Augusta, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – College students will soon be heading off to college, some for the first time.
You’ll find back-to-campus sales on things like laptops, bedding, and dorm or apartment decor.
There are a few tech gadgets that don’t come to mind, but are things that any college student or self-employed person can use.
Standing desks have become popular over the past few years as it finally dawned on people that sitting in a computer chair for hours on end is not a very healthy way to work.
Flexispot is a company that makes multiple desks that go from sitting to standing in seconds.
Flexispot desks have a very simple design that looks smart in any home, bedroom, office or apartment. The desks use hydraulics to raise and lower the desktop by extending or shortening the legs.
o Control the Flexispot desk, you use the push buttons on the control panel located under the lip of the desk. You can set your favorite positions to move to one of two heights or control the height manually.
The Flexidspot desk can be raised to 48 inches for standing or lowered 22 inches from the floor.
There is also a USB port for charging the phone. Flexispot desks come in many colors and shapes. We never saw a room with enough electrical outlets, especially in old dorms and apartments.
With phones, tablets, computers, TVs and gaming systems, students will definitely need more outlets.
Let’s be honest, standard power strips are ugly and terrible on desktops. There are new power strips that look great and work great.
Anker makes desktop power strips that look like nothing you’ve seen before. They have three standard power outlets, two standard USB ports and a USB-C port.
Students often use laptops as they go from class to class and back to their dorms or apartments.
They can also be a real pain in the neck looking down at the screen all day. There are small padded laptop stands for backpacks that open up and hold the laptop at eye level.
Especially useful for anyone who does a lot of zooming or video conferencing. One note about the laptop stand, you really want to get a bluetooth keyboard to pair with the laptop.
Otherwise you end up typing. Bluetooth keyboards are available from many companies. The Logitech Wireless Keyboard has the ability to connect to up to three devices via Bluetooth, so they can be used to type on smartphones and tablets.
Some professors still send their work to the campus library or office supply store to get it on paper.
A wireless printer can save the day for any late night/last minute work. Wireless printers are not expensive. The smallest printer you can get connects to WiFi so the student can print from anywhere using cloud storage.
For their desk, the Amazon Alexa device could be a useful tool, but our choice would be the Google Nest Hub. They are similar to Alexa Echo Show but since it comes from Google, it is much better and more accurate to search the internet.
Students can set an alarm saying “OK Google, wake me up at 6 am”. You can also add important dates to Google Calendar and watch YouTube videos and YouTube TV (subscription required).
In our opinion, the sound quality on Nest Hubs is better than Alexa devices.
Parents who don’t want to drive their students to campus may want to check out electric bikes.
E-bikes will be more popular on campuses this year for students who don’t want to worry about finding parking spaces on campus and getting stuck in traffic when going from one part of campus to another. We tried the Bird e-bike and I was impressed. They have a throttle so you don’t have to sell them if you don’t want them.
They go up to 24 MPH, and the battery lasts for miles. Charging the battery is easy. Just insert a key into the bike frame and the battery pops out so you can take it inside and plug it into a standard wall outlet.
Bird e-bikes have theft protection through the app. If the bike moves while you’re away, you’ll get a notification on your smartphone and an alarm will sound on the bike.
You can also monitor the area. Some schools prohibit electric scooters on campus, so it’s best to check the school’s website to see if electric bikes are allowed.
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