“Don’t buy me anything, I don’t need anything.” If you have elderly parents, you have probably heard it every December for years. And often they are right. Their homes are full, their tastes are settled, and the last thing they want is another ornament to dust or a sweater they will not wear. The Christmas gifts that...
A teenage girl’s Christmas list is usually written by her social media feed. The products on it are specific, the brands matter, and the generic gift set from the pharmacy aisle will not be mistaken for the real thing. The good news is that most of what is genuinely on those lists costs far less than you might expect. Every one of these...
Ask a teenage boy what he wants for Christmas and there is a good chance the answer is a game, a gaming console upgrade, or in-game currency. That is easy to buy, but it is also easy to forget. It disappears into an account, and it does nothing to get him off the sofa. If you would rather give him something he can hold, use with his friends, or...
Buying for a woman who has everything is harder than buying for someone who wants nothing, because she usually has taste. She already owns the throw on the sofa, the candle on the shelf and the coffee machine on the counter, and she chose each of them herself. Anything you add has to be at least as good as what she would have picked, which rules...
Every family has one. You ask what he wants for Christmas and the answer is the same every year: “Nothing. I don’t need anything.” He means it, which is exactly the problem. Men who say they want nothing are usually men who already own a working version of everything, and they are not going to get excited about a novelty gadget...
The household robot everyone was promised — a humanoid that loads the dishwasher and folds laundry — does not exist and will not exist for years. What does exist, quietly and without much fanfare, is something arguably more useful: a growing set of single-purpose machines that each take one specific chore off your list permanently. Not...
A jump starter is the rare purchase you hope never to justify. It sits in the trunk for three years doing nothing, and then one January morning in a car park with no other vehicles around, it is worth every cent you paid. NOCO makes the pair most people end up choosing between: the Boost GB150 at $299.95 with 3,000 amps, and the Boost X GBX155 at...
There is no serious argument about the best indoor rowing machine, which is unusual in fitness equipment. The Concept2 RowErg is what national rowing teams train on, what CrossFit competitions use, and what world records are set on. It has been refined rather than redesigned for decades, it looks industrial rather than sleek, and it has no...
Seven hundred dollars is an absurd amount of money for a litter box, and the Litter-Robot 4 is the best-selling one anyway. The pitch is straightforward enough that it barely needs explaining: you never scoop again. What makes it more interesting than a novelty is what Whisker built around the sifting mechanism — an app that tracks how often...
Vitamix has been selling essentially the same blender since the 1990s, and it keeps selling because the thing works. The 5200 is that blender: a 2 horsepower motor, a 64-ounce jug, a dial, and a switch. At $479.99 it remains the machine most professional kitchens and most serious home cooks actually own. The Ascent X5 at $699.95 is Vitamix’s...
