The Verge guide to holiday shopping

The Verge's David Pierce, Victoria Song, Dan Seifert, and Jennifer Pattison Tuohy answer questions from the Vergecast Hotline about what to buy for your loved ones this holiday season. Keep emailing us at [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 866-VERGE11, we love hearing from you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:02David Pierce?

  Welcome to The Vergecast, the flagship podcast of using gift cards to buy other gift cards. I'm your friend David Pierce, and I am, seemingly as always these days, on a walk home from dropping my kid off at daycare. Do you remember how a few weeks ago I told you that I was trying to be a person who walks and go-on-Idea walks and get the blood flowing and get out in the world? It turns out that was a super fun, good plan until it got to be cold. And now I have settled into the routine that I forget about every year, but always settle into again about this time, which is where I only go outside when absolutely 100% necessary. And right now, that is basically to walk the dog or take my kid to daycare. And so I'm outside right now, and this is the last time I will be outside,

• 0:47David Pierce?

  potentially until this time tomorrow. It's a life, but this is what happens to me every year when it gets cold. So, you know, I'll see you in April or something. Anyway, we have an awesome show coming up for you today. We are going to spend the whole hour answering your questions, at least to the best of our ability, about buying stuff. It's the season for buying stuff, right? It's deals, it's presents, it's weird gift exchanges with your coworkers. It's just a time of year you have to buy a lot of stuff. And also, you're trying to tell people what to buy you. So we figured we might be able to help. And whether you have questions about which laptop to buy, or which MacBook to buy, or which smart home gear you should get into, or what odd gaming console you're excited about, we took all of your questions, some of them super broad,

• 1:31David Pierce?

  some of them hilariously, impossibly specific, and we're going to answer as many of them as we can on the show today. We grabbed a couple of our best reviewers and smartest folks on the team, and we're going to go through as much of it as we can. Thank you to everybody who sent in questions. It's going to make this super fun, and I have no idea if we're actually going to help anybody, but, boy, are we going to try. All right, all of that is coming up in just a second. But first, I got to get home. I got to get warm, I got to take some cold meds. I don't know if you can hear in my voice, but my kid got sick, and then my wife got sick, and now I'm sick. It's great times all around, then we're going to get to it. This is The Vergecast. We'll be right back.

• 2:08Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends. Like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer. It's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 2:38David Pierce?

  Welcome back. We have a panel of stuff buying experts, which I believe is all of our titles here. Jen Tuohy, welcome back to The Vergecast. It's been a while.

• 2:48Speaker 02

  Thank you, David. It has been. It's lovely to be here. I'm sad we missed cooking our Thanksgiving turkey together this year.

• 2:54David Pierce?

  We spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to one-up that episode and never figured it out. And so we never did a Thanksgiving episode. It's still one of my favorites we've ever done. If you haven't heard it, go find it. Dan Seufert's here. Hi, Dan. Hello. And in the studio with Dan, V Song. Hello.

• 3:08Speaker 03

  Hey, what's up?

• 3:09David Pierce?

  We have a lot of things to get through. I've assembled all of you because you each have, I would say, both like good expertise, but also just like broad knowledge of cool stuff. And we need broad knowledge of cool stuff. So let's just dive in. We got a bunch of stuff to get to. I've set this up. We're going to do some like general questions at the beginning. And then we have a couple of categories in which we got a bunch of questions. We're going to go through those. And then we have my favorite question that we got through this whole process to do at the very end. So we're going to get into that. But let's start with a couple of just kind of grab-baggy questions. The first one we got is, I'm going to butcher everyone's name here, and I'm very sorry in advance. I believe it's from Colbine in the Vergecast email, who says, "Are there any good options if I want to swim and listen to music, or dare I even say, listen to podcasts?

• 3:52David Pierce?

