Welcome to the 2022 Tools & Toys Christmas Catalog!

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Bienvenue, everyone. It’s that time once again to proudly share with you our favorite and most gift-worthy items of the past year, hand-selected for your holiday shopping and personal wishlist needs. We’ve been doing this every year for nearly a decade now, and it’s still something we get a lot of joy from putting together.

As usual, this is a pretty extensive catalog to browse all at once, so for your convenience, we’ve grouped the items into categories and have a handy  Table of Contents  that lets you click around to any section you like and back again.

Moreover, we are continuing our tradition of highlighting two of our favorite non-profits.Here at Tools & Toys we have always given away 11 percent of our gross income to charity, and during the months of November and December, we’ll be donating 11% of our gross specifically to these two non-profits: Operation Christmas Child and St. Jude.

As we say every year, thank you so much, dear reader, for your attention and your patronage. Tools & Toys continues to be predominately supported by readers like you who purchase something on Amazon through one of our links. You — yes you! — make our work possible, and we only hope that in return you’ve found some truly awesome stuff to have in your life.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

— The Tools & Toys Staff

Table of Contents

 Apple

• Magnetic stand for iPad and iPad Pro
• Solid walnut MagSafe charging stations for iPhone, Apple Watch, and/or AirPods
• Premium calf leather iPad case
• Rugged yet comfortable Apple Watch strap with magnetic buckle
• iPhone gaming controller with PlayStation-like design
• DSLR-style iPhone shutter grip + wireless power bank

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CharJenPro “MagFlött” magnetic stand for iPad and iPad Pro. ($119 for 12.9″ size, $109 for 11″/10.9″ size)

CharJenPro “MagFlött” Magnetic Stand for iPad & iPad Pro »

With its premium, almost Apple-like solid aluminum base and adjustable magnetic back panel that creates a “floating” effect, the MagFlött iPad stand by CharJenPro would make a sweet addition to any iPad owner’s workspace. Comes in two sizes to be compatible with a bunch of different iPad sizes from the past few years.

Studio Neat’s new Material Dock MagSafe charging stations. ($54 or $85, depending on model)

Studio Neat “Material Dock” MagSafe Charging Stations for iPhone, Apple Watch, and/or AirPods »

Just in time for the holiday season, our friends at Studio Neat have launched two new versions of their Material Dock, both of which are designed with MagSafe-compatible iPhones in mind.

1. The Material Dock “Trio” ($85) offers 3-in-1 for charging your iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods.
2. Meanwhile, the Material Dock “Upright Duo” ($54) is for charging your iPhone and AirPods together (or two iPhones).

As with previous editions, the new Material Docks are milled from solid walnut wood and given a matte finish, with a molded cork backing piece for the Apple Watch to wrap around while charging. Underneath is a microsuction pad to keep it securely in place wherever it lives.

(Note: No MagSafe connector is included; the user must bring their own.)

DODOcase Noblessa leather case for iPad. ($155, $175, or $195 depending on iPad size/model)

DODOcase Noblessa Leather iPad Case »

In a happy marriage of modern technology and ancient tradition, DODOcase’s Noblessa leather iPad case is handcrafted from premium calf leather using age-old bookbinding techniques. The leather has characteristics of high durability and resistance to water, along with a naturally occurring embossed grain print unique to every item.

The case interior is lined with a soft suede leather, while the exterior features a magnetic Smart Cover to activate the iPad’s sleep/wake functions when opening or closing it. When open, the iPad can be angled in one of two viewing positions while it’s set on a desk or table, or the case can simply be opened all the way around to the back for comfortable handheld reading.

DSPTCH “Fidlock” strap for Apple Watch. ($36)

DSPTCH Fidlock Apple Watch Strap »

Made from a soft herringbone nylon webbing, DSPTCH’s “Fidlock” Apple Watch strap has a kind of rugged “mil-spec”-esque look while being quite comfortable for everyday wear.

The most interesting bit however is the Fidlock Hook 20 Flat clasp it gets its name from, which features integrated magnets and a hook to easily yet securely snap together, and just as easily disengages later when you want to take the watch off. No having to fiddle with buckles or strap holes or anything like that. Just click it together and be on your way.

The PS5-inspired “Backbone One” iPhone gaming controller. ($100)

PlayStation Edition “Backbone One” iPhone Gaming Controller »

For the past couple years, the Backbone One has been one of the mobile gaming controllers to have if you’re going to buy one. It’s certainly gotten a lot of love on r/iosgaming ever since its release.

Now, portable gaming feels even more like the console experience thanks to the officially Sony PlayStation-licensed edition of the Backbone One, which takes all its design inspiration from the DualSense 5.

ShiftCam ProGrip iPhone shutter grip + wireless power bank. ($150)

ShiftCam “ProGrip” DSLR-Style iPhone Shutter Grip + Wireless Power Bank »

Know someone who’s never not taking photos with their iPhone? Then they’ll appreciate the ShiftCam ProGrip, which adds a comfortable and ergonomic camera-style grip to your iPhone — complete with industry-standard tripod and hotshoe mounts — and has a wireless shutter button that seamlessly pairs with your camera app, allowing you to take photos with your index finger just like the real thing.

The grip and shutter button alone are cool enough, but then you discover that the device also acts as a 6,400-mAh wireless (Qi) power bank that keeps your iPhone topped up through longer shooting sessions. You can even hook up a second small device via USB-C and charge it up as well.

Audio

• Noise-cancelling wireless headphones that intelligently tailor the audio experience
• Sleek and stylish true-wireless earphones with active noise cancellation
• Hi-fi bookshelf speakers that won’t break the bank
• Luxury gaming headphones with exceptional sound and comfort
• Studio-quality condenser mic that makes your music recordings/podcasts/streams sound awesome
• Portable Bluetooth speaker with vintage rock amp design

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Sony WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones. ($349)

Sony WH-1000XM5 Noise-Cancelling Wireless Headphones »

With the release of their WH-1000XM5 wireless headphones earlier this year, Sony once again took things to another level in terms of audio quality, noise cancelling technology, and comfort.

In addition to the world-class, high-resolution and natural audio quality this family of headphones is known for, the WH-1000XM5s are able to automatically optimize your listening and noise cancellation experience based on your environment (including atmostpheric pressure!) and can even cut out background noise during phone calls so your voice always comes through crystal clear.

The cherries on top? All-day listening comfort and up to 30 hours of battery life to back it up.

Master & Dynamic MW08 true wireless earphones with active noise cancellation. ($299)

Master & Dynamic MW08 Noise-Cancelling True Wireless Earphones »

Made from ceramic, aluminum, and stainless steel, Master & Dynamic’s MW08 true wireless earbuds are for those who to stay productive even while commuting or going on a morning run, and maintaining a certain level of style while doing it. They’re super sleek, feel premium to the touch, offer superb sound quality, and are quite comfortable to wear for long periods.

The earphones use an array of six microphones that work together to reduce wind noise and other distractions during calls. They’re also IPX5-rated so you can work up a sweat while wearing them without fear of damage. And, if you include the charging case’s battery capacity, they offer up to 42 hours of total playtime (or just 12 hours with the earphones alone).

Triangle Borea BR03 bookshelf speakers. ($350–$400 per pair, depending on colorway)

Triangle Borea BR03 Hi-Fi Bookshelf Speakers »

Hi-fi bookshelf speakers make an excellent addition to any home audio setup, but not everyone can afford to drop, say, $1,600 on a pair of LS50 Metas. That’s okay, because you can spend a quarter of that amount on the Triangle Borea BR03s and still have something you truly enjoy coming home and listening to after a long day.

These speakers offer a flawlessly natural and ear-pleasing audio experience that can make any recording sound real — especially once broken in a bit — almost as though the artist is putting on a live concert right there in your living room. Even if you crank up the volume, you’ll hear nary a distortion or buzz with the BR03s. These babies sound clean all the way up, even with the incredible richness and deepness of the bass that just about removes any need for a separate subwoofer.

You can place the speakers on a shelf or other surface of course, but there’s also the option of pairing them with the company’s own glossy black or glossy white speaker stands, which allow you to play with their placement a bit more (and look awesome besides).

Master & Dynamic MG20 gaming headphones. ($449, available in Galactic White and Black Onyx)

Master & Dynamic MG20 Luxury Gaming Headphones »

If there’s a company you can trust to put out a set of absolutely premium gaming-dedicated headphones, it’s Master & Dynamic, and with their over-ear MG20 gaming headphones, they really cranked the ‘Luxury’ dial to 10.

Boasting 50mm Beryllium drivers, 7.1 surround sound, and Qualcomm technologies like aptX HD for music and aptX Low-Latency for mobile gaming, the MG20s deliver exceptional sound that will make you feel like you’re truly in the game, no matter your platform of choice. Meanwhile, the sophisticated materials they crafted the headphones from — like the Alcantara headband, the lambskin-wrapped memory foam ear pads, the anodized aluminum body, and the lightweight magnesium ear cups — offer a first-class comfort experience all the way from level 1 to 100.

Other nice touches include the detachable boom microphone, the secondary onboard mic that works great for phone/video calls, Bluetooth 5.0 functionality for a secure connection up to 100 feet away, and 22 hours of battery life on a single charge

The RØDE NT-USB+ USB condenser mic. ($169)

RØDE NT-USB+ Professional USB Condenser Microphone »

Released nearly a decade after the original NT-USB mic, RØDE’s new NT-USB+ aims to continue being the go-to recording device for musicians, podcasters, streamers, audiobook narrators, and content creators everywhere.

This next-generation mic sports the same iconic form factor as the first — especially thanks to the included pop filter and desktop stand — but brings it into the modern era with a bevy of new features, including internal DSP, upgraded internal circuitry, a USB-C output, and more.

Marshall Acton II Bluetooth speaker. ($150)

Marshall “Acton II” Portable Bluetooth Speaker »

Similar to their “Emberton” model, Marshall’s stylish “Acton II” Bluetooth speaker rocks the company’s classic amp style, drawing the attention of both the eyes and the ears as it delivers a powerful listening experience in a portable package.

Inside the Acton II’s wooden cabinet construction are three dedicated class D amplifiers that power dual tweeters and a subwoofer, the sound of which can be fine-tuned to your liking thanks to the separate bass and treble adjustment knobs next to the volume dial on top of the unit.

The speaker supports Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity for up to two devices at once, so you can take turns choosing songs with a buddy. There’s also an AUX port in case you wanna go old-school.

  + Thanks to the recent release of the next-generation Acton III ($280), the price of the Acton II has been marked down considerably. All the better for your shopping needs!

Bags & Organizers

• Small and slim zip pouch for organizing all your tech accessories
• Classy leather Dopp kit with waterproof lining
• Slim laptop sleeve that manages to be both featherlight and protective
• Waxed canvas + leather knife roll bag that will make you feel like the coolest cook in town

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Bellroy Tech Kit Compact organizer pouch. ($55, available in a variety of colors/materials)

Bellroy Tech Kit Compact »

Bellroy’s Tech Kit Compact is a small and slim zip pouch for keeping all your tech accessories — cables, adapters, dongles, earbuds, etc — neat and organized.

The pouch unzips flat for easy access to everything stored inside, all of which is held in place by a combination of stretch mesh pockets and wide elastic loops. There’s also a slip pocket with a magnetic closure that’s perfect for fitting a power bank into.

Aaron Leather Goods Dopp kit. ($40)

Aaron Leather Goods Dopp Kit with Waterproof Lining »

For you frequent travelers out there, this leather Dopp kit from Aaron Leather Goods is a classy way to keep your toiletries organized and conveniently grabbable, without spending nearly as much as you’d expect for a leather bag of this quality.

The exterior is made from genuine buffalo leather — with the exception of vegan leather handles and bottom trim — while the spacious dual-zippered main compartment and side pocket both have waterproof linings to protect from any possible product leakage inside the bag.

Underneath the bag are four metal feet so you can set it by the bathroom sink without fear of it resting in a puddle. Of course, the company also added metal YKK zippers for maximum durability, and there are multiple inner pockets in the main compartment for keeping things all the more neatly organized.

Bellroy Lite Laptop Sleeve. ($45)

Bellroy Lite Laptop Sleeve »

A MacBook has never exactly been a cheap purchase to make, and you want to make sure yours is protected as well as it can be, even from the other stuff in your daily carry bag. Bellroy’s Lite Laptop Sleeve is everything you could want in this department.

With an exterior made from a sleek matte diamond-patterned ripstop material, this sleeve manages to be both featherlight and protective against water splashes and scratches, while its two different types of lightweight foam padding keep the laptop safe from bumps and bangs.

This is one of those laptop cases that just feels nice in the hand, in a squishably soft way. It gives off the luxury vibes of a high-end leather case, with the “feels good” that comes from knowing it’s actually made from 100% recycled PET plastic bottles.

Tolredo waxed canvas + leather knife roll storage bag. ($129)

Tolredo Handcrafted Waxed Canvas & Leather Knife Roll Storage Bag »

Have you ever daydreamed of rolling up on some situation where a cook’s skills and expertise are needed, and everyone gathers ’round while you place down and unfurl your shiny collection of kitchen knives, eliciting oohs and aahs from the crowd? Then this knife roll from Tolredo Handcrafted should appeal to you.

Crafted from waxed canvas with genuine leather trim and lining, this storage bag fits and protects up to 10 knives and/or other kitchen implements up to 18″ long. When rolled up and buckled shut with the dual leather straps, the knife case is fitted with a nice leather carry handle that you can use, or you can clip on the optional leather shoulder strap for hands-free carry.

Books

• The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
• Aggressively Happy: A Realist’s Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life
• Tools: The Ultimate Guide
• Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe
• Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide
• The Flavor Bible

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The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. ($17 hardcover)

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig »

Based on John Koenig’s long-running website and YouTube channel of the same name, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows is a 300-page “dictionary of made-up words for emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express.”

If that sounds too strange to understand, here are some examples of words you can look up in the book:

• sonder — The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own — an epic story in which you might appear only once
• lachesism — The desire to be struck by disaster, hoping it will shake up your life.
• anemoia — A pang of nostalgia for a time you’ve never actually experienced, like you might feel when looking through someone else’s old photos.
• kenopsia — The eerie atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.

Accompanying the definitions throughout are plenty of otherworldly illustrations and other imagery, which are a treat on their own.

Aggressively Happy by Joy Clarkson. ($25 hardcover)

Aggressively Happy by Joy Clarkson »

In an online world full of ugliness, cynicism, and despair, Joy Clarkson’s Twitter and Instagram pages are always an oasis of…well, joy — a teatime balm for the soul. As such, her book Aggressively Happy: A Realist’s Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life, is definitely one you should have on your radar, especially if the world has been getting you down lately.

This is a book all about cultivating happiness in your life, despite the darkness and pain out there, using lessons and insights taken from literature, poetry, and scripture. (Even if the latter isn’t your thing personally, hopefully you can accept that {Chef Gusteau voice} great teachings can come from anywhere.)

By the end of the book, you’ll have the tools to find encouragement and comfort in all things (yes, even sadness); to enjoy things unironically; to face down outer turmoil with inner light, bravery, and hope. A book best enjoyed with a latte or cup of hot tea in hand. ☕️

Tools: The Ultimate Guide by Jeff Waldman. ($19 hardcover)

Tools: The Ultimate Guide by Jeff Waldman »

Look, not everyone is lucky enough to grow up with a mentor who shows them how to use tools to fix/build stuff. If you (or someone you know) could use a helping hand diving into the world of DIY and making for the first time, Jeff Waldman’s Tools: The Ultimate Guide is a handy resource that just might save you a whole lot of trial-and-error as you learn the ropes:

Cataloging more than 500 tools for measuring, cutting, fastening, and shaping-from hammers and saws to wrenches, welders, and drawknives-along with their uses, their histories, and how to care for them so they last a lifetime, this compendium is your steadfast guide to home improvement and skilled craftwork. With it, you’ll avoid wasting countless hours on head-scratching home repairs, wonky backyard builds, and failed garage tinkering. This is the book for answering all your tool questions, gaining knowledge before hiring a professional, or riffling through just for the joy of learning something new about the objects that shape our world.

Flip around. Browse at random. Figure out how a tool works and how it doesn’t. Put a tool in your hand and fix something. Make something. Grab this book and get to work.

Bought your first house and have no clue how to fix what needs fixing, or what tools you even need for those jobs? Thinking of trying your hand at woodworking? Already have knowledge about some tools but lack experience with others? Then this is the book for you. Very approachably written and fun to browse through.

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe by Yumi Sakugawa. ($18 hardcover)

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe by Yumi Sakugawa »

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe is a 2014 book by comic book artist Yumi Sakugawa that acts as a kind of hand-drawn spiritual guidebook for reconnecting with the universe.

Might sound corny or even “woo-woo” to some of you reading this, but it really is a delightfully sweet and gently playful little graphic novel full of wisdom and meditations on metaphysical matters:

Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe erases the boundaries of the standard self-help book and sets you free on a visual journey of self-discovery. Set against a surreal backdrop of intricate ink illustrations, you will find nine metaphysical lessons with dreamlike instructions that require you to open your heart to unexplored inner landscapes. From setting fire to your anxieties to sharing a cup of tea with your inner demons, you will learn how to let go and truly connect with the world around you.

Whether you need a little inspiration or a completely new life direction, Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe provides you with the necessary push to find your true path — and a whimsical adventure to enjoy on the way there.

Gastro Obscura by Cecily Wong & Dylan Thuras. ($26 hardcover)

Gastro Obscura by Cecily Wong & Dylan Thuras »

Brought to you by author Cecily Wong and the curious minds at Atlas Obscura — which we’ve covered many times around here — Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide follows in the footsteps of their first book, taking you on an eye-opening adventure through the often-surprising culinary world:

This breathtaking guide transforms our sense of what people around the world eat and drink. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia’s “Threads of God” pasta? Egypt’s 2000-year-old egg ovens?

But far more than a menu of curious minds delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food’s central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on…

• History: Trace the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories.
• Culture: Picture four million women gathering to make rice pudding.
• Travel: Scale China’s sacred Mount Hua to reach a tea house.
• Festivals: Feed wild macaques pyramid of fruit at Thailand’s Monkey Buffet Festival.

…and hidden gems that might be right around the corner, like the vending machine in Texas dispensing full sized pecan pies. Dig in and feed your sense of wonder.

The book is organized by country and is full of utterly fascinating facts about our relationship with gastronomy, with lavish illustrations and well-researched and engaging writing that you won’t want to put down. Just don’t go in thinking you’re going to find a bunch of recipes — this is NOT a cookbook. (We’ll leave that to the item below.)

The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg. ($20 hardcover)

The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg »

No cookbook ever printed has embodied the saying “flavor is the spice of life” more than Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg’s 2008 best-seller, The Flavor Bible. If you’ve ever gotten bored of your own cooking — chicken breast again?! — then this is the book for you.

Rather than simply presenting you with a bunch of recipes to follow, The Flavor Bible is all about becoming more intuitive with flavor combinations and seasonings so you can coax deliciousness out of pretty much anything. It’s indexed into an alphabetical list of ingredients that you can peruse and cross-reference to discover compatible flavor combos that can be employed for the rest of your home cooking life.

There are also plenty of quotes and little essays by all kinds of chefs throughout that will further inspire you in your culinary advenures (and hopefully, experimentation).

☕️ Coffee & Tea

• One of the sleekest-looking coffee grinders on the market, with some awesome new upgrades
• An upgrade to our favorite variable-temp gooseneck kettle
• Nice little bamboo organizer stand for the AeroPress + accessories
• The smallest, most portable espresso maker you’re ever likely to find
• Barista-approved mug for pouring better latte art
• Travel mug that regulates temperature even better than vacuum insulation

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Fellow’s second-generation Ode Brew coffee grinder. ($345, available in matte white and matte black)

Fellow “Ode Brew” (Gen 2) Coffee Grinder »

Fellow’s original Ode Brew grinder has been doing quite well for itself since it launched in early 2021. However, some people had issues with how messy it could be, along with an issue in the hopper design that sometimes prevented a continuous feed of beans into the machine.

The company has taken these criticisms to heart, and they’ve introduced a second-generation model with a number of new features such as much-improved burrs they designed in-house, anti-static technology for less grind mess, expanded bean/grounds capacity, and smoother bean feeding from the hopper.

Fellow Stagg EKG Pro gooseneck kettle. ($195 with matte black handle, $225 with walnut wood handle + lid pull)

Fellow “Stagg EKG Pro” Variable-Temp Gooseneck Kettle »

We’ve written many times about Fellow’s Stagg EKG electric gooseneck kettle — you know, the one you see all the fancy coffee shops using for pour-overs — and we still think it’s one of the best things to have in your home coffee setup. Now this often-imitated kettle has gotten even better with the release of the Stagg EKG Pro.

The EKG Pro brings everything you love about the original EKG and adds a bunch of neat new features to totally customize your brew experience, such as heat scheduling, altitude adjustment (hi, mountain people!), an optional Guide Mode with various coffee/tea brewing temp presets, an alert chime, firmware updates over Wi-Fi, and a new full-color high-resolution LCD display on the base.

Hexnub bamboo organizer stand for the AeroPress. ($33)

Hexnub Premium Bamboo Organizer + Stand for AeroPress »

This nice little bamboo stand, gives an AeroPress coffee maker and its accoutrement a place to rest when they’re not being used. It accommodates two coffee mugs up top while the AeroPress’ two plunger pieces hang separately inside for optimal drying. On the side of the caddy are slots for the official stirrer and coffee scoop.

Silicone mats on the top and interior surfaces keep the bamboo protected from residual heat and moisture. They’re easy to rinse off when needed, and even the bamboo only needs to be wiped down with a clean damp cloth once in a while to maintain its good looks.

  + This wall-mounted caddy is a similar solution that could free up even more counter space. Just be sure not to mount it too close to the underside of an above cabinet or else you won’t be able to get out the scoop and stirrer very well. (Some reviewers have mentioned using magnets to mount it on their fridge, which is a neat idea.)

The Picopresso ultra-portable espresso maker. ($130)

Wacaco “Picopresso” Portable Espresso Maker »

Over the past decade, Hong Kong company Wacaco has become well known around the world for their portable espresso makers, like the Minipresso and Nanopresso. Last year, they released their smallest model yet: the aptly named Picopresso.

Aimed at pro baristas and advanced-level enthusiasts — people who are already comfortable with shot-pulling technique, dialing in grind settings, tamping correctly, etc— the Picopresso gives you the power to pull an authentic cafe-quality espresso anywhere that will rival any high-end machine, right in the palm of your hand.

Despite its tiny size, it’s capable of reaching 18 bars of pressure — achieved by hand-pumping the piston on the side — which is way more than enough to pull fantastic, syrupy espresso shots worthy of Instagram (the usual recommendation is ~9 bars).

notNeutral LINO small latte mugs. ($25 per cup; includes saucer)

notNeutral “LINO” Small Latte Mug & Saucer »

notNeutral’s LINO small latte mugs are what countless cafés and professional baristas around the world use for their lattes. In fact, they were designed in collaboration with award-winning baristas to create a perfect blend of form and function that actually makes latte art easier thanks to the interior curvature — not to mention the increased thermal insulation that also comes as a result.

Each mug is beautifully made and feels good in the hand, with a handle that sits flush with the rim for better comfort and control, whether you’re pouring or drinking. You’ll almost swear it makes your lattes taste better, which obviously we can’t scientifically prove but it feels true anyway.

BURNOUT temperature-regulating travel mug. ($80)

BURNOUT Temperature-Regulating Travel Mug »

As much as we love vacuum insulation technology, it can sometimes feel like scientists have gone too far with its effectiveness. Having your coffee stay hot for hours on end seems great on paper, but what if you want don’t want to wait until deep into the afternoon before it stops scalding your mouth?

A few years ago, the team of aerospace engineers behind the BURNOUT temperature-regulating tumbler set out to fix this problem. They developed a clever technology they call “HeatZorb”, a bio-based phase change material that turns from a waxy substance to a liquid at 140°F.

Since the mug is lined with this substance and has a vacuum chamber outside of that, what this does is quickly take all that excess scalding heat from the beverage and stores it as thermal energy, slowly transferring back to your drink throughout the day.

In other words, your coffee cools down to drinking temperature within minutes and stays there for hours and hours. No more burning mouth, whatever the time of day!

Using literal rocket science to solve the little problems of life ☕️

🧑‍ Food, Drink & Kitchen

• Stainless steel pizza oven that can be fired up with wood or propane
• Dual-basket air fryer capable of handling up to 8 quarts of food at once
• A bread machine that’s almost like having a personal baker at home
• Beautiful 11-piece bartender kit with display crate/stand
• Mason jar pump dispensers for homemade syrups, sauces, etc
• Collapsible silicone microwave popcorn popper
• Swedish handcrafted cast iron spice grinder that’s almost too pretty to use
• Cheese slicer with rose wood handle (y’know, to make your life feel a little fancier)

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Solo Stove “Pi” stainless steel pizza oven. ($500 without gas burner, $700 with gas burner)

Solo Stove “Pi” Stainless Steel Pizza Oven »

If you had a choice between throwing a frozen pizza in the oven or cooking up a homemade one over a wood fire, which would you choose? Yeah, we thought so.

From the makers of these smokeless fire pits comes the Solo Stove “Pi” (get it?), a dual-fuel stainless steel pizza oven that, when fully equipped, can be fired up with your choice of either real wood (for max flavor) or propane (for ultimate convience). Either way, it takes only minutes to perfectly cook one pizza up to 12″ across, or a few personal-sized ones together.

  + Pairs nicely with this handmade rocking pizza cutter. ️

Instant Vortex Plus XL dual-basket air fryer. ($190)

Instant “Vortex Plus XL” 8-Quart Dual-Basket Air Fryer »

If you love your air fryer but often find yourself wishing you could have two batches of food cooking at once, then Instant’s Vortex Plus XL is the appliance for you. This thing is a beast, capable of handling up to 8 quarts of food at once across two side-by-side baskets, each with its own set of controls so you can adjust them for separate purposes (e.g. an entrée in one basket and a side dish in the other).

We really like the see-through windows on the front of each basket, allowing a clear video of the food as it’s cooking without having to stop the process. There are also smart programs built into the Vortex Plus XL that help synchronize cooking times between the two baskets, whether you’re preparing two different kinds of dishes or simply different proportions of the same thing.

Another nice touch is that, unlike so many air fryers out there, the handles for both baskets are attached at the top and bottom, which offers a greater feeling of control and stability when handling them.

Zojirushi Virtuoso Plus bread machine. ($377)

Zojirushi “Virtuoso Plus” Breadmaker »

Zojirushi’s “Virtuoso Plus” bread machine is almost like having your own personal baker at home. I mean, you have to add your own ingredients and press the buttons yourself (exhausting stuff, right?), but the machine takes care of pretty much everything else.

This thing makes two-pound rectangular loaves (and other things) with ease, whether you prefer white, wheat, multi-grain, gluten-free, vegan, or whatever else — and the crust will be perfectly browned every time, thanks to the combination of the lid’s built-in heating element and the option to select a light, medium, or dark crust shade.

The dual blades at the bottom of the removable nonstick baking pan also help keep all those ingredients thoroughly kneaded throughout the pre-bake process.

There are lots of other neat settings and options to play with as well, like the delay-start timer that can put off the end of the baking cycle up to 13 hours, so you can prep in advance and have a loaf ready at a more convenient time.

Mixology & Craft 11-piece bartender kit. ($29)

Mixology & Craft 11-Piece Bartender Kit »

One surefire way to make a home more interesting is setting up a small cocktail bar there, and this stylish 11-piece bartending kit comes with all the tools needed to whip up some fantastic drinks: a stainless steel shaker, a strainer, a long spiral stirring spoon, a muddler, ice tongs, two jiggers (small and large), two liquor pourers, a corkscrew tool, and a wooden crate/stand that can be hung on the wall by a rope for display purposes.

Each item in the set has a chic copper/rose gold hue that makes them just as enjoyable to look at as they are to use.

