- I'm Andru Edwards and you're watching Gear Live.
As of today, we are seven days away from Christmas Eve,
which means you have seven more days to pick up the gifts
that you wanna give other people.
At least if you want them to
be able to open them Christmas morning,
if that's a holiday that you're celebrating.
If you've already celebrated Hanukkah
and you got a bunch of gift cards
and you want to know what to buy with them,
this video is for you as well.
And if you celebrate Kwanzaa,
I don't really know what goes on for that,
but just watch this video anyway,
because I'm going to share with you
my 12 picks for great tech related holiday gifts.
Oh!
And because the holidays
and because of the gift giving season,
I've got yet another gift for you.
Just get in to costume here.
As you may know if you've been paying attention
to the Channel, we're right in the mist of
the annual holiday giveaways that we do here.
I always team up with some of my favorite creators
and we do giveaways.
We've got another giveaway to announce right now.
My favorite TV this year, dollar for dollar,
the best value is the TCL 6-Series.
I gave you a first look at the TCL 6-Series back at CES 2018
and since then it's won award after award after award,
again, for being a great value
and providing one of the best pictures you can get
in a TV in 2018.
So I decided hey, my favorite TV set,
I should team up with one of my favorite creators
and give one of these away.
So I hit up TCL, I said hey,
we want to give away a TCL 6-Series, what do you think?
They said of course, do the give away,
we'll provide the TV. Then I reached back out to them
and said wait a minute, it's the holiday season.
What if we amped it up and we did two,
give away two TVs, two winners.
So one winner is not going to get two TVs,
but two winners are going to get one TV.
Reached back out to them, what did they say?
It's TCL, they said of course.
We're behind you 100%, let's go for it.
So since we've got two TVs, I've teamed up with
another one of my favorite tech creators,
my boy, Jon Prosser from over at front page tech.
If you're not familiar with him,
you need to go check him out.
If you wanna know about the news of the day,
the tech news of the day, check out front page tech.
Link down below if you want to enter the giveaway
and at bare minimum all you need to do is subscribe here
to my channel and be subscribed to front page tech.
If you do that, you are entered to win
one of the two TCL 6-Series TVs that we're giving away.
Further details will be at the giveaway link,
so again, drop down to the description,
click the link, and good luck to all who enter.
Now let's jump into my top holiday gifts
for the 2018 season.
Alright, number one, first gift on my list is
the coolest speaker, the coolest blue tooth speaker,
the coolest AirPlay speaker,
and as I'm saying these words you're probably like
another, a speaker?
How can this be?
How can this be good?
Well, you have never ever, ever seen a speaker like this.
The Lyric Canvas Speaker.
The Canvas consists of two boards lean against the wall,
similar to vinyl record jackets.
The front board is a screen which displays the lyrics
of the music that you're listening to in real time.
And it displays them not in a karaoke way,
but in a super artsy high tech way.
It's fantastic and it's mesmerizing.
Located behind the screen board is the second board,
which is the hi fi audio speakers.
Now you put those together and you have something
that looks like a super modern design,
which will impress anybody who loves music
and even those who don't quite frankly.
Designed as a high art concept,
which will decorate the home,
The Canvas allows listeners to live
with their favorite lyrics like a painting on the wall.
Now I've tried all sorts of songs with this thing.
I've tried old songs, I've tried current songs,
I've even tried songs when they've come out that very day
and played them to the lyric and the lyrics are there.
It's fantastic.
You can AirPlay to it, you can blue tooth to it,
you can even use Chromecast as well.
So all this is built right in.
It costs $1,700, so it's a little pricey.
You're getting a fantastic speaker
with a really cool interface.
Alright, moving on to number two.
If you thought that was expensive,
this next one you're probably not going to get
for anyone unless it's yourself
or a very, very close loved one.
It's my favorite tech purchase of the year that I made,
It's the Tesla Model 3.
As I said, Tesla entry level electric sedan is probably
my favorite tech item that I've purchased the entire year.
The minimalistic interior is super cool.
The glass roof gives it a great feel of openness
and auto pilot still feels like
you're living way in the future.
In place of the gas tank are rechargeable batteries
that are good for about 310 miles of range
and never having to visit a gas station ever again
to pump gas is an amazing feeling.
Now Tesla promised the Model 3 would start at $35,000.
