THE BEST Gadgets

While you’re working from home, you might not be thinking too much about the gear you’ll need when you eventually head back out into the world. But Everyday Carry has some great ideas for items that are useful both at home and in the field, along with some great productivity tips for WFH living.

This wacky looking accessory is like a three-tentacled octopus (tripus?), but it’s quite useful. It can bend and wrap around objects, and its suction cups stick to smooth surfaces. It comes with an expandable phone clip and a male 1/4-20″ camera thread. It’s also available with an optional Bluetooth remote control.

Struggling to get work done with your laptop’s small screen? Expand your screen real estate with Mobile Pixels‘ add-on second screen. It attaches to the back of your laptop and adds a 12.5″ 1080p display via your USB-A or USB-C port. Use code SAVEDUEXPRO and get it for $179.35 in The Awesomer Shop.

Has your car ever needed a jump-start? If you had the JumpSmart in your trunk, you could have started it back up without another vehicle. This powerful 37,000 mWh li-Po battery has enough kick to start most everyday cars, trucks, and SUVs. It also includes a 330-lumen LED flashlight, and can charge gadgets via its USB port.

We use a LoupeDeck+ in our daily workflow. Their Creative Tool is more compact, has 12 virtual touchscreen buttons, a dial control with a touchscreen display, and six knobs with displays next to them. It currently works with Ableton Live (v10), Lightroom Classic, Illustrator, Photoshop, Camera Raw, Premiere Pro, and FCPX (MacOS).

Etsy store Heritage Racing makes desk clocks that look like the speedometer or tachometer of classic cars. The clock face is a high quality glossy print, set into a glass and wood fram. There are dozens of designs to choose from, including the BMW E46 M3, Porsche 911 Turbo, Nissan GT-R, and more.

This unique watch has no hands or digital display. Instead, it tells time through haptic pulses when you put your finger on its glass face. It’s intentionally vague, telling time in 15 minute increments, each pulse representing one-quarter of the hour. LEDs around its face can be used when you need to know the exact minute.

This space-saving kitchen gadget combines 19 different measuring spoons and cups into one 3.5″ cube. It’s got measuring cutouts for quantities as small as 1/4-teaspoon all the way up to 1 cup. It’s made from food-grade plastic, and is both dishwasher and microwave safe.

Dina A. Amin loves to disassemble everyday items, and neatly arrange their components. In this clip, she turned this process into a stop-motion animation, deconstructing a Walkman, a phone, a hairdryer, and a camera. She also likes to play a game where you guess how many parts are inside before it’s disassembled.

This gadget lets you add a backup camera to older vehicles with ease. The FenSens wireless backup camera mounts around your license plate, and adds a fully-wireless HD camera that can stream 1080p video to your smartphone’s screen via Wi-Fi. It recharges automatically using solar power, and installs in just minutes.

Cheddar shares the origins of the controllers of the N64, and the Xbox and PlayStation series to point out how their designs were not based on ergonomics alone. Sometimes, management or technological constraints led to these familiar forms.

This Bluetooth gadget works with your phone to record and transcribe speech to text, and can translate between 12 different languages. It uses AI tech for basic translations, and provides access to a paid interpreter service for more complex conversations. Save an extra 20% with code 20SAVE20. (Expires 1/2/20 @ 12:30pm PST)

Up your mobile audio game with Shure’s MFi-certified stereo mic for iOS devices. It augments your iPad or iPhone with pro recording abilities. Includes Shure’s MOTIV app which captures uncompressed 24-bit/48 khz audio, controls the mic’s five DSP modes, and more. Save an extra 15% with code MerrySave15. (Exp. 12/25/19)

Sony’s flagship phone has a 6.5″, ultrawide 21:9 OLED display with 3840×1644 resolution. It packs an 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor, and captures brilliant images with its 12.0MP triple lens camera that can shoot 4K HDR and 960fps slow motion. Save $200 on the Sony Xperia 1 (Available Dec 9-22, 2019) at Best Buy.

The SideTrak adds a second screen to your laptop, without the need for extra desktop space. After you attach the magnetic metal frame to your laptop, the display slides out, and can be angled both towards you or away for presentations. The 12.5″ display has a 1920×1080 (HD) resolution IPS panel, and connects via USB-A or USB-C.

Whether you travel for work or play, you want the right equipment for your journey. The folks at Everyday Carry picked some of their favorite gadgets for keeping you connected, powered up, on time, and for capturing memories of your travels this year and into the next.

NVIDIA’s powerful Android TV streaming media player not only supports 4K and HDR, but it has a Plex server built in, support for USB peripherals, and can stream games from NVIDIA’s GeForce NOW cloud gaming service. It also features AI-enhanced 4K upscaling for lower-resolution content, and works great as a game emulator.

WeatherFlow’s personal weather station can be mounted outside of your home, and has built-in rain, light, wind, pressure, temperature, lightning, and humidity sensors. It provides realtime data, records historical trends, and works with AI technology to deliver personalized forecasts for your specific location.

Artiphon’s Orba is a unique instrument that is sort of the musical equivalent of a fidget spinner. It combines a synthesizer, looper, and MIDI controller all in one, and is small enough to hold in the palm of your hand. It’s great for tinkering around with all kinds of sounds whether you’re bored or working on your next great composition.

Drop by The Awesomer Shop for some great holiday season savings on gifts including appliances, game consoles, headphones, speakers, computers, massagers, and other unique gadgets. Save 20% off select items with code BFSAVE20 (Expires 12/3/19).

This inexpensive, palm-sized drone has foldable rotor arms, so it’s small enough to take anywhere. It offers smooth flight, and can shoot 4K video or 5mp still images. Keep in mind, it’s no Mavic Mini, and flight times are limited to about 8 minutes and distance of about 250 feet. Save an extra 15% with code BFSAVE15 (expires 12/13/19)

PGA masters and side-betting amateurs are guaranteed an equally serious advantage with Bushnell Golf’s advanced rangefinder. The Pro XE assesses distance for uphill and downhill shots with its Slope technology, factors in temperature and barometric pressure, and provides visual and vibration feedback when it locks onto the flag.

YouTuber Papierfliegerei made a significantly better version of his playful gun. The portable paper plane factory now has a modular construction for easier repair, and is more durable and more powerful. It can make and fire up to 120 paper planes in a minute.

This little gadget from Amazon fills in a gap in your living room or home theater system. It works in concert with your Fire TV or Echo to enable voice remote control for your infrared-enabled entertainment equipment like TVs, satellite boxes, and audio receivers. Device compatibility explained here. Available 12/11/19.

Sony’s unique audio device sits around its wearers shoulders and neck, providing an immersive sound field and vibrations you can really feel. It comes with a base station transmitter so you can enjoy TV shows or other audio sources without wires for up to 7 hours per charge. Save $50 on orders placed between 11/18/19 and 12/1/19.

Samsung’s slimline monitor aims to save space and your neck thanks to its unique design. It clamps on to the edge of a desk and can then be pushed flat against a wall, or extended as far as the surface of the desk. It’s available in 27″ 1440p or 31″ 4K models.