By Joseph Szadkowski - The Washington Times - Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Here’s a look at a few of the best and brightest gadget gift ideas for home and health.

It Bed

What is it? A smart mattress
Price: Starting at $799
Gift group: Couples looking for restful sleep

Santa’s scoop: The Sleep Number company combines dual and adjustable foam-filled air chambers with the use of a smart app and onboard technologies to allow sleepers on either side of a bed to tailor their individual comfort levels and blissfully remain in slumber land.

Biometric sensors in the bed gather hundreds of reading per second to measure heart rate, breathing and movement — and then sync with the free-to-download SleepIQ app (iTunes and Google Play for phones and tablets).

Each morning, owners then get a score to quantify the quality of the previous night’s sleep. That leads to tips on sleep (even when to go to bed) and lifestyle changes to present a healthier and overall more productive existence.

It’s worth noting that setup out of the compact but very heavy single box is less than 30 minutes. After unrolling the bed on a firm surface, owners open up side pouches to install the air pump and electrical cord.

The hardest part of the process is setting up the bed to recognize a home Wi-Fi network and have the bed communicate with the app. While testing, it’s worth mentioning that the bed actually found a strong network signal even with two floors away from the home hotspot.

SleepIQ can also sync with other lifestyle monitor apps such as Map My Run, Apple Health, FITBIT and the Nest Learning Thermostat to further help refine sleep habits.

Owners will appreciate the comfort but may find the app frustrating, especially when trying to set firmness while lying in bed. The app requests the sleeper getting out of bed to start the 2- to 5-minute process over, just like its initial setup.

Also, the bed does depend on the app and Wi-Fi network to function properly. There is not a manual adjustment to the bed’s firmness settings.

Sleep Number offers shipping to the door in less than five days, a 30-day test of the mattress and a pick-up return ($99 fee applies).

Also, for a pricy purchase of this type, the company offers a base 2-year warranty that covers any defects in material or workmanship including electronic components.

Awair

What is it? An air-quality sensor
Price: $199
Gift group: Humans concerned with the ability to breath in their environments

Santa’s scoop: This complex air-particle detector and analyzer box (roughly 6 inches by 4 inches) features a white face with an LED display and comes wrapped in a wood-grain finish (from North American walnut timber to be precise).

It monitors five data points to score current air quality and, when paired with its complementary app on a smart phone or computer tablet, offers tips on staying healthy.

Set up is painless, under 10 minutes, and requires a free app and account along with giving Awair servers access to your home Wi-Fi network and location. The box needs to know what room it will exist in and will gather data to calculate optimum lifestyle settings for productivity, sleep, allergy avoidance or general breathing comfort.

Displayed in the app numerically, and confirmed on Awair’s white LED interface as a white dots (data points), are fluctuating readings for temperature, humidity, concentration of carbon dioxide (could cause brain fog); presence of volatile organic compounds (toxic chemical released by man made items that can lead to skin or respiratory irritations); and dust particles (often causing stuffy or itchy nose, lung congestion).

Those categories are constantly calculated to display an overall air score (out of 100, and the higher the number the better) on the device and app. In my test case, a third floor office led to a score of 86 (a great environment to maintain productivity says the app) while a score of 90 was registered in a home entertainment room (even though the device noted consistently higher levels of dust in the area).

A final feature allows the owner to tap on the top of the device twice to display the current time or use the app to turn on a brightness setting that will adjust the LED array to the environment.

Awair functionality can also be tethered with other home air-regulation devices (such as the Nest thermostat) to trigger turning on fans, air conditioners or humidifiers, for example. It would have been nice is the box could be mounted on a wall.

It should be highly noted that although giving a gift to visually understand the importance of breathing fresh air is a great idea, the Awair does not detect the presence of carbon monoxide or radon and does not function as a smoke alarm. Make sure supplemental systems are in place to keep a family safe.

Sport Wireless Heart Rate

What is it? Bluetooth-enabled earbuds
Price: $199
Gift group: Fitness fanatics looking to monitor one the most important organs in their body

Santa’s scoop: Under Armour works with sound experts JBL to deliver a booming headphone experience merged with the ability to keep athletes motivated by tracking their heart rate.

