College life used to be so Spartan. Residents couldn’t even hang pictures on their dorm room walls. Now it’s easier than ever for scholars to stay connected, with variants on the smart gadgets they’ve grown accustomed to having at home. Some even keep parents and friends plugged in … at a distance.
—Dorm room 2.0. A boring dorm room can earn an instant, sexy makeover, just by slapping a motorized Switchmate Smart Light Switch atop the faceplate of a standard light switch (toggle or rocker). No rewiring necessary!
Simply secured with magnets, then controlled by a smartphone or tablet app, a battery-powered, Bluetooth-enabled Switchmate invites a user to remotely flip the connected light switch from your phone, say, before you walk in the door or when you’re half asleep and can’t even muster a proper hand clap. (Yes, we all remember “the Clapper.”)
As many as 12 Switchmates can be associated with one app and programmed to turn lights on/off when you’re away as a security precaution. Lights will also blink the semi-old-fashioned way, by pressing on the Switchmate’s own push-button-endowed faceplate. No, the first-gen version doesn’t have a dimmer function. Drat. $39.99 at MySwitchmate.com.
—Lock and roll. Spoiled by smart front door locks that open with an app instead of a key? Student dorm and apartment managers don’t take kindly to residents adding their own lock. But there ain’t no stopping you now from securing valuable stuff in a latched locker, closet, or steamer trunk with Locksmart ($89.95) and Locksmart Mini ($69.95) padlocks.
These property protectors trade in ye old combination numbers and keys for a secure (128-bit encrypted) pass code that’s beamed by Bluetooth from a smartphone. The lock opens by tapping on the phone’s screen or working its fingerprint sensor. Users can share lock access with others for use on a onetime or “until further notice” basis, and can easily reprogram a lock if its associated phone goes missing. More info at dogandbonecases.com.
—Sniffing out trouble. Smartening up a wall-mounted smoke or carbon-monoxide detector with a Roost smart battery could save your favorite student’s life, as it beams the warning alert directly to his/her omnipresent phone.
Replacing a conventional smoke/CO2 detector’s standard-issue 9-volt battery, the Roost is identically sized but has a detachable bottom section hosting a microphone (to listen for the local alarm) and a Wi-Fi transmitter that relays an alert.
The warning also can be sent to associated “friends and family” phones and/or 911. While not as feature-laden as a Nest smart smoke detector, a Roost is two-thirds cheaper at $34.95 (at Home Depot and shop.getroost.com). And when its five-year-life battery element runs down, that component can be swapped out for $15.
—Post-It notes, 2016 style. Does your family communicate a lot through Post-It notes left on the refrigerator door? Keep the flow going, long distance, with a Triby, a refrigerator door mountable (thanks to built-in magnets) smart communications system with lots of nifty Wi-Fi and cloud-enabled features.
Actually, the first non-Amazon smart speaker that can also hear and respond to voiced “Alexa” commands, a $199 Triby will likewise summon internet radio channels, Spotify, and news/weather reports on request, beamed with decent sound quality (bass shy but clear).
Now, the differences. This slim thing boasts a small e-ink screen rarin’ to show text messages and “Doodle” drawings sent by far-away friends and family on a companion Triby app.
Whenever a new message comes in, a yellow tab pops out of the Triby. When it’s pushed back in, the sender gets a message the doodle has been duly seen.
Sweeter still, parents, you can make a free, VOIP (voice over internet protocol) phone call directly to the Triby from that same app or another Triby.
One caveat: It’s best to keep a Triby plugged into an AC wall outlet. The gizmo can run on rechargeable battery power, as well, but only for a couple of days if you’ve left Alexa in “always listening” mode.
—No breaches. Hardly cheap (about $600) but very cool, the just-out Samsung Note 7 smartphone stands above the pack with a gorgeous, edge-wrapped 5.7-inch screen squeezed into a grippable case. Also gotta shout out for its faster processing, enhanced drawing skills with a new-gen smart stylus, water resistance, high storage capacity, fast recharging, Samsung Pay skills, amazing VR thrills, and maybe smartest of all, retina-security ID checking that guarantees the wrong eyes can’t peer at your privates.
—One for my baby. While most profs are happy to get student papers delivered as email, there's a lot to be said for keeping a multi-function printer in the dorm room, for clear-eyed proofreading, poster making, wireless photocopying, document scanning, and emailing. An Epson Expression ET-2500 EcoTank All-in-One Printer might initially look costly at $279.99 from Epson.com.
But its unique, high-capacity bottle-loading system makes this sweetie far less expensive (and more eco friendly) over the long run than ink jet printers using dinky little cartridges. An EcoTank arrives with enough color/black ink stock to print at least 4,000 pages. That’s likely to keep the entire dorm suite going for months and make its owner a hero. Or rich in beer money, charging classmates 10 cents a copy. A set of replacement bottles costs $60. Do the math.
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