25 Hot 2015 Holiday Tech Gadgets

Never Too Early For Holiday Shopping

With the holidays right around the corner, big and small gadget makers are hoping to get out in front of the shopping tidal wave to come. From selfie drones to slick 2-in-1 laptops, and from home automation tools to a new TiVo Bolt DVR that can play back a TV show 1.3 times faster than its actual speed, 2015's crop of gear packs some serious "wow."

From an industry preview event in New York City last week sponsored by Pepcom and billed as a "Holiday Spectacular fit for a Charles Dickens storybook evening," CRN perused offerings from leading and up-and-coming gear makers. Here is a round up 25 of the coolest holiday tech items to look out for.

Pictured here are door greeters, straight from Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol.

25. Roomba Upgrade

The domestic darling of robotic vacuums, iRobot gave its Roomba autonomous vacuum an upgrade. This model (980) now includes a camera, an app and a sensor for detecting hardwood floors versus carpeted floors. No, the camera is not getting a rug's-eye view of your house (or seeing what lurks under your sofa). The camera, says iRobot, gives the Roomba the ability to map the entire floorplan of a house so it can vacuum an entire floor. The previous model had a three-room limit, iRobot said.

iRobot has also added a feature to the 980 (priced at $900) that can detect when the Roomba hits a carpet so it can then shift into a higher suction mode. The new app allows you to access your vacuum from an app on your smartphone from anywhere. The app allows you to tell your Roomba to vacuum a room in a scenario where you need a room tidied up fast, but can't get home in time to do it yourself.

24. Toshiba Portege z20t: Slim And Lively

Toshiba impressed with its 2015 lineup of notebooks, including its flagship 2-in-1 Portege z20t (available to resellers) that now ships with Windows 10 OS.

The z20t is a thin-and-light class notebook hybrid 2-in-1 with a responsive, comfortable backlit keyboard. The screen docking mechanism is robust enough to allow this 2-in-1 PC to compete head to head with any clamshell notebook.

Weighing in at 3.3 pounds as a notebook, the z20t has a width of 11.8 inches and a depth of 7.6 inches, and is 0.85 inches thick. In tablet mode, the z20t slims down to 1.6 pounds and is 0.35 inches thick.

23. More Bars With This Antenna Case

Can't hear me now? If you find yourself hanging out windows or walking to the top of a hill just to get that extra bar on your cellphone for better reception, you might want to try the R79X passive antenna case ($60). The antenna, which fits over iPhone 6/6s and iPhone 6/6s Plus, doubles as a shockproof case. Manufacturer ReachCase claims the R79X antenna case can add a bar to your cellphone's reception -- however, mileage may vary.

The R79X case also has a 6-foot drop rating and an embedded antenna inside the case can slide out when coverage is extremely spotty.

22. A Better, Smarter Bike Light

What sets SpeedForce's smart bike computer apart from an otherwise crowded market is that it is durable and doesn't just mount onto your bike, but becomes part of the steering column, installing at the stem. As you would expect, features include a speedometer, a cycling statistics tracker, GPS navigation, 30-hour battery life. SpeedForce hopes to turn heads with its price of $120 when it goes on sale Oct. 20.

21. BlackBerry Passport: Super Screen

We were hoping BlackBerry was going to be showing off its just teased BlackBerry Priv ($550), the first BlackBerry phone to run the Android OS and have a slide-out physical QWERTY keyboard. News broke earlier this week about the Priv phone (Priv is for privacy). More on that phone in November, say company spokespeople.

In the interim, BlackBerry was showing off its extra-large Passport phone with a physical keyboard that runs Blackberry OS 10. With its huge, phablet-sized screen -- rivaling iPhone 6s Plus -- the Passport has some impressive features including a keyboard that doubles as a touchpad, a long battery life and a great display that stands up well during bright outdoor use.