Jarmazing mason jar syrup dispensers. ($23 for set of two)

Jarmazing Mason Jar Syrup Dispensers »

Know someone who takes pride in making their own salad dressings, coffee flavoring syrups, and/or dipping sauces? Then they’ll dig these 16oz mason jar dispensers, which not only give them a place to store those homemade concoctions, but also make it easy to pump them out as needed.

Popco collapsible silicone popcorn popper. ($14)

Popco Collapsible Silicone Microwave Popcorn Popper »

Some families are VERY serious when it comes to their popcorn consumption, and they go through a TON of the stuff. For them, a collapsible popcorn popper will undoubtedly get a lot of use. You don’t even have to put oil into the thing before microwaving it; just pour in a ¼ or ½ cup of kernels and you’re good to pop away. However, you can still add just a touch of coconut or avocado oil and some salt and get great results that way too.

When it’s done, you’ll almost always find very few unpopped kernels in the batch, and after being rinsed out, the container collapses down into a more easily stowable size. (Just know that the silicone can be a bit hot to handle right out of the microwave, so be careful and maybe use pot holders just in case.)

Skeppshult cast iron spice grinder. ($66)

Skeppshult “Swing” Cast Iron Pepper Mill & Spice Grinder »

This handcrafted cast iron spice grinder from Swedish company Skeppshult is almost too pretty to use, but if you do decide to grab it off the shelf where it’s displayed, it’ll make short work of grinding peppercorns and other fresh spices:

Its two-tiered construction is pretty clever actually. Once you’ve ground up a spice in the bottom canister, you can pour it into the top compartment and store it there under the silicone-sealed walnut lid.

Boska cheese slicer with rose wood handle. ($17)

Boska Cheese Slicer with Rose Wood Handle »

Once you’ve decided to step up your cheese game, your tools for the job need to step up with you. Toss out that old cutter with the breakable wire and replace it with a traditional-style Boska cheese plane instead.

This sleek stainless steel cheese plane has a handsomely dark beech wood handle that’s comfortable to hold as you effortlessly create uniform slices from all kinds of semi-hard to hard cheeses (manchego, gouda, aged cheddar, pecorino, etc). It also works wonders on cold sticks of butter.

Gadgets & Accessories

• The latest and greatest base-model Kindle e-reader
• Entry-level 3D printer that offers a phenomenal amount of model detail
• Portable power station and solar generator
• Home theater projectors that give any home media setup a sweet upgrade
• Handheld sound studio for creating music immediately, wherever you go
• Portable charger capable of charging an iPad Pro 2.6x over while you’re actively using it

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The 2022 base-model Amazon Kindle e-reader. ($100 with lockscreen ads, $120 without ads)

The 2022 Amazon Kindle »

Recommending Kindles is a tradition that goes all the way back to our first Christmas Catalog. Nearly a decade later, we still believe it’s the best way to consume ebooks, and the 2022 base model is the latest and greatest option, now featuring an upgraded 300ppi high-resolution glare-free display (3x the pixels as the old model!), double the storage (now up to 16GB), USB-C charging, and longer battery life.

ELEGOO Mars 2 Pro 3D printer. ($171)

ELEGOO “Mars 2 Pro” MSLA Resin 3D Printer »

Elegoo’s Mars 2 Pro is a fantastic way to get into the world of 3D printing, whether you’re wanting to craft figurines to paint, design and manufacture your own chess pieces, create little sculptures to place around your house, add some fun accessories to your kids’ toys, prototype physical products, or produce those bits and bobs you might need on DIY jobs.

It can print at 2K HD resolution (2560×1440), so your prints can have a phenomenal amount of detail, with print layer lines so fine they’re practically invisible, resulting in unbelievable crisp, smooth models. Moreover, each layer only takes about two seconds to cure, whereas many printers at this price point would take more like 6–8 seconds per layer — it’s a huge time saver.

Ecoflow DELTA 2 portable power station. ($899)

EcoFlow DELTA 2 Portable Power Station »

If you’re familiar with portable power stations from the likes of Goal Zero and Jackery, then you’ll get the idea behind the DELTA 2 by EcoFlow right away.

Whether you’re out adventuring on the trail, dealing with a power outage at home, tailgating outside a stadium, attending a weekend-long festival, or whatever else, this awesome portable battery system will keep your stuff powered up and good to go.

With 1024Wh of battery capacity and up to 1800W of power output across a bunch of different ports and outlets — which you can supplement by adding solar panels or an additional battery unit — this thing can easily power just about any collection of gadgets or even an appliance or two if needed. (See our original post for a chart with device examples.)

Anker NEBULA “Cosmos Laser” home theater projectors. ($1,100 for 1080p model, $1,600 for 4K model)

Anker NEBULA “Cosmos Laser” 1080P & 4K Projectors »

From Anker’s movie projector sub-brand Nebula comes this pair of high-definition “Cosmos Laser” projectors that can turn any space with a flat surface into an impressive home theater experience.

Available in 1080P ($1,700) and 4K ($2,200) resolutions, these portable projectors make every last pixel pop as they beam brightly across a huge 150″ screen (or all the way down to 60″) at an intense 2,400 ISO lumens, so you can see every detail at any time of day — indoors or outdoors, lights on or off.

On top of that, the projectors both make use of a special technology that intelligently analyzes any space you’re using one in (including the furniture and decorations) so it can automatically focus, perform keystone correction, and adjust the alignment to your screen size. Doesn’t matter if you bump into the projector or move it to another location; you don’t have to spend time fiddling with focus settings or tilting the device to get a better picture. It just works.

Artiphon Orba 2 handheld sound studio. ($150)

Artiphon “Orba 2” Handheld Synthesizer, Sound Looper, & MIDI Controller »

Artiphon is a Nashville-based company that designs what they call “smart instruments”, one of which is the Orba 2. This round handheld gizmo looks like some kind of game controller, but is in fact a portable sound studio that lets you create music immediately and wherever you go, even while walking.

With the Orba 2, you can create “instruments” from sounds in your environment — singing birds, a bicycle bell, your own voice, or whatever else — and then “play” melodies with them using the capacitive touch pads on top of the device, along with various gestures and movements that are picked up by its accelerometer and gyroscope.

From there, you can create 128-bar loops (up to ~5 minutes) with up to four layers of samples — Drum, Bass, Chord, and Lead — and have each of them automatically quantized to play in time perfectly, all right there on the device. You can also connect it to MIDI-based software and hardware via USB-C or Bluetooth to expand your music-making horizons even further.

Anker PowerCore Essential 20K PD portable power bank. ($59)

Anker PowerCore Essential 20,000mAh PD Portable Charger »

When it comes to portable chargers, it doesn’t get more reliable than Anker’s “PowerCore” lineup, and their PowerCore Essential 20K PD USB-C battery bank is no different.

That “PD” (Power Delivery) at the end of its name is really the key thing here, as it allows you to charge an iPad Pro while you’re actively using it, which is huge for those of us who rely on our iPads all day for work, gaming, and media. It also holds enough charge (20,000mAh) to accomplish this 2.6x over, so yeah — awesome.

If you use it to charge your phone instead, all the better. Even the 14 Pro Max gets 4.6x charges out of this thing. Basically, you’ll never regret having this battery bank on hand, no matter what you’re charging it with.

Games & Puzzles

• The new OLED-edition Nintendo Switch console
• Heirloom-quality editions of Scrabble and Monopoly
• The long-anticipated sequel to Psychonauts
• Colorful jigsaw puzzle based on a geometric painting by Frank Stella
• Root board game by Leder Games
• DUNE board game by Gale Force Nine

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The new OLED-edition Nintendo Switch portable game console. ($350, available in white and classic neon blue + red)

The Nintendo Switch OLED Edition »

Released a couple months ago, the new Nintendo Switch OLED edition takes everything you loved about the original Switch and added several improvements to make the gaming experience feel more premium:

• As its name suggests, this new Switch sports a 7-inch OLED screen, up from the original’s 6.2-inch LCD.
• It has a new device-wide adjustable kickstand that makes the original one look like a joke. (Let’s be honest, that stand was a joke, even for those of us who loved the console itself.)
• The Switch’s internal storage has been bumped from 32 GB to 64 GB.
• They’ve enhanced the onboard speaker audio for handheld and tabletop play.
• There’s now a built-in LAN port on the dock for physically connecting to your home internet setup.

Games you might pair with the OLED Switch are Mario Strikers: Battle League and Splatoon 3. We would also recommend a protective carrying case.

Heirloom-edition Scrabble and Monopoly board games. ($350 each)

Scrabble and Monopoly “Heirloom Edition” by WS Game Company »

Designed for those who enjoy the finer things in life, these heirloom-quality editions of the classic board games Scrabble and Monopoly are both crafted from solid walnut wood and feature their own integrated storage drawers to keep game pieces and other accessories contained nicely between sessions.

In addition to being handsome showpieces when they’re not being used, both game editions bring unique touches to the table (heh):

• The top of the Scrabble cabinet is actually a rotating turntable that allows players on all sides a comfortable view of the words currently on board.
• Meanwhile, the Monopoly set comes with custom-designed Chance, Community Chest, and Title Deed cards, as well as custom-designed money slips.

Each set includes solid wood and/or die-cast metal game pieces, which adds to the overall sense of quality you feel when playing either game.

Psychonauts 2: Motherlobe Edition for Xbox One and PS4. ($70, or $54 for standard Xbox edition without extras)

Psychonauts 2: Motherlobe Edition for Xbox One and PS4 »

The original Psychonauts video game by Double Fine Productions was a cult classic that still holds a special place in the hearts of many of us who were lucky enough to play it in the mid-2000s. We were even more excited when, a full sixteen years later, the long-awaited sequel was released.

Picking up right where the first game left off — which involved our young hero Razputin’s adventures at a psychic “summer camp” (read: secret government training facility) where he uncovered the mystery of his fellow campers’ brains being harvested for nefarious purposes — Psychonauts 2 once again follows Raz as he navigates a new set of mysteries.

Per our original synopsis:

Raz, who believes himself a fully inducted Psychonaut — the international team of pyschically gifted spies who use their abilities to stop evil-doers — finds out when he gets to Psychonauts HQ that he’s to be a mail room intern, not a proper agent.

What’s more, it’s been determined that a mole has infiltrated the organization with the aim of resurrecting a powerfully evil psychic named Maligula, and it somehow falls on Raz to once again piece together the clues and stop this plot before it’s too late.

Firuzabad jigsaw puzzle by Frank Stella + MoMA. ($18)

Frank Stella + MoMA “Firuzabad” Jigsaw Puzzle »

Based on the colorful geometric painting Firuzabad by American artist Frank Stella in 1970, this 750-piece jigsaw puzzle is a unique and vibrant way to challenge yourself for a few days. With its odd-shaped pieces and the abstract nature of the artwork itself, you’ll not only stretch your brain muscles a bit, you’ll come away with a great appreciation for this classic and complex work of art.

Root: a Game of Woodland Might and Right board game. ($75 for base game; expansions also available)

Root Board Game by Leder Games »

If you’ve ever wondered what Game of Thrones-style strategy and intrigue might look like in a humorous storybook/fairytale context, well, look no further than Leder Games’ Root: a Game of Woodland Might and Right.

Released in 2018, Root is a superbly fun asymmetric board game that has you leading one of four animal factions — the industrious Cats, the flying Eyrie, the shadowy Alliance, or the singularly mysterious Vagabond — each of which is fighting to control as much of the board as possible:

Root is a game of adventure and war where 2 to 4 players battle for control of a vast wilderness.

The nefarious Marquise de Cat has seized the great woodland, intent on harvesting its riches. Under her rule, the many creatures of the forest have banded together. This Alliance will seek to strengthen its resources and subvert the rule of Cats. In this effort, the Alliance may enlist the help of the wandering Vagabonds who are able to move through the more dangerous woodland paths. Though some may sympathize with the Alliance’s hopes and dreams, these wanderers are old enough to remember the great birds of prey who once controlled the woods.

Meanwhile, at the edge of the region, the proud, squabbling Eyrie have found a new commander who they hope will lead their faction to resume their ancient birthright.

The stage is set for a contest that will decide the fate of the great woodland. It is up to the players to decide which group will ultimately take root.

You can see what we meant about that whole Game of Thrones thing, eh?

DUNE board game by Gale Force Nine. ($40 for base game, $23 for expansion set)

DUNE Board Game by Gale Force Nine »

Whether you’re a new fan because of the 2021 film remake) or you’ve long been a reader of the original novels, you’re going to have a great time playing Gale Force Nine’s DUNE board game, which they reissued in 2019 — 40 years after the original edition) was published.

This modernized version of the classic strategy game has you leading one of six powerful factions taken straight from Dune lore, each vying for control over melange (aka spice), the universe’s most valuable resource found only on the barren planet Dune.

Whichever faction you choose, you’ll need your political A-game to gain control over as much Dune territory as possible — and thus, control over the spice itself — by making alliances with other players and committing acts of treachery (so your allies don’t become too strong, you understand). During all of this, you must deal with military invasions, sandstorms, giant sandworms, and yes, backstabbing plots against your own leaders.

Home, Office & Decor

• Wooden wall murals with a surreal retro-futuristic aesthetic
• Handmade Star Wars oil paintings
• Smart light panels with a warm wooden aesthetic
• Levitating moon lamp that floats and rotates as if by magic (but really it’s just magnets)
• A clock that tells time in full sentences rather than numbers
• Personalized solar system art prints

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Frank Moth x Society6 wooden wall murals. ($150 or $180, depending on size)

Society6 x Frank Moth Wooden Wall Murals »

You’ll hardly find a more unique-looking way to spice up a given space than putting up these wooden mosaics, which are based on the atmospheric and surreal digital collages by “Frank Moth” (the pseudonym a pair of anonymous Greece-based graphic artists work behind)

These artworks often combine retro artwork with images of space travel and/or various forms of psychedelia, like nostalgic postcards that somehow arrived by way of the distant future. It’s a very cool and interesting aesthetic.

Star Wars oil paintings by Naci Caba. (from $340)

Naci Caba’s Handmade Star Wars Oil Paintings »

We’ll bet you never thought Star Wars and oil painting were things that could go together well, but Turkish artist Naci Caba is here to prove you wrong. The guy also does paintings based on The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and more. Cool, right?

Nanoleaf Elements “Wood Look” smart light panels. ($200 for 7-panel starter kit, $380 for 13-panel bundle, or $70 for 3-panel expansion pack)

Nanoleaf Elements “Wood Look” Smart Light Panels »

Nanoleaf’s standard light panels are cool enough as is, with their ability to change colors to suit your tastes or dynamically match the media you consume. However, their wooden hexagon light panels bring a whole different vibe that feels warmer and more understated.

Like the original panels, the “Wood Look” series is modular in that you can arrange them on your wall in whatever pattern you like. The difference is, they manage to look like an elegant and subtle piece of decor even when the lights are off, whereas the RGB ones don’t present nearly as much ambiance without their bright colors active.

While you don’t get a vibrant rainbow of colors to play with, you do get to create a cozy and calming atmosphere customized to your tastes (controlled via the Nanoleaf app), with the ability to configure animated light “scenes,” such as a crackling fireplace-like glow or a cascading waterfall effect.

FIRPOW levitating moon lamp. ($107)

FIRPOW Levitating Moon Lamp »

Have you ever dreamed of having an office like Dumbledore’s, where bits and bobs charmingly float and spin about? Well, you can take a step closer to that fantasy with a levitating moon lamp like this one.

Using the power of MAGNETS {insert Insane Clown Posse meme here}, this lunar light-up globe floats and rotates above its wooden base, suspended in the air by a seemingly invisible hand. With the included remote, you can switch the lamp between 18 different colors, adjust its brightness level, and activate one of a few different lighting modes: solid, flash, or fade.

Sharper Image Word Clock. ($27, available in black or copper)

Sharper Image Light-Up Word Clock »

The Word Clock from Sharper Image is a rather unique take on telling time, presenting it in full sentences (e.g. “It is five minutes past eleven” or “It is twenty minutes to nine”) rather than a simple numeric display. It feels reminiscent of a split-flip signboard.

You can mount it on a wall or set it on a table/desk. Not much else to say, other than that it’s a cool alternative to normal clocks. The one drawback is that it doesn’t run on batteries; you have to keep it plugged in to operate. Other than that, this is a sweet clock to have in your home or office.

SpaceTime Coordinates personalized solar system art prints. (from $39)

SpaceTime Coordinates Personalized Art Prints »

Got a space nerd in your life? Are you the space nerd and looking to treat yourself? Then you should check out these SpaceTime Coordinates prints, which use NASA data to precisely depict what our solar system looked like at any specific point in time that matters to you or a loved one:

Enter your special event date and get a perfect representation of the solar system at that point in time. See how our planets were aligned when you met, when you bought the house, when you became parents and commemorate the most important moments in your life.

No two different dates produce the same design, that’s why SpaceTime Coordinates products are so distinctive and personalized.

You don’t even have to go with a personalized date if you don’t want. You could pick… I dunno, the birthdate of your favorite president, or the date of an important event in history you’ve always been obsessed with. Anything goes!

Style, Grooming & Everyday Carry

• Wallet with anodized aluminum frame wrapped in leather or DTEX
• Mysteriously sweet and boozy fragrance that may become your new signature
• Dive watch with an autumnal spirit
• Stylish watch with case literally made from used coffee grounds
• Black bladed pocket knife with ebony wood handle
• The warmest, highest-quality sweatshirt of your life
• Suede slippers that can pass off as boots
• Merino wool calf socks with superb cushion and comfort

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Dango D03 aluminum + leather bifold wallet. ($39)

Dango D03 “Dapper” Bifold Wallet »

The D03 “Dapper” by Dango is a bifold wallet with a 6061 anodized aluminum chassis surrounded by your choice of black DTEX, black leather, or brown leather, which is fastened on with mil-spec bolts.

Between its two outer pockets (front and back), the inner ID window slot, the card ‘rail system’ built into the chassis, and the integrated elastic band, the D03 can hold up to 14 cards and some cash without breaking a sweat. That elastic band can be moved to the front exterior, the back exterior, or the interior as you like, so you really have a lot of options for how you load out this wallet.

Maison Margiela “REPLICA Jazz Club” fragrance. ($123 for 3.4 fl oz bottle or $38 for 0.34oz travel spray)

Maison Margiela “REPLICA Jazz Club” Fragrance »

French fashion house Maison Margiela has a line of fragrances they call REPLICA, each of which is intended to be evocative of a very specific moment or memory, like sailing around Paros Island in 2001 or relaxing by a crackling fireplace while snow falls outside. Yeah, that specific.

One of their more sophisticated offerings is Jazz Club, an alluring and thoroughly masculine fragrance (although some women also wear it well) that’s supposedly like stepping into a cozy Brooklyn nightclub in 2013.

Whatever its inspiration, this fragrance is sweet and boozy without cloying. You’ll get notes of smooth vanilla and dark spicy rum on top, with hints of leather and tobacco leaf in the background. We could imagine Don Draper wearing this.

  + We also recommend “1899” by Histoires de Parfums, a spicy yet smooth wintertime fragrance that opens with woodsy spicyness before mellowing into warm tones of cinnamon-y vanilla and tobacco with hints of citrusy orange blossom.

Timex x Todd Snyder Utility Ranger dive watch. ($259)

Timex + Todd Snyder “Utility Ranger” Dive Watch »

Designed in collaboration between Timex and menswear designer Todd Snyder, the Utility Ranger watch is an iteration on the timeless design (heh) of Timex’s Navi XL diving watch.

Although it’s a diver by nature — and it does boast 100-meter water resistance — the Utility Ranger evokes the colors and textures of woodsy autumn with its military olive dial and strap, along with the eyecatching orange bezel and second hand. It’s a real looker.

On the technical side of things, the 41mm stainless steel Utility Ranger features a Japanese automatic movement, a glass exhibition caseback so you can see those inner workings tick (and tock), and the strap is made from ballistic fabric for those rugged woodsman vibes.

Lilienthal-Berlin x Kaffeeform Coffee Watch. ($210 as of writing; normally $349)

Lilienthal-Berlin x Kaffeeform “Coffee Watch” »

In what may be the most Tools & Toys item of all time, the Coffee Watch is a stylish timepiece that features a case literally made from recycled coffee. What?!

Using a complex and 100% carbon-neutral upcycling process developed by Kaffeeform, used coffee grounds are collected from cafés and roasters around Berlin, then combined with renewable plant-derived materials and biopolymers to become a durable and sustainable material that can be used to create all sorts of products — in this case, a watch…er, case.

What’s crazy is that the material retains a hint of coffee aroma, so when you first put it on, there can be no doubt you are actually wearing coffee on your wrist.

They didn’t forget about aesthetics or utility either, as proven by the watch’s minimalist Bauhaus-style face, precise Swiss quartz movement, and the fact that its crown is recessed into the case back, lending a strikingly round look to the overall appearance.

Civivi Elementum pocket knife. ($64)

CIVIVI “Elementum” Pocket Knife »

CIVIVI, who you may remember as the makers of this interesting carabiner multi-tool, also produce the Elementum, a sweet-looking pocket knife with a stonewashed black D2 steel blade and an ebony wood handle.

On top of its slick presentation, the Elementum boasts a caged ceramic ball bearing at the blade’s pivot point for super smooth and fast opening/closing action. The blade also arrives wicked sharp out of the box, enough so that you could shave your arm hairs with it if needed.

  + Honorable mention goes to the stylish (but 3x expensive) Benchmade 533 “Mini Bugout” folding knife.

Arborwear Double-Thick Pullover Hoodie. ($120)

Arborwear Double-Thick Pullover Hoodie »

Looking for the warmest, highest-quality possible sweatshirt of your life? The Arborwear “Double-Thick” is it. Seriously, you don’t have to research any further.

This thing was designed for people who have to work outside all day in the extreme cold, right down to the oversized hood that fits over a hard hat or work helmet. Its super heavy (that “double thick” in the name isn’t just marketing), super warm, and it’ll still be going strong years or even decades from now.

All the comfort and warmth of a thick blanket, with the freedom of movement of a light jacket. This is an investment no one ever regrets.

UGG “Neuman” men’s suede slippers. ($120 per pair)

UGG “Neuman” Men’s Suede Slippers »

Taking design inspiration from their Neumel Boot and their Tasman Slipper, UGG’s hybrid Neuman Slipper is a treat for your feet on those cold mornings and evenings at home.

They feature a rich suede upper and a cushioned rubber Treadlite outsole with a sheepskin lining and wool insole, offering the ultimate warmth and comfort whether you wear them indoors or while you’re out walking the dog. What’s nice is, they don’t look like slippers at first glance — more like casual boots — so if you decide to wear them with sweats or jeans in public, nobody will think twice.

Bombas men’s merino wool calf socks. ($20 per pair)

Bombas Men’s Merino Wool Calf Socks »

A quality pair of socks can make all the difference in your daily comfort, and if they’re made of merino wool, that “first class” feeling increases all the more.

These merino wool calf socks from Bombas are what you’ll want on your feet this coming winter season. They’re superbly cushiony and comfortable, offer exceptional arch support on top of that, and they sport the natural moisture-wicking properties that make merino wool so great to begin with.

🛠 Tools & Trinkets

• Cordless electric screwdriver that’s easier on the wrists than a manual one
• 21-tool Leatherman with clever magnetic locking system
• Swiss-made pruning shears that will last a lifetime
• Drawstring tool bag for staying organized on the job
• 48-in-1 multifunction socket wrench
• Copper-headed hammer for driving tent stakes

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Hoto NEX O1 PRO cordless electric screwdriver. ($54)

Hoto NEX O1 PRO Cordless Electric Screwdriver »

This 3.6V electric screwdriver from Hoto a super handy gizmo to have in your toolbox, and could save your wrists a lot of strain in the long run.

Unlike your typical cordless drill, this isn’t some heavy and unwieldy tool; it’s designed to be easily used one-handed with the press of a button (either forward or backward). And there’s no big case or chunky charger to lug around either, because it conveniently plugs in via USB-C to recharge its 1,500mAh battery — that’s enough power to drive more than a thousand screws on a single charge.

The neck of the screwdriver has a built-in ring LED light that illuminates what you’re working on without casting annoying shadows, and it has four torque settings you can switch between as the job demands.

  + Add a leather holster to make the gift recipient even happier.

Leatherman FREE P4 multi-tool. ($150)

Leatherman “FREE P4” Multi-Tool »

Leatherman wasn’t messing around when they developed their FREE P4 multi-tool. This bad boy manages to pack 21 tools into its small frame, which is a lot of functionality to always have in your pocket. And with a closed length of just 4.25 inches and weighing in at only 8.6 ounces , you’ll barely even notice it’s there until you need it.

On top of that, they incorporated a clever magnetic locking system that makes it easy to access any of those 21 tools single-handedly, in almost fidget toy-like fashion:

Felco #2 pruning shears. ($59)

Felco #2 One-Handed Pruning Shears »

If you do a lot of gardening or landscaping and want a set of pruning shears that will last a lifetime, look no further than the Felco #2 pruners.

Made in Switzerland — with 100% renewable energy, no less — these shears tackle any pruning job with almost disturbing ease. If they had any sentience, we’re certain they’d be just as happy to snip off a whole finger as easily as they do thick branches and vines.

One of the best features of these shears (and there are many) is the sap groove that prevents the blade from sticking or gumming up from plant secretions, so you can keep pruning uninterrupted and worry about cleaning after. We also like the bright candy red handles that make them easy to find if they’re dropped in a bush somewhere.

If you treat them right, cleaning, oiling, and sharpening the blades regularly, these pruners will serve you well for decades to come. And if anything should go wrong, like a prematurely rusty blade or a busted spring, all the parts are user-replaceable, so you can Ship of Theseus these bad boys until the end of time.

CLC “BucketBag” drawstring tool bag. ($21)

CLC (Custom LeatherCraft) 18-Pocket Drawstring “BucketBag” »

Custom LeatherCraft’s BucketBag is a versatile polyester tool bag that keeps all your small stuff organized on the job while being very easy to carry around and accessible when needed.

It has six big compartments in the center where you can stow wrenches, pliers, and other essential handtools. Each of those compartments has an inner pocket, and there are six more around the outside of the bag — bringing the total number of compartments to 18 — all of which are perfect for stashing accessories, fasteners, and other bits and bobs you may need along the way.

The bag cinches together tightly with a locking drawstring to keep everything snugly inside as you use the center carry handle to tote the whole setup around. It’s also designed to fit at the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket, and when you get it out and set it somewhere, the soft bottom panel keeps the bag from tipping over. Just super convenient all around.

iPstyle 48-in-1 socket wrench. ($20)

iPstyle 48-in-1 Multifunction Socket Wrench »

If you’ve ever bought one of those cheap socket wrench sets, you know what a pain it is to keep up with all those little socket pieces. They inevitably fall off and get lost somewhere in your toolbag, and somehow it’s always the size you’re looking for that’s hardest to find when you need it most.

But not so with this multi-function socket wrench, which has sets of rotating sockets at each end that can accommodate a bunch of different SAE and metric sizes, both in a variety of nut/bolt head shapes. It’s an entire socket set in one tool!

Snow Peak Copper Head Peg Hammer. ($70)

Snow Peak Copper Head Peg Hammer »

The next time you head out on a tent camping trip, be sure to bring Snow Peak’s Copper Head Peg Hammer along to help with campsite setup and takedown — specifically, driving tent stakes into the ground and pulling them out later.

The hammer’s copper head lends it a shock-absorbing property, reducing stress on your arm and making the job feel a lot less laborious. It also has a side benefit of softening the ping noise each time you strike a tent stake, which your ears will thank you for.

  + Best gifted with the matching carry case, which will also hold several of those tent stakes linked above.

🧸 Toys & Kids

• Science activity kits from the makers of Snap Circuits
• YETI Rambler water bottle for kids
• Build-it-yourself spinning LEGO globe of the Earth
• Kids wireless headphones with a built-in mic
• Kaleidoscopic science books with magic viewing lenses
• Curved wooden balance board for endless kinds of play
• Star Wars R2-D2 Tamagotchi toy
• Magnetically rotating foam building blocks

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SMARTIVITY scientific activity kits. (Prices vary)

“Smartivity” STEAM Activity Kits »

The SMARTIVITY family of do-it-yourself kits by Elenco — makers of the also-excellent Snap Circuits product line — are a series of wood-and-rubber-band activity kits designed to get kids thinking about and playing with all kinds of scientific, mechanical, and mathematic subjects: gravity, hydraulics, centrifugal force, elasticity, optics, momentum, pressure, and so on.