  Seems to me that they all require me to have MP3 files, which I don't even know how to obtain in today's streaming world. Ideally, I'd like to keep my phone in the locker room and somehow stream music and podcasts via the Apple Watch. Also, are bone conduction headphones the way to go, or is the quality horrible?" Let's break that into two parts. V, I want you to go first because we brought this up. Chris Welch and I had a long chat about MP3 players a couple of weeks ago on this show that made a lot of people feel a lot of feelings. But I want to know first if you have a good answer to our friend's question here.

• 4:20Speaker 03

  My main answer is that there are a lot of trade-offs and there is nothing yet out there that's going to kind of be everything that I think this person is looking for because... Bluetooth and water, not really great friends. There's a reason why you're having a hard time finding things that aren't MP3 based. And it's because Bluetooth is not meant to send things through water. It's just not. I'm not a swimmer. I'm going to caveat that. I stick primarily to running because I should not be let on a bicycle. And I had to take swim gym in high school and that should tell you everything about my swimming skills. But that being said, I have a lot of friends who swim and the Apple Watch. Do you want the Apple Watch to actually track your swim?

• 5:04Speaker 03

  Because if you want it to track your swim and play content, you're out of luck. But if you just want it to be like a media player, there is something from H2O Audio called the Interval. And it's a wild device if you look at it. It's like this little framework thingy and you like snap it onto your goggles. And it's on the back of your head. So you just have the Apple Watch on the back of your head and it attaches to either bone conduction or in-ear earbuds. And it's not streaming. You have to like download offline playlists. And technically it works, though, you know, I will say I have doubts about whether this thing will last long term.

• 5:47Speaker 03

  Just because if you really want a waterproof wearable, most of the advanced ones are not particularly strong at that. Like the Apple Watch is waterproof up to 5 ATM, which is what we consider swim proof. But that doesn't mean, it doesn't mean that if you're diving to the depths of your pool a lot, there's still a risk there. There's an inherent risk. So that's one option. And the other one is stuff like the Zygo. That one technically allows you to stream, but it's just because it has a radio frequency transmitter on it. So that it takes the Bluetooth playing from a source like your phone, which is you want it to be in your locker room. So this might not actually work out for you.

• 6:31Speaker 03

  But it's taking it from a Bluetooth source and then there's like a frequency transmitter that converts the Bluetooth into something else that does work in water. And that's a little pricier, so you know.

• 6:43David Pierce?

  That's the hackiest thing I've ever heard in my life.

• 6:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, so these are like, these are the, you know, swimmers got it rough, runners and cyclists, we can just use our regular Bluetooth headphones and like Bluetooth works fine in air. But water just adds a different layer of physics to the problem. So that there is a reason why most of the players you're finding are MP3 based. And, and also another reason why they are bone conduction based too, because you know, like the earbuds, if, if the earbud falls out, are you going to be able to dive to the bottom of the pool to pick it up? So that's why like most swimming headphones you see, they are going to be the type that goes around your, goes around your head or you know, has a little like string attached to them. You're not going to really get any true earbuds for, for underwater use. So, you know, things to think about.

• 7:31Speaker 03

  And to the second part of your question, are bone conduction headphones good? No, they're fine. They're fine. If, if you like bass, they're not great. And so like as a runner, you know, there's a lot of reasons and like there's time and place for using bone conduction headphones as a runner. I really like them when I'm in an area and I'm worried that a truck is going to run me over if I've got like noise cancelling headphones on. But I really like bass heavy music for running, just to like drown out my thoughts of, I want to quit, I want to quit, I want to quit. So if that's you, bone conduction isn't really going to be all that useful.

• 8:09Speaker 03

  And then podcasts is another problem because not every platform is going to support podcasts. So like if you want to listen to podcasts, but you're primarily on Apple Music and that's how you're downloading your offline playlists, well, you're going to need the Spotify. If you want to listen to audiobooks, audiobooks, you're going to have to find something that supports audiobooks because those files are encoded in a specific way. So there's just no easy way to do it. You can do it. There are people who do it. It's just, you might have to learn how to get those MP3 files or find an option that lets you download offline playlists from your streaming service of choice.

• 8:47David Pierce?

