/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/23086565/jtuohy_211209_4924_0015.jpg "Amazon’s kitchen-friendly Echo Show 15 is going for off right now")
A smart display can amalgamate the various smart home and virtual assistant tools at your disposal, whether you prefer voice-activated assistants or smartphone-like interfaces for direct control. That’s exactly what Amazon’s Echo Show 15 provides, and right now, the wall-mountable panel is down to $199.99 ($80 off) at Amazon and Best Buy.
The Echo Show 15 is a solid 15.6-inch smart display that can double as a 1080p TV thanks to its Fire TV integration, which makes it ideal in the kitchen for viewing recipes or enjoying a side of entertainment with whatever meal you’re cooking. The touchscreen display lets you control a range of compatible smart home devices using various widgets and apps — which are great for viewing calendar appointments, the weather, and other tidbits of information at a glance — though we’d sooner wait for the forthcoming Echo Hub if you’re in it purely for smart home control, as the latter supports the new Matter standard, Thread, and Zigbee.
Still, the Echo Show 15 is especially nice for checking in on security cameras, as it uses the extra screen size to show multiple feeds. An integrated camera lets you carry on with video calls to other Echo Show owners or anyone with the Alexa app; however, the display’s subpar camera quality means it’s probably best reserved for, say, dialing grandma for an emergency tutorial while your hands are tied up.
I hope the retro renaissance never dies. There’s something special about preserving the technology and ideas that paved the way for all of the fun gadgets we enjoy today, which is why I’ll probably pick up another Fujifilm Instax Mini 12 for myself. We consider it the best instant camera for most people, one that’s currently down to a record low of around $69.95 ($10 off) at Amazon, Best Buy, and B&H Photo.
The Fujifilm Instax Mini is one of my favorite things to gift people, especially since it can help you capture memories right out of the box. You get a cartridge of Polaroid-like film to print photos on demand, and it’ll spray the resulting capture onto a wallet-size card, which develops within a couple of minutes, whether you violently shake it or not. There’s also an integrated flash to help in dimly lit situations, along with a front-facing mirror for helping capture selfies.
The Instax Mini 12 is an ideal first camera for kids especially, not just because of the appealing assortment of colors but also because it’s light yet sturdy enough to survive the eventual bumps it’ll take. It’s a little on the basic side in terms of features — it lacks extra shooting modes and other options, and you can’t easily edit the resulting captures before printing — but that’s what keeps the cost so low.