To that end, they offer a whole bunch of different engineering kits to explore those topics:

• Pinball Machine ($39) — Teaches kids about levers, momentum, and energy transfer.
• Music Machine ($46) — A fully functioning mechanical xylophone for learning about gear mechanics, vibrations, and musical notes.
• Pirate’s Telescope ($38) — Refraction, depth of field, and trigonometric ratio.
• Chain Reaction ($55) — The domino effect, momentum transfer, and gravity.
• Hydraulic Crane ($29) — Hydraulics, pressure, and simple machines.
• Kaleidoscope ($35) — Mirrors, reflection, and color theory.
• Globe Explorer ($39) — An AR-enabled wooden globe that teaches about the geographic coordinate system, day versus night, trade routes, cultures and languages, cuisines around the world, etc.

…and there are even more where that came from. No matter which one you start with, you will quickly see how these kits get your kid thinking more critically, creatively, and confidently as they learn through play.

YETI Rambler Jr. kids water bottle. ($25)

YETI Rambler Jr. 12-ounce Water Bottle for Kids »

YETI’s 12-ounce Rambler Jr. is likely the last water bottle your kid will need until they’re an adult. It’s just as tough and over-engineered as its brethren, with the same double-walled vacuum insulation and long-lasting DuraCoat powder-coated color options that will withstand just about anything, including all the times you run the bottle through the dishwasher.

The Rambler Jr. comes with YETI’s flip-up straw cap for easy sipping. The lid is leakproof and shatter-resistant, sports a carry handle, and is just as dishwasher-safe as the bottle.

LEGO Ideas “The Globe” building set. ($230)

LEGO Ideas 21332 “The Globe” Building Set »

Based on a fan-created build by a French LEGO hobbyist — who was himself inspired by the adventurous tales of Jules Verne — this brilliant vintage-style LEGO globe is a customizable 2,585-piece display model of our planet.

The set makes use of LEGO Technic pieces as part of the globe’s axis, allowing it to spin just like the real thing. There are little ship and compass icons you can assemble and attach anywhere on the globe, and there are even glow-in-the-dark printed name tiles for the continents and oceans.

  + If you need more LEGO gift ideas, we have a whole backlog for you to peruse.

Riwbox kids wireless headphones with built-in microphone. ($31)

Riwbox AB005 Kids Wireless Headphones with Microphone »

If you thought wired headphones were already prone to breaking too soon, try buying a pair for your kids and see how long they las- aaaaand they’re already wrecked, aren’t they?

Don’t waste your money on anything with a permanent cord. Get a wireless kids headset like this one, which are intended to be used via Bluetooth 5.0 (although a 3.5mm audio cable is still included in case you need it). They sound surprisingly good for the price point, and they’re comfy enough for kids to wear on long road trips or during online classes without a problem.

Since the headphones have a built-in mic that doesn’t stick out in front of their face, using them for online schooling is actually pretty ideal. And when it’s time to put them away, they fold up and can easily be tucked into a bag or drawer.

The colorful flashing lights on the sides of the ears are a nice bonus on the ‘cool’ front.

Carnovsky “Illumine” kids science books. (Prices vary)

The “Illumine” Kids Science Book Series by Carnovsky »

The Milan-based art/design duo known as “Carnovsky” is perhaps best known for their three-layered RGB artworks, which can be viewed through each part of a three-color lens — red, green, and blue, respectively — to reveal just one of those layers at a time.

Keeping the theme of those pieces of art, they’ve partnered with a handful of authors to publish a series of STEM-friendly books for kids, each of which uses the same kaleidoscopic layering technique and comes with its own colored lenses, through which kids can explore various facets of whichever topic the book in question is about:

• Illuminature — All about the natural wonders of the world, with layers split into nighttime animals, daytime animals, and plants.
• Illuminatlas — Travel the continents of the world, learning about everything from landscapes to famous buildings to cultural artifacts…and yes, to more plants and animals.
• Illumisaurus — You can guess from the name, but this one’s about dinosaurs and other kinds of prehistoric life, as well as the habitats they once roamed.
• Illumanatomy — A colorful look into how the body works, divided into the skeleton (red), the muscles (green), and the organs (blue).
• Illuminightmare — Covers the histories and secrets of the most haunted and supernatural places in the world.
• Illumibugs — All about bugs, invertebrates, and other creepy crawlies the world over.

Any of these would make a great gift for a curious young reader, and even better would be handing them the entire collection at once

  + Another great book worth any kid’s attention is Oceanarium, or any of the other entries in the “Welcome to the Museum” series.

Kinderfeets Kinderboard balance/wobble board. ($90)

Kinderfeets “Kinderboard” Curved Wooden Balance Board »

Similar to the “Bilibo” toy we wrote about a couple years ago, Kinderfeets’ “Kinderboard” wobble board is the kind of open-ended toy that imaginative kids can do just about anything with, indoors or outdoors.

It can be a seesaw, a bridge, a low seat, a doll bed, a Hot Wheels ramp, a slide, a make-believe surfboard or snowboard…the possibilities are endless. It holds up to an impressive 485 pounds (!) too, so it’s not likely to break anytime soon.

The secret of the thing is that it’s kinda neat for grownups too. You can lay across it in “bridge” mode to pop your own back (at your own risk of course), you can incorporate it into a light exercise routine, keep it near your standing desk to get in some quick balance/leg work, do feet stretches on it, etc.

R2-D2 Tamagotchi toy. ($20)

Star Wars R2-D2 Tamagotchi »

In case you forgot  Tamagotchis were still a thing, you should know that the late-’90s fad is very much alive and well today, with new digital pets in the lineup being released all the time.

The R2-D2 Tamagotchi in particular puts the classic Star Wars droid in the palm of your hand, where you can care for the cute little guy, have him master skills through various training games, and enjoy several fun Star Wars “Easter eggs” (get it?) as they pop up throughout the day.

Similar to other Tamagotchis, you have to keep up with R2-D2’s maintenance, keeping him clean and charged up — or else he’ll start malfunctioning and eventually be carried away by Jawas :(

Blockaroo magnetic foam building blocks. (Prices vary)

Blockaroo Magnetic Foam Block Building Toys »

Blockaroos are a series of teacher-developed STEM toys that are made up of soft-touch, bath-safe foam pieces with magnetic touch points on one or more sides.

Those factors alone already make the blocks fun to mess around with, but what makes them really cool is that the magnets — which always attract, never repel — also enable the pieces to rotate 360° once connected, opening up entire other avenues of imaginative building.

Rotating the blocks creates an oddly satisfying clicky noise and feel, making them quite the tactile/sensory experience. The ease of connecting the magnetics together also makes it so younger toddlers can start building right away without struggling with the fine motor skills that other building toys require.

Highly recommended for parents of young ones who need a fun and safe outlet for their creativity. (And anyone sick of stepping on hard blocks with sharp edges in the middle of the night.)

Travel & Outdoors

• Portable 3-fuel grill & fire pit
• Guide book for tracking visits to US national parks
• Gardening stool that comes with an attachable tool bag and some basic tools
• Long-distance hiking backpack that’s built like a tank
• Portable tire inflator that could save your road trip
• Universal travel power adapter with four types of prongs to choose from

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Volcano Grills 3-in-1 camping grill and fire pit. ($184)

The Volcano Collapsible Propane + Charcoal + Wood Grill »

Stay at enough campgrounds and you’ll discover they can have very different rules about what kinds of campfires they allow. With the Volcano Grills 3-in-1 stove + fire pit, you get the best of all worlds. It can run off propane as needed, or you can build a wood fire in it, or you can burn some charcoal in there for cooking purposes.

What’s extra cool is just how portable the thing is, since the legs and body all collapse down into an easily transportable size/form factor. This is one of the most versatile tools to have in your outdoor travel kit. You’ll find uses for it almost everywhere you go.

  + Two great companions for the Volcano are the company’s own Dutch oven and these kabob grilling baskets.

Anderson Design Group National Park Adventure Guide book. ($35)

Anderson Design Group National Park Adventure Guide Book »

This little spiral-bound guide book is a fun way to track and commemorate your US national park visits.

With a page spread for each of the 63 currently designated national parks (as of 2022), the guide offers fun facts about each park and has spaces for you to sketch or jot down notes during a given visit, along with a checklist of 10 things to do and see there. There’s also a collection of “badge” stickers at the back of the book that you can place on the respective pages of any parks you’ve visited.

Gardening tool bag + stool set. ($26)

California Picnic’s Gardening Tool Bag + Stool Set »

Tending to your backyard garden doesn’t have to involve being on your hands and knees all day. With a lightweight and portable stool like this one, you can work all around your garden in comfort for as long as you need.

The cool thing about it is, it comes with a heavy duty multi-pocket bag with a spacious main compartment that conveniently snaps onto four straps hanging down from the seat, so you always have your tools as you move about the yard.

Alongside the bag — which can be carried separately if you don’t want to keep it snapped to the stool — this kit also includes an aluminum trowel, a grass fork, a transplanter, a set of pruning shears, and a pair of gardening gloves.

Even if you’re not a gardener yourself, this would be an excellent starting kit for you or anyone you know. It can also come in handy on fishing trips, at concerts, you name it.

Mystery Ranch Glacier hiking backpack. ($375 for all sizes/colors)

Mystery Ranch “Glacier” 70L Backpacking Pack »

When it comes to backpacks that hold up to wear and abuse, Mystery Ranch is easily one of the top-tier brands you can always put your trust in. Their “Glacier” backpacking pack in particular is one you can turn to for long-distance hikes and city treks.

This is a bag you can toss a lot of weight into — all the way up to 75 pounds, across 70 liters of capacity — without compromising your comfort. And to call it durable is an understatement; Mystery Ranch builds their bags like tanks, the Glacier being no exception. It’s made from 500D “Lite Plus” Cordura fabric and sports all YKK zippers like any worthwhile backpack should.

The Glacier is the kind of bag where every single detail has been considered and re-considered to ensure you won’t regret your purchase, especially after taking it on miles and miles of adventures, whether in the backcountry or anywhere else.

Slime 40063 portable tire inflator. ($59)

Slime Elite Heavy-Duty Tire Inflator »

Roadside assistance is great and all, but when it comes to the simple matter of a low tire, you don’t want to be stranded in the middle of nowhere while it takes who-knows-how-long before anyone can come to help you. That’s why this tire inflator from Slime is such a handy thing to have around.

There’s no need to call anyone up when you can just plug this thing into your vehicle’s accessory jack, hook it up to the tire in question, set your desired pressure, and walk away as the tire airs back up in minutes.

The inflator supports up to 99 PSI, the air hose reaches up to 28 feet away from the main unit, it has a carry handle for easy portability, there’s a bright LED light on the end for nighttime visibility (not to mention the device’s backlit display), and it works just as well for bike tires as it does for vehicle ones.

  + On a similar note, keeping a portable jump starter on hand is another pro move.

APzek universal travel power adapter. ($18)

APzek Universal Travel Power Adapter »

When traveling internationally, there’s a certain peace of mind that comes from knowing that you’ll be always able to keep your devices charged, no matter where you go. To manage that, you need a “universal” power adapter like this one.

We put “universal” in quotes because there are always limitations on these kinds of gizmos — in this case, a lack of a built-in voltage converter, thus making it unsuitable for high-power appliances like hair dryers, clothing irons, etc.

As long as it’s used only for charging things like smartphones, tablets, laptops, cameras, Bluetooth speakers, power banks, and the like, you should be fine.

The adapter comes with four types of power prongs that you can slide up to expose as needed: Type A (US standard), Type C (Europe standard), Type G (UK standard), and Type I (Australia standard). You also get three USB-A outputs (5V/2.4A) and one USB-C port (5V/3A) for charging a handful of devices at once.

Writing & Stationery

• Black anodized aluminum space pen with hexagonal finger grip
• Stylish and ultra-portable waxed canvas pocket journal
• Japan-made large-format notebook for your best and biggest ideas
• Nigh-indestructible titanium bolt-action permanent marker

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Fisher Space Pen Clutch. ($50)

Fisher Space Pen “Clutch” »

Anyone familiar with the Fisher space pen needs no introduction to what it can do, but for those unfamiliar with it, the main thing you need to know is that it can write anywhere — in zero gravity, upside down, underwater, through grease, and at temperatures both below freezing and above boiling — without missing a beat. If you need a pen you can always count on, this is it.

The Space Pen Clutch in particular has a hexagonal finger grip so you can keep a good grip on it even with thick gloves on, making it an ideal writing tool in the field. It’s also constructed from black anodized aluminum, so it manages to be both lightweight in the hand and super sturdy, all while lasting 3x longer than a typical ballpoint pen.

LOCHBY waxed canvas pocket journal. ($44)

LOCHBY Waxed Canvas Pocket Journal with Nylon YKK Zipper »

Despite having the ability to whip out a phone and tap out a note anytime an important thought strikes, there’s still something so pleasing about jotting down those ideas by hand instead. But cramming a notebook into your pocket or bag several times a day is going to tear it apart fast.

Not to worry, LOCHBY’s Pocket Journal can keep your notes perfectly safe, and in rugged style. It’s a premium double-stitched waxed canvas case that can accommodate any typical 3.5″ x 5.5″ memo book, and comes with a dot-grid one to get you started.

The front of the case has pockets for holding a pen alongside a pocket knife or multi-tool, while the interior has a pocket on one side for the memo book itself and another pocket where you can stash cards/cash, a passport, business cards, or other such things. On the back is yet another pocket that’s perfect for index cards.

Maruman Mnemosyne N110 landscape notebook. ($14)

Maruman N110 “Mnemosyne” US Letter-Sized Grid Notebook »

Sometimes your ideas are just too big for a typical notebook. When inspiration hits hard and you need to get it all down on one page, you’ll be glad to have the Japan-made Maruman Mnemosyne N110 notebook handy.

Once detached from this notebook, the 70 micro-perforated white pages are US Letter-sized but in landscape orientation (so, 11″ x 8.5″), thus offering even more room for your notes and sketches than their A5-sized “Inspiration” N182 notebook (8.3″ x 5.8″) featured back in our 2016 Christmas Catalog.

Like that previous notebook, the Letter-size edition is top-bound with Maruman’s signature twin-ring wire system, which allows the pages to lay perfectly flat — with the added bonus of being pleasant to write/draw in for both left- and right-handed users. The pages also have a subtle ¼” square grid system to keep your drawings and brainstorms nice and orderly, all while allowing very little ghosting or bleedthrough.

This is just an excellent notebook all around, worthy of all your best thoughts and ideas.

Soul Built MARKSMITH titanium bolt-action permanent marker. ($100)

Soul Built MARKSMITH Titanium Bolt-Action Permanent Marker »

Thanks to its nigh-indestructible grade 5 titanium body — the same alloy used to make aircraft turbines, among other high-performance aerospace/marine/automotive applications — the MARKSMITH marker from Soul Built really puts the “permanent” in “permanent marker.” It’s the last one you’ll ever own.

It’s compatible with Sharpie-branded fine-tip retractable permanent marker cartridges — although Soul Built sells their own refills in various colors — and the bolt-action mechanism not only makes the marker easy to use one-handed, but is also satisfyingly clicky and fun to fidget with.

They even put some consideration into the clip, featuring a sturdy, non-wiggly design along with layered grooves at its top to offer tactile feedback while keeping your thumb from slipping off when you use it to deploy the marker tip.

Charities

At Tools & Toys we have always donated 11% of our gross income to charity. If you click this link before you do your shopping on Amazon, we’ll be donating 11% of our affiliate earnings for the months of November and December specifically to the charities listed below.

We also encourage you to consider making some charitable donations this year, and invite you to give alongside us to these two organizations:

• St. Jude Children’s Hospital: St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric treatment and research facility. Discoveries made at St. Jude have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Moreover, their hospital has been described as “a hospital without walls” where children in need are treated at no cost to their family.

• Operation Christmas Child: Samaritan’s purse is a Christian ministry, and every year they work with volunteers and donors from around the nation to pack and ship shoe boxes full of gifts to children in need around the globe.

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Welcome to the 2021 Tools & Toys Christmas Catalog!

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Friends, I hope this catalog finds you well. Your friendly neighborhood editor is just now emerging from a nearly-two-week COVID fugue state and beginning to feel like a human being again. As such, I hope you’ll forgive any errors or missing information in the catalog, should any of that exist. 🥴

Anyway, in our usual fashion, we’ve combed through the past year’s items and hand-selected the neatest, most gift-worthy of them for your holiday shopping and personal wishlist needs. This is one of our favorite traditions and something we truly look forward to putting together each holiday season.

We understand this is an extensive catalog to browse all at once, so we’ve grouped the items into categories and have a handy  Table of Contents  that lets you click around to any section you like and back again.

Moreover, we are continuing our tradition of highlighting two of our favorite non-profits.Here at Tools & Toys we have always given away 11 percent of our gross income to charity, and during the months of November and December, we’ll be donating 11% of our gross specifically to these two non-profits: Operation Christmas Child and St. Jude.

As we’ve said in past years, thank you so much, dear reader, for your attention and your patronage. Tools & Toys continues to be predominately supported by readers like you who purchase something on Amazon through one of our links. You — yes you! — make our work possible, and we only hope that in return you’ve found some truly awesome stuff to have in your life.

If the gift ideas we’ve curated below don’t fit your needs or wants, ping us on Twitter and we will try to help.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

— The Tools & Toys Staff

Table of Contents

 Apple

• Camera-esque silicone case for AirPods Pro + AirTag
• MagSafe-compatible iPhone 13 case
• Smartphone camera grip with remote shutter and more
• An organizer + storage solution that attaches to the back of your iPad Pro
• A comfy way to prop up your iPad on your lap or right next to you for easy viewing/sketching/reading/etc
• Soft and stretchy Apple Watch band
• Premium leather + flexible polymer Apple Watch strap

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Elago Snapshot case for AirPods Pro + AirTag. ($11)

Elago “Snapshot Case” for AirPods Pro and AirTag »

In many ways, Elago’s “Snapshot” case is your typical protective silicone cover + keyring for the AirPods Pro, but this one also includes a slot for an AirTag (sold separately), so if you ever lose your earbuds somewhere, you can easily track them down again.

(As a side note, we love that it makes your AirPods look like a tiny camera. )

Nomad Sport Case for iPhone 13. ($40)

Nomad MagSafe “Sport Case” for iPhone 13 »

Designed with minimalists in mind, Nomad’s Sport Case for iPhone 13 features five subtle color hues with a glossy backing and a protective TPE bumper around the edge. Each option blends in with almost any outfit and can be slipped in and out of a pocket easily, while remaining surprisingly grippy in the hand.

The case is compatible with Apple’s MagSafe charger and also works with wireless charging solutions so charging the iPhone is as easy and convenient as ever.

Just Mobile ShutterGrip 2 smartphone camera grip. ($48)

Just Mobile “ShutterGrip 2” Smartphone Camera Grip with Remote Shutter »

Just Mobile’s second-generation ShutterGrip is ready to change your whole smartphone photography game. It adds a camera-style grip to just about any iOS or Android phone, making it much more comfortable to shoot with.

On top of the grip is a Bluetooth-connected shutter button, making it feel even more like the real deal. But what’s even crazier is, that shutter button is actually removable and can be used as a clicker remote up to 33 feet (10 meters) away from the phone!

Also built into the grip is an extendable (~6″ / 15cm) selfie-stick arm, a standard tripod-thread mount, an integrated cold shoe mount for attaching accessories like microphones, and more.

The oriGrid Classic organizer for iPad Pro. ($46)

tinyRigs “oriGrid Classic” Organizer for iPad Pro »

The “oriGrid Classic” organizer by tinyRigs is an ingenious and fashionable way of adding physical storage onto the back of your iPad Pro, as long as it’s paired with a Magic Keyboard, a Smart Folio, or a Smart Keyboard Folio. This add-on removes the need to carry a bag around most of the time; just grab your iPad Pro and head out the door, with all your necessary accessories held right there on the back of it.

The MoKo Tablet Pillow Stand. ($25)

MoKo Tablet Pillow Stand »

If you’re the type who likes to lounge on the couch or lay on a bed while you use your iPad to sketch, take handwritten notes, do some reading, watch your favorite shows, or whatever else, the MoKo Tablet Pillow Stand is a comfy way to prop it up on your lap or right next to you.

It’s designed to fit devices up to 11″ (so it’s a bit small for 12.9″ iPad Pros), you can rest your tablet on it in landscape or portrait orientation, and the pillow back gives you a 60° viewing angle. The linen cover can also be removed for easy washing, which is nice, and it has side pockets for storing a few small items within easy reach.

Bagoplus elastic braided solo loop band for Apple Watch. ($12)

Bagoplus Elastic Braided Solo Loop Band for Apple Watch »

In the same way that we’re fans of wearing an elastic belt that always fits just right, we also love a good elastic Apple Watch band. This stretchy braided solo loop model is easy to slip on and off, and it has a soft cushiony feel, so it’s comfy to wear all day — even while working out.

Bellroy leather + polymer strap for Apple Watch. ($69)

Bellroy Premium Leather + Flexible Polymer Strap »

There’s no denying we love Bellroy’s stuff around here, most of which falls into the territory of wallet, bag, or pouch. Now they’ve added an Apple Watch strap to their lineup, and it’s every bit as awesome as you’d expect.

In an interesting move, they’ve paired a premium eco-tanned leather exterior with a durable and flexible polymer base layer, so you’ve got all the style and class of a city watch with the comfort and utility of a sport band.

Audio

• Gorgeous retro-styled AM/FM radio
• Vinyl turntable that offers audiophile sound at a (relatively) budget price
• Sleek and stylish noise-cancelling true-wireless earphones
• Comfy beanie with built-in Bluetooth earbuds
• Soundbar that uses Dolby spatial technology for an immersive listening experience
• Guitar amp attenuator that lets you play with the sound of a cranked-up guitar amp but at a more reasonable volume

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Tivoli’s Model One AM/FM radio. ($169)

Tivoli Audio “Model One” Retro AM/FM Radio »

You may not think so yet, but you might soon be telling the world that your most prized possession is an AM/FM radio. Don’t believe us? Take a look at the “Model One” by Tivoli Audio and find the lie. Yeah. Exactly.

First designed back in 2000, this gorgeous analog radio boasts a midcentury modern aesthetic, housed in a handmade, furniture-grade wood cabinet that happens to be acoustically inert. With only three knobs and a single mono speaker, the Model One is the epitome of retro simplicity.

They haven’t forsaken all modern-ness, however. On the back is an aux port so you can connect your phone (or whatever other device) and play your own music, along with a headphone jack for more intimate listening.

In any case, it’s hard to overstate how awesome the unit looks in any room. It’s a real attention-grabber.

Pro-ject Debut Carbon EVO turntable. ($599)

Pro-Ject Debut Carbon EVO Turntable »

Pro-ject’s Debut Carbon EVO manual belt-drive turntable offers audiophile sound at a budget price — relatively speaking. Dropping over half a grand is nothing to scoff at, but you’d normally have to spend north of a thousand bucks to get the level of quality they put into this device.

As with any simple-looking turntable like this, the small details are everything:

• The DC EVO sports three height-adjustable aluminum feet that are dampened with TPE, so not only can you ensure the platform is perfectly level wherever you set it, it will also keep resonances from interfering with your music.
• On that same note (heh), the record platter itself is also damped with a ring of TPE material for noiseless operation, and the motor mounting system boasts some clever noise-isolation engineering of its own.

Master & Dynamic MW08 noise-cancelling true wireless earphones. ($299)

Master & Dynamic MW08 Noise-Cancelling True Wireless Earphones »

For those who like to stay productive even when commuting or going on a morning run, and maintaining a certain level of style while doing it, Master & Dynamic’s MW08 true wireless earbuds are always ready to go.

Made from ceramic, aluminum, and stainless steel, these earphones are super sleek, feel premium to the touch, and are quite comfortable to wear for long periods. Each side houses three microphones (for a total of six) that work together to reduce wind noise and other distractions during phone calls. They’re also IPX5 rated, so you can work up a sweat while wearing them without fear of damage.

On the music-listening side of things, these earphones have superb sound quality that brings crisp highs, clear mids, and punchy bass to the mix, all of which is backed up by active noise cancellation that will immerse you all the more in your favorite tunes as you go about your business.

FULLLIGHT TECH’s Bluetooth earbud beanie. ($24)

FULLLIGHT TECH Beanie with Built-in Bluetooth Earbuds »

Another cool (or is it warm?) gift idea for your list is this Bluetooth beanie hat, which has removable earbuds in the sides so the user can comfortably keep their head warm while jamming to their favorite tunes or listening to audiobooks in the brisk outdoors, or even taking phone calls on the go.

The earbuds can be controlled via three buttons (volume down, play/pause/power, and volume up) hidden in the leather patch on the righthand side, complete with indicator LEDs. They’re not the highest-end earbuds in the world, but still plenty clean-sounding and enjoyable to listen to.

The beanie itself is comfy enough that you can sleep in it without issue, so you have this whole other benefit of being able to put on relaxing sounds or soft music at night without disturbing your partner. The battery lasts for 16–20 hours as well, so the earbuds can run ’til morning if needed.

Bose Smart Soundbar 900. ($899)

Bose Smart Soundbar 900 »

Bose’s Smart Soundbar 900 makes your home theater setup feel more immersive than ever, pairing their own advances in spatial audio with Dolby Atmos, a technology that separates instruments, dialogue, and effects and then “places” them in discrete parts of a room.

It’s pretty crazy being able to hear things happening “around” you without having to actually surround yourself with speakers. Whether you’re watching your favorite action flick or checking out that pro-shot concert you weren’t able to score tickets to see live, you’ll feel like you’re really there.

Bugera PS1 Power Soak guitar amp attenuator. (Check Amazon for current price; see note below)

Bugera PS1 “Power Soak” Guitar Amp Attenuator »

Know any guitarists who love playing with that cranked-up amp sound, but they drive everyone in their house/neighborhood nuts with the insane loudness of it? How is one supposed to get that awesomely distorted, crunchy tone and keep the speaker volume down?

The Bugera PS1 “Power Soak” is exactly the kind of device that does this single job well. You hook it up between your amp and your speaker cabinet, crank up the amp to get whatever guitar sound you’re looking for, then use the big “Soak” knob to lower the speaker’s volume to a reasonable level without losing that sweet, sweet tone. Simple as that!

(Side note: As of the publication of this gift guide, the Power Soak is only being sold on Amazon by third-party vendors, most in used condition. Keep an eye out for the official listing to make its return.)

Bags

• Classy and functional backpack for daily commuting and city exploring
• Bright and colorful travel bags guaranteed to last 61 years
• 600 Denier insulated cooler bag with water and weather resistance
• Handsome briefcase for M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBoo Pros

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Bellroy Transit workpack. ($199)

Bellroy “Transit” Workpack »

Bellroy’s “Transit” workpack is a classy and functional backpack for one’s daily work/commute/city-exploration needs. It’s the smaller, nimbler cousin to the more travel-focused 28-liter model, with only a smidgen less storage capacity.

Like all Bellroy bags, the details, construction, and materials are all top-notch here. It’s made from environmentally certified leather and water-resistant recycled woven fabric that’s lightweight and comfortable enough to tote around all day, whether you’re wearing it to work, the gym, or elsewhere.

Cotopaxi Allpa travel packs. ($170–$220, depending on size)

Cotopaxi “Allpa” Travel Packs »

The bright and colorful “Allpa” travel packs by gear company Cotopaxi (coh-toh-PAWK-see) are a trio of adventure-ready, carry-on compatible bags that are designed to comfortably handle everything from weekend getaways to international expeditions — and do it all in style.