20. Immersive Virtual Reality

Vuzix's iWear Video Headphones is a competitively priced $500 virtual reality headset that comes with its own portable player and head-tracking capabilities for a fully immersive experience -- think Oculus Rift. It's part of a growing number of Oculus competitors that hope to compete with the Facebook-owned leading VR maker on price. Oculus VR, the company that makes Oculus Rift, won't yet reveal how much its VR headset will cost.

While iWear Video Headphones will be able to display VR content, today they create an immersive experience for 3-D and 2-D movies as well as console games.

The big question for many of these non-billion-dollar-backed VR headsets is content. Vuzix says it supports the VRPN open-source framework, which allows a common authoring standard for content creators.

19. Epson Printers -- With 2 Years' Ink

Leading inkjet printer maker Epson hopes to take the irk out of ink with its new EcoTank line. Epson supersized the ink cartridges, pushing the price of ink down via bulk purchasing economics. So, new printers now include a two-year supply of ink (by Epson's calculations). The price of the WorkForce ET-4550 model (pictured here) is $500. You pay $60 to replace all the ink reservoirs -- which should last you another two years, according to Epson.

18. Parallels' Virtual OS Apps

Friend of the channel Parallels sees big new opportunities for its virtual OS software, thanks to the success of iOS and Android in the enterprise. For years, the company's award-winning software has allowed you to run Windows, Linux or the Mac OS from any device you like. But as Apple inks ties with IBM and Cisco to aggressively move its iPads into the business world, Parallels is hoping those PC-based business applications (running on Parallels) will also follow. The apps run $20 a year for both the iOS and Android version and can run on an unlimited number of devices.

17. Thermal Hot Spot Detector

Thermal's app and camera ($250) allow smartphone users to do thermal imaging analysis at an affordable price. The Seek Thermal Camera can detect hot, cold, warm or any other temperature signatures in walls, pipes or even in the datacenter. Being able to spot thermal signatures is a key tool for easily identifying trouble spots such as blockage in a clogged pipe or poorly insulated walls or electric circuit hot spots.

The company recently introduced a $400 single-purpose thermal detector -- no smartphone required.

16. A Smarter Approach To Smart Lighting

The market for smart light bulbs is crowded. But one of the brighter bulbs in the bunch is Stack Lighting. With Stack bulbs ($60 a bulb) the lights can sense motion, ambient lighting and temperature and can be networked with in-house climate-control systems such as Nest. Stack says its unique feature is making smart lighting even smarter by eliminating the need to log onto your phone and use an app to unlock features.

Stack uses its ambient light detection, coupled with motion sensing, to automatically turn on lights at the perfect brightness in a room whether it's noon or midnight. By detecting temperature, the lights can interface with Nest to make sure heating/cooling zones are comfortable. Stack also has an app, but the company stresses that the beauty of its product is that you can have lighting smart enough that doesn't need an app to figure out how to brighten your life.

Stack Lighting offers a starter kit for $150 that includes two bulbs and a controller bridge connecting your lights to your WiFi network.

15. Theft And Security Protection

MacKeeper was showing off its Track My Mac anti-theft protection that includes protection at the point when someone attempts to log onto a computer. This is meant to thwart bad guys who steal a device and turn off all Internet connectivity so a device can't "call home." With the Track My Mac solution, if you mistype the password required to unlock a Mac, it will automatically generate a threat report and email it to you. Threat reports include a front-facing camera picture of who is attempting to log onto your PC, GPS coordinates of the Mac and the device's make and model information. And, of course, you can put your Mac into "lock-down" mode remotely should your Mac go missing.

14. Fast, Affordable USB Charging Port

Every standard electrical outlet has a relatively unknown feature that allows you to simply and affordably replace an outlet's faceplate with a Snap Power USB power charging port. The Snap Power's faceplate ($16 to $20 each) utilizes a third hot power source on your electrical outlet located between the top and bottom plugs. That power source is found from screws on the sides of the outlet. The Snap Power faceplate has two metal power prongs that touch the screws (no electrician needed) and allows you to simply snap on a USB power port in a matter of seconds.

