The Most Wonderful (& Geeky) Time of Year
It’s not the Holiday season without Oprah’s Favorite Things List. And while the living legend is featuring some incredible items this year, let’s make this year a little geekier for you all. The next month, I’ll be featuring some of Brad’s Favorite Things. And while I wish I could gift you all a free car like our girl O, I promise these upcoming gift guides are bound to inspire something for everyone on your list. Just don’t forget to treat yourself!
Gift Guide for the Work-From-Home Pro:
Microsoft Surface Pro 7: Even though the version 8 is out, I absolutely love my Pro 7. This next-gen, best-in-class laptop has the versatility of a studio and tablet, so you can type, touch, draw, write, work, and play more naturally.
Kensington SD7000 Surface Pro Docking Station for Surface Pro 7: Complimenting my love of my Surface Pro, this additional accessory for the MS Pro7 makes it a truly best-of-all-worlds device. With this dock and a desktop mouse and keyboard, my Surface Pro becomes a complete desktop computer with great expandability. I can still easily and comfortably use my Surface for taking notes, while at the same time using spreadsheets and more while it is docked.
Apple Watch Series 7: I am so attached to my Apple Watch, I truly don’t feel fully dressed without it on! During the work day, I use it to set reminders, timers, and as a way to ensure I am taking breaks to stand up and walk around. With a bigger, brighter screen, and faster charging time than the Series 6, I will probably be gifting myself one of these bad boys.
USB C Power Charger: For the days I am working remotely outside of my home, this charger always comes with me. The design is very compact, but allows me to quickly charge up 4 devices simultaneously.
Turkey Time: To Tent or Not to Tent
Cooking a good turkey is both an art and a skill – You want it perfectly cooked, without being overly cooked, and if you’re like me, preferably with nice crispy skin. Much to my surprise, this article suggests the best way to ensure an A+ turkey experience is to not tent it with foil. I’ll be trying it this year, and if you have any other turkey tips feel free to shoot me an email.
‘Tis the Season for Smishing
By now we’ve all heard of phishing, but have your heard of Smishing? This new form of phishing is implemented through text messages or SMS, blasting out linkless text messages about suspicious bank transfers as a pretext for immediately calling and scamming anyone who responds via text. Attacks like these are becoming more and more common, and I don’t doubt many of you have experienced something like this recently.
How to avoid being susceptible to these types of attacks? Just like you wouldn’t reply to a spam email, the same goes for unsolicited text messages: When in doubt, it’s best not to respond.
And if you want to really geeked out – check out chishing – hackers getting into your business chat systems.
The Last Word
That’s it for Brad’s Blog! I’ll be back next week with some more of Brad’s Favorite things, just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Because after this past year, I think we all deserve some surprises and delights for the holiday season. Have a great rest of your week!