With a shell made from TPU-coated 1000D polyester paired with 840D ballistic nylon paneling, these packs are rugged enough to be tossed around, shoved into compartments, yanked back out, stuffed full, slammed down…and come out the other side still looking brand new. In fact, they guarantee 61 years of lasting durability for ALL their products.

(More info on all this and more in our original post.)

Husky 600 Denier insulated cooler. ($36)

Husky Water- and Weather-Resistant Insulated Cooler »

Forget that cheapy little plastic lunchbox you had as a kid — this cooler bag is a much better way to take a full meal (or two) anywhere. It’s heavy-duty, roomy inside, holds up to just about any abuse thrown at it, keeps stuff hot or cold for hours on end, and the thick padded handle and shoulder strap make it easy and comfortable to carry around.

Both the main compartment and front exterior pocket are insulated, and the side mesh pockets can each hold a big ol’ water bottle so you can stay well hydrated on the go.

WaterField Designs Tech Folio Brief. ($359 or 379, depending on size. Doesn’t ship until after Christmas, though — see note below)

WaterField Designs “Tech Folio Brief” Laptop Briefcase for 14″ and 16″ MacBook Pros »

WaterField Designs’ Tech Folio Brief is a handsome briefcase for carrying around that shiny new M1 Pro or M1 Max MacBook Pro you’ve treated yourself to.

Available in Compact size ($359) for 14″ MacBooks and Full size ($379) for 16″ ones, the Tech Folio Brief comes in your choice of black ballistic nylon or brown waxed canvas, with a full-grain leather front panel for that extra bit of luxury. That panel doubles as a quick-access pocket — for things like your phone, passport, etc — and has a satisfying magnetic enclosure, as demoed by Gary Waterfield himself 56 seconds into this video:

Note: As of publication, the Tech Folio Brief is on its fourth batch of orders (it’s been very popular!), which won’t ship until December 30th. If you’re intending to gift this to someone for Christmas, you might let them know it’ll be a week or two late, or you can get them a WaterField Designs gift card so they can pick one up in their own time.

Books & Novels

• The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
• Gastro Obscura
• Ikigai
• Phantom Kangaroo
• Project Hail Mary
• Piranesi
• Big Ideas for Curious Minds
• Love is in Small Things

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The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig. ($18 hardcover)

The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig »

The popular long-running blog by John Koenig — who invents “made-up words for emotions that we all feel but don’t have the words to express” — is now available in published form!

Now you have the chance to crack open a real, physical tome and look up the exact word for obscure feelings like…

• sonder — The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
• lachesism — The desire to be struck by disaster, hoping it will shake up your life.
• anemoia — A pang of nostalgia for a time you’ve never actually experienced, like you might feel when looking through someone else’s old photos.
• kenopsia — The eerie atmosphere of a place that is usually bustling with people but is now abandoned and quiet.

The book has hundreds of new definitions that even longtime fans have never seen before, and they’re accompanied by plenty of otherworldly illustrations and other imagery throughout.

Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide by Cecily Wong & Dylan Thuras. ($26 hardcover)

Gastro Obscura by Cecily Wong & Dylan Thuras »

Brought to you by author Cecily Wong and the curious minds at Atlas Obscura, the new book titled Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide follows in the footsteps of their first book, taking readers on an eye-opening adventure through the often-surprising culinary world:

This breathtaking guide transforms our sense of what people around the world eat and drink. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia’s “Threads of God” pasta? Egypt’s 2000-year-old egg ovens?

But far more than a menu of curious minds delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food’s central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on…

• History: Trace the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories.
• Culture: Picture four million women gathering to make rice pudding.
• Travel: Scale China’s sacred Mount Hua to reach a tea house.
• Festivals: Feed wild macaques pyramid of fruit at Thailand’s Monkey Buffet Festival.

…and hidden gems that might be right around the corner, like the vending machine in Texas dispensing full sized pecan pies. Dig in and feed your sense of wonder.

The book is organized by country and is full of utterly fascinating facts about our relationship with gastronomy, with lavish illustrations and well-researched and engaging writing that you won’t want to put down.

Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles. ($13 hardcover)

Ikigai by Héctor García and Francesc Miralles »

Héctor García and Francesc Miralles’ Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life is a kind of introductory guide to the concept of ikigai, which in the simplest terms can be defined as “the thing that gives you purpose and motivates you in life.” What is it that nourishes your soul? What gets you out of bed each morning?

To better frame the idea, the book’s authors asked some of the longest-lived people on Earth about their secrets to a long and happy existence:

According to the Japanese, everyone has an ikigai—a reason for living. And according to the residents of the Japanese village with the world’s longest-living people, finding it is the key to a happier and longer life. Having a strong sense of ikigai—the place where passion, mission, vocation, and profession intersect—means that each day is infused with meaning. It’s the reason we get up in the morning. It’s also the reason many Japanese never really retire (in fact there’s no word in Japanese that means retire in the sense it does in English): They remain active and work at what they enjoy, because they’ve found a real purpose in life—the happiness of always being busy.

In researching this book, the authors interviewed the residents of the Japanese village with the highest percentage of 100-year-olds—one of the world’s Blue Zones. Ikigai reveals the secrets to their longevity and happiness: how they eat, how they move, how they work, how they foster collaboration and community, and—their best-kept secret—how they find the ikigai that brings satisfaction to their lives. And it provides practical tools to help you discover your own ikigai. Because who doesn’t want to find happiness in every day?

Your ikigai lies somewhere at the intersection of what you love, what you’re good at, and what the world needs from you. You know the adage, “Do what you love and you’ll never work a day in your life”? That’s ikigai in a nutshell — or at least in part. It’s more of a way of living in its entirety, not just an approach to your career.

Phantom Kangaroo: The Anthology by Claudia Dawson. ($20 hardcover)

Phantom Kangaroo: The Anthology by Claudia Dawson »

Since 2010, Claudia Dawson has been running her passion project, Phantom Kangaroo, an online + print poetry magazine (and now a book) she originally founded in 2010.

Named after a certain paranormal phenomenon, Phantom Kangaroo offers a place for contributors to submit poems about the paranormal, the occult, the eerie, the mystical, the surreal, and the bizarre:

Whatever they are, these phantom kangaroos are an omen. A cryptic warning that you will soon be falling into the unknown. They seem to say: I am real and I am a hoax, and so are you. Sometimes poems seem to say the same thing.

Phantom Kangaroo is a portal. The Mysteries of the universe congregate here. Some of these poems are incantations meant to be read aloud. Others are testimonies of supernatural accounts or glimpses of a dark reality here on Earth. Dark realities are also unnatural. There is art here too. If you stare long enough you might see your reflection.

The first 23 issues of these submissions have been compiled into a 296-page hardcover anthology that should provide a suitable armchair companion on a strange, rainy night, the kind where shadows play mischievous tricks on your eyes.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. ($15 hardcover)

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir »

Andy Weir, author of The Martian and Artemis, now has a book out called Project Hail Mary that lovers of the former story will surely go for, as it involves another lone astronaut stranded far from Earth.

This time though, rather than being stuck on Mars, the protagonist in Hail Mary finds himself alone on a tiny spaceship hurtling through the far reaches of space. What’s more, he only discovers this fact after waking from a long sleep with no memory of who he is, what he’s doing on this ship, and why there are two mummified corpses next to him.

Seeing Ryland begin piecing together the clues of his own life and the mission ahead of him is fascinating enough, but it only gets wilder from there.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. ($17 hardcover)

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke »

Susanna Clarke’s novel, Piranesi, is the long-awaited follow-up to her 2004 debut bestseller, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It’s a far shorter tale than its predecessor, and a fantastically strange one at that.

With obvious inspiration taken from the famous Imaginary Prisons series of etchings by 18th-century Italian artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi, this book tells the story of a character named, you guessed it, Piranesi — an intensely earnest and innocent-minded man living in an infinitely sprawling, labyrinthine place he simply calls the House, where there exist only clouds in the topmost halls and endless seas filling the lower ones, and in between, mazes of staircases, pillars, and an astonishing number of marble statues, each as unique as the last.

As the story unfolds, Piranesi gets closer and closer to the sinister truth about this bizarre world he inhabits…and this is where we stop talking about it, because we don’t want to give anything else away. Instead, we highly recommend you read this strangely fascinating and unpredictable novel for yourself and simply enjoy the ride.

Big Ideas for Curious Minds by The School of Life. ($19 hardcover)

Big Ideas for Curious Minds by The School of Life »

If you know a kid in the 8–12 age range who’s really starting to grapple with some of life’s most profound concepts and the issues we all have to deal with each day — fairness, big emotions, understanding how other people think, understanding themselves, how people view one another (whether accurate or not), and so on — then here’s a book that should appeal to them.

The School of Life’s Big Ideas for Curious Minds: An Introduction to Philosophy was written to be an introduction to philosophy that can also facilitate big conversations between parents and children, with prompts/exercises to get your kid’s wheels turning, along with vibrant illustrations that bring to life and modernize the ideas of 25 famous thinkers from the world over and throughout history.

Love is in Small Things by Puuung. (two $24 hardcover editions)

Love is in Small Things (Parts 1 and 2) by Puuung »

To our delight, South Korean artist “Puuung” has turned her endearing and poignant series of illustrations — depicting various moments in a young couple’s relationship — into a pair of books, aptly titled “Love is in small things.”

Volumes one and two are both 112 pages long and contain 100 full-color illustrations that are sure to warm your heart. Hopefully they’ll also bring back fond memories of the early days of your own relationship, or if you’re not in one yet, hope for what lies ahead.

  + There’s also a Korean hardcover set featuring both volumes ($47) if you want the best binding and everything. This is the kind of artwork that transcends language boundaries, so we wouldn’t worry about the lack of English captions.

☕️ Coffee & Tea

• Metallic smart mug that actively maintains a temperature for extended periods
• Alarm clock that automatically brews your morning coffee for you
• A worthy successor to the original moka pot, sold by the grandson of its inventor
• The prettiest danged French press we’ve ever seen
• Japanese-made travel tumbler loaded with thoughtful details

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Ember Mug² metallic smart mug. ($130 each)

Ember Mug² Metallic Smart Mug »

These shiny 10 oz. drinking vessels use built-in batteries to actively keep your drink at exactly the temperature you want for up to an hour and a half by themselves, or all day long if you pair them with the included charging coaster. That way you never have to guess whether your morning coffee’s going to burn your lips even after sitting a while.

Temperature control is handled via the companion app, which notifies you when your drink has reached your set temp. (There’s also an LED light on the mug that lets you know the same thing.)

The Barisieur coffee-brewing alarm clock. ($445)

“Barisieur” Coffee-Brewing Alarm Clock »

Until we can ever realistically have one of those Rube Goldberg-like contraptions from the movies that automatically does all the breakfast-making as you wake up, this coffee-brewing alarm clock will have to do the trick. Dubbed the “Barisieur”, this personal bedside barista automatically wakes you up with a fresh cup of coffee at whatever time you set, the aroma of which alone has got to be the best way to pull someone out of slumber.

You do have to set up the grounds and such the night before, so it’s not going to be as excellent a cup of coffee as getting up and grinding beans right beforehand, but hey, you still get to wake up and simply grab your cup of freshly brewed coffee. And what’s more, it has a slot that keeps a little thing of milk/cream cold, so you don’t even have to get up for that!

Your ancestors never could’ve dreamed of having this.

The Alessi 9090 stovetop espresso maker. ($121 for the 6-cup version)

Richard Sapper’s Alessi 9090 Stovetop Espresso Maker »

Made from 18/10 stainless steel with a magnetic bottom suitable for induction hobs (as long as they activate for items of at least 90mm across), the Alessi 9090 stovetop espresso maker distinguishes itself from the classic Bialetti Moka Express with its taller cyclindrical shape, anti-drip spout, and the lever lock that lets you open the pot one-handed.

Like the original moka pot, the 9090’s iconic design has been exhibited by MoMA, so that should tell you something.

  + Our original post shares some interesting history about the design and selling of the 9090, if you care to check that out.

Fellow Clara French press. ($99 or $129, depending on colorway)

Fellow “Clara” French Press Coffee Maker »

Fellow makes the best coffee paraphernalia around, and with the beautiful Clara coffee press, they put all their usual thoughtful design thinking into getting every little detail right.

Any pain point you’ve ever had with a regular French press, they tackled it head-on, including features like…

• Fill/ratio lines for easy measurement of both coffee grounds and water.
• An all-directional pour lid so you don’t have to line anything up just so.
• Large capacity so you and a companion can share a brew together.
• The double-walled vacuum-sealed body and pour spout for maximum temperature retention
• A nonstick interior coating so cleanup is a breeze.

The Kinto Travel Tumbler. ($35–$43, depending on color — full list below)

Kinto 17oz (500ml) Travel Tumbler »

When it comes to portable drinking vessels, it doesn’t get much more beautifully designed than the Japanese-made Kinto Travel Tumbler. Available in a variety of eye-catching matte colorways — which happen to be powder-coated, making them both scratch-resistant and grippy — this is one of the more aesthetically pleasing ways to consume your favorite coffees and teas (or plain water) on the go.

Aside from their sleek visual and tactile appeal, these tumblers sport your standard double-walled vacuum-sealed stainless steel construction that keeps drinks hot or cold for hours on end. The inside walls are electro-polished to make the steel odor- and stain-resistant, as well as preventing metallic flavors from being imparted to the contents.

One nice hidden touch is in its two-piece chamfered lid/cap, which is not only easy to spin on and off when needed, but also has a stopper piece in the lower cap portion that stops ice or other non-liquid stuff (mint leaves, lemon wedges, etc) in its tracks while letting your beverage pass through freely, no matter what direction you drink from.

The color options aren’t shown on one Amazon page together, so we’ll list them all here:

• White
• Black
• Khaki
• Turquoise
• Red
• Coyote
• Silver (unpainted)

🧑‍ Food & Kitchen

• Santoku knife that handles as well as it looks
• A blender with more oomph than most
• Cast iron pepper mill + spice grinder
• Carbon steel skillet: the secret weapon of chefs since the 19th century
• Two-sided cast iron grill + griddle
• Hardwood tortilla press that displays proudly on your kitchen counter
• 5-in-1 grilling multi-tool
• Deeper and more complex maple syrup than you’ve tasted before

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Miyabi Kaizen II Santoku chef knife. ($180)

Miyabi Kaizen II 5000FCD Santoku Chef Knife »

With Miyabi’s Kaizen II santoku knife, modern German engineering and design meets traditional Japanese craftsmanship.

Handcrafted in Seki, Japan — a city famed for its forging, swordsmithing, and cutlery production since the 13th century — the blade is forged from a core of FC61 fine carbide steel core surrounded by 49 layers of stainless steel, resulting in that stunning Damascus pattern you see above, which they darken with a bit of acid dipping.

Part of the blade’s appeal lies in the fact that it’s been ice-hardened using the FRIODUR method, meaning they freeze the steel to -94°F to achieve exceptional durability, corrosion resistance, and edge retention. After that, it’s honed to scalpel-like sharpness by the hand of a skilled artisan using the historic Honbazuke three-step method.

The Vitamix 5200 blender. ($450)

Vitamix 5200 “Legacy Series” Blender »

With a motor that peaks at two full horsepower, the Vitamix 5200 is “just a blender” in the same way an ECM Technika is “just a coffee maker.” The blade friction alone is enough to heat soup to steaming in 10 minutes or less! Not that we’d necessarily recommend preparing soup that way, but simply knowing it can do that?

You can do just about anything with this bad boy. Frozen fruit smoothies, soups from frozen veggies, nut butters, pancake/crepe batters, baby food, guacamole and salsa, pesto, silky smooth purées, quickly chopped onions, slaws, DIY rice flour…do we need to keep going?

Skeppshult cast iron spice grinder. ($70)

Skeppshult “Swing” Cast Iron Pepper Mill & Spice Grinder »

This beautifully handcrafted cast iron spice grinder from Swedish company Skeppshult is almost too pretty to use, but if you do decide to grab it off the shelf where it’s displayed, it’ll make short work of grinding peppercorns and other fresh spices:

The two-tiered construction is pretty clever actually. Once you’ve ground up a spice in the bottom canister, you can pour it into the top compartment and store it there under the silicone-sealed walnut lid.

The Mauviel M’Steel carbon steel skillet. ($70–$100, depending on size)

Mauviel M’Steel Carbon Steel Skillet »

Like cast iron, carbon steel skillets are far from new in the culinary world. In fact, they’ve been a secret weapon of chefs since at least the late 19th century.

What makes carbon steel cookware so great is that it’s just as versatile as cast iron in that…

1. You can develop a fantastic nonstick coating through an ongoing seasoning process, rather than relying on questionable chemicals that either wear away or leech into your food.
2. It’s oven- and broiler-safe.
3. You can use it on all types of cooktops, though it shines most on a gas stove.

The biggest benefit though? Carbon steel pans are, generally speaking, lighter than their cast iron counterparts. After all that tossing and tilting and swirling around, a little less strain on the wrist is a beautiful thing. You get all the benefits of cast iron with the handling of stainless steel

  + See our original post for details on ridding the skillet of its factory beeswax coating before seasoning.

Lodge’s reversible cast iron grill + griddle. ($73)

Lodge “Chef Collection” Pre-seasoned Reversible Cast Iron Grill & Griddle »

Speaking of cast iron, it turns out that Lodge’s best product may not be their famous cast iron skillet after all, but instead their reversible grill/griddle that fits over two stovetop burners (or induction hobs). With this bad boy, you’ll be cranking out pancakes/pupusas, fried eggs, burgers (regular or smash-style), searing hot steaks, grilled veggies/seafood, and so much more — all in no time flat.

Pro-tip: You can also use it as a griddle surface on an outdoor grill, not just in your kitchen.

Central Coast Woodworks hardwood tortilla press. ($80)

Central Coast Woodworks Hardwood Tortilla Press »

Designed and built by self-taught craftsman Jason Sharrett of Central Coast Woodworks, this high-quality tortilla press is beyond beautiful to look at, and works fantastically to boot. It’s both a functional tool and a remarkable piece of kitchen decor.

Now, while you can use it for making flour tortillas if you want — it will take some extra effort on your part — where the press really shines is with corn/masa tortillas, or ones made from cassava flour (which are naturally gluten-free). The long, heavy-duty arm offers just the right amount of leverage to crank out perfect tortilla after perfect tortilla, usually on the first try.

While the wood is treated with food-grade mineral oils and beeswax, you’ll still want to line the press with something — parchment paper, waxed paper, a zip-lock bag cut in half, etc — to prevent sticking.

Linked above is the 8-inch walnut + red oak striped press. They also offer 10-inch ($100) and 11½-inch ($110) versions.

The FlipFork “Boss” grill spatula. ($25)

FlipFork “Boss” 5-in-1 Grill Spatula »

The FlipFork “Boss” spatula is a 5-in-1 grilling multi-tool that, in addition to letting you flip foods like you would with any spatula, also comes with…

• A fork for skewering (and occasionally flipping) foods that don’t always play well with spatulas, like sausage links
• A serrated edge for tenderizing meats
• A very sharp knife edge that can easily cut through beef, chicken, pork, whatever
• And of course, a bottle opener for cracking open a brew while you tend to your grilling duties

Best part is, when the job’s done, you only have one utensil to wash!

Spring Break pure Maine maple syrup. (Price varies by size/type)

Spring Break Pure Maine Maple Syrup »

If you’ve ever tried maple syrup from Maine, you might’ve already decided to quit the Vermont or Canadian stuff. It’s a bit deeper and more complex than what those guys produce, without needing to blend multiple origins together.

The family-owned Spring Break Maple Farm of Smyrna, Maine produces amber and dark varieties of maple syrup for your tasting pleasure. The amber/rich grade is what you’d use for pancakes and waffles and such, while the dark/robust is more intense stuff that you might add into BBQ sauces, your coffee, baked goods, etc.

Gadgets & Accessories

• Ultra-slim portable monitor for gaming, watching content, and more in a larger format
• Handheld camera + stabilizer for capturing memories and making awesome-looking vlogs
• Budget universal remote that still packs plenty of features
• Portable power station + solar generator for staying charged on all your adventures
• The easiest way to sanitize your phone and other trinkets
• Fantastic 3D printer for beginners

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AUZAI ultra-slim portable monitor. ($179)

AUZAI 15.6″ Ultra-Slim Portable Monitor »

If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “Man, this would be so much easier/better if I had a second/bigger screen,” you’ll appreciate this ultra-slim portable monitor by AUZAI.

At 15.6″ size with 1920×1080 resolution, and with both Mini-HDMI and USB-C ports to choose from, this handy display is a great solution for things like…

• Local multiplayer gaming with the Nintendo Switch and other consoles.
• Taking notes while attending webinars and watching course videos.
• Getting work done across dual screens wherever you travel.
• Streaming movies/shows on your phone and watching them in a larger format.
• …and much more.

DJI Pocket 2 handheld camera + video stabilizer. ($349)

DJI Pocket 2 Handheld Video Stabilizer and Camera »

DJI’s Pocket 2 is a tiny and supremely portable gizmo that looks like a smartphone gimbal but has its own built-in (and yes, 3-axis stabilized) camera that lets you singlehandedly shoot video in 4K@60fps and capture 64MP photos.

Watch this guy’s field test to see what kind of footage you can get, it’s pretty impressive:

It’s crazy what something not much bigger than a candy bar can do these days. Your vlogs are going to have an almost cinematic look to them, and with its Fast Wake feature, you can start capturing memories in seconds flat so you never miss anything.

There are loads of other cool features you can sink your filmmaking teeth into as well, like the 8X Slow Motion mode.

The SofaBaton U1 universal remote. ($39)

SofaBaton U1 Universal Remote Control »

After Logitech discontinued their line of Harmony universal remotes, we began recommending the SofaBaton U1 as a solid alternative that costs way less.

Don’t let the budget-friendly price fool you; this thing really is a capable gizmo for the money:

• It remembers and controls up to 15 devices, from TVs to Blu-ray players to receivers to streaming devices to soundbars and beyond.
• It operates over infrared (IR) or Bluetooth, making it compatible with thousands of devices out there — the caveat here being that it doesn’t work over Wi-Fi.
• In place of a touchscreen, the U1 has a black-and-white OLED display that you navigate with a little scroll wheel in order to switch devices.
• You can create custom macros with up to 10 commands/button-sequences each, then map them to any IR buttons (not Bluetooth) you like.

Jackery Explorer 1500 portable power station. ($1,599)

Jackery “Explorer 1500” Portable Power Station & Solar Generator »

Whether you’re RV boondocking, living that #vanlife, camping in the wilderness, attending a tailgate party, chilling by the lake, road-tripping through the desert with your buds, having a picnic at the park, or trying to get through a power outage, it pays to have a way to keep your devices charged and your appliances running.

Most of the time, a portable solar power station like the Jackery Explorer 1500 is way better than running a noisy, fumy gas generator. If all you need is a way to plug smaller things in and have them work and/or recharge seamlessly, this is the way to go.

When you have access to wall power, the Explorer can easily be recharged to its 1534Wh capacity, after which you can take it anywhere and have a reliable power source. Out in the wild or on the road, you can connect up to four of these solar panels to turn it into a full-on solar generator system, charging the battery pack to capacity — with pure, clean, freely available, and nigh-limitless ☀️space energy☀️ mind you — in about 5 hours outdoors, assuming ideal sun/weather conditions.

The PhoneSoap 3 UV phone sanitizer. ($48)

PhoneSoap 3 UV Phone Sanitizer & Charger »

You might think of yourself as a pretty clean person, but if you could see the germs that are covering your phone right now, you’d be absolutely horrified. This nifty gizmo uses germicidal UV-C light to thoroughly disinfect your phone from all directions at once, in an enclosed environment that won’t endanger your eyes, all in about 10 minutes or so.

It kills up to 99.99% of household germs — including Coronavirus 229E, E. coli, H1N1, and more — and you can charge your phone while it’s being sanitized, thanks to the convenient USB output on the back of the unit. What’s more, it can sanitize other small items you’ve got lying around as well, like your keys, your wallet, pieces of jewelry, and more.

Elegoo Mars 2 Pro 3D printer. ($300)

ELEGOO “Mars 2 Pro” MSLA Resin 3D Printer »

Elegoo’s Mars 2 Pro is a fantastic way to get into the world of 3D printing, whether you’re wanting to craft figurines to paint, design and manufacture your own chess pieces, create little sculptures to place around your house, add some fun accessories to your kids’ toys, prototype physical products, or produce those bits and bobs you might need on DIY jobs.

The LCD screen at the bottom of the print chamber offers 2K HD resolution (2560×1440), so your prints can have a phenomenal amount of detail, with print layer lines so fine they’re practically invisible, resulting in unbelievable crisp, smooth models.

Games & Puzzles

• Portable chess/checkers set designed for easy storage and travel
• Incredibly detailed jigsaw puzzle series based on human inner anatomy
• Magical jigsaw puzzles with twist endings
• A tabletop RPG taken straight from Disney/Pixar’s Onward film

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Umbra “Rolz” roll-up chess/checkers set. ($100)

Umbra “Rolz” Roll-Up Chess + Checkers Set »

Umbra is no stranger to novel chess sets, and their two-in-one “Rolz” set certainly meets that criteria. It was designed for easy storage and travel, featuring a specially cut wooden base topped with vegan leather that allows the board to roll up into a compact cylinder shape, which can then be inserted into the included two-ended holder with carry strap.

The game pieces themselves pop out of their storage tube — which lives in the center of the rolled-up board when stowed away — and can be used for checkers on one side or chess on the other.

Dr. Livingston’s human anatomy puzzles. ($20 a pop, or $140 for the 7-puzzle full body set)

Dr. Livingston’s Human Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzles by Genius Games »

Dr. Livingston’s Anatomy Jigsaw Puzzles are a set of seven puzzles that have you assembling anatomically accurate (albeit larger-than-life) cross-cut sections of the human body:

1. Volume One: The Human Head
2. Volume Two: The Human Thorax
3. Volume Three: The Human Abdomen

…etc.

The stunningly detailed, 200% magnified artwork was done by Johns Hopkins University-certified medical illustrator Mesa Schumacher. As such, these puzzles really give you a sense of our inner workings in ways you may not have fully understood until now.

Magic Puzzles collection. ($20 a pop, or $55 for the full trio)

The Magic Puzzle Company’s Twist-Ending Jigsaw Puzzles »

The three 1,000-piece puzzles in this collection were respectively illustrated by indie artists Sarah Becan, Boya Sun, and Felicia Chiao. Each one is a work of art and self-contained story in its own right, loaded with dozens of Easter eggs and tiny details that can be enjoyed even at the individual-piece level.

However, the real cool part comes when you complete a puzzle, revealing a ✨secret surprise✨ using techniques from optical illusions and magic. That’s right, these are jigsaw puzzles with twist endings. Definitely not something you come across every day.

Quests of Yore: Barley’s Edition from Disney/Pixar’s Onward film. ($47)

Disney & Pixar’s “Quests of Yore: Barley’s Edition” — The Role-Playing Board Game from Onward »

Fans of Disney/Pixar’s Onward will be excited to know that they’ve teamed up with USAopoly (aka “The Op”) to develop a real-life version of the role-playing game at the heart of the film’s story. It’s a Dungeons & Dragons-style adventure that lets you go on an in-universe adventure led by the “Quest Master” (QM) — sound familar, DnD players? — who narrates the story and guides players through the game’s trials.

If you’re wondering why it’s called “Barley’s Edition”, the idea is that Barley (Chris Pratt’s character from the film) has loaned you his well-loved personal copy of the game, so you’ll find his notes, tips, and drawings all over the place. It also means the game takes place prior to the events of the film, and its adventures are actually what the main characters themselves would have played together.

