Get ready for the season with these new gadgets

It’s been a big week in tech. You can pre-order Apple’s latest iPhones, Watches, and AirPods now and have them in your hot little hands (and wrists and ears) by the end of the month. IFA—the world’s biggest consumer and home electronics trade show, showcasing thousands of the latest gadgets, from stair-climbing vacuum cleaners to “AI” kitchens—has come to a close in Berlin.

Fall is the perfect time for electronics manufacturers to show off their latest multifunction devices in a bid to grab you — or rather, your last penny — just in time for the holidays.

But we lived with a menagerie of shiny, bright, brilliant, intelligent-ineffective gadgets for a few years now. What is worth your time, energy and hard-earned money?

Here’s what I shared on “The Today Show” this week in a segment called “Getting Ready for Fall Tech.” Here are some of the latest gadgets that solve everyday problems and make our lives easier without breaking the bank.

For the record, I am not compensated by any of these brands or making money off of these recommendations. Many of these pieces come straight from my EDC (that’s “everyday carry” for those not as into this Reddit trend as I am).

To help you stop sleeping with your smartphone

By now, we all know that our cell phones are disrupting our sleep. It’s not just the blue light from our gadgets that confuses our brains into thinking it’s still daytime. It’s also the constant notifications and the magnetic pull of FOMO to “check social media again” in the middle of the night that’s making us all feel irritable and tired. This needs to stop now.

The Amazon Echo Spot 2024 is a great new “smart alarm clock” option that will wake you up, keep you connected in a much more subtle way, and help you start — or end — your day right.

It’s designed to sit on your nightstand, and it has a display that makes it easy to set alarms, the time, the weather, or song titles at a glance. You can customize the clock faces and colors, and ask Alexa to play a “Go to Bed” or “Rise and Shine” playlist. You can also use it to check the weather and set routines like “turn off all lights” at night or “turn on the connected coffee maker” before you even get out of bed.

It comes in three colors and currently costs just under $80.

Clean your disgusting gadgets

Our gadgets are disgusting. Smartphones carry ten times more bacteria than a toilet seat, and earbuds have 2,700 times more bacteria than a kitchen chopping board. Keyboards and remotes—all of that is just—yuck.

I clean all my gadgets at least once a week with tools I already have at home. But how often do I carry a soft toothbrush, toothpick, cotton buds and safe cleaning fluid with me wherever I go? Never.

When it comes to cleaning on the go, the VICHYIE 20-in-1 Multi-Function Cleaning Kit available on Amazon saves you from having to deal with a pesky gadget.

I like that it’s affordable, self-contained, has a ton of different tools, and is compact enough to fit in a purse or backpack.

That said, it’s cheap ($13) and feels that way. Included tools include an AirPod cleaning pen, a lint sponge, a miniature soft brush, a lens brush, a camera brush, a screen cleaning spray, and even a cover that doubles as a wiping cloth. You won’t feel like a professional cleaner with these, but they do the job when needed, especially when your keyboard gets stuck on a plane, which happened to mine last week.

Scratch and stain resistant laptop

You know what won’t require much cleaning? The new ASUS Zenbook S 16 (from $1,400) is a premium laptop made from a blend of ceramic and aluminum, primarily used in the aerospace and luxury watch industries. That means it’s scratch- and smudge-resistant. It’s superlight yet durable, and it packs a 3K display, six speakers, and all the power you’ll ever need for work, study, entertainment, and gaming.

Also? The Copilot AI Assistant Quick Access Key delivers handy doses of AI right to your keyboard, so you can streamline your workflow and sail through your to-do list.

A world first in portable backup

This is a world first AND It couldn’t be simpler, with WD’s My Passport drive (starting at $70) you can store a world of information, so you’ll never lose a precious photo, video or school or work assignment again.

The company says it’s the world’s first 2.5-inch portable hard drive that can hold six terabytes (TB) of content. That’s enough space for about 1.5 million photos, 600 hours of Full HD video, and up to 1.8 million e-books. But the gadget itself is small enough to fit in the palm of your hand and durable enough to take with you on all your adventures.

A tire pump that fits in your cup holder

The AstroAI L7 Tire Pump ($21 at the time of publication) is a portable, emergency tire pump that can pump up to eight times for car tires. It weighs just one pound and fits in most car cup holders.

It’s great for bike tires, basketballs, and anything else you need to add air to every now and then without having to pump by hand or blow so hard that your eyeballs feel like they’re going to pop out.

I like the bright screen on the front of the device, which updates pressure data 200 times a second so you don’t overinflate your tires. It’s also a handy emergency tool with a built-in three-mode flashlight (flashlight, SOS, strobe) and USB-C/USB ports for charging the device.

Affordable in-ear headphones with a new, innovative solution‘

British tech brand Nothing puts a real spin on the stylish, affordable CFM Buds Pro 2 ($60) in-ear headphones. There’s a “Smart Dial” feature on the case that lets you control volume, play/pause, skip tracks, and more. It’s a great feature compared to having to fiddle with the touch controls on your earbuds or reach for your phone when you need to change something.

You can also press the Smart Dial to control noise cancellation, activate the voice assistant, switch to low-latency mode or mute the microphone during meetings. It’s also customizable.

The Buds Pro 2 headphones promise 11 hours of playtime on a single charge and produce powerful bass thanks to 11mm drivers.

The water bottle that carbonates on the go

One of my favorite fall gadgets is this portable bottle that carbonates your favorite water—anywhere, anytime, with the push of a button. The 16-ounce Aer1 water bottle from a small startup in Brooklyn, New York, called Aerflo comes with fingertip-sized capsules filled with beverage-grade carbonation.

Place the capsule in the small container under the lid, screw on the lid, then tap the top to muddle everything up. You can adjust two or three taps for a gentler fizz, or four or five for a small burst of bubbles with every sip.

I was blown away by how well it worked and how incredibly easy it was to set up and use. Scan the QR code for a step-by-step guide with pro tips like the colder the water, the more bubbles you’ll get right away. I also learned that juice doesn’t work as well — because the juice molecules “get in the way” of the CO2 — so it’s best to add flavors to the water after it’s carbonated.

It’s so simple, and yet it solves a huge problem for people like me who love sparkling water but hate the cans and bottles they consume to satisfy their hunger.

The system comes with 13 reusable CO2 capsules, each of which can carbonate the equivalent of four 16-ounce bottles of water. When a capsule runs out, you swap it for a new one from the included package and return the old one to the company in a labeled, prepaid, and included postage. The company says it costs up to 70 percent less than buying disposable bottles or cans. The cost is $99 per bottle and 13 capsules.

Jennifer Jolly is an Emmy Award-winning consumer technology columnist and on-air contributor to “The Today Show.” The views and opinions expressed in this column are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of USA TODAY. Contact her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Best tech gadgets: New products to help you get ready for fall