At Home with Tech

This little red sliver is what stands between you and radio silence with the rest of your world. You’ve got a thousand things to do when you get home. Flicking the switch back usually isn’t at the top of the list. Now what…?

You might think tracking down a friend or family member who carries a smartphone is a relatively simple task these days.

There are certainly plenty of options at your fingertips:

• Call the cell phone number
• Or send off a text
• Then write an email, if you must
• And if all else fails, call the home landline (if there is one) and hope somebody’s home (and hasn’t muted the ringer because of the sleeping three year old)

But that isn’t always enough…
We’re silencing our cell phones during the day at work and forgetting to unmute them when we get home at night.
(Vibrate mode isn’t the most attention-grabbing.)

So we often blissfully go through our evenings, ignorant that one of our important peeps is trying to connect…

I’m certainly guilty of this phenomenon, and I’ve also been frustrated on the other side of the equation.

The good news is technology has a solution!

Get a Bluetooth Speaker that Ignores Your Phone’s Mute Setting
I wouldn’t consider this ‘techlution’ (tech solution) mainstream…
(at least not yet)
But this little tech company, Olens Technology, makes this cool gadget called
the Renny Bluetooth Home Ringer.
The Renny is essentially a small, AC-driven Bluetooth speaker for your smartphone.

This ‘cell phone base station’ also performs a few special tricks:

• It will ring, even though your phone is on vibrate or silent
• It will connect to two cell phones
• You can answer an incoming call with it
• It will auto-connect with your phone when you get home
• It has a relatively long 200 ft Bluetooth range (line of sight)
• You can keep it plugged in or use it ‘on location’ via its rechargeable battery
• And you can even stream your tunes, when you’re not chatting on the phone

So if your smartphone doesn’t attract your attention when the call comes in, the Renny will definitely pick up the slack.

The Renny’s marketing machine is also touting it as a cord-cutting device for your landline, if that’s your bag.

You can pick it up on Amazon for $99.95, which is what you might expect from a tiny Bluetooth speaker.
Amazon buyers are giving it pretty good reviews and especially point out the great customer service if you run into any operational snags.
The Renny also comes in multiple colors, and Olens Technology sells an optional external antenna (‘Rentenna’) for $10.
(You’ve got to like a tech company with a linguistic sense of humor.)

More Than Nice to Have?
I hadn’t heard about the Renny until I accidentally came across it while researching what to do with an empty wall phone jack in our kitchen.
(a topic for another day)

The Renny may not seem like a ‘must have’ item, and that, by itself, makes the cost feel a little pricey.

That said, my father just turned 81 years old.
My son is almost four.

I would consider both of them ‘adventurers at heart’
…which is a great quality at any age.

But like it or not, if that important call hits your cell phone when you’re at home, you’d better pick it up.

Having an external speaker to help keep you connected to your smartphone is just good sense these days.

Enough said.

Oh, one more little detail…
Olens Technology is running a promotion as I write this for a free Rentenna and Car Adapter when you buy the Renny on their website. Plus free shipping.

Mine is going in the kitchen.

Click!

HELLO-O-O-O!!