Home, Office, & Decor

• Self-rotating desk globes seemingly powered by magic
• Standing desk converter for any workspace
• Plush and cozy blanket with tons of visual interest
• Tiny dioramas that live between the books on your shelf
• The new largest LEGO set in town, designed to be displayed on your wall
• Pixel-like 3D wall decor made from colorful blocks of wood
• Premium posters for motorsport fanatics
• Handmade Star Wars oil paintings

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MOVA self-rotating globes. ($180 for a 4.5″ globe, $280 for a 6″ globe)

MOVA Solar-Powered Self-Rotating Desk Globes »

MOVA’s auto-rotating globes are mesmerizing little desk accessories that turn themselves by using just a bit of ambient light along with hidden magnets. It’s an endlessly intriguing trick, and rather soothing to watch:

You don’t need batteries or any desk-cluttering cord to power these globes. As long as the Earth’s own magnetic field remains operational — and you’ve got MUCH bigger problems if that changes — then they’ll keep on spinning, even in your hand.

FLEXISPOT standing desk converter. ($140)

FLEXISPOT Height-Adjustable Standing Desk Converter »

Maybe you can’t afford to gift someone one of those fancy powered standing desks, but you still know they spend too much time sitting all day. That’s okay, because there are standing desk converters like this one that you simply place on an open surface to grant standing desk functionality to an existing workspace, corner desk, kitchen table, or wherever else such a thing is needed.

The u-shaped top surface is large enough to easily hold a pair of 27″ iMacs or dual monitors, while the lower surface is where a keyboard and mouse/trackpad or even a 17″ laptop can go. The whole thing can adjust from 4.7″ to 19.7″ tall, so there’s a good amount of wiggle room to get the perfect height.

JML Korean mink-style fleece blanket. ($70)

JML Korean Mink-Style Fleece Blanket »

Normally we’d say giving someone a blanket is kind of a boring gift idea, but there’s nothing boring whatsoever about these blankets.

While not quite as delightfully gaudy as the kambals beloved by families the world over, they do add plenty enough color and visual interest to any bedroom, and they’re so plush and cozy to snuggle under you won’t care about the difference. They’ve got several wild prints to choose from as well.

miniAlley diorama bookshelf inserts. ($229–$249, depending on scene)

“miniAlley” Alleyway Diorama Bookshelf Inserts »

If you’re unfamiliar with the idea of book nooks, well then we’ve got a treat for you. They’re essentially tiny diorama worlds that live between books on your shelf, often appearing like portals to other places.

The “miniAlley” series is arguably the most well known example of this that you can buy, rather than making one yourself. They offer a variety of locales to brighten up your bookshelf (we mean that literally; they actually do light up):

• Japan Old Town ($229) — The one that started it all.
• Italy ($239)
• Wizard ($249) — Definitely not themed after Diagon Alley, no sirree.
• Medieval ($229)

The LEGO Art world map. ($250)

The LEGO Art World Map »

Measuring 40.5″ x 25.5″ and with a whopping 11,695 pieces, the LEGO World Map has usurped the 9,036-piece Colosseum model as the largest set in LEGO history, beating it by 2,659 pieces. And that’s not very far from doubling what the Colosseum had over the previous winner, the 7,541-piece Millennium Falcon.

So yeah, this one’ll take you a while to put together before you display it on your wall.

What’s cool about the map is that, in true LEGO style, you can totally customize it to your liking. Its built upon three main sections of baseplates, which can be rearranged so that whatever continent you’re on lives in the center.

And while they include paint-by-numbers-style directions for filling in the oceans — using a pattern inspired by the bathymetric mapping of the ocean floor — you can go with a totally custom design of your own, or leave the seas black for a more minimalist look.

Pixelood wall art. (Prices vary)

Pixelood — Wooden ‘Pixel’ Wall Art »

Pixelood is an Etsy shop run by Romanian craftsman Dan Serban, who creates pixel-like 3D wall decor made from colorful blocks of wood. His creations include wooden mosaics (which double as sound diffusers), floating shelves, framed mirrors, and even coat racks.

These are all handcrafted items and you should expect to pay a premium for them — the coat racks are the “cheapest” items at $120–$150 — but c’mon, how cool is your space going to look with one of these vibrant pieces on the wall?!

Automobilist motorsport-inspired posters. (Prices vary)

Automobilist — Premium Motorsport-Inspired Posters »

Automobilist is a print store and e-magazine made up of a creative team with a deep obsession for cars and motorsport history. And man, do they ever make some sweet stuff.

They partner with a number of iconic people and brands from the automotive scene to create premium, officially licensed posters that blend professionally shot photos with the latest 3D-rendering and CGI technology — capturing fine details all the way down to precise coats of paint and scratches — often to recreate historical moments or occasionally envision those of the future.

To put it bluntly, these posters make any space cooler, whether or not you’re a car fanatic.

Star Wars oil paintings by Naci Caba. (Prices vary)

Naci Caba’s Handmade Star Wars Oil Paintings »

We’ll bet you never thought Star Wars and oil painting were things that could go together well, but Turkish artist Naci Caba is here to prove you wrong. In any case, fans of the films will adore having these scenes depicted in such a timeless style on their walls for years to come.

Style, Grooming & Everyday Carry

• Professional-level cordless hair clippers
• Slick watches that feature moonphase dials and engravings of famous Venetian architecture
• Apple Watch bands with rugged yet sophisticated flair
• Masculine-scented handmade bar soaps
• Merino wool men’s socks for maximum cold-weather comfort
• Harris tweed wallet with old-world charm and style
• Watch display case modeled after classic toolboxes

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Wahl Magic Clip cordless hair clippers. ($124)

Wahl “Magic Clip” Cordless Hair Clippers »

Fancy trying your hand at doing your own haircuts at home? We don’t blame you; barber shops can be pricy and take time out of your day that could be better spend on other things. You’re better off investing in a set of hair clippers and going for it yourself.

Wahl has long been one of the top rated and most trusted clipper brands — alongside fellow greats Oster and Andis — and their Magic Clips are particularly nice to use because they offer pro-level performance with the added convenience of being cordless (90-minute runtime), so you’re not having to deal with anything annoyingly hanging all over your neck or shoulders while you work.

Even if you don’t plan on going all-in on home haircuts, you can use these to trim your beard and touch up your taper between barber visits. The investment will still pay for itself over time, especially if you take good care of it. (Seriously, don’t skip oiling the blades often! Some people recommend a few drops after every use.)

Filippo Loreti Venice Moonphase watches. ($152 each)

Filippo Loreti “Venice Moonphase” Watch Collection »

Filippo Loreti’s “Venice Moonphase” series were among the slickest-looking collections of watches we saw this year.

In addition to having a bunch of sharp colorways to choose from, these Italian-made watches have handy dials showing the month, date, and day of the week — but our favorite dial has to be the Japanese-made moonphase function at 6 o’clock. Even the backs of the watch cases are sweet, featuring an engraving of Venice’s famous Basilica di San Marco.

The watches are water-resistant to 50 meters and sport a highly scratch-resistant sapphire crystal glass with anti-reflective coating.

La Matera Apple Watch bands. ($145 each)

La Matera Apple Watch Bands »

La Matera, makers of the handsome Diplomático Wallet, also offer a range of Apple Watch bands with the same rugged yet sophisticated flair. Each is made from supple, vegetable-tanned cognac leather, atop which is a layer of imported Argentine woven fabric with various color pairings and patterns to choose from.

A Slice of Delight’s masculine handmade soaps. ($7 per ~4oz bar)

Masculine-Scented Handmade Soaps by A Slice of Delight »

Fellas, you and I both know that a nicely handcrafted bar of soap isn’t just something for ladies to enjoy. We like to smell nice too! Don’t let some standup comedian from the nineties tell you differently.

With that in mind, you should check out A Slice of Delight’s “masculine” line, featuring complex and adventurous scents that are on the spicier, woodsier side. They’ve got things like…

• “Spiced Mahogany” — Italian bergamot, apple wood, tonka bean, patchouli, cedarwood, and oakmoss, all spiced up with cardamom, vanilla bourbon and allspice.
• “Harvest Moon” — Fresh pear, blueberries, pineapple, juniper berries, eucalyptus, spruce, woods, douglas fir, cedar, and white musk.
• “Secret Agent Man” — Crisp ozone, fresh citrus, soft floral tones, cedar, sandalwood, patchouli, leather, balsam, vanilla, and amber.
• “Tobacco and Bay Leaf” — Bay leaf and fir needle mingle with cedarwood and crisp bergamot to reveal a warm dried tobacco base note.

Bombas merino wool socks. ($19 per pair)

Bombas Men’s Merino Wool Calf Socks »

If you must gift a guy a pair of socks, you might as well make it a quality pair that will make all the difference in his daily comfort.

These merino wool calf socks from Bombas are what men’s feet want to wear this winter season. They’re superbly cushiony and comfortable, offer exceptional arch support on top of that, and they sport the natural moisture-wicking properties that make merino wool so great to begin with.

Esplanade LondonPaddington Collection wallet. ($77)

Esplanade London “Paddington Collection” Wallet »

We’ve written about the handcrafted Harris tweed products from Esplanade London a few times now.

This year we’d like to highlight their “Paddington Collection” wallet in particular, which has a lot of old-world charm and style, down to the button snap enclosure. Holds up to 10 cards and can be made in a ton of different color patterns (check the product images on Etsy for examples).

The Tool Watch Box. ($249)

The Tool Watch Box by the Windup Watch Shop »

Made from heavy sheet metal and inspired by the design of those classic toolboxes we all know from our childhoods, the Tool Watch Box is among the cooler ways a guy can store and display his watch collection.

On the top is a thick glass display window where the watches can be admired, while the box itself secures shut with metal clasps and has solid metal handles on the sides for easy carrying. Inside is a mahogany-stained wood tray with 12 deep compartments, each of which has a gray-and-black tweed pillow to give every watch a luxurious resting place of its own.

🛠 Tools & Trinkets

• Set of two quality brushless cordless drivers
• Saw rasp for filing down and shaping wood pieces
• Heirloom-quality key organizer carabiner
• Keychain with a seatbelt buckle release mechanism

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Makita brushless cordless driver set. (Check Amazon for current listings; lowest we’ve seen is $180)

Makita 18V LXT Lithium-ion Sub-compact Brushless Cordless Driver Kit »

Everyone with DIY projects on their plate should have at least one quality drill in their tool set, and this kit from Makita fits the bill and then some. It includes a two-speed brushless drill and a two-speed brushless impact driver, the latter of which has an “assist” mode that drives at low speed until tightening begins, which helps eliminate issues like screw cam-out and cross-threading.

Despite their compact size and lightweight handling, these drivers pack a surprising amount of power, with nary a chuck wobble like you’d get from cheaper tools. With these things you’ll be drilling holes and sinking screws like a dream, and the pair of 18-volt lithium-ion batteries included with the set hold a charge for a long time and _re_charge quickly when needed.

Just an all-around quality pair of tools, and it even comes with a carry bag.

Shinto saw rasp. ($33)

Shinto 250mm Saw Rasp »

Similarly, every woodworker and DIY’er needs a quality rasp tool in their kit, and the Japanese-made Shinto saw rasp is as quality as they come. When you need to file down edges and shape objects made out of wood, soft metal, plastic, and other materials, this rasp will get the job done veryquickly, without clogging up or tearing up the wood grain of your workpiece.

One side of the rasp is coarser for faster, more aggressive material removal and shaping, while the finer side is what you’d use to finish cuts. Simply flip it over as needed.

Watch this guy use it while making a wooden spoon:

Satisfying, isn’t it?

The Key Wrangler by CW&T. ($76–$90, depending on metal/color choice)

CW&T “Key Wrangler” Key Holder + Organizer »

CW&T’s Key Wrangler is an all-metal carabiner with a secure but easily twistable knurled post to keep one’s keys in a tidy row, and a snappy spring gate so the whole shebang can be clipped onto whatever else you want. Never again will you (or your gift recipient) have to break a fingernail trying to keep one of those annoying split keyrings open.

It holds up to 17 standard flat keys, or several odd-shaped ones (like your car keys), in whatever order works best for you. There are also nifty details throughout, which we list in detail here.

Chrome Industries Mini Buckle Key Chain. ($25)

Chrome Industries “Mini Buckle” Quick-Release Keychain »

One of the features that has long set Chrome Industries’ messenger bags apart from the competition is their signature seatbelt buckle release mechanism, which originally began with salvaged seatbelt buckles from junkyard cars. But did you know they also make a keychain version of that iconic buckle?

That’s right, the Mini Buckle Key Chain is something you can snap onto your belt loop or bag to keep your keys within easy reach, and when it comes time to actually use them, you just unbuckle them seatbelt-style, then click ’em back in when you’re done. Boom.

🧸 Toys & Kids

• Rock-climbing-style holds for kids to climb trees with
• Tool kits for safely building all kinds of cool stuff out of cardboard
• Corduroy hacky sack with great heft and durability
• Large drawstring organizer bag + playmat for easy toy cleanup

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Tree-climbing holds for kids. ($42)

TOPNEW Tree-Climbing Holds for Kids »

Kids are natural-born tree climbers, but some trees don’t offer any real holds they can reach, which is what makes these rock-climbing-style holds so cool. They use ratchet straps to affix harmlessly yet sturdily around a tree, offering kids a dozen places to grip onto as they climb up, down, and around like the little spider monkeys they aspire to be.

The colorful “rock” grips are weather-resistant, have a skin-friendly texture, and can support up to 230 lbs of weight each.

If you’re not into the idea of attaching these to trees, you can look at the company’s other sets that offer twenty or thirty-two rock-climbing grips so you can roll your own wooden climbing wall project.

Makedo cardboard construction tool kits. (Prices vary)

“Makedo” Cardboard Construction Tool Kits »

Cardboard is one of those materials that kids always love playing and building with. Your own kid has probably called dibs on any boxes you’ve ever had laying around, right?

If that sounds familiar, we bet you’ll dig these cardboard construction kits from Makedo. They’re comprised of specially made tools and “SCRUs” that you use to safely cut, fold, and connect pieces of cardboard to create all kinds of fantastic stuff. The only limit is one’s imagination.

Flying Clipper “Jester” hacky sack. ($12)

Flying Clipper “Jester” Corduroy Footbag »

Continuing the theme of screen-free activities, this 12-paneled corduroy “Jester” footbag by Flying Clipper — a company whose three founders are all former World Footbag Champions that have been inducted into the Footbag Hall Of Fame — is a very solidly made yet pleasantly soft hacky sack that should hold up to years of being kicked and tossed around.

Measuring 2¼” in diameter and filled with enough fine sand to bring its weight to around 60–70 grams, there’s a certain heft to this footbag that makes it easier to control without it flying/bouncing off somewhere. It just feels great to play with, whether it’s doing tricks by yourself or playing a game with others.

The corduroy texture also feels quite nice in the hand, so when you’re not kicking it around, it makes a wonderful stress reliever or fidget toy you can squeeze and roll in your hands.

Play&Go drawstring toy organizer bag + playmat. ($45)

“Play&Go” Playmat and Drawstring Toy Organizer Bag »

Made from a durable polycotton material and available in a wide range of fun colors/prints, the Play&Go is a large play mat that cinches together to swiftly and easily clean up all those LEGOs and other toys so they can be carried away all at once, Santa style. When the mat is spread out, the lip around the edge helps keep the toys and pieces contained so the mess ideally doesn’t spread to the rest of your floor.

Travel & Outdoors

• Stainless steel water bottle with a crazy good filter built in
• Two-person loveseat camping chair
• Down-filled puffy outdoor blanket
• Smokeless fire pits for backyard use
• Titanium French press that doubles as a camp mug and outdoor cookpot

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The Lifestraw Go stainless steel water bottle with filter. ($45)

Lifestraw “Go” Stainless Steel Water Bottle with Filter »

If you do a lot of adventuring in the wilderness, you know how important it is to have a consistently safe water supply. The stainless steel Lifestraw Go bottle has a crazy-good filter built in for this purpose.

Use the bottle to scoop up water from just about anywhere in the world, then safely drink it through the mouthpiece. By the time the water has made it up the straw, the filter has already removed 99.9999% of waterborne bacteria and 99.9% of waterborne protozoan parasites!

Kelty Low Loveseat camp chair. ($110)

Kelty “Low Loveseat” Two-Person Camping Chair »

Give the gift of campfire cuddles with Kelty’s “Low Loveseat” camp chair. It’s almost hard to believe how comfy this little couch is, and the seats being so much lower to the ground makes you feel that much closer to the fire, so it’s not just your feet getting toasty while the rest of you stays chilly.

The seat also angles back a bit, so the two lovebirds sitting in it can easily look up at the stars together or just lounge and relax naturally, rather than being kept stiffly upright in separate chairs (although we do have a good recommendation on that front as well).

It gets extra points for rolling up within a padded tote that has a comfy carry strap, so you can easily carry it to camp, to the beach, to the outdoor concert/festival, etc.

Rumpl’s “The Down Blanket”. ($187 for single-person blanket, or $262 for two-person blanket)

Rumpl Down Puffy Outdoor Blanket »

When you’re out on the trail and need to keep warm, the Down Blanket by Rumpl is something you’ll be glad to have around.

It’s filled with sustainably sourced down duck feathers — they’re 100% fair trade certified and obtained as a harm-free by-product of the food industry, rather than being live-plucked — which keeps the blanket lightweight and packable yet very insulating, even when it’s down in the 40°s (F) outside.

In addition to keeping you warm and cozy in chilly weather, the blanket is treated with 90/10 DWR to make it water- and stain-resistant, if not waterproof. The down filling also has a hydrophobic treatment so it stays dry longer, even when conditions are damp.

One of our favorite features is what they call the “Cape Clip”, which allows you to wear the blanket hands-free, superhero-style.

Solo Stove smokeless fire pits. ($229–$560, depending on size and/or inclusion of stand)

Solo Stove Smokeless Backyard Fire Pits »

Gathering around the campfire is a human tradition that predates history. We see fire, we are transfixed, primal, together. It’s that simple.

But the smoke…that’s the one damper on the whole thing. It somehow follows you wherever you go. It stings the eyes. Makes your hair and clothes stink. It WILL live in your nostrils for a while whether you like it or not.

That’s why you need to check out Solo Stove’s line of fire pits, which are designed to burn efficiently and produce as little smoke as possible in the process.

Each pit is formed from double-walled 304 stainless steel and uses strategically placed vent holes to draw in air from the bottom and feed it upward through more holes at the top, resulting in a secondary burn for a hotter fire with much less smoke (and ash!) than you’d normally get.

Once you’ve tried it, your only regret will be that you didn’t buy one sooner.

Bestargot titanium French press + camp mug + outdoor cookpot. ($38)

Bestargot Titanium French Press + Camp Mug + Outdoor Cookpot »

Camping and coffee go together like peanut butter and jelly. As such, Bestargot’s titanium outdoor French press is an indispensable companion for the trail.

This well-built piece of gear is an uncoated, pure TA1 titanium mug with an accompanying 304 stainless steel coffee press/filter plunger. You can heat it directly over an open flame, and it has a built-in handle with a hooked bit that lets it hang above a fire for just this purpose.

What’s extra neat about this French press is that, when you remove the plunger mechanism stuff, you can use the main container as a simple but sturdy camping cookpot. Multi-purpose tools, baby!

Writing & Stationery

• Wooden pen tray which makes use of material that would otherwise go to waste
• Italian leather pencil and pen storage case
• Stylishs softcover and hardcover linen notebooks in three sizes and colors
• Beautifully crafted notebook in a waxed canvas case

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Ugmong wooden pen tray. ($38)

Ugmonk Wooden Pen Tray »

When Ugmonk owner Jeff Sheldon learned that the manufacturing process for his Analog productivity system was resulting in leftover scraps of walnut and maple going unused, he was inspired to develop a lovely little pen tray that gives your favorite pen a presentable resting place:

Seeing those “scraps” immediately got me thinking about how we could repurpose them into something useful.

So I went straight to my sketchbook and within a week we were off prototyping. We worked closely with our woodworker to get the perfect corner radius, angled cuts, and smooth matte finish.

We’re all for clever ways of reducing material waste, and this pen tray not only fits the bill, but will make a great addition to any workspace.

Hard Graft Italian leather pencil and pen case. (£85 / ~$114 USD)

Hard Graft “Fat Stick” Leather Pencil & Pen Case »

Despite the somewhat awkward name, Hard Graft’s “Fat Stick” pencil case is a well made accessory for stashing your best pens, pencils, and an Apple Pencil so they don’t easily go missing down the side of a couch or somewhere at the bottom of a bag.

It’s fashioned from their signature Italian leather and features a black rubbery zip and leather zip pull. Feels great in the hand, and looks great anywhere.

Leuchtturm1917 x MONOCLE softcover and hardcover notebooks. ($20–$33, depending on size and cover type)

Leuchtturm1917 x MONOCLE Clothbound Notebook Collection »

German company Leuchtturm1917 is one of those businesses that comes up a LOT in stationery circles, and they have collaborated with international lifestyle magazine MONOCLE to produce a series of notebooks and other stationery goods.

These two organizations are united by a shared passion for fine quality and thoughtful, detailed design. At the heart of their collab collection lies a series of softcover and hardcover linen notebooks, which come in three sizes (each with light grey, navy, and yellow color options):

• Large B5 Softcover ($29)
• Large B5 Hardcover ($33)
• Medium B6 Softcover ($22)
• Medium B6 Hardcover ($24)
• Small A6 Softcover ($18)
• Small A6 Hardcover ($20)

All of these stylish clothbound notebooks are embossed with the MONOCLE monogram in gold on their covers and contain dot-grid paper inside, along with six pages featuring 20 of MONOCLE’s ideas for living a quieter, more considered life.

LOCHBY’s Field Journal notebook with waxed canvas case. ($49)

The LOCHBY Field Journal »

The Field Journal by LOCHBY — formerly known as BOND Travel Gear before they rebranded in 2019 — is a beautifully crafted notebook comprised of a double-stitched and water-resistant waxed canvas case surrounding a dot-grid notebook refill full of super thin yet fountain pen-friendly Tomoe River paper.

Users of the Hobonichi Techo planner will know exactly what paper I’m talking about; the bleedthrough-resistance is nuts for how thin these pages are.

The cover can comfortably fit up to six of these A5 notebook refills, which are 8also available in ruled, wide ruled, plain, and the latest addition to the lineup, planner. It’s got a nice, stout elastic pen loop on the side where your favorite fountain pen can go, several small inner pockets for stashing other bits of stationery and such, and the whole thing secures shut with an aircraft-grade aluminum hook.

You can feel the quality and craftsmanship permeating this thing. It’s very much designed for being carried by itself, not tossed into some bag.

Charities

At Tools & Toys we have always donated 11% of our gross income to charity. If you click this link before you do your shopping on Amazon, we’ll be donating 11% of our affiliate earnings for the months of November and December specifically to the charities listed below.

We also encourage you to consider making some charitable donations this year, and invite you to give alongside us to these two organizations:

• St. Jude Children’s Hospital: St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric treatment and research facility. Discoveries made at St. Jude have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Moreover, their hospital has been described as “a hospital without walls” where children in need are treated at no cost to their family.

• Operation Christmas Child: Samaritan’s purse is a Christian ministry, and every year they work with volunteers and donors from around the nation to pack and ship shoe boxes full of gifts to children in need around the globe.

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Brought to you by author Cecily Wong and the curious minds at Atlas Obscura — which we’ve covered many times around here — the new book titled Gastro Obscura: A Food Adventurer’s Guide follows in the footsteps of their first book, taking you on an eye-opening adventure through the often-surprising culinary world.

From the description (slightly edited for readability):

This breathtaking guide transforms our sense of what people around the world eat and drink. Covering all seven continents, Gastro Obscura serves up a loaded plate of incredible ingredients, food adventures, and edible wonders. Ready for a beer made from fog in Chile? Sardinia’s “Threads of God” pasta? Egypt’s 2000-year-old egg ovens?

But far more than a menu of curious minds delicacies and unexpected dishes, Gastro Obscura reveals food’s central place in our lives as well as our bellies, touching on…

• History: Trace the network of ancient Roman fish sauce factories.
• Culture: Picture four million women gathering to make rice pudding.
• Travel: Scale China’s sacred Mount Hua to reach a tea house.
• Festivals: Feed wild macaques pyramid of fruit at Thailand’s Monkey Buffet Festival.

…and hidden gems that might be right around the corner, like the vending machine in Texas dispensing full sized pecan pies. Dig in and feed your sense of wonder.

The book is organized by country and is full of utterly fascinating facts about our relationship with gastronomy, with lavish illustrations and well-researched and engaging writing that you won’t want to put down. Just don’t go in thinking you’re going to find a bunch of recipes — this is NOT a cookbook.

Get the book in these formats:

• Hardcover ($26) ← recommended
• Kindle ($17)
• Apple Books ($20)

Buy Now

Welcome to this week’s [late-Saturday] edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Pour yourself a good drink, find a comfortable place, and relax.

Featured Links

Noble Blood — A New Podcast by Dana Schwartz »

Noble Blood is an upcoming podcast about the twisted lives of European nobility, created by writer and all-around good tweeter Dana Schwartz, and executive-produced by Aaron Mahnke of the Lore podcast.

The description:

Noble Blood explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and the murdered, and everyone in between.

The world is full of ill-fated love affairs, bad decisions, and family drama, but for a monarch, the personal will determine the fate of nations.

And when you’re wearing a crown, mistakes tend to mean blood.

On Twitter, Schwartz explains why she’s making this show:

I wanted to listen to a history podcast that was more about STORIES than rote facts, about people with power — lives of glamour juxtaposed with terrible threats. So I made it myself.

I love when the true drama of history is presented with a storyteller’s flair, so I’m excited to see where this show goes. The first episode drops this Tuesday (July 9th, 2019) and you can listen to the trailer or subscribe wherever you get podcasts:

• Apple Podcasts
• Overcast
• Pocket Casts
• Castro
• Spotify
• RSS

Oven Fries — CRISPIER Than Deep-Fried »

As you can tell if you’ve been following this column for a while, I’m a sucker for entertaining YouTube cooking channels. Adam Ragusea’s is the latest one I’ve stumbled upon.

When he’s not teaching journalism and media production or making music, he moonlights as a “FoodTuber” (why did I just type that on purpose (and moreover why am I leaving it (I could just edit all this out, no one would be the wiser, and yet))) who shares unfussy recipes and cooking tips each week.

His recent video on making super crispy oven fries is a winner in my book. I like this bit from the description:

MY COOKING PHILOSOPHY: I don’t like weighing or measuring things if I don’t have to, and I don’t like to be constantly checking a recipe as I cook. I don’t care that volume is a bad way of measuring things — it’s usually easier. I like for a recipe to get me in the ballpark, and then I like to eyeball and improvise the rest. If you’re like me, my goal with these videos is to give you a sense of how the food should look and feel as you’re cooking it, rather than give you a refined formula to reproduce.

Photo: Jill Utrup/USFWS

Minnesota Wants to Pay You to Care About Bees »

Greg Stanley of the Star Tribune reports on a measure voted on by Minnesota officials wherein residents will be paid to grow bee-friendly lawns:

The state will set aside $900,000 over one year to assist homeowners by covering much of the cost of converting traditional lawns by planting wildflowers, clover and native grasses in an effort to slow the collapse of the state’s bee population. The plan was trimmed down from the original House and Senate proposals, which would have provided funding for three years.

The plan could help replenish food sources for pollinators of all kinds, but will specifically aim at saving the rusty patched bumblebee, a fat and fuzzy species on the brink of extinction that seems to be making its final stand in the cities of the Upper Midwest.

Oh heck yeah. More of this type of thing, please, local governments everywhere.

(Via Atlas Obscura and Smithsonian Magazine)

Photo: NeONBRAND

How Modern Life is Transforming the Human Skeleton »

Wanna read a thing that will make you think about not only your posture, but your bone structure for the foreseeable future? I thought so. Zaria Gorvett of BBC Future has just the thing:

From the emergence of a spiky growth at the back of some people’s skulls to the enigmatic finding that our elbows are getting narrower, our bones are changing in surprising ways.

[…]

So what will future archaeologists make of our skeletons, when they examine them from their spaceships? If we’re not careful, they’ll reveal unhealthy diets, staggering levels of inactivity, and a morbid attachment to technology. Perhaps it’s best to be cremated.

Why hello, new intrusive thoughts!