That $35,000 model has not launched yet.
So the lowest price currently can configure
is roughly $45,000.
Now if you want to pick up a Model 3
and you want to save a little extra money,
I have a link down in the description below.
You click that and you'll get six months of
free supercharging for your Tesla Model 3,
Tesla Model S, or Tesla Model X.
So any of Tesla's vehicles that they currently sell,
six months of free supercharging if you use that link
in the description.
Number three on the list,
we just talked about this one a little while ago,
it is what I think is the best value TV of the year,
the TCL 6-Series.
The moment I saw the TLC 6-Series at CES 2018,
I knew it was special.
It's a 4K ultra HD smart TV with Roku built into the TV,
so there's no need to buy any extra set top boxes.
It supports Dolby Vision as well HDR10
and it's LED back lit with local dimming
and with the included voice remote
you can even control it with your voice.
So obviously this is my pick for best TV
for the money here in 2018.
It runs roughly 650 bucks for the 55 inch version
and about $1,000 for the 65 inch model.
Up next, another tech product
that I pretty much carry with me every where I go,
the Apple AirPods.
No matter where I am the AirPods have a place in my pocket.
So if I need to take a call or if I want to listen to music,
or I want to watch a YouTube video,
anywhere I am I just pop 'em in and I'm good to go.
They sound crisp and make life a lot more hands free,
especially when you've got your hands full.
If you're an iPhone user and you don't have AirPods yet,
once you get them,
you'll wonder how you ever lived without them.
Now taking a look at a different kind of tech
for just a moment, shout out to The Notorious B.I.G.
Snowtorious here, again, with the holiday season.
One of my favorite books of 2018 is called
Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop
It's the ultimate companion for hip-hop music
and photography enthusiasts.
Contact High is a definitive history of hip-hop's early days
celebrating the artists that shaped the iconic album covers,
T-shirts, and posters beloved by hip-hop fans today.
I know it's not purely a consumable electronic product,
but it does cover some of the early tech
and some of the early methods used for early hip-hop
back in the day,
If you're a Fan of that, Contact High is a great book.
Next up, another book, The Legend of Zelda:
Breath of the Wild--Creating a Champion.
This is a $90 coffee table book
that takes a look at the creation of Link
for Breath of the Wild.
You get a comprehensive behind the scenes look
into the making of the blockbuster game
with the history of Hyrule,
interviews with the games developers,
and hundreds of pages of artwork showing the creation
of all the characters, all the environments, etc.
I'm a huge fan of Breath of the Wild.
I still think it is the best game release
on the Nintendo Switch and if you're a video game fan,
a Nintendo fan, or especially a Zelda fan,
you should check it out.
Up next on the list, let's do both of these at the same time
before someone calls me a fanboy,
we're talking smartphones right now
and if you wanna pick up a smartphone for yourself
or someone else...
If your an iOS user I would suggest picking up
the iPhone XR.
Alternatively if you're an Android user,
maybe more surprisingly I suggest picking up the OnePlus 6T.
On iPhone XR side of things,
if you don't rely heavily on your smartphone
for watching high res videos
and you're also in the market for a new iPhone,
then the XR is your best bet.
It comes in a variety of colors
unlike it's more expensive counterparts,
the iPhone X and XS Max.
And it has the new A12 Bionic processor
and the main camera's front and back
from the XS and XS Max as well.
Additionally, the iPhone XR is the iPhone
with the longest battery life ever released.
$749, Apple's doing a bunch of trade in specials right now
as well that can bring that price down by hundreds.
Over on the OnePlus 6T side, OnePlus focuses on speed
and smoothness with a cutting edge in-display,
finger print censor, fast charge technology,
dual cameras with a night scape mode,
and 8 gigabytes of RAM built in.
When you think of android a lot of people first think of
Samsung, maybe the Google Pixel,
some other devices out there.
The OnePlus 6T is probably the best,
the smoothest Android experience you can get right now.
And if you're into tech you've heard them,
but if you're a more casual tech user,
you've probably never heard of OnePlus.
If you see it around, don't be scared.
It's not some sort of crappy brand,
they actually make what's probably the best
Android experience out there right now.
Next up, my smartwatch pick for the year.
Who else is it going to go to?
The Apple Watch Series 4.
In fact, I think it's Apple's most important product
of 2018.