The ear pieces, tethered by a rubbery cord (with a clip to attach to the back of a shirt), offer a snug fit in the ear canal, with even a twist required to get the bud nearly embedded. The buds flawlessly stayed in place during long-distance runs as well as rigorous gym sessions.

During a workout and using the required, free UA Record app (iTunes and Google Play available), either tap the right earbud to hear a soothing female voice report your heart beats per minute instantly or look to the UA Record app to see the beat number as well as real-time workout tracking or listen to audio coaching.

Owners should remember to run the app or the heart rate report will not be heard.

The device also has a three-button mic controller on the tether wire to control track and music volume as well as answer your smartphone.

Sport Wireless is even rated IPX5 sweat-proof to handle the most soaking workouts and lasts about five hours with an under 2-hour charge.

The package includes a total of four sizes of ear tips, a micro USB cord for changing and a soft rubber/zippered carrying case.

Additionally, owners get a 12-month premium membership (valued at $29.99) to the MapMyRun app, one of the best ways for runners and walkers to track training benchmarks.

Sleep Headphones Mask

What is it? Bluetooth sleep assistant
Price: $199
Gift group: Light sleepers stuck in a bright and noisy universe

Santa’s scoop: Through its two-prong attack, 1 Voice’s combination headphones and eye mask stifles a partner’s most annoying snores along with any light in a room to deliver a restful sleep.

First, the mask is composed of a generous amount of memory foam covered in soft velvet, cloth nose bridge cover and an adjustable Velcro clasp to keep it fitting tightly over the head and perfectly block out light.

Next, the speakers, on either side of the mask cover the ears and, although the sound quality won’t win any awards, will aurally deliver the pleasures of any calming classical music piece or boring audio book when required to block out sound.

Owners will also appreciate that the speakers have an extra layer of foam over them to not bother those who sleep on their sides.

A zippered side pouch presents the music volume and track controls as well as charging port. It connects painlessly to Bluetooth-enabled phones or MP3 players and has a battery life of approximately 7 hours on roughly a 90-minute charge.

Flexcare Platinum Connected

What is it? A smart toothbrush
Price: $199.99
Gift group: Oral-hygiene fanatics

Santa’s scoop: Philips Sonicare delivers a powered, mouth-cleaning machine looking like Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver and loaded with technology.

Now I’m still shaking my head in amazement at its adaptive cleaning prowess. It works with the free-to-download Sonicare app (iTunes and Google Play) to track brushing performance in real-time via a Bluetooth connection with the brush and its onboard array sensors.

The app even offers illustrated instant feedback on technique and a program to immediately address any missed spots.

It also alerts owners when the brush head needs replacement, tracks trouble areas and bad brushing habits using a three-dimension map of the owner’s mouth, has a digital coach and will send a 30-day brushing progress report to your dentist.

The brush has three adjustable intensity levels (Clean, White and Deep Clean) but also a pressure sensor that alerts the owner (a change in vibration and sound) if brushing too hard and will automatically shut off after a completed cycle (2 to 3 minutes).

Sonicare claims that it will remove 10 times more plaque than a manual toothbrush. I tend to believe that based on the rigorous regime setup during testing between the brush and digital companion.

The package includes a home-charging base, a travel case with compact charger and two brush heads (adaptive with a combination of soft and medium bristles and intercare with harder, longer bristles for serious plaque control) with covers.

Expect a fully charged toothbrush to last approximately 3 weeks with normal use.

That main base also offers a UV light sanitizer compartment for the brush heads, a very important feature to those living in a family shared bathroom.

Additional adaptive brush heads will cost owners roughly $24 for a two-pack.

Gift givers should also be aware that the first charge will take up to 24 hours so they should get the brush out of the box and on the base so new owners can quickly appreciate the Flexcare Platinum’s benefits.

• Joseph Szadkowski can be reached at jszadkowski@washingtontimes.com.