  It's tough. I will say, I'm looking at the Zygo website right now and it both looks like the hackiest thing in history and also like it might be kind of a magical thing. Like if it's as good as the reviews say, it seems like kind of the perfect answer. But I am curious about bone conduction headphones, in part because I feel like, Dan, I swear, like, the third day of The Verge, you and I had a conversation about like, when are bone conduction headphones gonna be the thing? They seem like a good idea.

• 9:11Speaker 04

  It's been so long.

• 9:12David Pierce?

  They see, like, remember when like Aftershocks was out here being like, bone conduction headphones are the future?

• 9:17Speaker 02

  They're still around.

• 9:18David Pierce?

  They are still around, and I feel like they are perfectly suited for when you just wanna hear sounds. And, and that's all. You don't care about audio quality. You're just like, and swimming is actually a good example of this. Like, you don't really wanna plug your ears, but you wanna be able to like, kind of hear music, which sounds like damning with faint praise, but I kind of mean it. I don't know, where are we with bone conduction headphones? Is it as bad as Vee says?

• 9:42Speaker 04

  You know, I know, I think there are people who really swear by them and really like them, but I think that outside of swimming, the other use cases for bone conduction headphones are running and cycling where you need spatial awareness for safety reasons. And I honestly think that the advancements in ambient modes on true wireless earbuds have kind of made it so that you can wear standard earbuds and use the AirPods Active Noise, not the noise cancelling mode, but the new one, which is slipping my mind right now, which kind of like automatically adjusts the cancellation to give you awareness of noises. And the general ambient mode of AirPods is very good, where you can still hear your music with a good audio quality and still hear everything around you

• 10:25Speaker 04

  for safety reasons. So I think for most people, unless you're really specific and you want bone conduction for very specific reasons, I don't know that I would recommend bone conduction for, for most people looking to use them. Outside of like swimming, which is like, obviously you don't want, you can't put AirPods in, in a pool and, and you don't want them plugging up your ears anyways.

• 10:44David Pierce?

  Jen, what do you do in your exercise? Are you a headphones while exercising person?

• 10:48Speaker 02

  Oh, I bought the Beats ones that stick in your ear. Beats Fit Pro, the purple ones. Yes, the purple. Well, I did buy the purple ones. We both got the purple ones and then my daughter lost them. So now I have boring gray ones, but I love those.

• 11:02Speaker 04

  I have the gray ones.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  Um, I bought boring gray ones because I got renewed, because I'm like, I'm not spending this much money again.

• 11:10Speaker 02

  But I'm not, V is the fitness girl here. I'm the walk slowly around the block girl.

• 11:15David Pierce?

  Same. All right, let's get to the next question. Oh, which is actually another headphones question. This is a good one. This one came from the hotline and it's from Daniel.

• 11:27Speaker 05

  Hi, my name is Daniel. I've become a bit obsessed with trying to keep a clean minimalist bag. I'm a remote worker and I constantly have to take, you know, meetings from coffee shops. And I've been like mostly satisfied with my setup where I have a pair of Quiet Comfort 45s or Sony XM5s that do a decent enough job of letting people hear me. But occasionally they just stop working. Like there's a critical threshold of noise in a coffee shop where the directional mics just don't do the job anymore. And so now my bag has like a backup solution because I couldn't take the anxiety of not being able to do my job occasionally. And that it's clunky, like I don't want to have two pairs of headphones in my bag.

• 12:10Speaker 05

  But I also want to have like good noise cancellation for when I'm listening to music and I want to have a good microphone for when I'm doing my job. And I want a little help answering the question of what is the best way to do this? Thank you for your time.

• 12:22Speaker 03

  Just use the wired Apple headphones.

• 12:25David Pierce?

  Yes, that's exactly what I was gonna say.

• 12:27Speaker 03

  Because it's totally gonna save space in your bag. And you know, Becca's done, what, 5,000 videos at this point showing how good the quality is on them. So I mean, that's what I do. I just always have a wired pair in my bag. Actually, Becca made me buy a pair for her, for work reasons. So I would just say those are super easy to stash and a lot cheaper than a lot of the other options out there.

