Awesome Gadgets

Gadget maker MetMo dusts off a vintage vise design and turns it into a product you can buy. The fractal vice’s curved jaws slide on rails, allowing them to grip oddly shaped items with ease. MetMo’s miniature version is available with long (1.2″ max opening) or short jaws (3.2″ max opening), and is made from aluminum with stainless steel or brass jaws.

Official Exclusive makes some of the coolest enameled pins out there. Their extensive collection includes pins based on classic cameras including rangefinders, SLRs, medium format, and 8mm. They also make mini synthesizers, lighting gear, vintage stereo receivers, and other fun goodies for geeks. Their Dinosaur Photographer is cute too.

This upcoming gadget from Hong Kong outfit Headachesound is a self-contained gadget for making turntable scratch effects. You can load it with your samples and beats, then jog its high-sensitivity mini turntable to manipulate sounds. Music producer Mr Viktor got his hands on a prototype and put it through its paces.

Never lose a bag again with Knog’s Scout Travel tracker. This gadget hangs securely from your luggage and is compatible with Apple’s “Find My” location tracking tech. It has a few advantages over an AirTag, including a built-in hanger, a loud, motion-sensitive alarm, and a QR code to help others let you know they found your bag. They also make a bike version.

This neat little gadget is a tiny video screen framed with colorful LED lights. The Busy Tag clips onto the back of your display and lets you display messages or animations. Use it to tell co-workers that you’re tied up at the moment, or display silly messages to keep them entertained. It measures 1.42″ x 1.81″ x 0.31″ and runs on USB-C power.

Dreamfarm is known for its unique kitchen gadgets with silly product names. The Fluicer is an easy-to-use citrus fruit squeezer that folds flat to save drawer space. Its hinged design provides plenty of leverage and extracts the maximum quantity of juice by squeezing both the outside and inside of fruit.

This incredibly versatile sharpener can put a new edge on all kinds of garden and outdoor tools. Its double-beveled blades work on knives, mower blades, pruners, loppers, hedge shears, axes, machetes, hatchets, scissors, and other edged tools. Its oversized handle makes it easy to hold while wearing gloves.

Repairing watches requires precision and a steady hand. It also helps if the part that you’re working on isn’t moving around. This video from luxury watch shop Phigora and watchmaker Henry Lyy shows a nifty little gadget that uses hundreds of tiny posts to clamp irregular items in place. If you’re looking to buy one, we found some for sale on AliExpress.

This tabletop gadget from Keebmonkey has 12 quartz glass tubes filled with colorful LEDs that move to the beat of your music or other sounds. We like how it combines the high-tech look of its tubes with the warm, natural look of its walnut wood frame. It has a built-in microphone to detect sounds and ten selectable light effects.

This night vision scope is designed to produce sharper and more color-accurate images compared to its competition. It packs a 52 MP Sony Starvis 2 night vision sensor that can shoot true 4K footage and can output an infrared beam up to 1200 meters (~3937 feet) to capture distant objects. Built-in Wi-Fi lets you control and stream video with your smartphone.

Bedtime Company’s tape! is a portable audio gadget that digitally reimagines a cassette tape player. But it’s so much more. It has four asynchronous virtual tape heads that can loop sounds, with the ability to apply effects and adjust speed and pitch in real-time. It has a line input, a built-in stereo mic, and USB-C connectivity. Coming soon to Kickstarter.

OnePlus‘ follow up to the underrated OnePlus 12. The OnePlus 13 has a flat 6.8″ 3.2K AMOLED display, a Snapdragon Elite chip, 50 MP wide, ultra-wide, and telephoto cameras, and a 6000mAh battery that supports 100W fast charging. If you don’t want to import it, you can wait for its global release in January 2025. Check out Gizmochina’s review for more info.

Invented by Tame Impala frontman Kevin Parker, the Orchid is a portable synthesizer that focuses on building music from a single chord. It has a single-octave keyboard as well as buttons to modify the chord. It also has a bass synth engine, onboard effects like reverb and delay, and a built-in battery. Drops 12.18.24 for $518.

Here’s a gift that practically anyone would love to find in their Holiday stocking. Nomad’s ChargeKey is a short-braided nylon charging cable. Its tips snap to each other magnetically, making it a cinch to add to your keychain. The integrated hole in the housing means you don’t have to unlatch the cable to use it. Available in USB-C to USB-C or USB-C to Lightning.

As part of the brand’s 50th anniversary, Casio will release a nice little watch you can wear as a ring. But it’s not some fancy gadget with a sleep tracker or anything of the sort. The CRW-001-1JR is simply an LCD watch that fits on a finger, like a scale replica of a normal watch. At least it has a stopwatch and alarm. Fits ring sizes from 8 to 10.5 (Japan sizes 16 to 22).

Sick of annoying work emails just as you’re getting ready call it a day? Unnecessary Inventions has the gadget for you! This punching bag clamps to your desktop and lets you get your aggression out with your fists and words. Hit “reply” on your email, give the bag a good hard punch, and it’ll generate a random passive-aggressive response.