Tech Gadgets to Help You Stay Organized
Even if there are no longer back-to-school events on your September calendar, fall is a time when we naturally shift gears and get back to business. We get a little more serious and maybe a little more organized. Here are five gadgets that will help you get your daily routine back on track.
Sonic Bomb
About $25 at amazon.com
Oversleeping will never be an option when the Bomb is on the nightstand. This alarm doesn't just wake you up, it ejects you from bed with a 113-decibel blast of sound. How loud is that? It's like waking up next to a power mower. And, if that's not enough of push, it also has a pulsating alert light and an extension that makes it feel like someone is shaking the bed.
Sony Dash
About $150 from sonystyle.com
With Sony's Dash, you can start the day the way President starts his: with a full briefing on the state of the world. The clock-sized device uses your home Wi-Fi network to collect the latest news, weather conditions, traffic reports and social media updates from your Facebook friends and favorite Twitter feeds. It also plays music from online sources such as Internet radio stations.
NeatReceipts
About $200 from neat.com
Here's how to make a big pile of bills and documents disappear - feed them into NeatReceipts. This portable scanner swallows business cards, invoices, sales receipts, credit card slips and other documents. The scanner's companion software turns each piece of paper into a digital file, stores it in an appropriate digital folder and sends the extracted information to Quicken, TurboTax or an Excel spreadsheet. With all that clutter gone, there's more room on your desk for the cat to nap.
HTC Flyer
About $500 for the 16GB version at Best Buy stores
When a smartphone screen seems too small to read and an iPad's too big to slip into a pocket or purse, the Flyer from HTC splits the difference. It's a tablet computer running the Android operating system on a 7-inch color touchscreen. With the Flyer connected to a W-F network, you can manage email, surf the web, work on documents, play music or movies and slip in an occasional game of Angry Birds.
SanDisk Cruzer Edge
About $30 for the 8GB version at staples.com
The Cruzer Edge is more than an ordinary a USB thumb drive. It comes with built-in software that will lock up your important documents in a password-protected folder. You can keep music and photos in a public area of the drive with a secret stash for files that you want to keep private. And, if you choose, SanDisk will back up everything to its secure online server.
