Twinkly Pro smart Christmas lights top Peter Pham's 2019 list of favorite tech gadgets
Jefferson Graham
MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. – Tech investor Peter Pham has spent over $10,000 on gadgets this year, and he's compiled his favorite purchases on his kitchen table, his top picks from a year in which he, as always, had Amazon packages delivered daily to his home.
Topping the list: $1,000 on smart Christmas lights by Twinkly Pro, which he has strung all over the tree and outside, and which work with an iPad app to produce multiple different lighting variations, including a light-up Santa (in lights) himself. "The technology is mind-blowing," he says.
Pham is president of Science Inc., a tech incubator best known for arranging a $1 billion sale of the Dollar Shave Club to Unilever and selling FameBit to Google. Its portfolio includes the popular apps Wishbone and Yarn. As we have for the last three years, we sit down with Pham at the end of the year and go over his purchase highlights.
None of the gadgets noted here are investments, and Pham points out that he buys the gadgets outright, as a consumer, as a student of tech and to better understand the consumer experience.
That, and "I do love gadgets," he notes.
Beyond the lights:
• Apple's AirPods Pro, the $249 update to the original, with improved sound and better design that keeps them in the ear. "The noise cancellation is amazing." He likes that he can tap the headphones and help eliminate outside forces like garbage trucks and street noise.
• One Wheel Pint, an electric scooter of sorts ($950). "It's a self-balancing board; think of it like a hoverboard. You stand on it like it's a surfboard; it has a gyro motor and self-balances when you flatten it out. It rides like a snowboard. It's cheap but fun."
•Oculus Quest, a wireless virtual reality headset ($399). Pham likes to play virtual reality games with his kids and loves this upgrade, the first VR headset to be wireless. "No more cables," he says. "And the graphic quality of the game play is really good." So good, the device is sold out through February.
•Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 ($349.95). These are regular over-the-ear headphones that also have two built-in microphones for making calls. "You can be in airport or a coffee shop and everyone thinks you're in the office."
•Philips Hue Shape Light ($79). The outdoor line came out this year, and Pham used them for spotlights and garden lights and loves the LED strip lights, just for fun.
•Deep Sentinel ($499 for three-camera setup, plus $49 monthly subscription). He's a fan (and former investor) of Ring security cameras, "But the thing I didn't like about it, you have to be watching it." The Deep Sentinel twist is that it has live humans monitoring the footage. "Somebody comes to your window, a remote guard will announce over the speaker, 'Can I help you?'"
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•Amazon Eero ($249 for three). The company formerly known as Eero introduced a new, cheaper set-up to improve home WiFi, selling at half the price of the original. Pham likes the new edition "to make sure you get the actual internet speed promised," by the internet provider.
•Google's Nest Hub Max ($229). The new edition of the connected video display with Google Assistant is 10 inches vs. the original 7 inches, "and it has a camera on it, so I can finally make video calls."
•Bose Frame Alto ($199). These are "great" sunglasses with a built-in speaker. "Only I can hear the music." And nothing's in his ear. The AirPods, when in the ear, are "like, don't talk to me. ... This is unassuming."
•Lenovo ThinkPad X1 7th generation (starts at $1,400). He was using the Apple MacBook Air for years but switched to Windows computers and the X1. He loves the light, 2.5-pound, 14-inch laptop, which unlike modern Apple computers has kept the accessory ports for HDMI and USB. "No more dongles."
•Eightsleep. "It changed everything for me." He likes it cool; the wife likes it hot. He can make his side of the bed cooler and her side warmer. "So no more fighting on bedding and air conditioning." The mattress starts at $2,295.
Meanwhile, what products did he send back? Mostly headphones, from Jabra and Anker, the Apple TV streaming device and smartplugs by Wyze.
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