• 12:51Speaker 04

  I agree. This was gonna be my recommendation as well. The only caveat is they are not gonna do any noise cancelling for you. So basically you just have to be willing to carry around both. I love the inclination to have redundancy. I love redundancy, I'm the same person. But it does mean that like you're, you're likely gonna have a set of over your headphones for your noise cancelled focus time. And then when you need to hop on a call, you just switch to the wired ones.

• 13:13David Pierce?

  I think that's right. Every bone in my body wants to scold.

• 13:19David Pierce?

  Anyone who gets into a loud coffee shop and then tries to take calls. Like, it's just, it's the worst for everyone involved when people do that. But it's the holidays, and so I'm not going to scold our friend Daniel for just trying to do his job while irritating every single other person in this coffee shop by shouting into his microphone.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  Well, you don't know what Daniel's home life is.

• 13:40David Pierce?

  Daniel's gotta do what Daniel's gotta do. I get it. I do think, like, we've spent a lot of time talking about and testing various microphones in various coffee shops on the show. And what we have discovered is that you just can't beat the microphone on a big-ass boom arm that comes all the way down to your mouth. And you're just either going to have to get Apple's wired headphones, like we've been talking about, or whip out the gamer headset. And there just is no good third option.

• 14:06Speaker 04

  There's a reason pilots' headsets look the way that they do.

• 14:09David Pierce?

  Yeah.

• 14:09Speaker 04

  When they're flying a helicopter.

• 14:11Speaker 03

  I mean, if the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses could actually pair with your laptop, I might have recommended that because the mic is right on your nose. And like, you could watch our video review. Becca did a mic test. It is like on par slash almost slightly better than the wired Apple headphones, but they don't really pair easily with your laptop. So that was like one of the things that she pointed out as being kind of a miss there. And then just smart glasses in general, you know, that that is the thing that they're saying, right? You can use these for calls. They're not good enough for a coffee shop. Like, just anytime you have any kind of ambient noise, you have to crank the volume on them so loud that it kind of defeats the purpose.

• 14:54Speaker 03

  And, you know, I've never heard anyone besides the Ray-Bans tell me that I sounded good while wearing those. So, eh, you know.

• 15:01David Pierce?

  Yeah, like, really, it is just the closer the microphone is to your mouth, the better it's going to sound. Is like, basically, all you need to know about all of this stuff. And the problem with the noise-canceling headphones generally is that your ears are not that close to your mouth. That's a fun fact about how the world works. And I think, like, if there is a thing, and you all should tell me if this exists, that is like a normal pair of noise-canceling headphones onto which you can attach, like, one of those boom arms that is a microphone.

• 15:29Speaker 04

  So those things do exist. I forget the name of it right now, but you did just remind me of there's a device that you can literally stick to the outside cup of any pair of headphones and then it has its own Bluetooth connection or dongle connection to your computer and it's basically a boom arm that goes across your mouth. It is one of the jankier setups, but basically it's like if you've got a pair of headphones that you really love the sound or comfort or whatever features of, and they just don't have a mic or don't have a great mic, it allows you to retrofit a mic to it. I think that you are still going to run into the same similar problem. So even with a boom arm on that, you're dealing with Bluetooth connections, you're dealing with other, you know, factors.

• 16:10Speaker 04

  It's just another thing for your, to manage and deal with instead of just plugging in the wired headphone, which is always going to be the most rock solid connection.

• 16:18David Pierce?

  Yeah. Yeah, that's fair.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  Just carry your Yeti to the coffee shop. Your Yeti or your Shore. Just carry that. That's totally, no, don't do that.

• 16:27David Pierce?

  That might be worse. No, I think truthfully, the like, if you just want to carry one thing, I think like Jabra has pretty good headsets. They all have the boom arms. You're going to look a little silly, but at least folds up and is a decent set of headphones. That's probably the best. I think they're called like the Evolves or something and they're actually pretty solid. They're expensive, but they, they are the best kind of headphone looking headset working thing.

