Dear Santa …

Thanksgiving 2015 is past, and we are now officially in the Holiday Season, With that in mind I am offering a Five Item Technology Gift Guide to help with your holiday shopping.

1. Portable Cellphone Charger — With heavy use it is easy to drain the battery on a cellphone and having a portable charger can be a lifesaver. Most chargers are no larger than a pack of cards — some are much smaller — and they connect to the phone with a cable or by plugging directly into the phone’s charging port. Some units are device specific, while others are universal and work with multiple devices. Chargers range in price from $20 to $100. Lower priced chargers can supply enough power to charge a cellphone one time, while higher priced units can charge both cellphones and tablets, often at the same time. The unit I use is a $59 Phonesuit Flex XT Pocket Charger (www.phonesuit.com), which plugs directly into the lightening port of my iPhone 6, allowing me to use the phone while it is being charged.
2. Wall Mount Power Outlet Surge Protector with USB Charging Ports — Plug one of these outlets into a standard wall outlet and  plug USB cords directly into the USB ports. Units come with two or four charging ports and cost from $20 to $40. For anyone who needs to charge a tablet, be sure to buy a unit that supplies 2.1 AMPS. Cellphones require only 1 AMP of power.
3. Portable USB Wall Charger — For anyone who travels with multiple devices, (my husband and I have four devices between us), a wall charger that can accommodate two or more cables saves having to pack a charger plug for each device. I recently purchased tow Anker PowerPort 2 Chargers (www.ianker.com, each of which can handle both a cellphone and tablet, or two tablets, and is priced at around $12.
4. Fitness Trackers — Give a gift that promotes a healthy lifestyle. Fitness Trackers are wristbands that track steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes and sleep patterns. Paired with a cellphone app, a wearer can keep a record of these activities on a daily basis. The most popular bands are Fitbits (www.fitbit.com), ranging in price from $59.95 to $249.95. The least expensive count steps and calories while the higher end models also monitor heart rate and act as GPS trackers.
5. Action Camcorders — For the athletes in your life who wants to record every detail of bicycling, motorcycle riding, sky diving or rock climbing in realtime, these small cameras are designed to be mounted on chests, handlebars and helmets. The most well known brand of action camcorders are made by GoPro(go pro.com), which are priced from $300 to $500 and come with a variety of mounts. 

Until next week, happy shopping.