Every Christmas season appears to bring the same old scramble to find thoughtful gifts that don’t require too much effort. Then along comes Amazon’s Echo Show 5, a handy little smart display that slides into a bedside or kitchen counter and immediately begins earning its keep. Currently, with a 33% discount, the price has dropped from $89.99 to $59.99, enabling Prime members snag one today for delivery by December 11th, just in time for the holidays.
Too many pocket-sized Bluetooth speakers provide music that is faint and distant, requiring way too much effort to hear. Then there’s the JBL Go 4, priced at $39.95 (was $49.95), a small brick-sized device aiming to turn that notion on its head. At less than half a pound and small enough to fit in a coat pocket, it not only provides, but truly delivers, clear, powerful audio that makes you grab for the volume dial rather than throw your hands up in the air in disgust.
smartwatches and appeared to have cornered the market with his Pebble devices. Their E-paper displays had a seemingly infinite battery life. Fast forward more than a decade, and Migicovsky is back at it, this time with a much smaller and more focused design. He has a new company called Core Devices, and they just revealed the Index 01, a smart ring that slips onto your finger.
ChromaLock had it with Fisher-Price’s standard See ‘N Say toys. Those farm animals and their obnoxious little bleats simply weren’t cutting it for someone who’d spent years shooting their way through hordes of demons in the original DOOM. He snatched one off the shelf, ripped it open, and transformed it into the See ‘N Slay, a version packed with the game’s distinctive scream-inducing enemy sounds. You pull the rope, spin the wheel to a face from the depths of hell, and a gravelly voice announces your doom before letting loose with a roar or screech straight from DOOM Eternal.
Kodak is still trying to get us back to the click of a real shutter. The Snapic A1 is the latest addition to their affordable film camera series, made by Hong Kong’s Reto team under the iconic yellow logo. It was announced this week and is a retro 1970s pocket camera with a 1990s point-and-shoot design. For $99, this 35mm compact fits in a coat pocket and begs to be taken out for the day to capture images with warmth that digital files rarely achieve.
Jens stares down at the row of party guests, his new invention perched precariously on a rickety seat. One by one, they freeze, their faces illuminated by the gentle glow of a low-cost camera module. A few minutes later, the machine starts up, its servos buzzing as a pen scratches across the paper. Jens has been following a wild idea for months, transforming a collection of off-the-shelf parts into the world’s first portable instant sketch camera.
Bethesda Softworks has revealed a full-size reproduction of the Pip-Boy 3000, the tattered wrist computer that let you traverse the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. They collaborated with The Wand Company, a group recognized for transforming game props into real-world gadgets. To build this stunning piece, they worked directly from the original 3D model. Pre-orders opened last week, bringing fans back into the series’ harsh world just before the second season of the Prime Video drama is ready to begin. At $299.99, you get a lot of nostalgia, and it’s set to ship next June.
Travel is hard enough without the constant scramble for reliable internet. You arrive in a new city, turn on your phone, and suddenly data charges increase or the connection slows to a crawl. Netgear hopes to alleviate this annoyance with the Nighthawk 5G M7, a portable WiFi hotspot that packs serious speed and global reach into a device compact enough to fit in a carry-on.
Wall adapters have been quietly getting the job done for years, stuck in the bottom of a bag or tucked away in some corner. But every now and then one comes along that’s worth taking a longer look at, for reasons that go beyond just being functional. The UGREEN Nexode Uno 30W fast charger, priced at $17.98 (was $29.99), is one of those. It resembles a small robot, with a pop-out socket and an LED display that flashes the charging status in simple little images, which is about as near as you can come to making paying attention to how long something is charging entertaining.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses contain cameras and speakers that project sounds directly into your ears. Even Realities takes a different approach. Their new G2 smartglasses, which go on sale today for $599, do not have any of these extras. There is no camera, thus no awkward recordings. There are no speakers, so talks remain private. Instead, a vivid green display appears in front of one eye, bringing information straight into your vision without turning your face into a billboard.