13. It's Like Uber And Kayak For Shipping

Shyp is an online service geared toward consumers that lets you ship nearly anything just by taking a picture of it with your smartphone -- no boxing required. And the best part of it is, Shyp says someone will be there to pick up whatever it is you want to ship in less than 20 minutes.

Here is how Shyp works: Use the Shyp app and take a picture of what it is you want shipped. You'll be contacted by a Shyp contractor (think Uber) to organize the pickup within 20 minutes. You can use the Shyp app to do price comparisons among shipping partners such as FedEx, UPS and USPS. It costs $5 per pickup, plus the price of shipping. Shyp then packs whatever it is you want shipped, mails it off to your destination.

The company is operating in five cities: New York, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Chicago.

12. Fashion-First Wearable

Rare is the smart watch that looks good, has a long battery life and can help you navigate your digital life. The Huawei Consumer Business Group thinks it's striking the right balance with its Huawei Martian Notifier Watch. The model seen here costs $250.

The watch doesn't have an LCD face, but rather opts for a tickertape OLED readout display that can alert you to your standard fair of text, email, calendar and call alerts. Because it doesn't rely on an LCD display (as others do), the focus can be on elegant design, said company representatives. The battery life is indeed impressive. The watch battery will last years, while smart aspects of the watch (wireless radio and display) will last up to five days between charges.

11. Unlocked And Affordable Smartphone

Does the world need another smartphone? While others ponder if the market is already overcrowded, Ubik isn't hesitating with its sleek, slim bezel, unlocked and feature-rich smartphone with an affordable $320 price tag. By comparison, the Google Nexus 6 (unlocked) will set you back $650.

The company says it is hoping to attract users who don't want to be tied down to subsidized phones and have to kowtow to wireless carriers when it comes to Android software OS updates.

10. Digitize Any Pen Or Pencil

If you want the freedom to use any pencil or pen you want when it comes to drawing or graphical design, then iSkn's Slate ($200) may just be the solution for you. The product uses a magnetic ring the slips onto any pen or pencil. Next, just lay a pad or paper on top of the iSkn Slate and start drawing. The Slate syncs up with an app on your iPad or Android tablet either in real time or later via a Bluetooth connection. Now you can draw and manipulate your masterpiece on your tablet.

The price includes a Slate, a ring for any type of writing implement and also a ballpoint pen with an iSkyn ring built in.

9. 360-Degree-Angle Home Security, Web-Enabled Camera

Security and webcams typically come with limited viewing options -- point and zoom. The fancy ones allow you to remotely change the viewing angles. IC Real Tech wants you to forget about those limitations. Its Allie Home 360 Degree Interactive Camera ($600) offers an alternative to the webcam status quo.

With Allie's stationary camera and app, you can navigate a room via gestures -- swipe left, right, up and down and pinch to zoom. And as the name suggests, the Allie camera gives you a perfect spherical image of the room the camera is placed in.

Viewing the images is so immersive, the company believes, it's also trying to crack open an entire new market of weddings, parties and conferences -- giving remote users a unique vantage point to engage remotely.

8. Drone Selfies

If a selfie stick just isn't allowing you to get enough of you, Hexo is about to deliver the ultimate you experience. This drone syncs with your smartphone's GPS and can follow and film you outdoors. Ideal for sports enthusiast, the drone will set you back $1,350. The drone does not include a camera, but has the housing to fit a GoPro HD ($400).

The drone can stay in the air for about 10 minutes and then will autonomously land by itself – no crash landings. Hexo says what makes its selfie drone unique is the fact that it supports a replaceable battery that take seconds to snap on and off the drone. A replacement battery costs about $120.

