LOCAL Houston | The City Guide MARCH 2016 | Page 78
TOOLS+GADGETS
Michael Garfield, The High-Tech Texan® | www.hightechtexan.com
Brookstone Cat Headphones
Don’t kid yourself, headphones are a fashion statement. But when considering
buying a pair, make sure they sound good. Bonus points if they do something in
addition to listening privately to your music. The Cat Headphones from
Brookstone meet all these requirements.
With over $3.4 million in pre-order sales, this is a great item for any music or
gamer lover. The sound is booming when the cushioned earcups are over your
ears but the fun stuff happens with the push of a button. Everyone around you
can rock out to the sound system through the external cat ear speakers.
The ears light up, and it comes with a boom mic that makes gaming just as fun.
$100 www.brookstone.com
Vert Wearable Jump Monitor
Technology and sports continue to converge, which is a good thing. Many
pro athletes use new tech products for improvement and now amateurs like
my kids and I can too.
The Vert Wearable Jump Monitor is a neat little device that budding basketball and volleyball players can use to improve their jumping capacity.
The device is worn near the waist of an athlete and results can be monitored in real-time via your phone or tablet.
Vert measures your vertical for performance, motivation and improvement.
It can also count your jumps (for injury prevention) similar to how baseball
does with a pitch count. The company also sells the device in multipacks
so teams can monitor all players. $125 www.usavert.com
Ozmo Smart Cup
We know how important water is to our bodies but most of us don’t drink
enough daily to keep properly hydrated. Since we don’t seem smart
enough to count our own liquid intake there is now a smart cup to help.
The Ozmo system is a smart cup and app that tracks your daily water
and coffee drinking, alerting you to hydration issues. You can customize it
to your personal profile and activity level.
The leak-proof, 16-oz. cup is USB rechargeable and has 3 LED lights that
show hydration goals without the app. $80
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