Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  It’s a dilemma all of us face when it comes to buying gifts for birthdays or holidays or other occasions.  What to buy.  Often gift cards turn out to be the solution we settle for….but they can seem pretty impersonal.  GiftCards.com is trying to change that…by allowing Visa or Mastercard gift card personalization.  Shelley Hunter holds the title of Gift Card Girlfriend…

“It is the one gift card…when you give people gift cards, they don’t generally pass them around at parties.  But if it has a picture on it, they do and people keep them even after the gift card is redeemed.  So tons of fun.”

Beyond that…the site has been growing its line up of gift cards…to include Happy Cards good at a variety of shopping or dining locations.  And for those last minute needs…GiftCards.com has instant e-gift cards as well.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

 MIT team creates AI software for knitting: lead researcher Alexandre Kaspar in Techstination interview.

 Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.   Lutron is out with the Aurora smart bulb dimmer and if you have Philips Hue bulbs in use around the house…the new device to control them is a welcome addition.  Just about a must have.  There’s no wiring needed…you simply add the Aurora to the Hue system via the app…and it cleverly attaches to a light switch…preventing the Hue bulb from being turned off.  All the control you need…including dimming…is right in the Aurora.  As for set up, Lutron’s Melissa Andresko says…   

“It has to be a simple installation.  You know people went the route of smart bulbs, had a simple installation with just changing out their bulbs.  So we wanted this to be just as easy for them to do.”

Mission accomplished.  The Lutron Aurora smart bulb dimmer is available now.  You can find it selling for about forty dollars.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Techstination Week is a compilation of this week's Techstination reports with tech journalist and host Fred Fishkin.

 Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Fender is bringing back some classic guitar sounds …engineering a new series called Vintera.   Love that 50’s Stratocaster?  Welcome back.  Fender product developer Al Abassi…

“What this is is vintage instruments.  Instruments we make to be the feel and sound of instruments that Fender made in the 50s, 60s and 70s.  So it’s a pretty wide and deep series that has a little bit of something for everybody.  Stratocasters, Telecasters, jazz basses, T basses, all designed to give you the look and feel and sound of cool Fender classic models from the 50s, 60s and 70s.”

Not easy  to accomplish but modern technology makes it possible.  Find more at www.Fender.com.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

Drobo-PhotoFocus World Photography Day Contest launches.  StorCentric VP Samina Subedar in Techstination interview.

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Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  Deena Ghazarian has become a well known name in the consumer electronics world …helping to bring products like Beats headphones to market with Monster…and serving on the board of the Consumer Technology Association.  Now she has formed her own accessories business called Austere…and the first products are high end cables for HDMI and home theater connections…

“Some of my background that was not in consumer electronics was in fashion and I grew up in the fashion industry.  So I’m a big believer on design and style.  So  where there was some opportunity to improve on the tech side of things, and I think Austere has done a great job of that, there was even more opportunity to raise the bar in regards to design and style with home theater accessories.”

Even the packaging is designed to impress.  There’s more at www.austere.com.    

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.

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 Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear.  I’m Fred Fishkin.  There a lot to like with the new Lenovo Smart Clock.  It features Google Assistant …is small enough to be unobtrusive on your nightstand…eliminates the camera…which would be inappropriate for the setting…and is nicely styled.  Lenovo Product Technologist Kelly Corrigan…

“So it works as a normal alarm clock, so you have the time on there.  But what’s cool about it is you can talk to it like you would Google Assistant and ask it to turn your lights on and off, ask it to play music, to turn the alarm off, things like that.  So you don’t necessarily have to be setting alarms on your phone or things like that anymore.”

There’s a USB port on the back for charging devices as well.  Very handy.   And the price is typically under sixty dollars.  There’s more info at Lenovo.com.

You can find us at Techstination.com.  I’m Fred Fishkin.