Tech: Post-Christmas Roundup

We had a quiet Christmas at home with the family this year, but there were some very neat tech-oriented gifts under our tree. If you received some gift cards for the holidays, you might consider splurging on them yourself:

The Ideal "TV Tablet" - Samsung Galaxy Tab A7 Lite

Dad uses what I call a "TV tablet," a small device to surf the Web during commercials or other boring stretches of live TV. The Galaxy Tab A7 Lite fits the bill perfectly.  The screen isn't the fancy high-res OLED you see on the flagship Galaxy tablets, and the performance is only so-so, but it's light, small, and cheap (a little over a hundred bucks), so it's perfect for his needs.

Sega Genesis Mini 2

The original Sega Genesis Mini contained a lot of the usual suspects when you think of Genesis retro games, so the Mini 2 is really for a hardcore gamer like my brother-in-law.  This one even includes a healthy dose of Sega CD titles, like the historically-important-but-pretty-awful Night Trap, and the extremely-difficult-but-still-awesome Ecco the Dolphin games.

Apple Watch (Series 8)

I received probably the coolest and most frivolous gift of them all, an Apple Watch. It's frivolous because my iPhone does everything that the Apple Watch does except for the biometrics, and in much better fashion.  It's cool because the onboard cellular lets you Dick Tracy your way through life with calling and texting, even without the iPhone nearby.