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The Hottest Tech Gadgets for Unforgettable Christmas Gifts in 2023

Category: Gaming

The Hottest Tech Gadgets for Unforgettable Christmas Gifts in 2023

By Krista Lockhart
Gaming
Streaming
Technology
November 1, 2023
2023 Best Tech Gadgets

Christmas is just around the corner, and if you’re wondering what tech gifts will make your loved ones’ eyes light up, you’ve come to the right place. In this blog, we’ll share our picks of the top tech gadgets to consider for your Christmas shopping list in December 2023. Whether you’re shopping for a gadget guru, a fitness fanatic, or a home chef, we’ve got you covered.

Smartphones and Accessories

Latest iPhone or Android Model: Stay ahead in the smartphone game with the latest models offering improved performance and features. Check with your cellular provider for pricing and availability.

Wireless Charging Stand: Keep devices juiced up without the hassle of cords with a wireless charging stand and valet tray.

Apple Air Tags: This gadget will allow them to keep tabs on their items via the Find My app.

 

Wearable Tech

Smartwatches: Like the Apple Watch Series 8 or the Samsung Galaxy watch 5. From fitness tracking to message notifications, smartwatches are the perfect gift for those looking to stay connected and active.

Fitbit Fitness Trackers: Help your loved ones meet their health goals with a fitness tracker that monitors activity, sleep, and more.

 

Home Tech

Amazon Echo Show 5: One of the best tech gifts in its price range, the Amazon Echo Show 5 is a cool smart display with a built-in camera and speaker.

Smart Meat Thermometer: The Bluetooth-enabled cooking gadget will allow them to always cook meat to perfection. It has a companion app giving users step-by-step cooking instructions and notifying them when their food is ready.

Robot Vacuum Cleaner: Give the gift of a clean home with a robot vacuum that can be controlled through a smartphone app.

Skylight Smart Digital Picture Frame: This beautiful digital frame by Skylight is a great tech gift, allowing recipients to view and interact with their cherished photos on a high-quality 10-inch touchscreen.

Smart Wall Lights: Their glow can change in millions of colors, ranging from various white temperatures to dramatic shades like purple and blue, to name a few.

Tidbty: The gadget can display relevant information like weather, upcoming calendar appointments, and live scores from their favorite sports, among many other bits, on an old-school screen with clearly visible dots.

Petcube Per Camera: Petcube’s Wi-Fi-equipped Bites 2 camera is pretty much the best tech gift you can get the pet parents in your life.

 

Gaming Gadgets

Xbox Series S: The surprisingly elegant, reasonably priced rig can deliver high-performance, high-resolution gameplay at up to a brisk 120 frames per second.

Backbone One iPhone Gaming Controller: Available with a Lightning or a USB-C connector, the accessory rocks a complete set of buttons, thumbsticks, and triggers for console-grade gameplay anytime, anywhere.

Oculus VR Headsets: Dive into immersive gaming experiences with virtual reality headsets and accessories.

 

Kitchen Tech

Temperature-Controlled Smart Mug: It keeps any beverage warm, and you can control all the settings directly through your smartphone via a mobile app.

Smart Coffee Maker: Brew a perfect cup of coffee with a coffee maker that can be controlled via a smartphone app.

CHEF iQ Smart Pressure Cooker: Equipped with Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and an LCD color display, the connected gadget will help the recipient conquer hundreds of recipes.

Self-Cleaning Water Bottle: The nontoxic technology will allow users to seamlessly sanitize the bottle’s interior, as well as the water inside it.

 

Streaming and Entertainment

Streaming Stick or Device: Upgrade the entertainment experience with streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV, or Amazon Fire TV.

Waterproof Portable Speakers: The Bose SoundLink Flex Bluetooth speaker is a great tech gift for any music enthusiast. It is incredibly elegant, and plenty durable with an IP67 rating for water resistance (it can even float!)

Wireless Headphones: Delve into immersive music or movie experiences with high-quality wireless headphones.

Jimu Robot Mythical Series FireBot Kit: This dragon-shaped JIMU Robot by UBTECH is a great gift for young tech enthusiasts.

 

Writing, Cameras, and Photography

GoPro HERO11: GoPro’s latest HERO11 Black action camera is a great gift for adventure enthusiasts.

Instant Print Cameras: Bring back the nostalgia of instant photography with a modern twist.

Portable Photo Printers: Users can edit their photos before printing through a mobile app. There’s even an option to interact with the prints in augmented reality.

Digital Notebook: Reusable Notebooks allow you to take notes the old-school way, and then scan them for easy sharing or cloud storage.

As you prepare to welcome these new additions to your tech collection, it’s crucial to ensure your home network is up to the task. You will need a reliable Internet connection to have the best user experience and get the most out of your tech gadgets. Fortunately, Smart City Telecom offers an All-Fiber network designed to effortlessly accommodate all the gadgets you’re introducing to your home this holiday season.

To find out more about our lightning-fast speeds and competitive pricing, click here. Stay ahead of the tech trends and make this holiday season truly unforgettable with the latest and greatest tech gifts of 2023!

Why Upload Speed Matters

By Debbie Burke
Fiber
Gaming
Internet
Streaming
Technology
August 1, 2022
A man with a computer

With more people now working from home and doing more on the Internet, upload speeds have become far more critical than ever before. Multiple people in your home can do video conference calls simultaneously. Virtual staff meetings commonly have over 50 people on a video call. You upload huge presentations and documents.  Online gaming is going on in the other room. You start experiencing freezing and pixelated images during your call.  Your upload fails. Games start lagging and buffering. Does this sound familiar?

