Small Dog Gift Guide – Part 2
We’ve asked a few of our employees what their favorite gifts are this season – either to get or to give, of course – and we have highlighted a few of the best!
Don, President and Top Dog:
- The Nest smart thermostat is a great holiday gift! I use them in my home and am saving money daily as the Nest learns my habits, turns the heat (or AC) down when I am away and back up when I get home. It learns that I like it cool when I sleep and warm in the morning. It reduces your carbon footprint by only providing heat or cooling when you need it. While it is super easy to install and operate, Small Dog Electronics can come to your home to help with the installation, too! The Nest thermostat is a thoughtful gift and keeps giving.
Hapy, President and CFO:
- I would recommend the EZQuest battery backup charger for iPhone and iPad (and most other USB devices). This sleek battery can charge your iPhone and your iPad at the same time if needed, and can store multiple charges. Never be left without a charge on your phone ever again! This has saved my bacon numerous times. Be sure to purchase an extra lightning cable to go with it (the 6-inch Belkin cable is ideal).
- Secondarily, I always recommend the Kensington Slimblade trackball to anyone who uses a desktop machine and has a messy desk like mine, or just can’t stand the mouse. The trackball allows pin point accuracy and lightning fast scrolling combined with customizable buttons to get work done without any wrist strain and takes up minimal space on your desktop. It does take a little while to get used to a trackball, but once you do, your productivity will skyrocket and you can say goodbye to your aching mouse wrist.
Rob, Business Solutions Manager:
- This year we added the Sonos line to our offering and I picked up a few speakers for my house and they are awesome! If you’re not familiar, Sonos is wireless speaker system that you connect through your wireless network that allows you to stream music to any room in your house from an iPad, iPhone, computer, and more. You can have reggae in the kitchen, jazz in the den, and blues jamming in the garage. It allows you to access your music streaming services like iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, and Rhapsody as well as giving you access to radio stations around the world. If you’re like me and have a large music collection stored on an external drive you can access all that music as well. The best thing about Sonos is not the speakers themselves, but the app and how simply it brings all your music into one simple control panel. If you like the idea of using this app and already have a nice speaker setup, you can add the Sonos connect which connects your existing stereo system to your Wi-Fi network. Available for purchase in our retail stores only.
Will, Product Manager:
- My favorite product this Christmas to gift is the Goal Zero Torch 250, which is simply great for anyone who spends their winter in VT. It is a flashlight and floodlight, a backup battery, and includes a solar panel for recharging if the sun were ever to shine through. We’ve already had gnarly driving conditions and power outages…and it is only December. The best is yet to come! This is a great backup to have in the car, at home, or in your
Y2K…Mayan cataclysm…zombie apocalypse shelter.
- Then it comes to what gift I would get for myself…never an easy question to answer. I think it would have to be the Olloclip for the iPhone 6. I bought my first iPhone for many reasons but the biggest being that I would always have an amazing camera with me. The Olloclip 4-in-1 lens kit for iPhone 6 includes wide angle, fisheye, and two macro lenses at 10x and 15x…a great addition for those that love to take photos! For me the fisheye plus the new 240fps slo-mo feature makes for a great video camera. I can only expect more likes on my Instagram account.
Morgan Director of IT & Development:
- I had a well-loved pair of Urbanears Medis that finally succumbed to years of wear and tear that I’d love to have replaced. Not only was the sound quality exceptional, and the design simple, but they were very comfortable. I’ve tried numerous in-ear headphones over the years and the ones that fit into your ear canal become uncomfortable after a short period of time and most that just “sit” in your ear tend to fall out of mine. The Medis are unique in that they have special “EarClick” technology (replaceable rubber pieces) that hold it at rest—sort of suspended—in your ear and it can’t fall out. Better yet, since most people’s ears aren’t all the same size or necessarily symmetrical, they come with a few differently sized sets of the rubber bits so you can customize them for comfort in your ears. An added bonus for comfort and audio quality is that the cords are wrapped in cloth. You’re probably thinking, “Audio quality?!”. Yes, there’s a fair amount of vibration transmitted along headphone cords that interferes with what you hear, but that is absorbed and muted by the cloth.
Jim, Phone and Web Sales
- On my holiday wish list this year is the iON Air Pro 3 Waterproof Camera. With 1080p video and 12 megapixel still photography, the picture quality is unbelievable and the housing is waterproof for up to forty-nine feet deep. Great for the trips with the pups to the dog friendly beaches down south, or for hitting the slopes up north!