Miscellaneous Links

• [Video:] Artist Felix Semper creates elaborate, mind-bending paper sculptures that are more than they seem at first.

• Somewhat similarly, Italian artist Peeta “combines elements of graffiti and abstract art to paint murals that appear to morph and dissolve architectural structures.”

• [Video:] In 2017, “Melodicka Bros” Dave and Joe covered DragonForce’s power metal song, “Through the Fire and Flames”, except slow and acoustic, and filmed on the beach. For your enjoyment, here is “Through the Water and Waves”.

Neat Stuff We Published This Week

• Give your iPad that “Americana” look: The TGT iPad Case
• Get some well deserved rest on your next trip, adventure, or daily commute: Sondre Travel’s “Voyage” Pillow and Sleep Mask
• The ideal companion for your favorite portable solar generator: Rockpals 100W Foldable Solar Panel
• Another of the slimmest wallets around, and an indestructible one at that: Pioneer “Molecule” Card Wallet
• Organize all your daily bits in bobs in your pocket: Yellow Birch Outfitters “PocKit” and “PocKit Pro” EDC Organizers
• Large enough for a group, small enough for a backpack: MIU COLOR Large Picnic Blanket

Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.

Welcome to the 2018 Tools & Toys Christmas Catalog!

↓ Skip down to Table of Contents

This year was lucky number 7 (!) for our little website. We’ve put out an annual holiday buying guide for all but one of them, each one featuring that year’s best and neatest items, hand-selected to make awesome additions to yours or your loved ones’ wish lists.

It’s become one of our favorite traditions and something we truly look forward to putting together each holiday season.

Since there are so many items in this catalog to peruse, we’ve created a table of contents for the various categories. Click through to any of those sections, and you’ll find that they each have their own mini-lists of items you can click through to quickly navigate to anything that seems interesting to you. We’ve also shortened the descriptions of some items so you’re not too bogged down with information.

As you might expect, we are continuing the tradition of highlighting three of our favorite non-profits. Here at Tools & Toys we have always given away 11-percent of our gross income to charity, and during the months of November and December, we’ll be donating 11% of our gross specifically to these three non-profits:

• App Camp for Girls
• Operation Christmas Child
• St. Jude

As we’ve said in past years, thank you so much, dear reader, for your attention and your patronage. Tools & Toys continues to be predominately supported by readers like you who purchase something on Amazon through one of our links. You — yes you! — make our work possible, and we only hope that in return you’ve found some truly awesome stuff to have in your life.

If the gift ideas we’ve curated below don’t fit your needs or wants, ping us on Twitter and we will try to help.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

— The Tools & Toys Staff

Table of Contents

Photo: Michał Kubalczyk

Apple 

• Sturdy, adjustable stand for iPad
• Full-grain leather AirPods case
• iPhone case inspired by the iMac G3
• Instant photo printer for iPhone
• Best gaming controller for iOS and Apple TV
• Extra-long leather band for Apple Watch

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ElevationLab’s DraftTable iPad stand. ($70)

ElevationLab DraftTable Kit for iPad Pro »

ElevationLab’s DraftTable stand isn’t just for propping up your iPad to watch videos — it’s made for doing real creative work. It’s super sturdy, adjustable, and designed to fit the iPad Pro but will also work with smaller iPads just fine.

  + For more info, see our post.

Twelve South AirSnap AirPods case. ($30)

Twelve South AirSnap Leather Case for Apple AirPods »

Twelve South’s AirSnap is a full-grain leather case that protects both your Apple AirPods and their Charging Case from being scratched, nicked, or dirtied up. Can be clipped onto a bag or backpack, and has a small cutout on the bottom for charging.

Comes in Cognac, Black, and Deap Teal.

  + Cheaper alternative: this $10 Lunies case.

Spigen’s iMac G3-inspired “Classic C1” iPhone case. ($40)

Spigen “Classic C1” Case for iPhone »

Spigen’s “Classic C1” case for iPhone was inspired by the iMac G3’s iconic design. Need we say more?

• iPhone 8 — Various colors
• iPhone 8 Plus — Various colors + Blueberry
• iPhone X — Various colors

The Prynt Pocket instant photo printer for iPhone. ($163)

“Prynt Pocket” Instant Photo Printer for iPhone »

The super compact Prynt Pocket is a great way to print photos right off your iPhone. You can print anything from your camera roll, or from Instagram and/or Snapchat, or you can shoot and print in “real time” (each photo takes ~30sec to print). Similar to the Polaroid ZIP, the Prynt uses zero-ink sticker paper, which has a peel-off backing to turn any photo into a sticker.

The SteelSeries Nimbus wireless gaming controller. ($45)

SteelSeries Nimbus »

The MFi-certified SteelSeries Nimbus continues to be the premier wireless game controller for all iOS devices, Macs, and Apple TV. This is the closest you’re gonna get to console-level gaming on Apple devices, especially if you also pick up a Lightning-to-HDMI adapter to connect your iPhone or iPad to your TV.

V-Moro’s Double Tour leather band for Apple Watch. ($17)

V-Moro Double Tour Leather Band for Apple Watch »

V-Moro’s extra-long band for Apple Watch is essentially a copycat of the Hermès Double Tour that lets you achieve a similar look without dropping almost $1,400 on it.

  + More details in our original post.

Photo: Lee Campbell

Audio

• ’80s-era headphones that still stand the test of time
• Gorgeous over-ear headphones
• Portable, waterproof Bluetooth speaker
• iOS-compatible podcasting mic
• Portable music production system

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Koss Porta Pro headphones. ($34)

Koss Porta Pro Headphones »

First released back in 1984 and still going strong, the Koss Porta Pro headphones have stubbornly stood the test of time, and for good reason. These on-ear, open-backed headphones offer crystal-clear sound and a far more comfortable wearing experience than you’d think by just looking at them. Perfect not only for music, but activities like gaming and jogging.

  + More info in our original post. Koss also offers a wireless edition of the same headphones.

Master & Dynamic MH40 over-ear headphones. ($299)

Master & Dynamic MH40 Over-Ear Headphones »

Master & Dynamic’s MH40s are gorgeous over-ear headphones for fashion-conscious people who also appreciate good sound. Whereas the Koss Porta Pros above definitely sport that 80s vibe, the MH40s manage to evoke an aesthetic that’s both modern and timeless.

Their sound is rich and warm, with plenty of bass (without being too overpowering) and a soundscape that’s far wider than you’d expect. The removable memory foam earpads are wrapped in premium lambskin leather for a wearing experience that remains comfortable for periods of 2–3 hours.

  + More info here, including a list of color options.

UE Wonderboom Bluetooth speaker. ($73)

UE Wonderboom Bluetooth Speaker »

Ultimate Ears’ UE Wonderboom Bluetooth speaker may be pint-sized, but it pumps out a surprising amount of sound in all directions. In fact, we wouldn’t even recommend using it for quiet listening. It’s better used while you’re showering or at a pool party, or for when you’re cooking or doing chores around home. The bass is enough to vibrate a desk, if that tells you anything.

It has an IPX7 waterproof rating, making it submersible up to 3 feet for half an hour. Like other UE speakers, the Wonderboom sports those iconic huge plus (+) and minus (-) face buttons for easily controlling volume. Two Wonderbooms can be paired with one another for an even better sound experience, and each one has a battery life of ~10 hours.

  + For a smaller alternative, the dodocool Mini is a teeny-tiny Bluetooth speaker that puts out surprisingly clear sound, and it’s just $12.

Shure MV5 digital condenser mic. ($79)

Shure MV5 Digital Condenser Microphone »

The Shure MV5 is a portable, great-sounding, MFi-certified mic that can be connected directly to an iOS device for easy podcast/voiceover recording. On the back of the “ball” is a 3.5mm headphone jack for monitoring sound quality while you record, and that same ball can be removed from its stand for ultra-portability.

  + See our original post for more details.

Korg’s nanoKEY2 MIDI controller keyboard. ($55)

Korg nanoKEY2 MIDI Controller Keyboard »

The compact nanoKEY2 MIDI controller keyboard by Korg — no, not that one — is ideal for musicians on the go. This ultra-slim USB controller sports 25 velocity-sensitive keys with impressive responsiveness for a device at this price point. The octave up/down buttons offer access to the full range of musical notes, while the modulation, sustain, and pitch bend buttons grant a high level of expressiveness.

Photo: Mark Jefferson Paraan

Auto

• CD-slot phone mount
• iPhone + Android car charger
• 300-watt in-car power inverter
• Rugged, highly versatile vehicle jack

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iOttie’s CD-slot phone mount. ($20)

iOttie “Easy One Touch 4” CD-Slot Phone Mount »

Got a friend who still has a CD player in their car that never gets used? They can put that thing to actual use again with the iOttie CD-slot phone mount.

It holds phones (and/or cases) that are anywhere from 2.3″ (58.4mm) to 3.5″ (88.9mm) wide, and like its name suggests, the side arms — which open by pressing a pair of release bars together, one-handed — grip back together with a single touch of the phone against the “trigger” panel, locking the device snugly into place. Once the phone’s in, you can easily adjust the viewing angle using the mount’s ball joint.

  + If the CD mount isn’t your thing, they also offer dash/windshield and air vent versions of it.

Trianium AtomicDrive universal car charger. ($20)

Trianium AtomicDrive Universal Car Charger »

This one’s for the “split households” out there: The AtomicDrive car charger lets an iPhone user and an Android user enjoy fast charging at the same time. It has a Quick Charge 3.0 USB-A port for Android phones and a Type-C PD port that works with newer iPhone models (as long as you have a USB-C to Lightning cable).

BESTEK 300W in-car power inverter. ($30)

BESTEK 300W In-Car Power Inverter »

Anyone who goes on a lot of road trips or has to be on the road often because of work will dig BESTEK’s awesome 300-watt in-car power inverter. Plug it into any standard vehicle’s cigarette lighter port, and in exchange you get:

• Two 2.4-amp USB ports for charging phones and tablets and such.
• Two 110-volt AC outlets for charging laptops, power tool batteries, etc.

All of this is housed in a red aluminum alloy body that you can’t miss when you go looking for it, and the power cable is two feet long so you shouldn’t have too much problem supplying power to anyone in the vehicle when they need it. There’s even a built-in cooling fan to keep the thing from overheating.

The Hi-Lift all-cast 4×4 jack. ($86 for the 48-inch version)

Photo: Shawn Blanc

Hi-Lift All-Cast 4×4 Jack »

Truck and 4×4 owners who like to go offroading should always keep a Hi-Lift jack in or on their rig. Chances are, the vehicle will need to be recovered from a tricky situation on the trail at some point, and when something like that comes up, the person in question will be glad to have a Hi-Lift on hand — provided they use it correctly and safely.

  + Lots more info here.

Photo: Toa Heftiba

Books & Novels

• Gmorning, Gnight!
• Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
• The New York Times Mini Crosswords, Volume 1
• Make: Tips and Tales from the Workshop
• Zen Pencils—Creative Struggle: Illustrated Advice from Masters of Creativity
• The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid

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Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin Manuel Miranda and Jonny Sun. ($14 hardcover)

Gmorning, Gnight! by »

Lin Manuel Miranda teamed up with humorist and illustrator Jonny Sun to create Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You, which collects the Hamilton creator and Moana composer ‘s daily inspirational tweets in book form. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll come away with a well-fed soul and a bit of wisdom to chew on.

Douglas Adams’ Complete Hitchhiker Series by The Folio Society. ($230 for 5-book series)

The Complete Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Series »

The Folio Society’s Complete Hitchiker Series is a thing of beauty for fans of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide series. It collects all five books in this surreal, hilarious, universe-spanning odyssey, each of which has been lovingly crafted to be an object worth owning, with glittery blue cloth covers and unique color illustrations throughout by Jonathan Burton.

The New York Times’ Mini Crosswords, Volume 1. ($10)

The New York Times Mini Crosswords, Volume 1 by Joel Fagliano »

Doing crosswords is fun but sometimes it’s hard to find the time to complete any of them. Luckily, the New York Times Mini Crosswords book has 150 fun-sized crosswords (in 5×5-square grids) that can be done in a just a minute or two each.

  + More info in this post. You can also pick up Volume 2 and Volume 3.

Make: Tips and Tales from the Workshop by Gareth Branwyn. ($17 paperback)

Make: Tips and Tales from the Workshop by »

Gareth Branwyn’s Make: Tips and Tales from the Workshop acts a wide-ranging compendium of the best workshop and maker tips around, with beautifully hand-drawn watercolor illustrations by Richard Sheppard featured throughout.

  + Additional details here.

Zen Pencils—Creative Struggle by Gavin Aung Than. ($10 paperback)

Zen Pencils—Creative Struggle by Gavin Aung Than »

Creative Struggle: Illustrated Advice from Masters of Creativity collects a series of comics on creativity by Gavin Aung Than. It features inspirational quotes and advice from the likes of Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci, Ernest Hemingway, Frida Kahlo, Stephen King, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Akira Kurosawa, Nikola Tesla, Brené Brown, and more…all in cartoon form.

This is one of those books that can ignite anyone’s creative spark, and it’s entertaining besides.

Atlas Obscura’s Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid. ($14 hardcover)

The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid »

From the folks at Atlas Obscura comes this kid’s illustrated guide to more than 150 of the world’s most mesmerizing and mysterious wonders — both natural and manmade — in 47 countries and on every continent on earth.

  + Read our post here.

Photo: Erik Witsoe

Coffee & Tea

• Sleek, minimalist gooseneck kettle
• Espresso-like attachment for AeroPress
• Home espresso machine
• Glass pour-over coffee set
• Loose-leaf tea brewer
• Clever storage container

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The Stagg EKG kettle. ($149)

The Stagg EKG Kettle »

Whether they’re a coffee or tea drinker, having a nice gooseneck kettle will always be a plus.

The chic Stagg EKG kettle offers similar temperature control to the beloved Bonavita variable-temp but in a far sleeker package. It’s an attention-grabber for sure, sporting the same minimalist matte black look and ergonomically counterbalanced handle as its older sibling, the original Stagg.

The EKG’s base has a temperature control knob that lets you heat water anywhere between 135°F (57°C) and 212°F (100°C), with an option to hold that temperature for an hour.

Prismo attachment for AeroPress. ($25)

Fellow “Prismo” Attachment for AeroPress »

The makers of that kettle above also have an interesting product called Prismo that attaches to your AeroPress coffee maker (in place of the existing cap) and produces an espresso-like shot. No, it’s not actually espresso, but it’s pretty dang close and doesn’t require a whole separate machine (more on that in a minute).

  + Read our post here.

Breville Barista Express home espresso machine. ($596)

Breville “Barista Express” Espresso Machine »

If the gift recipient you have in mind does want a real espresso machine, they should have one that does it all. Breville’s Barista Express fits the bill. It has a built-in conical burr grinder (sweet!), super accurate PID temperature control, an articulating steam wand for frothing milk, and includes all the accessories needed for pulling shots and steaming milk.

  + Read our post here.

OXO Good Grips glass pour-over set. ($50)

OXO Good Grips Glass Pour-Over Coffee Set »

OXO’s stylish, elegantly modern glass pour-over set makes the morning coffee brewing ritual a simply enjoyable one. It includes a hand-blown borosilicate glass dripper and a double-walled glass carafe/server that holds up to 24 oz. of coffee — enough for two to share.

  + Read our post here.

The IngenuiTEA bottom-dispensing teapot. ($20)

IngenuiTEA Bottom-Dispensing Teapot »

When it comes to tea brewing, nothing beats the aromas and flavors of loose leaf tea. The IngenuiTEA teapot by Adagio Teas is a contraption that makes the brewing process super easy:

  + Read more about this and other tea-related recommendations in our guide, Awesome Gear for Tea Drinkers.

Ankomn’s Turn-N-Seal container. ($30)

Ankomn Turn-N-Seal Container »

The Ankomn Turn-N-Seal is a storage container with a pretty neat feature: Once you’ve popped the lid on, you can turn that big dial in either direction about 8–10 times to create an airtight seal, causing the silicone indicator in the corner to sink. No electricity required, and it keeps your coffee beans or loose-leaf tea fresher, longer.

Photo: Nicholas Gras

Food, Drink & Kitchen

• Cookbook for movie lovers
• Vintage-style cast iron skillet
• Back-to-basics cookbook
• Magnetic measuring spoons
• Smart rice cooker
• French-style butter crock
• Vacuum-insulated drinking tumbler

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Eat What You Watch cookbook by Andrew “Binging With Babish” Rea. ($17 hardcover)

Eat What You Watch Cookbook »

Andrew Rea of the Binging With Babish YouTube channel took his love of recreating dishes from movies and television and turned it all into a cookbook called Eat What You Watch: A Cookbook for Movie Lovers, featuring some of the show’s best recipes and tributes to great moments of food in film.

  + For more fun cookbooks, check out our guide.

Field Company cast iron skillet. ($125 for № 8 size, $160 for № 10 size)

The Field Company Cast Iron Skillet »

Field Company is known for producing cast iron skillets using old-school machining and polishing techniques to give the pans smooth-as-glass cooking surfaces that you don’t see in a lot of new cast iron these days. Field Skillets are also relatively lightweight and work on all types of cooktops, including induction.

Whoever you give this to will love you forever. So will their grandchildren.

  + Read our post here.

Ruhlman’s Twenty cookbook by Michael Ruhlman. ($23 hardcover)

Ruhlman’s Twenty Cookbook »

Ruhlman’s Twenty distills author Michael Ruhlman’s decades of cooking, writing, and working with the world’s greatest chefs into twenty essential ideas that are guaranteed to make every cook more accomplished.

More than just being a list of recipes, Ruhlman’s Twenty is first and foremost a book about thinking about food. No matter one’s station or skill level, these are the twenty concepts that will propel any person through their cooking hobby/career.

Prepworks magnetic measuring spoons. ($15 for set of 5)

Prepworks Magnetic Measuring Spoons »

It’s annoying having to dig around in the drawer to find that one measuring spoon that somehow once again separated from the rest. That is, unless you get this set of 5 stainless steel measuring spoons, which have embedded magnets that keep them nested together in storage.

  + More info in our post.

Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 rice cooker. ($162 for 1-liter, $153 for 1.8-liter — weird, right?)

Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 “Neuro Fuzzy” Rice Cooker »

The Zojirushi NS-ZCC10 is perhaps the smartest rice cooker you’ll ever own. It has an onboard “Neuro Fuzzy Logic” microchip that allows the cooker to sense moisture and make fine adjustments to temperature and heating time, resulting in perfect rice every single time. The NS-ZCC10 can even get it right when you mess up.

The Butter Bell. ($25)

The Original Butter Bell Crock by L. Tremain »

With the butter bell you can keep butter fresh and soft — no fridge required. It’s a clever little crock that uses water to create an airtight seal around the butter, preventing it from going rancid for about a month.

  + Lots more info about how it works here.

The YETI Rambler tumbler. ($20)

YETI Rambler 10oz. Vacuum-Insulated Lowball Tumbler »

The YETI Rambler 10oz Lowball is a vacuum-insulated tumbler that can keep your morning coffee hot for an hour or so, then keep your nighttime bourbon cold even longer. Use it around the house or take it camping, it works great either way.

  + More info here.

Photo: Frank Veschi

Gadgets & Accessories

• Carefree e-reader
• Nintendo Switch controller dock
• Nintendo Switch hardshell carrying case
• Leather folio/organizer
• Portable power bank
• iMac-like tablet stand

↑ Return to Table of Contents

The Kindle Oasis. ($250)

The Kindle Oasis (2017 Model) »

With a larger screen, bigger built-in battery, more storage space, and first-ever waterproof design, last year’s update of the Kindle Oasis made it once again Amazon’s most carefee e-reader yet.

  + We’ve got the details here.

PowerA’s Joy-Con charging dock for Nintendo Switch. ($18)

Nintendo Switch Joy-Con Charging Dock »

One of the Nintendo Switch’s biggest selling points is that up to eight Joy-Con controllers (four lefts + four rights) can be paired to the same console for multiplayer gameplay. When it comes time to charge all those controllers, the official Joy-Con charging dock by PowerA can handle up to four at a time.

  + More info here.

Tomtoc ultra-slim case for Nintendo Switch. ($17)

Tomtoc Ultra-Slim Nintendo Switch Case »

This portable hardshell carrying case protects the Switch and holds up to 8 game cartridges.

It sports an EVA hardshell with special indentations that insulate the Switch’s joysticks and buttons against direct pressure from outside. The interior is lined with flannelette, a light cotton fabric that keeps the device from being scratched up, while the exterior is wrapped in a high-quality cloth material that both ensures a comfy grip and resists water/spills.

Bellroy’s Work Folio A5. ($199)

Bellroy Work Folio A5 »

Bellroy’s Work Folio A5 helps you organize and carry all your daily essentials. It fits a small tablet (iPad mini, Kindle, etc), a smartphone, a pair of earbuds, an A5-sized notebook, a pen, up to six cards, a passport, and a boarding pass or two. Like the company’s wallets, the folio is made from responsibly sourced leather.

Jackery Explorer 75 PowerBar. ($130)

Jackery Explorer 75 PowerBar »

Jackery’s Explorer 75 PowerBar is a lightweight yet high-capacity (77Wh/20,800mAh) external battery pack for charging your devices when no other power outlets are available — for example, when you’re doing work at a coffee shop and all the outlets are taken.

  + Additional details here.

  + Another great power source when you need it most is the Anker “PowerPort Solar” 21-watt charger.

Viozon AP-7S tablet stand. ($40)

Viozon AP-7S Tablet Stand »

An iMac-like stand for iPads, e-readers, and other tablets of various sizes (between 9″ and 13″), the Viozon AP-7S is great for working, watching videos, referencing recipes in the kitchen, and more. Rotates 360° for landscape or portrait use.

  + More details here.

Photo: Nathan Riley

Home, Office & Decor

• Smart light bulb starter kit
• “Perpetual” calendar
• Vertical chess boards
• World travel pinboard map
• Enamel steel signs

↑ Return to Table of Contents

Philips Hue starter kit. ($194)

Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance A19 Starter Kit »

The Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance A19 starter kit isn’t a bad way to get a loved one started on their “smart home” journey. It comes with four smart LED bulbs, as well as the unobtrusive Hue Bridge gateway to control them all.

The Hue Bridge allows you to control up to 50 Philips Hue bulbs, so if your loved one wants to expand on their newfangled system later on, it’s no big deal at all.

The Museum of Modern Art’s Perpetual Calendar. ($53)

MoMA Perpetual Calendar »

The Museum of Modern Art’s Perpetual Calendar cleverly uses magnets to marks the current month along a semicircle curve. One magnetic ball hangs suspended in the air by a tether and is manually shifted to the next month with a pleasing snap movement. The other ball, marking the days, slides along a flat path. Can be wall-mounted or placed on a flat surface.

“Straight Up Chess” vertical chess boards. ($280–$360, depending on model)

“Straight Up Chess” Vertical Chess Boards »

Got an office buddy that you never have time to sit down and play a full game of chess with? These vertical chess boards display beautifully on a wall and allow the two of you to play asynchronously in passing. It’s kind of like a gift to yourself as much as it is for them ;)

  + Read our post here.

Conquest Maps’ world travel pinboard map. ($99–$359, depending on size)

Conquest Maps “Modern Slate” World Travel Pinboard Map »

Conquest Maps’ handsome pinboard travel map lets you proudly display your journeys and adventures in life on any wall in your home or office. Wherever its hung, it’s sure to become the focal point for that space. Each map comes with two sets of colored push pins — 50 sky blue, and 50 deep blue.

  + More info here, including photos of other sizes and how to get other pin colors when you order.

  + Another fun way to track one’s travels is with these scratch-off US and World maps.

Best Made Co.’s enamel steel signs. ($32 each)

Best Made Co.’s Enamel Steel Signs »

These are essentially jumbo-sized versions of the company’s keychain set, with full messages printed on them rather than single words — “Stay Sharp”, “Live to Make”, etc. They look just as awesome in an office workspace as they would in the shop.

  + Read our post here.

Photo: Jose Carrasco

Style, Attire & EDC

• Elastic fabric belt
• Parachute elastic watch straps
• Apparel with gradient designs
• Multi-tool watch

↑ Return to Table of Contents

Gelante elastic fabric belt. ($10)

Gelante Elastic Fabric Belt »

Ever lost or gained weight and had to either buy a new belt or go the ghetto route and just keep poking holes until the thing is practically falling apart? Forget that garbage and just get one of these elastic belts instead.

They do have various sizes you can choose from, but each one is stretchy and can accommodate a wide variety of belt sizes. You get the exact right fit every time you buckle it.

  + Featured in our guide, Everyday Style: Elastic

Erika’s Originals “MN” parachute watch straps. (from €50 / ~$58 USD)

Erika’s Originals “MN” Parachute Watch Straps »

Timeless and 100% handcrafted military parachute elastic watch straps that are extremely comfortable to wear, thanks in part to their ingenious micro-adjustable clasp that employs sea water-resistant hardware.

  + This company has a whole backstory worth reading, so be sure to check that out.

Steady Hands’ “Gradients” line. (prices vary)

Steady Hands “Gradients” Apparel Line »

A while back we wrote about the Green Tint Gradient Puffer Jacket by indie clothing brand Steady Hands Apparel. While that jacket is now sold out, they do offer several other sweet items in the “Gradients” line, like the Purple Gradient Windbreaker ($60), the Black to White Gradient Sweater ($50), and more.

Leatherman’s Tread Tempo multi-tool watch. ($450)

Leatherman “Tread Tempo” Watch & Multi-tool »

The Leatherman Tread Tempo is a multi-tool timepiece that takes the customizable tool links of the Tread bracelet and combines them with a premium, Swiss-made watch. It’s a handy way to keep a bunch of small tools on your person at all times without anyone being the wiser.

  + More details here.

Photo: Shane Aldendorff

Tools & Trinkets

• Pliers + wrench combo
• 12-in-1 multi-tool with a telescoping magnet
• Colorful 9-in-1 multi-tool
• Clever brass keyring
• Magnetic wristband
• Ratcheting screwdriver with 6-bit storage

↑ Return to Table of Contents

Knipex 10″ pliers wrench. ($54)

Knipex 10-Inch Pliers Wrench »

This single versatile tool can replace just about any crescent wrenches and/or channel-lock pliers in someone’s kit. It’s a fantastic, versatile tool for fastening, gripping, holding, and bending work pieces.

  + See our post for details.

The CRKT Technician multi-tool. ($46)

CRKT Technician Multi-Tool »

The CRKT Technician is a grippy 12-in-1 tool with a telescoping magnetic pick-up device built in — perfect for retrieving things that, say, fall down into car engines.

  + The other 11 tools within are listed here, though I’m sure most will come as no surprise.

Kikkerland’s rainbow multi-tool. ($20)

Kikkerland Rainbow Multi-Tool »

Kikkerland’s packs 9 vibrantly color-coded allen keys and screwdrivers into one sleek package. The bright color coding makes it a cinch to spot the tool you’re looking for, every time.

  + View the full list of tools/colors here.

Craighill’s closed-helix brass keyring. ($30)

Craighill Closed-Helix Brass Keyring »

This clever keyring is a great way to save someone from ever having to fuss too much with adding or removing keys. Just unscrew the knurled end, slide the key(s) on or off, then screw the cap back on. Easy peasy.

RAK magnetic wristband. ($13)

RAK Magnetic Wristband »

When you’re doing a home DIY project and you’re up on a ladder or crawling through some small space, one of the more annoying little things to deal with is keeping track of all those bits and bobs — the screws, nails, nuts and bolts, drill bits, washers, etc.

With the RAK magnetic wristband on, it becomes a lot less of a pain. It’s got 10 strong magnets embedded nearly all the way around, essentially acting like a third hand that won’t lose any of those small items when they’re needed most.

Wera ratcheting screwdriver. ($39)

Wera “Kraftform Kompakt 27 RA” Ratcheting Screwdriver »

A ratcheting screwdriver is a simple-sounding upgrade over using a typical screwdriver, but it’s one that makes all the difference. The first time you get into a tight space and quickly tighten or loosen an annoyingly placed screw with one hand, you’ll never go back to a non-ratcheting tool.