Every Internet connection has two speeds – a download and an upload.  Download speeds determine how fast you receive from the Internet, while upload speeds determine how quickly you can send data from your devices to the Internet.  The typical Internet user downloads more than they upload, but with more cloud-based services such as video calling like Zoom and online gaming, the need for greater upload speed is increasing.  Upload speeds impact how others see and hear you on the other end of your video conference or online game. Slow or unstable upload speeds are often the cause of broken audio and frozen screens when using applications like Zoom or Skype.

These speeds can be different depending on the type of connection that you have. Broadband services like cable have different download than upload speeds. While advertising up to 400 Mbps, most cable Internet providers only have maximum upload speeds of 30 Mbps to 35 Mbps.  With broadband, you can pull much faster than you can push, resulting in choppy calls and broken or pixelated video streams.

Most people don’t know that if you max out your upload speed, it will considerably affect your download speed. Technically, the way that data transmission works via TCP/IP, the server expects an acknowledgement from your PC confirming it received the data correctly. If the upload is maxed out, this acknowledgement will have to wait its turn, slowing your connection down.  This is one of the main reasons why symmetrical is much better than asymmetrical connections with slow upload speeds. With symmetrical 1 Gbps, your speed is always fast.

Fiber-to-the-home providers like Smart City Telecom deliver a symmetrical speed, giving you the same speed up and down. Fiber delivers a reliable connection when it counts the most so when you sign up for fiber Internet, you can expect:

  • Quicker cloud access.
  • A reliable connection that helps deliver a reliable VPN connection.
  • The ability to share files.
  • Conduct and participate in video calls/conferences, especially if there are many participants.
  • Deliver presentations over video.

To help increase your Internet speed:

  • Reboot or restart your modem, router, and other equipment can sometimes clear system errors and give you a better connection.
  • Bring your device closer to your router or move the router to a different location.
  • A Wi-Fi extender, or a whole home solution, may help if you have a larger home.
  • Connect via an Ethernet cable to get a faster, more reliable connection than Wi-Fi.
  • Conduct regular software and firmware updates.
  • Turn off or disconnect devices when you don’t need them.
  • Conduct a speed test to see what you are receiving. If your upload speeds fall below your needs or expectations, you can upgrade to a faster plan or switch to a fiber provider.

Smart City Telecom delivers symmetrical speeds, so you get the same upload as our advertised download speed.  Call 407-828-6700 today to find out how you can get Smart City Telecom 1 Gbps fiber-to-the-home and Home Wi-Fi to get the best Internet experience in Celebration. Visit fibersignup.smartcitytelecom.com to sign up today.

Prepare For The Best Online Gaming Experience

By Debbie Burke
Gaming
December 16, 2021
Person gaming

You’re in the middle of the biggest push of the round. Your team is depending on you. It’s all or nothing. When suddenly, your connection is interrupted. Game over.

Glitches happen, but don’t let your Internet be the roadblock. Before you start your next game, brush up on bandwidth requirements for the gaming systems you play.

The most common issue that causes lag is your Internet connection. Ping determines how long it takes to send information from your system to game servers and back. Your goal is to have low latency around 20ms to 40ms. Depending on what game you are playing and what gaming console you are using, you may need more bandwidth.

To ensure the best gaming experience:

  1. Plug into your router with an Ethernet cable to eliminate delay and make your connection more responsive.
  2. Move closer to your router to get higher bandwidth.
  3. Use “Airplane Mode” on other networked devices to help reduce lag.
  4. Turn off updates and background data. Change notifications, auto-update, and background data settings on connected laptops and phones to reduce bandwidth usage.
  5. Regularly update your hardware drivers. Updates fix incompatibility issues and bugs that can cause problems with your connection.
  6. Reduce traffic on your network. Turn off smart devices, pause software and operating system updates, and minimize HD video streaming while gaming to ensure your network isn’t getting too bogged down.
  7. Upgrade both your router and your gaming device to a Wi-Fi 6 for lower latency, better performance faster Internet.
  8. Make sure you are using a fiber-based Internet service like Smart City Telecom. If you want the best gaming experience, you need the most reliable Internet service available.
  9. Upgrade your connection speed. If you’ve tried all the troubleshooting tricks and still experience lags, consider increasing the overall bandwidth of your home network.

Make sure you are using the fastest Internet available in Celebration. Smart City Telecom delivers a 1 Gbps symmetrical fiber-to-the-home Internet connection, so you have the best gaming experience possible. Visit https://smartcitytelecom.com to sign up today.

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Smart City Telecom is a full-service telecommunications company that serves the communities of Celebration, Lake Buena Vista, and Bay Lake. Smart City Telecom is the premier voice and data services provider to the Walt Disney World Co, including shops, hotels, restaurants, and transportation companies. We provide technologies that make our cities smarter places to work, live and play.

407-828-6700

Google Rating

4.4

See all our reviews
Logo Black and White

Smart City Telecom is a full-service telecommunications company that serves the communities of Celebration, Lake Buena Vista, and Bay Lake. Smart City Telecom is the premier voice and data services provider to the Walt Disney World Co, including shops, hotels, restaurants, and transportation companies. We provide technologies that make our cities smarter places to work, live and play.

407-828-6700

Google Rating

4.4

See all our reviews

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