The AirPods are a magical piece of hardware

I have owned a few of them. The original and the second generation with wireless charging as well as a few more due to damage and loss. I carry them everywhere with me. My wife uses them at least an hour a day to listen to podcasts.

My original review covered why the AirPods are so magical.

The second generation arrived a few months ago. They include a few new features - namely, “Hey Siri” is always available to use. No more whacking your head to activate them. Also, with iOS 13.2 they support announcements of messages that come in. This is great for activities like skiing so that you can stay in touch via text hands-free. One of my favorite uses of AirPods is while skiing as I can listen to music and text with other people I’m skiing with.

This past week Apple released the AirPods Pro. What’s new in the Pro model? Quite a lot.

These are active noise canceling earbuds. That means that like many of the noise cancelling headphones - these create sound in your ear that is the opposite of what the microphone heads and so that sound is cancelled out. This works fantastically well in environments like airplanes and trains or even office environments. This is why you see so many people wearing them when traveling.

They are also the first AirPods that have adjustable ear tips. There are three sizes, and the AirPods have a nifty test you can run to ensure a proper seal. This is pretty cool as I never really know if I have chosen the right sized tips. This works by playing music in your ear and measuring any leakage.

Longtime readers of my newsletter know that I’m a big fan of microfiber cloths.

A few months ago, I came across these everyday small cleaning cloths that are designed for things like computer screens, eyeglasses, camera lenses, etc.

I prefer these much more than my previous pick - Magic Fiber.

An essential aspect of my smart home is door locks. A few years ago, there were very few choices when it came to locks that supported Apple HomeKit.

I've been using 2nd generation August locks for the past few years. August locks look nice and are easy to retrofit into an existing deadbolt. I have two of them in my home.

The August locks require two accessories 1) a digital keypad and 2) connect module so that you can access your lock via Alexa and their iOS app when you are away from home.

The issue is that I would rate the reliability of the keypad as very poor. It would work about 60% of the time. That makes it pretty darned useless, and something you cannot assume will work reliably. In addition to this annoyance - the remote capabilities were poorly integrated into the August iOS app. Finally, these locks burned through batteries.

So when my friend Mike told me about the new Yale locks that are connected by August, I had to give it a try.

The Yale locks are mostly a full replacement scenario. You replace your entire deadbolt with this new one. Yale is now the parent company of August, and there is a little electronic module that the lock comes with that integrates the Yale hardware with the August brains.

Since I was replacing the whole lock, I needed to get the deadbolts "keyed" or matched to my existing keys. If you know a thing about locks, then you know there are two types of keys out there. 1) Those compatible with Quickset keys and those compatible with Schlage. If you have a lock system consistent with one or the other, you can use the same key for all the locks in your house. In my case, I have Schlage keys (actually Baldwin, which is compatible and use brass keys that feel much more substantial). Thankfully Yale makes a kit that you can use to swap the Quickset key tumbler to a Schlage tumbler. This allowed me to take my deadbolt down to the local locksmith to have them keyed to my existing keys.

Once that was out of the way, I installed each look. Total installation time was approximately 60 minutes per lock.

So how has it been?

Fantastic. These locks are much more reliable than the previous locks. The keypad is built into the lock and as such, shares power with the locking mechanism.

I've had these locks installed for a few weeks, and their reliability has been 100%. Everyone in the family has a key code and have not reported any problems.

Also, the remote capabilities of this lock work much better in the August app. It's a bit ironic to me that these Yale locks are superior to August's own hardware and software.

There are two models of locks. One with a traditional key (YRD226-CBA-619) and one without any key (YRD256-CBA-619) at all. If you want maximal security get the one without the key.

I am excited to let you know about a service called Ridwell (Seattle only for now but growing).

I've been a customer for two months now and have sent them quite a lot of items to recycle and donate.

Ridwell is a service that makes it easy for you to get rid of:

• Batteries - includes alkaline, rechargeable, small electrics, lithium watch batteries

• Light bulbs - LEDs, CFLs, Incandescent

• Threads - clothes, shoes, towels, sheets, fabric scraps

• Plastic film - Ziplocs, bubble wrap, air pillows, grocery bags, prime shippers, bread bags, newspaper bags, dry food bags, produce bags, dry cleaning bags, etc

• Styrofoam

• Rotating category - Car seats, latex paints, electronics, cords, wine corks, school supplies, legos, Halloween candy, etc

What I really appreciate is how they align the rotating categories to local causes.