7. Making Dumb Smoke And Co2 Detectors Smart

The Leeo does one very important thing extremely well: It listens 24-7 for your smoke or carbon dioxide detector to go off. When it does it send you an alert via email, text message or call. If you don't reply it will go to a call list of predetermined people to let them know a smoke or Co2 detector has gone off so you can alert the authorities. The Leeo plugs into a standard power outlet and costs $100.

6. Dash Cam Cobra

Known for its radar detectors, Cobra now is hoping to muscle into the emerging dash cam market with its Drive HD Dash Cam. Dashboard cams are the types of cameras that can capture everything that happens in front of your car, including oncoming traffic lanes.

This Cobra model comes with 8 GB of storage for capturing about two hours of video. After the storage is filled, the camera just loops back over, always giving you the last two hours of digital video. The camera has a strong appeal to consumers interested in capturing just what went wrong and who is to blame for traffic accidents. And there's equal interest among fleet management services that want to expand their monitoring capabilities.

The Cobra will run you $140, has a 2-inch screen and a 160-degree viewing angle and can be expanded to support 32 GB of storage, or seven hours.

5. ITFFF Gains Traction With Seagate

Seagate bolstered the usefulness of its Seagate Personal Cloud with support now for the ITFFF service. ITFFF (which means "If this, then that") is a company that has developed a service engine that allows developers to tie disparate services together to create a desired outcome. For example, now you can tie your Facebook feed to your Seagate Personal Cloud so whenever someone tags you in a photo a copy of the image saves to your Seagate drive. Other functions include:

If you create a screenshot on your iPhone, then save it to your Seagate Personal Cloud.

If you posted an image to Instagram, then save it to your Seagate Personal Cloud.

If you downloaded it to your PC, then save it to your Seagate Personal Cloud.

4. Giant, Curved And Gorgeous Samsung TV

No gadget event roundup is complete without one jaw-dropping, eye-popping and high-end 4K HDTV. Samsung didn't disappoint with its 65-inch JS9500 Curved SUHD TV. This gorgeous TV will run you $5,000 (65-inch) and comes loaded with high-end features such as full-array LED backlighting, HDR and quantum dots and super-fast operations.

3. WiFi Streaming USB Flash Drive

SanDisk is making it even easier to sync, share and stream data from portable storage devices. Its latest offering is a WiFi-enabled thumb drive that can be linked to a PC so you can transfer files via a direct WiFi connection or a shared WiFi network. This allows you to not only transfer files, but is ideal for streaming media off a wireless thumb drive stored in a shirt pocket or purse.

The SanDisk Connect Wireless Flash Network Drive comes in a variety of capacities including the 16GB ($25) and the 128GB ($100) version.

2. Western Digital Big SoHo Guns

Western Digital was showing off its My Cloud family of NAS storage solutions from the one, two and four bay chassis with the high-end My Cloud EX4100 with a whopping 241 terabytes of storage space ($1,380). It also took the wraps off an upgrade to its hard drive to My Cloud OS 3. With the upgrade comes "anywhere access" to your stored content, WD Sync, My Cloud Mobile and Web Access and automatic backup off PCs. The OS 3 also brings with it app support for Dropbox, media service Plex and home automation firm Z-Wave.

1. TiVo Bolt: Watch Less, Sacrifice Nothing

DVR set top box pioneer TiVo's latest offering TiVo Bolt promises you a radically more efficient TV-watching experience. With TiVo Bolt you can not only skip TV commercials, but you can also speed through TV shows 1.3 times faster than their actual speed. I know what you're thinking. How can you speed the TV show up without making people sound like chipmunks? TiVo has engineered a way to adjust the pitch of the audio so that when you are blazing through the boring parts of a sports event or binge watching a season of a show you kind of, sort of like, the audio is not distorted.

TiVo Bolt's price is $300 for the 500-GB hard drive version or $400 for a 1-terabyte drive. First year of program updates are free, after that, it's $15 a month.