Techstination

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. A charging station that you’ll wonder how you got along without. The Anker Nano Charging Station can help you get rid of the jumble of wires you have for charging phones and laptops. It is versatile and delivers plenty of power. Anker’s Jenna Rogers…

“It is powerful enough to charge a 16 inch MacBook Pro to 50 percent in about half an hour and you can also charge two laptops and a phone at the same time.” This has surge protection built in? “ Yes, correct. So it has three USB C ports, one USB A port and three AC outlets. And it’s all in a travel ready design. Just unplug it, wrap up the cord and throw it in your travel bag.”

The price…under 90 dollars. You can find more info at Anker.com.

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

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. Some screen free fun for kids and grandparents. Dave Grunenwald has had a career in law and real estate….and now…has been busy with a line of children’s books…and what he calls Grandparent Merit Badges…

“When my grandkids came along, I decided I needed a checklist of some kind and one thing led to another and I created that checklist and it became the grandparent merit badges. But after that, I decided I needed to breathe some life into it and so I created the Adventure series of books for kids.”

There’s a wide range…of books and badges including nature, cooking and even merit badges for use by friends and other family. Check out GrandparentMeritBadges.com.

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

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. The Expert Imaging and Sound Association is out with its EISA Awards for 2025-26. Sony captured Camera of the Year honors with the Alpha 1 Mark II. Sony also won Lens of the Year for the FE 50-150 F2 GM. Meanwhile when it comes to imaging editing software…the top award went to Zoner Studio. It is a company that we have found puts users first and offers assistance at every leve;. The EISA awards team says Zoner offers a range of features that leave nothing to be desired, while easy to understand help pop-up boxes explain each function. And, they point out, the monthly or annual subscriptions are affordable..at 59 dollars a year. Learn more at Zoner.com.

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

From smart grooming kits to automatic feeders, OneIsAll is bringing more tech to pet care. Details? Chief Marketing Officer Helen Wang chats with Techstination's Fred Fishkin.

From job offers to student loans, scammers are targeting students. What to watch out for? Capital One head of retail bank fraud Melanie Roller chats with Techstination's Fred Fishkin.

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. The Ally AI assistant from Envision is a key feature of the company’s upcoming Ally Solos smart glasses which will sell for under four hundred dollars. Pre-orders are open now with shipping slated to begin in October. But the Ally assistant can also work with smart phones and museums are beginning to make use of the technology. First are in the Bay area…the Museum of Craft and Design and the Asian Arts Museum Co-founder Karthik Kannan..

“You can actually interact with Ally within the museums itself. And it’s been one of the most mind blowing aspects of Ally. Blind and low vision people have mostly been kept out of museums because artwork is not inherently accessible to them.”

Envision is hoping to bring Ally to more museums. Meanwhile learn more at Ally.me.

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

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. Envision has opened pre-orders for its latest smart glasses designed to assist blind or low vision users. The Ally Solo glasses, priced at under four hundred dollars, are designed to make us of the company’s Ally AI assistant. Co-founder Karthik Kannan…

“You just take the glasses, you pair it with your phone and then you just put them on and have a conversation with Ally. It comes with HD cameras on it, also has speakers on the side, but these are speakers that allow for open air audio and also provides privacy. It’s a pair of glasses that you can use for everything that you use Ally with. Reading text, getting descriptions of surroundings, recognizing people, objects.”

Well done. Anyone can check out Ally …even without the glasses. More on that in my next report.

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

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. The online community GetSetUp…which has attracted millions of users to its learning platform for older adults… helped to sponsor some of the athletes participating in the Senior Games that wrapped up not long ago. And that includes the Arch Rivals over 70 Women’s Volleyball team that captured first place. On the What’s Next Living Longer Better Smarter podcast, captain Virginia Buckles said after qualifying last year…

“The big challenge was actually to keep those seven or eight women healthy But we are a very dedicated bunch. We plan our lives pretty much around our tournaments.”

Including things like knee replacements. Check out the full interview at MaryFurlong.com/podcasts.

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

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. An AI tool called Helen is being used to help users of the GetSetUp learning community…find need information about aging services in an era of budget cuts. Co-founder Neil Dsouza, speaking on the What’s Next Living Longer Better Smarter podcast, said AI can help to make those services easier to navigate…

“So we’re really using AI to go learn all the stuff that is very complex and help our learners actually go and understand it and then even apply for it, sort of the next phase. We are now going to make it, as we enter Medicare season, we are going to do it with health plan documents, it’s just very complicated.”

That’s where the Helen AI tool can assist. Find more at GetSetUp.com.

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

Techstination, your destination for gadgets and gear. I’m Fred Fishkin. If you are a night sky enthusiast, this is the right time of year to find a place with little or no light pollution and try your hand photographing the Milky Way. A mirrorless camera with a fast wide angle lens will get you started. But for long exposures….a sky tracker can be worthwhile. One of the companies focused on that space is iOptron where sales and marketing manager Roger Rivers says...the SkyTracker Pro moves the camera at the speed needed …

“It creates an optical illusion where you can take a longer term exposure which enables you to see more structure in the Milky Way and in deep space objects as well as giving the illusion that the objects in the foreground aren’t moving. So that’s the reason why these are so popular.”

Check out iOptron.com for more. And we’ll have more on night sky photography in the days to come. You can find us at Techstination.com. I’m Fred Fishkin.