This ratcheting screwdriver by Wera combines convenience, comfort and speed into one unique tool, and the ergonomic handle opens to reveal a carousel with slots for six 1″ driver bits.

Photo: Boldbaatar Dashnyam

Toys, Games & Kids

• Nintendo Switch (of course)
• Harry Potter coding kit
• Toy storage bag + play mat
• Co-op adventure card game
• Voltron LEGO set
• Sci-fi themed playing cards

↑ Return to Table of Contents

The Nintendo Switch. ($299 for both the gray and neon red + blue versions

The Nintendo Switch »

If for some reason a kid in your life doesn’t have one by now, you once again have the opportunity to be a hero by getting them a Nintendo Switch console. There’s not a kid alive who wouldn’t want one of these, and it’s always a hit when friends come over to play.

  + Need some accessories and awesome games to go with it? Check out our Nintendo Switch starter kit guide.

  + If the kid’s something of a tinkerer, they’ll also love Nintendo’s Labo and Labo Vehicle kits.

The Harry Potter Coding Kit by Kano. ($100)

Kano Harry Potter Coding Kit »

This coding kit lets kids build a wireless wand that teaches them how to code and create their own Harry Potter spells. Yeah, our wallets couldn’t hit the screen fast enough either.

  + Read our post here.

  + On a similar level, kids will love the superhero-inspired Avengers Hero Inventor Kit.

Swoop Bags toy storage bag + play mat. ($48–$52, depending on color)

“Swoop Bags” Toy Storage Bag + Play Mat »

Got any parent friends in your life who are sick of their kids’ toys stabbing them in the foot? Gift them a Swoop Bag and they’ll forever thank you. These durable and stylish bags help kids easily organize their toys and make post-playtime cleanup a breeze.

  + Read our post here.

The Forbidden Island card game. ($18)

Forbidden Island Card Game »

Whereas most board games are about competition and destroying your opponents, Forbidden Island is a card game that takes a different approach by having 2 to 4 players form a team of adventurers who must work together to recover four treasures and escape by helicopter before the island sinks under the ever-rising sea.

  + Read more details about this awesome game here.

LEGO Ideas Voltron set. ($180)

LEGO Ideas 21311 Voltron Set »

Let’s go, Voltron force!

This awesome LEGO set lets you build all five lions that can be combined to form the Voltron super-robot, complete with huge sword and shield. There are over 2,321 pieces included — making it the largest ever LEGO Ideas set — and the combined Voltron figure measures 15″ high, 5″ long, and 8″ wide, so it’s also the biggest buildable LEGO mech ever.

“STARDECK” sci-fi playing cards. ($15)

Lunar Saloon “STARDECK” Playing Cards »

STARDECK is an awesome science fiction playing card deck where each suit represents a classic sci-fi trope:

• ♣️ Clubs = Space Marines
• ♦️ Diamonds = Mega Corporation
• ♠️ Spades = Aliens
• ♥️ Hearts = Robots

Photo: Juliana Kozoski

Travel & Outdoors

• An outdoorsy backpack
• Titanium spork
• Packing cube set
• Wool camp blanket w/ leather carrier
• Dual-compartment insulated cooler bag

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Tom Bihn “Guide’s Edition Synapse 25 backpack. ($240)

Tom Bihn “Guide’s Edition” Synapse 25 Backpack »

Tom Bihn’s “Guide’s Edition” Synapse 25 takes everything that was so clever about the original Synapse 25 — along with some design cues from their Guide’s Pack — and makes it feel even more at home in the great outdoors.

  + Our original post has all the details, plus some lifestyle photos.

  + Another backpack worth your time is the WaterField Designs “Bolt”.

Light My Fire titanium spork. ($15)

Light My Fire Titanium Spork »

Call it a weird gift, but trust us: Light My Fire’s titanium spork is useful anywhere, from the office to airport to the trail.

It’s got a fork on one side and a spoon on the other, with a serrated edge on one of the fork tines that cuts food without cutting your mouth. It’s rock solid, weighs less than an ounce, cleans easily, has an anti-slip middle grip, and doesn’t leave a metallic taste in food.

  + Another great option in this category is the Outsmart 3-in-1 titanium spork (also $15).

Mossio 7-Piece packing cube set. ($16)

Mossio 7-Piece Packing Cube Set »

Mossio’s 7-piece packing cube set comes with 3 actual packing cubes (large/medium/small), 3 laundry pouches (large/medium/small), and a shoe bag. They’re all made from high-quality durable nylon material that’s water-resistant and should basically survive many years of travel.

  + More details (plus a pro-tip) here.

Pendleton wool camp blanket with leather carrier. ($169)

Pendleton Twin-Size Wool Camp Blanket with Leather Carrier »

Pendleton’s rugged-styled twin wool camp blanket is warm, hardy, and designed to meet the rigorous demands of the outdoors. It measures 66″ x 84″ and is comprised of 86% wool and 14% cotton.

$169 seems like a lot to pay for a blanket, but its utility and longevity make it worth every penny. It comes with a leather strap carrier and is available in a handful of colors/stripe patterns:

• Green Heather
• Hemrich Stripe
• Mineral Umber
• Red Mountain
• Lake

  + On the subject of blankets, the Matador Pocket Blanket 2.0 would also make a pretty cool gift.

Carhartt Deluxe Lunch Cooler. ($25)

Carhartt Deluxe Lunch Cooler »

Carhartt’s soft-sided Deluxe Lunch Cooler is a dual-compartment insulated cooler bag that’ll keep your cold stuff cold and your sandwiches un-smushed, wherever you take it and no matter what the weather’s like.

It’s also constructed from a heavy duty water-repellant material and sports YKK zippers and triple-needle stitching for maximum durability and quality.

Photo: Aaron Burden

Writing & Stationery

• Black wood rainbow pencils
• Science fiction-inspired aluminum pen
• Mechanical pencil that protects lead from breakage
• Zip-roll pen case

↑ Return to Table of Contents

Stubby Pencil Studio’s black wood rainbow pencils. ($15 for 6-pack, $28 for 12-pack)

Stubby Pencil Studio’s Black Wood Rainbow Pencils »

These rainbow pencils by Stubby Pencil Studio are pretty nifty. There’s a rainbow in every pencil, so kids can write in 7 vibrant colors that shift between one another as the pencil moves across the page. We love the striking contrast between the colorful writing tips and their black-dyed cedar wood bodies.

  + Read our post here.

Baron Fig’s “Mysterium” aluminum pen. ($60)

Baron Fig “Mysterium” Squire Pen »

A limited-edition, science fiction-inspired version of Baron Fig’s aluminum Squire pen. It’s machined from a solid block of high-grade aluminum, with a gorgeous warm orange color — meant to evoke hazy sunsets on distant planets — and etched with an icosahedron (basically a 20-sided die) emblem.

Looks pretty cool on its own or in their Squire Pen Stand.

  + Read our original post here.

  + We have a whole guide on metallic pens if you’d like check those out too.

Zebra’s DelGuard Type-Lx mechanical pencils. ($9 a pop)

Zebra DelGuard Type-Lx Mechanical Pencils (0.5mm) »

Zebra’s Delguard Type-Lx mechanical pencil employs an ingenious dual-spring internal mechanism — one in the barrel, one in the tip — that makes it virtually impossible to break the lead, whether you’re pressing down vertically or sideways. It works amazingly well and has no negative impact on writing.

Comes in black, white, blue, and red.

  + Another clever mechanical pencil is the Uni “Kuru Toga”, which rotates the lead as you write so it automatically wears evenly.

Nock Co.’s Brasstown pen case. ($40)

Nock Co. “Brasstown” Zip-Roll Pen Case »

If you’re going to be gifting all these pens and pencils, you might consider throwing in a case to carry them with. Nock Co.’s Brasstown is six-slot nylon pen case that rolls up into a small bag, which itself can hold other small accessories. Comes in four colorways:

• Violet / Raven Black
• Spa Blue / Lime
• Navy / Red
• Green / Green

Photo: Kushagra Kevat

Charities

At Tools & Toys we have always donated 11% of our gross income to charity. If you click this link before you do your shopping on Amazon, we’ll be donating 11% of our affiliate earnings for the months of November and December specifically to the three charities listed below.

We also encourage you to consider making some charitable donations this year, and invite you to give alongside us to these three organizations:

• St. Jude Children’s Hospital: St. Jude is unlike any other pediatric treatment and research facility. Discoveries made at St. Jude have completely changed how the world treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. Moreover, their hospital has been described as “a hospital without walls” where children in need are treated at no cost to their family.

• Operation Christmas Child: Samaritan’s purse is a Christian ministry, and every year they work with volunteers and donors from around the nation to pack and ship shoe boxes full of gifts to children in need around the globe.

• App Camp for Girls: App Camp For Girls is a place where girls can put their creative powers to work, designing and building apps, while learning more about the business of software and being inspired by women mentors in the field. This is an organization we proudly support as they spread the message that women play a vital role in the technology field and offer a significant contribution.

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It’s that time of year when kids start getting asked what they want for Christmas, and those way-over-the-top wish lists start being made.

That’s not to say however that you can’t surprise the children in your life with something they haven’t yet thought to ask for. Out of the handful of items we’ve collected below, you’re sure to get some great ideas.

The Nintendo Switch »

($299 for both the gray and neon red + blue versions)

If for some reason they don’t have one by now, you once again have the opportunity to be a hero by getting them a Nintendo Switch console. There’s not a kid alive who wouldn’t want one of these, and it’s always a hit when friends come over to play.

  + Need some accessories and awesome games to go along with the console? Check out our Nintendo Switch starter kit guide.

  + If the kid is something of a tinkerer, they’ll also love Nintendo’s Labo and Labo Vehicle kits.

Kano Harry Potter Coding Kit »

($100)

This coding kit lets kids build a wireless wand that teaches them how to code and create their own Harry Potter spells. Designed primarily for use with tablets, the kit offers over 70 creative challenges inspired by the Wizarding World that impart the basic lessons of coding, introducing children to real-world programming concepts.

  + Read our post here.

  + On a similar level, kids will love the superhero-inspired Avengers Hero Inventor Kit.

“Swoop Bags” Toy Storage Bag + Play Mat »

($39–$52, depending on color)

Some kids just have so many LEGO blocks — and other modular toys of that ilk — that are more often than not spread out in a huge, foot-stabby mess. Gift them a Swoop Bag and their parents will forever thank you. These durable and stylish bags help the kid easily organize their toys and make post-playtime cleanup a breeze.

  + Read our post here.

Celestron PowerSeeker 60AZ Telescope »

($55)

The entry-level Celestron PowerSeeker 60AZ isn’t the most powerful telescope on the market by any stretch, but it’s certainly a great way to open up the wonders of the universe to an aspiring young stargazer.

  + Read our post here.

The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid »

($14 hardcover)

From the folks at Atlas Obscura comes this kid’s illustrated guide to more than 150 of the world’s most mesmerizing and mysterious wonders — both natural and manmade — in 47 countries and on every continent on earth.

  + Read our post here.

Stubby Pencil Studio’s Black Wood Rainbow Pencils »

($15 for 6-pack, $28 for 12-pack)

These rainbow pencils by Stubby Pencil Studio are pretty nifty. There’s a rainbow in every pencil, so kids can write in 7 vibrant colors that shift between one another as the pencil moves across the page. We love the striking contrast between the colorful writing tips and their black-dyed cedar wood bodies.

  + Read our post here.

Sphero’s App-Enabled Star Wars Droids »

($97 for BB-8, $58 for R2-D2, and $73 for BB-9E)

Finally, we come to the coolest gift for Star Wars-obsessed kids: Sphero’s App-Enabled Droid series. With any one of these, the kid can use the “Star Wars Droids” app to interact with and control their little companion in various ways.

  + Read our post about the BB-9E model here.

During the course of writing about all sorts of neat products for this site, we sometimes come across things that look so cool and we can’t wait to have them in our hands, but they won’t actually be released for months.

What follows is a list of 12 such products coming between now and the end of October 2018, in order of their release date. Pre-order them, add them to your wishlist, whatever suits you best.

Avengers Hero Inventor Kit by littleBits »

(August 24th, 2018)

This kit will let kids become superheroes by building, customizing, and coding their own high-tech gear, and crafting a unique identity to match.

  + Read our post here.

MSTR LINX Titanium Carabiner Key Ring Set »

(August 31st, 2018)

Utilizes unique interlocking shapes to form its locking mechanism, allowing the rings to pass through one another for fast, easy, and secure use.

  + Read our post here.

Nintendo Labo Vehicle Kit »

(September 14th, 2018)

The upcoming third kit in the Nintendo Labo lineup will put you in the driver’s seat of a car, submarine, and plane.

  + Read our post here.

HORI D-Pad Controller (L) for Nintendo Switch »

(September 18th, 2018)

Adds an honest-to-goodness D-pad to your Nintendo Switch, but with some caveats.

  + Read our post here.

Atlas Obscura’s Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid »

(September 18th, 2018)

From the folks at Atlas Obscura comes this kid’s illustrated guide to more than 150 of the world’s most mesmerizing and mysterious wonders — both natural and manmade — in 47 countries and on every continent on earth.

  + Read our post here.

Kano Harry Potter Coding Kit »

(October 1st, 2018)

Build a wand. Learn to code. Make magic.

  + Read our post here.

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work by Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson »

(October 2nd, 2018)

From the authors of the best-selling Rework comes a timely manifesto on creating a calmer, more reasonable work culture.

  + Read our post here.

Season Cookbook by Nik Sharma »

(October 2nd, 2018)

Recipes that take a journey all the way from India by way of the American South to California.

  + Read our post here.

Tomorrow I’ll Be Brave by Jessica Hische »

(October 16th, 2018)

A beautiful bedtime book with lush illustrations and playful lettering, along with an inspiring message.

  + Read our post here.

Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jonny Sun »

(October 23rd, 2018)

From the creator and star of Hamilton, and with beautiful illustrations by Jonny Sun, comes a book of affirmations to inspire readers at the beginning and end of each day.

  + Read our post here.

Typeset in the Future by Dave Addey »

(October 30th, 2018)

An obsessively geeky study of how classic sci-fi movies draw us in to their imagined worlds and how they have come to represent “THE FUTURE” in popular culture — all through the use of typography.

  + Read our post here.

Pokemon: Let’s Go for Nintendo Switch »

(November 16th, 2018)

The upcoming revamp of Pokémon Yellow has been inspired greatly by Pokémon GO, so it’ll be both a trip down memory lane and a whole new experience.

  + Read our post here.

Just over a year ago we featured the Atlas Obscura book in our guide, Five Books for the Curious. The same folks behind the awesome website are now coming out with a children’s book in September, titled The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid.

In their words, this will be a “kid’s illustrated guide to more than 150 of the world’s most mesmerizing and mysterious wonders — both natural and manmade — in 47 countries and on every continent on earth.” In an announcement blog post, author Dylan Thuras adds:

Written by yours truly along with co-author Rosemary Mosco and illustrator Joy Ang, the book takes young readers on a trip around the planet to discover its most mesmerizing and mysterious wonders. It’s a journey to ice caves, dinosaur discos, abandoned theme parks, and so much more. Along the way, kids of all ages will learn about the connections that bind our world together in the most unexpected ways.

[…]

Each location—100 real destinations in 47 countries on every continent—is illustrated in stunning full-color. The book also features fun extras such as a handy packing list, a world map, obscure facts, GPS coordinates, and a list of useful travel advice on how best to get to any adventure.

Here’s the page for one of those abandoned theme parks he mentioned:

Click here for the full size.

The book is slated for release on September 18th, 2018 (the day before my birthday!) and can be pre-ordered for $18 on Amazon. My 6yo son is going to love this.

Pre-order

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Brew a fresh cup of coffee, find a comfortable place, and relax.

Scientists Detect Gravitational Waves from a New Kind of Nova »

Sarah Kaplan of The Washington Post shares the story of one of the biggest astrophysical discoveries of the decade:

Some 130 million years ago, in a galaxy far away, the smoldering cores of two collapsed stars smashed into each other. The resulting explosion sent a burst of gamma rays streaming through space and rippled the very fabric of the universe.

On Aug. 17, those signals reached Earth — and sparked an astronomy revolution.

The discovery caught the attention of a good chunk of the astrophysics community:

Within 24 hours of the initial detection, it seemed as though half the telescopes in the world — and several more in space — were tilted toward SSS17a, recalled Stefano Valenti, an astrophysicist at the University of California at Davis who took part in the optical search. “We were calling colleagues to talk, saying, ‘I cannot tell you why, but can you observe this object?’” he said. “Everyone was working together, sharing everything they had as soon as the information was coming online. … I think this one was the most exciting week of my career.”

A funny tidbit also mentioned in the story (bold emphasis mine):

In the ninth image, postdoctoral researcher Charlie Kilpatrick saw it: a tiny new dot beside a galaxy known as NGC 4993, 130 million light-years away.

He notified the group through the messaging service Slack:

@foley found something

sending you a screenshot

Reddit user u/Andromeda321 lists why this is such a monumental discovery:

Well off the top of my head:

1) NS-NS mergers are where the far majority of heavy elements like gold and uranium are thought to be created. Huge to be able to study that

2) NS-NS mergers likely create black holes in many cases- we can actually study black holes being born!

3) It also proves that gravitational waves are going to be super important for finding these super rare astronomical events in the future

4) It solves the long-standing question of what creates short GRBs, which are some of the most energetic explosions we know of and are a third of all GRBs, but people haven’t had proof of where they come from for decades.

I’m probably skipping some, but that’s not a shabby starting list!

Photo: Karen Kayser

“The Eclipse Was Not Black but Some Other Color that Screamed Evil” »

On the topic of space, mathemusician and virtual reality philosopher — her words, not mine — Vi Hart went to Atlas Obscura’s Total Eclipse event in Oregon a couple months ago, and she’ll never see the moon the same way again:

I’m not sure exactly what I expected, but this wasn’t it. I’d seen photos of coronas around suns, but this wasn’t that. And I’d expected that those photos, like many astronomical pictures, are long exposure, other wavelengths, and otherwise capturing things the naked eye can’t see. I thought there might be a glow of light in a circle, or nothing, or, I don’t know. What I did not expect was an unholy horror sucking the life and light and warmth out of the universe with long reaching arms, that what I’d seen in pictures was not an exaggeration but a failure to capture the extent of this thing that human eyes, and not cameras, are uniquely suited to absorb the horror of.

I protest the idea that the sun, or the moon, or the hole in the universe where the sun was ripped away from us, was black. It was not black. It was a new color, perceivable to the human eye only in certain conditions. I’ve read the literature on color perception and color philosophy. I’ve got the ontological chops. I feel qualified to make this statement, that this thing in the sky was not black. I could understand why people would describe it as black, just as without a word for red you might describe blood as black. But it wasn’t, and so no photograph could possibly capture what it’s like, and no screen can yet display it.

(via Jason Kottke)

 

One Person’s History of Twitter from Beginning to End »

NSFW for language.

Mule Design co-founder and design director (not to mention lovable internet loudmouth) Mike Monteiro airs some grievances about how Twitter has become, in his eyes, a “pretty hate machine”:

Twitter, which was conceived and built by a room of privileged white boys (some of them my friends!), never considered the possibility that they were building a bomb. To this day, Jack Dorsey doesn’t realize the size of the bomb he’s sitting on. Or if he does, he believes it’s metaphorical. It’s not. He is utterly unprepared for the burden he’s found himself responsible for.

[…]

Twitter today is a cesspool of hate. A plague of frogs. Ten years ago, a group of white dudes baked the DNA of the platform without thought to harassment or abuse. They built the platform with the best of intentions. I still believe this. But they were ignorant to their own blind spots. As we all are.

It gets pretty political, so my apologies to readers who hate when I link such things, but I still think it’s worth your time.

What Owning a Ramen Restaurant in Japan is Like »

So, I’ll just get it out of the way that I like this video and think it’s a nice calm way to pass 11 minutes. There you go.

The other, weirder thing I wanted to mention is that it wasn’t YouTube where I first came across this video. It was in the Japanese pagoda area of the “Global Cafe” exhibit at the Glazer Children’s Museum of Tampa, FL, which we visited a couple weeks ago during some horrible Daniel Tiger meet-and-greet event that turned the entire place into a madhouse. But I digress.

I stood and watched the video for a few minutes while my son played in an “African” drum circle a few feet away, thinking it was an interesting look into how this Japanese guy takes such pride in every aspect of his restaurant. Then, a few days ago, the same video showed up in my YouTube recommendations out of nowhere, for reasons I still can’t figure out.

1) I had never heard of the Life Where I’m From channel prior to this, 2) I haven’t watched any videos related to Japan recently — mostly random scenes from superhero movies and cartoons, tbh (don’t judge) — and 3) I don’t believe I ever mentioned anything about our visit to the museum on social media…? Honestly I don’t even really know why I’m sharing this story here because I doubt anyone else cares, but…dude.

Anyway, I’ll just be over there in the corner wearing my tinfoil hat for a while, thank you very much.

The IKEA Dictionary »

Lars Petrus is an accomplished “speedcuber” (i.e. Rubik’s Cube whiz) who also runs this dictionary of IKEA product name meanings:

Part of what makes IKEA unique is their product names. Each name means something, often in a funny or ambigious way. When IKEA went international, they decided to use the same Swedish names everywhere. This makes sense from an organizational sanity standpoint, but it deprives most of the world of this particular joy.

Until now!

My wife and I are in the midst of making over our travel trailer and have practically been living at the Orlando IKEA as we research and buy things in bursts — a dumb strategy I do not recommend to anyone and can only justify by the fact that we didn’t have an IKEA back when we lived in Oklahoma City and are inexperienced but we dived into this project headfirst anyway thinking it would be fairly straightforward and we were WRONG — so it was kind of funny that Jason Kottke linked to it right after we’d discussed what those weird product names might mean.

How David Fincher Hijacks Your Eyes »

The latest Nerdwriter video examines director David Fincher’s use of camera movement to evoke character and emotion in his films. Something I hadn’t noticed before but will definitely take note of from now on.

Neat Stuff We Published This Week

• Captain Marvel-inspired Nike running shoes
• Make your home Wi-Fi woes melt away: AmpliFi Home Wi-Fi Mesh System
• A beast of a thermos: Miir 64oz Growler
• Unlock the power of sleep and dreams: Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker
• Minimal yet functional travel toiletries bag: Joshu+Vela Dopp Kit
• The contacts app you’ll actually want to use: Cardhop for Mac

Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.

We consider ourselves curious people here at T&T. We’re always interested in learning interesting new things, even if they’re a bit…odd.

If you share that sort of inclination, the five books below will be right up your alley. Enjoy.

Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton. ($21 hardcover)

The Atlas Obscura Book »

Written by Atlas Obscura founders Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras — along with the site’s associate editor, Ella Morton — Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders celebrates over 600 of the world’s strangest curiosities and marvels:

Here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that’s so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan’s 45-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, coffins hanging off a side of a cliff in the Philippines, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England.

Folks like Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro have given this book their respective stamps of approval, so yeah: a no-brainer read, this one.

Get the book in these formats:

• Hardcover ($18)
• Kindle format ($13)
• iBooks format ($17)

Unseen City by Nathanael Johnson.

Unseen City »

Unseen City: The Majesty of Pigeons, the Discreet Charm of Snails & Other Wonders of the Urban Wilderness is a funny guide to seeing and celebrating the wonders of urban nature — and in a way, learning to be a better, more curious parent:

Johnson argues that learning to see the world afresh, like a child, shifts the way we think about nature: Instead of something distant and abstract, nature becomes real―all at once comical, annoying, and beautiful. This shift can add tremendous value to our lives, and it might just be the first step in saving the world. […]

Unseen City takes us on a journey that is part nature lesson and part love letter to the world’s urban jungles. With the right perspective, a walk to the subway can be every bit as entrancing as a walk through a national park.

Once you’ve read Unseen City, you’ll see the world around you in a whole new light, city dweller or no. It teaches you to notice things that never would’ve crossed your mind before, particularly in regards to pigeons, squirrels, ginko trees, ants, snails, crows, and turkey vultures.

Here’s the official book trailer:

Get the book in these formats:

• Hardcover ($16)
• Kindle format ($2)
• iBooks format ($2)

A Burglar’s Guide to the City by Geoff Manaugh.

A Burglar’s Guide to the City »

Geoff Manaugh, author of architecture blog BLDGBLOG, has a book called A Burglar’s Guide to the City, which, as Jason Kottke put it, “examines architecture through Ocean’s Eleven-tinted glasses.”

At the core of A Burglar’s Guide to the City is an unexpected and thrilling insight: how any building transforms when seen through the eyes of someone hoping to break into it. Studying architecture the way a burglar would, Geoff Manaugh takes readers through walls, down elevator shafts, into panic rooms, up to the buried vaults of banks, and out across the rooftops of an unsuspecting city.

Manaugh interviewed people from both sides of the law while researching for this book, including FBI Special Agents, reformed bank robbers, architects, and more.

Get the book in these formats:

• Paperback ($12)
• Kindle format ($10)
• iBooks format ($10)
• Audible audiobook ($21)

Lists of Note by Shaun Usher.

Note: The book cover is now different than the one pictured here.

Lists of Note »

As we’ve mentioned in the past, we’re fans of the Letters of Note blog and its accompanying book.

Shaun Usher, the guy behind those projects, also has a blog called Lists of Note that documents the lists of notable people throughout history. He compiled 125 of these lists into a book called Lists of Note: Inventories Deserving of a Wider Audience. Here are just a few examples:

• A shopping list written by two 9th-century Tibetan monks.
• Leonardo da Vinci’s to-do list.
• 19 year-old Isaac Newton’s list of the 57 sins he’d already committed.
• Galileo’s list of parts needed to build his telescope.
• Martin Luther King’s advice for black people starting to use buses.
• Johnny Cash’s list of ‘things to do today’.
• Michelangelo’s illustrated shopping list.
• Julia Child’s list of possible titles for what would later become an American cooking bible.

This stuff is fascinating, even if you’re not much of a history nerd.

Get the book in these formats:

• Hardcover ($21)
• Kindle format ($3)
• iBooks format ($20)

And Then You’re Dead by Paul Doherty and Cody Cassidy.

And Then You’re Dead »

Let’s end this guide on a super-positive note, shall we?

And Then You’re Dead: What Really Happens If You Get Swallowed by a Whale, Are Shot from a Cannon, or Go Barreling over Niagara is a gleefully morbid new book by physicist Paul Doherty and writer Cody Cassidy about all the most outlandish, cartoonish, and impossible ways people can die.

From the author duo’s recent Reddit AMA:

We looked into questions like what would happen if you swam out of a deep sea submarine, were swallowed by a whale (surprisingly possible), your elevator cable broke (don’t jump. It won’t help), if it’s even possible to die from magnetism (it is, yay!), if sticking your hand in the CERN particle accelerator is lethal (probably) and many more.

I mean, this book really answers all the important questions:

How long could you last if you stood on the surface of the sun? How far could you actually get in digging a hole to China?

[…]

Can you die by shaking someone’s hand? Answer: Yes. That’s because, due to atomic repulsion, you’ve never actually touched another person’s hand. If you could, the results would be as disastrous as a medium-sized hydrogen bomb.

Now for the disclaimer: And Then You’re Dead isn’t for the faint of heart. I wouldn’t hand it to a kid to read, even if they love weird facts; the descriptions are just a bit too gruesome for that.

Get the book in these formats:

• Paperback ($11)
• Kindle ($12)
• iBooks ($12)
• Audible audiobook ($18)

Welcome to this week’s edition of our Friday Quality Linkage column. Please enjoy this week’s collection of interesting and entertaining links. Brew a fresh cup of coffee, find a comfortable place, and relax.

A Letter to Today’s Young People »

Following the results of the recent US election, Marco Arment — currently known for his podcast and being the developer of Overcast — wrote an open letter to kids, encouraging them to hang in there and keep pushing for progress:

[…] when you average it out over time, progress tends to only go in one direction: people being healthier, better educated, and better to each other. We have ups and downs, and we don’t end every year better than the last, but in the long run, we come out ahead.