The Apple Watch Series 4 isn't just about the tech,
but it's also about enriching your life,
your actual life, your health, your activity, etc.
The new Apple Watch Series 4 is a significant upgrade
to the Series 3.
It's got much better battery life and it will even
inform emergency services if you've taken a fall.
The screen is 30% bigger, which is great for those of us
with thick fingers or poor eye sight.
And the stand out feature is the built in ECG
where you can actually take an ECG of your heart beat
and it will save to your phone,
it can be shared to your doctors,
and it will even detect aFib.
If you haven't been watching the tech news lately,
someone actually did the upgrade to
and enabled the ECG feature.
Took the ECG, told the person it detected aFib,
he didn't believe it.
He did it a few times and it detected it every time.
Then he tried it on his wife
and it gave him a normal reading,
put it back on himself, said aFib again.
He ended up going to the hospital just to see
if there was anything wrong
and they told him his Apple watch probably saved his life.
That's what I mean by technology actually enriching
our lives and not just being something that's cool to wear.
Alright, let's round this thing out with game consoles.
It's hard to pick between the Nintendo Switch,
the PlayStation 4, and Xbox One X,
because all three of them have their pros
and there aren't a lot of cons for each one either.
It's just more of a personal preference kind of thing.
Starting with the Xbox One X,
this is a flagship gift for someone you really love.
Xbox One X is the most powerful game console
in the world elevating the visuals
of all Xbox One games.
If you have a 4K TV,
the latest games will look even better than any where else
outside of a seriously high end gaming PC.
If you're looking for a game with the Xbox One X,
Red Dead Redemption 2 has a great storyline
and it continues the best content that you can expect
from a game developer like Rockstar Games.
Moving on to the Nintendo Switch side of things,
if you want a console that you can take with you,
the Switch is the one you should be looking at.
Originally the Switch was a must have console
for playing Nintendo's own titles,
now the Switch is just as likely
to play the best third party games as well.
Big publishers and indie developers alike
have embraced the console and maybe this holiday
you might want to do the same.
Of course for games, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
just came out and is likely going to be
the console's best selling title.
With more than 70 playable characters, story mode,
and more, this title will be at the top of
Nintendo fans lists.
And finally last but certainly not least,
there is the PS4 Pro.
The PS4 Pro is the perfect gift for any Sony fan
who just bought a fancy high resolution 4K TV
or a PlayStation VR.
It can still play every PS4 game,
but packs the extra processing power needed
to play games smoothly at higher resolutions
and with high dynamic range lighting effects.
It's rare to find one feature that single handily
justifies the price of a game,
but Spider-man's web slinging does exactly that.
There's a sizeable story here
and a lot of depth to the combat system if you hunt for it,
but there's nothing out there that's going to match
the sense of momentum and flow of
zipping through New York's skyline.
There you have it guys, that is 10 distinct items
that I recommend you add to your holiday list
at all sorts of price ranges.
Starting from very small to very large.
Let me know if any of these resonate with you.
Let me know what I missed.
Again, I only wanted to pick 12,
so let me know what I've missed as well.
Drop 'em in the comments below
and I will meet you there for further discussion.
Don't forget, we are giving away two TCL 6-Series TVs.
Link to that giveaway is down in the description as well.
Good luck to everyone who enters
and thanks so much by the way for your support.
The reason we do these giveaways at the end of the year
as I always say is because of the support you guys give us,
all your views, your comments, your likes, your shares,
your subscribes, everything you do helps us do what we do.
So without you guys,
we wouldn't be able to do the job that we love to do.
Shout out to Jon Prosser from front page tech
for teaming up with me on this giveaway.
Again, good luck to all you out there who enter.
And by the way, if your a Channel member,
you do get five bonus entries into the giveaway.
Check the community tab post.
There will be an exclusive code there
to apply those five bonus entries in the giveaway page.
If you're not a member yet, link down below to that as well.
You get exclusives like early videos, custom emojis,
custom badges, extra entries into giveaways,
and a bunch more.
Thanks so much for watching as always guys.
Drop a like on this video if you enjoyed it.
Happy holidays to everyone out there, happy shopping,
I hope you get what you're looking for
and I hope you're able to find the gifts
that you want to get for all the people in your life.
Until next time, I'm Andru Edwards
and I will catch you in the next video.
(upbeat music)