The Apple Card is a fantastic credit card experience. I received mine a few weeks ago. You probably aren't thinking of getting another credit card - but let me tell you why you should consider an Apple Card.

First, let me describe which cards I use and why.

Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card

This card earns 5% back on all Amazon (and Whole Foods, etc.) purchases. No annual credit card fee, no foreign transaction fees, and no earnings caps. This is a no brainer. You should be making 100% of your Amazon purchases using this card.

You get 2% back on restaurants, gas stations, and drug stores.

Now, if you travel even moderately…. See my pro traveler tips for how I approach travel credit cards.

Chase Sapphire Reserve or Preferred card

This card earns 3% on any travel, transportation, or dining related purchases. You can then spend those points and get a 50% bonus when making flight reservations that earn you miles. There is simply no more leveraged way to make money if you travel.

So how does this work? Say you spend $3000 on plane tickets and hotel rooms. You will earn 9000 points. Now you can go and spend those 9000 points on an airline ticket the next time you fly, and that will be worth 13,500 points to spend or approx $150. So your $3000 travel spent earned you $150 or 5% back.

In addition to this, you get a few other benefits like $300 travel credit per year and fantastic car rental insurance when traveling internationally as well as lounge access through Priority Pass.

American Express Platinum

Not quite as good as the Chase card and comes with a high annual fee, but you can recoup nearly all of it.

• $200 of uber credit per year (can be used on Uber Eats)

• $100 of credit at Saks Fifth Avenue

• $200 Airline Fee Credit

• Access to all the Amex Lounges worldwide.

The Amex card is useless to use as a spending card in my experience, so I don't use it.

Apple Card

The Apple Card is an exciting twist on credit cards. It's designed to be used if you are an iPhone user as there is no web site or anything to check your spending. It's all done on the phone.

My friend Kelsi introduced me to the Casper Glow Lights, and I’ve been using them for two weeks to great success! I’ve gotten out of bed at 6:30 every M-F and 7:30 on Sat and Sunday without snoozing once! A first for me.

I am not an easy riser. The Snooze button is something I often use and go through great lengths to keep hitting. As part of my goal to get a consistent 8 hours of sleep each night, I was interested in also waking up successfully at a specific time - 6:30.

The Casper Glow is adorable! It is also a smart little device. It has several capabilities:

• It will gently wake you up by starting dim and gradually getting brighter

• To turn it on, you pick it up and flip it. It has a timer that will start dimming the light easing you into sleep. You can pause the timer by pressing a button on top.

• To dim it you turn it on any surface to brighten and dim the light

• To turn it on the lowest setting you shake it

• You can pair it to other lamps to coordinate the lights

• It charges using its supplied base station.

There is an iOS app that lets you program and controls the lamp as well as pair it with other glow laps.

This summer, I drank a lot of cold brew. As I traveled around Europe, it became clear to me that cold brew was trendy and available in many different cities we visited. One of the hotels we visited had a fantastic coffee boutique (to call it a coffee shop would be insulting). These guys were making cold brew by using the slow drip method, and it was delicious.

Note: cold brew is not the same thing as iced coffee which is hot coffee placed in ice (that will make it watery). Cold brew is coffee that is brewed with cold water - usually for many hours.

When I got home, I decided to give it a go. I read a lot about cold brew and purchased a few different devices to make some. I also bought some cold brew from blue bottle “in a can” to act as our “control.”

Making cold brew is pretty simple. Most of the machines involve some a contraption that takes your coffee ground and water. The only thing you do besides shake is wait. The waiting can vary from 8 to 24 hours. I feel that 8-12 hours is the sweet spot as that means I can make .75 to 1L of cold brew the night before and it will be ready to take to work the next day (or sip on during the weekend).

For my needs, I found that the simplest way to get a great cold brew at home is to purchase the Hario Cold Brew bottle from Blue Bottle coffee. I already get my coffee beans every two weeks from Blue Bottle (the Bella Donovan is perfect for pour-over), and so it was a plus that they grind and dose the exact amount of coffee that you need for a single batch of cold brew. I also like that the Hario is made of glass. Many of the contraptions I investigated were plastic.