Photo: Our Children’s Trust

The Kids Suing the Government Over Climate Change »

Speaking of young’uns pushing for progress, here’s meteorologist and climate watcher Eric Holthaus, writing for Slate about Our Children’s Trust, a group of 21 children and young adults (ages 9 to 20) who are suing the US government for its role in climate change:

In the groundbreaking decision, announced on Thursday [November 10th, 2016], U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken ruled in favor of […] their suit against the federal government. In denying the government’s motion to dismiss, Aiken, based in Eugene, Oregon, opened a path for an eventual court-mandated, science-based plan to bring about sharp emissions reductions in the United States. The case, Juliana v. United States, will now go to trial starting sometime in 2017 and could prove to be a major civil rights suit, eventually finding its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Here’s what Judge Ann Aiken herself wrote about the case (as quoted by Holthaus later in the article):

I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society. Just as marriage is the foundation of the family, a stable climate system is quite literally the foundation of society, without which there would be neither civilization nor progress. […] To hold otherwise would be to say that the Constitution affords no protection against a government’s knowing decision to poison the air its citizens breathe or the water its citizens drink.

I’m fascinated by this trial and I truly hope they succeed. If you’d like to help out, their donation page is here.

Photo: Dunja Jankovic, The New York Times

Time to Dump Time Zones »

James Gleick, in an op-ed for the New York Times (which published just before the daylight savings time-shift earlier this month):

Let us all — wherever and whenever — live on what the world’s timekeepers call Coordinated Universal Time, or U.T.C. (though “earth time” might be less presumptuous). When it’s noon in Greenwich, Britain, let it be 12 everywhere. No more resetting the clocks. No more wondering what time it is in Peoria or Petropavlovsk. Our biological clocks can stay with the sun, as they have from the dawn of history. Only the numerals will change, and they have always been arbitrary.

I’m down.

I mean, we already have a worldwide calendar system where combinations of seasons and months vary by location — for example, November being Autumn here in the US but Spring in Australia — and we deal with that just fine, so why not do the same for timekeeping?

Video above contains some NSFW language.

Developers Read 1-Star Reviews »

Taking a cue from Jimmy Kimmel’s “Celebrities Read Mean Tweets” segment, the organizers of the 2016 Úll Conference had a few iOS developers read 1-star reviews of their apps.

Now, personally I would have made the video’s editing a little tighter, maybe added some variety to the developer lineup. ★☆☆☆☆

(I’m kidding, of course. Mostly.)

UNSATISFYING »

As Jason Kottke describes, this is a short video of the most unsatisfying things in the world. Only watch this if you want to hate everything for a while.

During the summer of 2016, We created and directed a video about unsatisfying situations: the frustrating, annoying, disappointing little things of everyday life, that are so painful to live or even to watch.

We quickly realized that there are a lot of other situations that would be fun to see animated, so we decided to run an animation challenge around this idea.

After watching this, I had to cleanse my palate with a little trip over to /r/oddlysatisfying.

*shudder*

Map: Atlas Obscura via Google Maps

All 10,000 Places in the Atlas Obscura Atlas on One Map »

The team at Atlas Obscura have assembled the “definitive map of the world’s extraordinary sights”:

Thanks to all of you, there are now more than 10,000 incredible hidden wonders shared in the Atlas.

To celebrate, we’ve put them on all one map. The possibilities are vast, from the Icelandic witchcraft museum to the tree goats of Morocco, to Galileo’s middle finger, to the Skeleton Lake of India and thousands of other strange wonders across the world’s continents and oceans.

Make No Assumptions »

A couple months ago, when Merlin Mann shared the story behind one of his favorite quotes — “Every day, somebody’s born who’s never seen The Flintstones” — educator and writer James Michie wrote this excellent post about how it should apply to teachers:

This simple and somewhat obvious line is so important, particularly for educators. Far too often, I hear colleagues exclaim their disbelief about a child’s lack of general knowledge. I have been guilty of this too. However, what I have come to realise is that we should not make assumptions when it comes to educating young people.

[…]

Look at what you are teaching and assume nothing. Where you feel that your students should have prior knowledge, test this early on and plan to plug the gaps.

Applies to a bunch of other fields too. As a writer, I sometimes struggle with the concept that not everyone has heard/read/seen/learned all the exact same stuff I have, particularly when I’m writing one of our guides.

For every instance where I’ve wondered to myself, “Is this actually useful to anyone?”, readers have reached out afterward to let us know that yes, these articles are actually helping them learn and discover new things, regardless of how obvious they might seem to me or the rest of the team.

So, yeah. Every day, somebody’s born who’s never seen The Flintstones. A useful mantra, that.

Got any suggestions for articles, videos, stories, photographs, and any other links you think we should be posting in our weekly Quality Linkage? Please do let us know on Twitter.

As you’ll soon see, this year’s Christmas Catalog is a lot bigger than our 2015 and 2014 editions.

Here’s the thing: We publish a new guide nearly every week for awesome stuff we think you should know about. Over the past year our guides have covered everything from various types of gear to books to podcasts to music albums to YouTube channels to apps to accessories and more. With such a repository of recommendations already in our archive, we wondered how we could make this year’s holiday gift guide stand out from the pack.

The answer came to us: We could take the entire year’s list of recommendations and compile the best of them into a handful of categories.

Knowing that such a long catalog could be hard to browse all at once, we’ve created a table of contents for the list of categories. Click through to any of those sections, and you’ll find that they each have miniature tables of contents for individual items. This way, you can quickly find something on the page based on whatever’s interesting to you, without having to scroll the entire thing each time.

We hope that out of this list, you can find a handful of items that would be useful for you or to your loved ones this holiday season.

Furthermore, we are continuing the tradition of highlighting three of our favorite non-profits. Here at Tools & Toys we have always given away 11-percent of our gross income to charity. And during the months of November and December, we’ll be donating 11% of our gross specifically to these three non-profits: App Camp for Girls, Operation Christmas Child, and St. Jude.

As we’ve said in past years, thank you so much, dear reader, for your attention and your patronage. Tools & Toys is now over five years old — man, the time truly flies — and continues to be predominately supported by readers like you who purchase something on Amazon through one of our links.

If the items we’ve curated below don’t fit your needs or wants, ping us on Twitter and we will try to help.

Also, click this link before you do your shopping on Amazon, as it’s a way to support our work.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

— The Tools & Toys Staff

Table of Contents

Photo: Ginny Beck

Books / Novels

• The Daily Stoic
• Atlas Obscura
• The Origin of (almost) Everything
• The Elements of Eloquence
• Uprooted
• A New Way to Dinner

↑ Return to Table of Contents

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday. ($15 hardcover)

The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday »

The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living is the new book by Ryan Holiday — author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy — that features all-new translations of the Stoics (such as Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca), as well as hundreds of new stories, anecdotes, and exercises to help readers live better. It’s a guide to modern living through the lens of ancient philosophy.

From the description:

Every day of the year you’ll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.

By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you’ll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.

Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton. ($21 hardcover)

Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton »

Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders, which was written by AtlasObscura.com founders Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras — along with the site’s associate editor, Ella Morton — celebrates over 600 of the world’s strangest curiosities and marvels:

Here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that’s so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan’s 45-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, coffins hanging off a side of a cliff in the Philippines, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England.

Folks like Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro have given this book their respective stamps of approval, so yeah: a no-brainer gift, this one.

The Origin of (almost) Everything by New Scientist. ($29 hardcover)

The Origin of (almost) Everything by Graham Lawton and Jennifer Daniel of New Scientist »

Just-released by the folks at New Scientist (with help from illustrator Jennifer Daniel), The Origin of (almost) Everything is for anyone who’s ever wondered where things in our world (and the wider universe) actually came from:

Did you know, for instance, that if you were to get too close to a black hole it would suck you up like a noodle (it’s called spaghettification), why your keyboard is laid out in QWERTY (it’s not to make it easier to type) or why animals never evolved wheels? New Scientist does.

And now they and award-winning illustrator Jennifer Daniel want to take you on a colorful, whistle-stop journey from the start of our universe (through the history of stars, galaxies, meteorites, the Moon and dark energy) to our planet (through oceans and weather and oil) and life (through dinosaurs to emotions and sex) to civilization (from cities to alcohol and cooking), knowledge (from alphabets to alchemy) ending up with technology (computers to rocket science).

Stephen Hawking wrote the foreword for this one, so you know that if your recipient is a science nerd even in the slightest, they’re in for a treat.

The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth. ($15 paperback)

The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth »

Mark Forsyth’s book, The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase — sometimes seen with the subtitle, …How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase — is an ode to the importance of linguistic style. The gist is that it doesn’t always matter what we say so much as how we say it, and Forsyth teaches the tricks to make anyone’s words sing. If you’ve got a loved one who says they’d like to be a more memorable writer or speaker, get them this book.

Here’s the excerpt that gained the book a lot of attention:

[…] adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can’t exist.

Here’s another:

You can spend all day trying to think of some universal truth to set down on paper, and some poets try that. Shakespeare knew that it’s much easier to string together some words beginning with the same letter. It doesn’t matter what it’s about. It can be the exact depth in the sea to which a chap’s corpse has sunk; hardly a matter of universal interest, but if you say, “Full fathom five thy father lies,” you will be considered the greatest poet who ever lived. Express precisely the same thought any other way—e.g. “your father’s corpse is 9.1444 metres below sea level”—and you’re just a coastguard with some bad news.

Uprooted by Naomi Novik. ($10 paperback)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik »

Sometimes an out-and-out fantasy novel is what a person needs. The Nebula Award-winning Uprooted by Naomi Novik is what we recommend this holiday season.

It’s about a young and troublesome girl named Agnieszka, who lives in a small village at the edge of a sinister forest called the Wood. The townfolk rely on a local wizard known as the Dragon to keep them safe from the Wood’s horrors. He’s not much of a nice guy though, and his price for the town’s protection is that every ten years, they must send a young woman to live in his tower and serve him until the next maiden is chosen.

As you can guess, Agnieszka’s the one who gets picked in this story. And as it turns out, she has some latent magical ability of her own.

A New Way to Dinner by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. ($21 hardcover)

A New Way to Dinner by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs of Food52 »

A New Way to Dinner: A Playbook of Recipes and Strategies for the Week Ahead is a new cookbook by Food52 founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. Designed around weekly and seasonal grocery shopping, this book is an indispensable guide to advance meal preparation — that is, cooking a few base dishes on the weekend and using them in dishes throughout the next week (mostly dinners, with a few lunches and desserts thrown in for good measure).

If you know a friend or loved one who’s been struggling to find the balance between a busy life and eating well, A New Way to Dinner will help them master make-ahead meal planning so they can stop stressing out about cooking every night and just enjoy the food.

 

Food / Drink / Kitchen

• Cutting board
• Stand mixer
• Himalayan salt block for grilling
• Kitchen dish towels
• 3-in-1 trivet set
• 3-in-1 burger press
• Bento box for kids
• 6.5″ vegetable cleaver

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Larch Wood’s end-grain cutting board. ($140–$320, depending on size)

Larch Wood’s End-Grain Cutting Board »

Larch Wood’s end-grain cutting boards fit very well with our philosophy of buying quality items that last. In a way, they’re like a well-maintained piece of cast iron: If you take care of them (more info here), they can last a lifetime or longer. This is a gift that will surely be passed down to grandchildren someday.

Here’s a video of the manufacturing process:

The boards are available in a number of shapes and sizes:

• Small ($160)
• Medium ($220)
• Large ($270)
• End curve ($140)
• 14″ square ($210)
• Carver’s board w/ juice moat ($320)

KitchenAid’s Artisan stand mixer. (Price varies based on color)

KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer »

If there’s one stand mixer anyone should have in their home kitchen, it’s the KitchenAid Artisan. It can produce awesome cake batters, cookies, frostings, egg whites, cream, and even bread or pizza dough from time to time.

Available in a wide variety of colors, the tilt-head Artisan mixer comes with a few attachments:

• Nylon-coated flat beater (which can be replaced with a metal one if you’re concerned with the nylon flaking off)
• Nylon-coated dough hook -Wire whip
• Pouring shield (which can be easily removed during operation)

The front-facing power hub at the top of the unit lets the Artisan expand what it can do via attachments like the pasta roller/cutter ($142) for spaghettic and fettuccine, or the meat grinder ($37), which happens to be useful for grating cheese.

Charcoal Companion’s Himalayan salt block for grilling. ($31, includes holder)

Charcoal Companion Himalayan Salt Block for Grilling »

Grilling food on a Himalayan salt block like this one is a clever idea few people seem to know about.

Place the block on a grill opposite from the charcoal or otherwise on low heat, let it slowly and evenly heat up for 30–45 minutes — to the point where drops of water instantly sizzle away on it, a temperature it will maintain for a while — then cook on it any food you’d like to impart a delicate but complex salty flavor to. Steak, chicken, pork loin, fish, shrimp, veggies, et al are all perfect candidates for this method. Once the food’s cooked, use the included porcelain-coated steel holder to transfer the salt block — food and all — to the table and serve guests right from the cooking surface.

It doesn’t only have to be used for grilling, though. Mark Bitterman of Portland, OR specialty shop The Meadow offers a bunch of handy tips for cooking and serving on a salt block:

Serve moist food on it, such as mozzarella and sliced apples, and the food will pick up a delicate saltiness that sets it off perfectly.

He also talks about freezing the block for other uses:

• Freeze a Himalayan salt plate for two hours. Scoop cream or sorbet atop.
• More fun yet, freeze a Himalayan salt plate for two hours. Then, over medium heat, warm lightly whipped sweet heavy cream, egg, honey, and aged bitters, and refrigerate. Remove the salt slab from freezer, pour mixture on it, slowly lufting with spatula, for a salt-tinged ice custard you will not soon forget.

As it happens, Mark wrote a whole cookbook on salt block cooking, which you could include with the block itself as an additional gift.

Fecido’s classic kitchen towels. ($16 per two-pack)

Fecido Classic Kitchen Dish Towels »

Fecido’s classic kitchen/tea towels are SUPER thick and absorbent. Kid made a mess? Dinner pot boiled over? These bad boys soak it all up and then some. They almost don’t even feel like something you’d use in a kitchen, but more like a cotton blanket. They also look great and won’t leave lint all over the dishes.

The towels come in a variety of colors (as pictured above) and in packs of twos. We’re partial to the red ones ourselves.

OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 trivet set. ($10)

OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 Trivet Set »

OXO Good Grips’ 3-in-1 trivet set is, well, a set of trivets that protect a table (or other surface) while serving food in hot cookware.

They can snap together into one uber-trivet, or they can be used separately — whether it’s for different dishes, or placed side-by-side to accomodate a particularly large dish. They’re made of durable silicone that’s heat-safe up to 600°F, and underneath each ring are raised, non-slip feet to keep the dishes from moving around, meanwhile keeping the hot surface even further from the table.

Another clever use for them is setting a mixing bowl in the center of one of the circles to keep the bowl from rocking around while prepping dough, etc.

Cuisinart 3-in-1 burger press. ($8)

Cuisinart 3-in-1 Burger Press »

Cuisinart’s 3-in-1 burger press is useful for making burgers of all kinds. It can shape regular patties up to ¾ lb, or it can be used to make stuffed burger patties filled with whatever ingredients one likes. The smaller insert is perfect for making sliders. The press is nonstick and dishwasher-safe, plus it’s small enough to easily be brought along to tailgate parties and such.

Bentgo children’s bento box. ($28)

Bentgo Children’s Bento Box »

This children’s bento box from Bentgo is a leakproof lunchbox with five different-sized compartments for packing a wholesome lunch and/or snacks for a kid, and it’s pretty great. The compartments are sized for one entrée, some fruit and veggies, a dip, and a small dessert.

The children’s Bentgo comes in blue, green, and purple.

You can also purchase the standalone blue tray, green tray, and/or purple tray (each of which is $6) so a kid can mix-and-match colors as they like.

The Japanese-made 6.5″ vegetable cleaver by MAC Knife. ($80)

MAC Japanese Series 6.5-inch Vegetable Cleaver »

While a good chef’s knife is the single most essential kitchen tool, there are other knives worth keeping around for more specialized duties.

The Japanese-made 6.5″ vegetable cleaver by MAC Knife is ideal for anything involving fruits and veggies. It’s of the straight-edged, double-beveled nakiri variety — not to be confused with the single-bevel usuba cleaver or the much larger Chinese cleaver. This means it’s lighter, easier to handle, and offers a higher level of cutting finesse than its usuba and Chinese counterparts.

Here are some examples of things it excels at:

• Creating clean, paper-thin slices of tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, etc.
• Julienning onions, carrots, etc.
• Basic veggie dicing and mincing.
• Skinning bell peppers using the roll technique.

If you need more than our recommendation, this veggie cleaver is considered the best by America’s Test Kitchen:

 

Home / Office / Decor

• Victorian-style map of Mars
• Star Wars + Winnie the Pooh print
• Map of the constellations
• Headphone stand + charging station

↑ Return to Table of Contents

“Here There Be Robots” Victorian-style map of Mars by Eleanor Lutz. (Price varies based on item format)

“Here There Be Robots” — A Victorian-Style Map of Mars »

This amazing, hand-drawn Victorian-style map of Mars by designer Eleanor Lutz combines the romance of ancient maps with modern data about Mars’ geographical features and humanity’s rover landings there.

In a blog post on her Tabletop Whale site, she provides some detail about the design:

To add a little something extra, I included the history of each place name on the map. Martian craters are named after famous scientists (for large craters) or small villages on Earth (small craters). Since the base map is hand-drawn I also added an overlay of actual NASA topographic imagery. This way even if some of my lines are a little off, you can still see what the actual ground looks like underneath.

It should be noted that this is not a full map of Mars, but rather a section of it. Here is a comparable area of Earth to give you an idea of what the Mars map covers.

The map can be purchased at Redbubble in a variety of formats, including a photographic print ($7–$36 depending on size), a hardcover journal ($20), an iPhone case/skin ($25), and more.

“A Most Bold Adventure” print by James Hance. (~$12 USD; use the currency button at the top of the store page before checkout to see the most up-to-date conversion)

“A Most Bold Adventure” Print by James Hance »

Illustrator James Hance has a whole series of artwork called Wookie the Chew that mashes up the worlds of Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh. Sounds weird, but it’s actually quite good.

Our favorite print from that series (and believe us, it’s hard to pick just one) is the one called A Most Bold Adventure. Something about it just speaks to us — maybe it’s Han Solo’s jaunty walk (á la Christopher Robin), or the AT-AT Walker as Eeyore. Whatever the case, this 14″ x 11″ print is perfect for a kid’s room or as a gift for anyone who loves both Winnie and Star Wars.

The Map of the Constellations by Best Made Co. ($38)

Map of the Constellations by Best Made Co. »

The Map of the Constellations by Best Made Co. is a stellar (heh) gift to give the stargazer in your family this holiday season. Charting the stars of the northern and southern hemispheres, the map measures 3′ x 2¼’ and includes diagrams of…

• The Earth’s axis
• Phases of the moon
• Solstices and equinoxes
• Eclipses (relative to the positions of the sun, moon, and earth)
• Illustrations of the more notable satellites throughout the years (including Hubble, Voyager 1, Mars Global Surveyor, and more)

Here’s a great photo of it in the field by Best Made founder Peter Buchanan-Smith:

Twelve South’s Fermata headphone charging stand. ($80; available in silver and black)

Twelve South “Fermata” Headphone Charging Stand »

The folks at Twelve South recently announced the Fermata, an elegant stand designed to hold + showcase a pair of premium headphones, and which doubles as a wall-powered charging station.

Made from aluminum with a soft contoured leather pad atop its support saddle, the Fermata has a built-in USB charging cable with a reversible micro-USB connector to keep a pair of wireless headphones charged at all times. When it’s not in use, the connector tucks away out of sight into the back of the stand’s post.

Hidden beneath the base is an extra USB port that’s useful for, say, keeping a Lightning cable plugged in for charging an iPhone and/or iPad when needed. The Fermata also works nicely for gaming headphones.

Note: Don’t be afraid of the “Available from these sellers” link on the Amazon product pages; the only seller listed for either version is Twelve South themselves. If you’re still unsure about it though, you can always order directly from their site.

 

Gadgets / Accessories

• iPhone + Apple Watch dock
• 4-port USB wall charger
• Portable car jump starter
• Pocket keyboard for iPhone
• Podcasting microphone
• Mobile photo printer
• Home Wi-Fi system
• iPhone stand

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Studio Neat’s Material Dock for iPhone and Apple Watch. ($45 or $70, depending on model)

Studio Neat’s Material Dock for iPhone and Apple Watch »

The Material Dock is a dock for iPhone and Apple Watch by our friends Tom and Dan at Studio Neat. This video explains the whole thing nicely:

The Dock comes in two versions: iPhone-only ($45) and iPhone + Apple Watch ($70). Both are milled from beautiful, solid walnut wood, with backing panels made from molded cork — a lovely contrast to the glass and aluminum of the gadgets being docked there. Those cork panels, along with the Lightning plugs on each dock, are minutely adjustable, so the Material can accomodate pretty much any iPhone + case combo.

The Dock stays put on a nightstand or table thanks to two micro-suction pads on the bottom of the dock. It adheres without leaving any residue, and holds fast when pushed down into place.

The only caveat: Either you or your gift recipient will have to provide the Lightning cable and/or Apple Watch charging puck.

• We really wanted to include the newest version of Studio Neat’s Glif tripod mount in this guide, but unfortunately it isn’t expected to ship until early 2017. We still recommend keeping an eye out for its release, because it’s going to be awesome.

The Anker PowerPort 4 40W 4-port USB wall charger. ($26; available in white and black)

Anker PowerPort 4 — 40W 4-Port USB Wall Charger »

It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of the Anker 40W 5-port USB charger. It’s made several appearances in our various gear guides, and those of us on the team who travel a lot certainly get a ton of use out of it.

As it turns out, Anker makes something even more portable: The PowerPort 4, a 40W 4-port USB wall charger with a foldable plug. Rather than connecting to an outlet via a cable like the 5-port charger, the PowerPort 4 plugs directly to the outlet. In fact, it looks a lot like a bigger version of Apple’s 12W USB power adapter that ships with iPads, with the addition of Anker’s “PowerIQ” feature that smartly routes power to each port based on the receiving device’s unique charging protocol.

A nice bonus feature is its soft LED status light, which indicates when it’s plugged in and done charging.

DBPower portable jump starter. ($43)

DBPOWER Portable Car Jump Starter + Device Charger »

Ever had your car battery die at the most inopportune time, when no one is around to give you a jump start? Yeah, we’ve been there too. This portable jump starter by DBPower is what you’d want to have on hand in such situations.

It stores up to 12,000mAh of power and delivers a peak current of 400 amps, which guarantees you’ll be able to jump a 3L gas (or 2.5L diesel) vehicle up to 15 times on a single charge, yet it’s small enough to fit in a glovebox — which is actually a convenient place to keep it, since the device also sports two USB outputs (5V/2.1A each) for charging iPhones and iPads on the road. A built-in, ultra-bright LED light on the end also comes in handy for nighttime reading or when you have a roadside emergency.

ZAGG pocket keyboard. ($38 or $50, depending on model)

ZAGG Pocket Keyboard »

When it comes to writing with an iPad, you’ll have to pry the Belkin QODE out of our cold, dead fingers. Still, it’s admittedly not the best solution for anyone doing a lot of writing on an iPhone instead, especially on the go.

The ZAGG pocket keyboard is the better solution for iPhone writers. This tiny foldable keyboard offers over 85% of the space of a typical keyboard, but can reduce down to a slim rectangle shape for easy stowing in a bag or jacket pocket. It folds this way with a horizontal hinge between the A and Z rows of keys, rather than having an awkward, taco shell-style vertical hinge.

When closed, built-in magnets keep the Pocket folded and turned off so it doesn’t waste power. When in use, a small shelf built into the stand portion folds out to hold your device.

Two versions of the ZAGG Pocket are available on Amazon:

1. Universal ($50) — Compatible with both Apple and Android devices.
2. Apple-only ($38) — Designed for only iPhone and iPad.

Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB microphone. ($79)

Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Microphone »

Know someone who’s thinking about starting a podcast? One thing they’ll need for sure is a good mic. Audio Technica’s ATR2100-USB microphone — which, for you audio nerds out there, is of the cardioid dynamic USB/XLR variety — is one of the best all-in-one solutions around.

The ATR2100 is great at eliminating room echo and background noise, with the caveat that you must speak up closely to it. Each mic comes with its own tripod desk stand, and there’s a built-in headphone jack so the user can monitor their audio in real-time without hearing any distracting delays.

Note: You don’t necessarily need to use a pop filter with the ATR2100, but this $3 foam windscreen is a cheap and easy way to reduce unwanted noise even further (not to mention protect the mic from the unfortunate reality of speaker spit).

The Polaroid ZIP mobile printer. ($114)

Polaroid ZIP Mobile Printer »

Ever taken an incredible photo on your iPhone somewhere and thought to yourself, “Man, it would be nice if I could print this off right here”? Maybe you want to hand a copy of the photo to a companion traveler as a keepsake, or send one to your parents postcard-style, or share photos of the night’s party with all your guests before they head home, or as Casey Liss suggests, have a band sign a photo you took during the concert only minutes before.

Whatever the case, the Polaroid ZIP mobile printer is a great solution. This little gadget — which clocks in at smaller than 3″ x 5″ x 1″ — uses ZINK (zero-ink) photo paper (a 10-pack comes with the printer) to produce high-quality, borderless, full-color photo prints (at 2″ x 3″ size) wirelessly from an iPhone or iPad.

This special paper is smudge-proof and resistant to fading, even from exposure to heat, light, and humidity, so the photos should last a good while. The back of each sheet can be peeled off to reveal a sticky side, so you can stick the photo wherever. A full charge of the printer’s internal 500mAh battery (which takes 1½ hours) lasts about 25 prints — plenty enough for most occasions.

The eero home wi-fi system. ($499 for the 3-pack starter set, or $190 for an individual node)

eero Home Wi-Fi System »

There are those who are lucky enough to have perfect Wi-Fi connectivity in their home, no matter what room they’re in. The rest of us? Well, let’s just say we apparently angered some Wi-Fi god in a past life.

The eero home Wi-Fi system solves this problem beautifully. If you’ve ever tried to fix “dead zones” and other connectivity woes with a confusing series of routers and extenders and still gotten nowhere, you’ll love this setup — or your loved ones will, if you’re buying this for them (which still helps you out in the end, when you’re visiting their place down the road ).

What you get are three nodes that work together almost magically to create a mesh network with fast, rock-solid blanket coverage. It’s crazy easy to set up, and once the nodes are in place, the eero iPhone app will automatically detect the new network and give you a few options to breeze through (naming the network, selecting the room each node is in, etc). It’ll even guide you through optimal placement of each node.

That’s it! You’re off to the races. Enjoy that sweet, sweet Wi-Fi connection anywhere in your house.

Elago M2 stand for iPhone. ($19)

Elago M2 Stand for iPhone »

Elago’s got a knack for making small-but-nifty gadget accessories, such as the R1 Intelli Case for Apple TV remote. In this gift guide we’d like to point out their M2 Stand, which is simply a solid aluminum stand designed for iPhone and other smartphones.

Your phone can sit in the cradle in portrait or landscape mode, with or without a case (at least in most most instances), and stay plugged in either way. It’s perfect for FaceTime calls, watching videos, keeping an eye on incoming notifications, etc.

As this Amazon reviewer points out, there are only two (potential) flaws with the stand:

1. The skid pads on the bottom are useless and don’t stop the stand from sliding when you press on the iPhone’s screen
2. The iPhone’s back rubs against the stand’s bare metal, which could scratch the phone

If you’re concerned about these, both issues are easily fixed with a $3 set of self-stick bumpers — four on the bottom, and another four on the plate your phone rests against. This will keep the stand from sliding around or scratching the back of your phone. If you’re buying the M2 as a gift for someone else, get the bumpers for them as a combo gift.

 

Tools / Trinkets