• 16:51Speaker 04

  You, you look like you are in a call center, but that's why they work because that's what they're designed for.

• 16:57David Pierce?

  A hundred percent because you are in fact in a call center. Yeah. Okay. That's enough headphone questions. Please leave me alone at the coffee shop and everything will be fine. We're going to take a quick break and then we're going to go back and we're going to answer some computer questions and then we're going to get into the really tough stuff, which is the smart home. We'll be right back.

• 17:20Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra because it's not just a superior like beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 17:51David Pierce?

  All right, we're back. We got a bunch of questions from people that essentially just want to know what computer they should buy. So let's help people buy computers. The first one we got is a voicemail from Benjamin. Let's hear it now.

• 18:03Speaker 06

  Hey, Vergecast, it's Benjamin. I've got a classic form over function dilemma I'm hoping you can solve for me. I'm looking to buy my partner a new laptop for the holidays, but she has her eye on the 15-inch Surface Laptop 5 specifically because of the all-aluminum chassis. I don't feel good about getting her a laptop with last year's mid-range specs, especially for such a premium price. Maybe I would feel different if the Surface Laptop 6 had actually come out this year, but I'm looking for recommendations for Windows laptops with an all-metal chassis and modern specs that I can steer her towards instead. She'll mostly be doing light tasks like web browsing and streaming, but I want her to have enough muscle to hold up for a long time. She's also in grad school, so great battery life would be a bonus.

• 18:47Speaker 06

  Is AMD still the efficiency champ for laptops? Any advice is appreciated before I'm sure I'll ultimately buy her the Surface, because, you know, happy wife, happy life. Thanks.

• 18:59David Pierce?

  Dan Seifert, help this person. What should Benjamin buy? It's not the Surface Laptop. I just want to put that out in front here.

• 19:05Speaker 04

  Well, hold on. Let's, I'm going to give him two recommendations. He should ignore both of them and just buy the Surface Laptop. He specifically said this is the one his wife wants.

• 19:15David Pierce?

  That's a fair point.

• 19:16Speaker 04

  And so he should just buy the one she wants?

• 19:18Speaker 02

  That's what I was gonna say. I know nothing about the laptops, but buy her what she wants.

• 19:23Speaker 04

  Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a lot of nice things about the Surface Laptop. It is aging, as he mentioned. It's not really super new. I think it came out in 2022. But it's got a great screen, great keyboard, and it's a Surface design, so it's a really nice premium design, as I think are all the things that she likes. If we were to buy something else, I've got two recommendations. One of them's a little bit less expensive. It is the Asus ZenBook 14X. This is a 14.5-inch screen, so it's a little bit smaller than the Surface Laptop, but it's an OLED display, so really awesome screen. It's got the latest 13th-gen Intel processor. It's like, comes with 16 gigs RAM, half a terabyte of storage, and you can get it for like 750 bucks, maybe even less if you're shopping around.

• 20:06Speaker 04

  So it's a very up-to-date, current model. It's still metal. It's not quite up to the build quality of the Surface Laptop, but it's still, it's not a plastic piece of junk. It's still a high-quality laptop. The other option is a larger one. And since they mentioned that they want a 15 inch Surface Laptop and they like the aluminum chassis, I would suggest taking a look at the LG Gram 16. The things to like about the LG Gram 16 is you got that 16 inch screen. It's huge. It's a 16 by 10 aspect ratio, so you got a lot of room on there. It's a very thin and light design, which is a signature of the Gram series, and it has tremendous battery life. Comes with the latest 13th gen processors, 16 gigs RAM, a terabyte SSD. Best by selling this for about 1,700 bucks.

• 20:48Speaker 04

  So it's on the more expensive end here, but the Surface Laptop is not a cheap computer. So those would be my recommendations, but at the end of the day, go buy your wife a Surface Laptop 5.

• 20:58David Pierce?

  Yeah.

• 20:59Speaker 03

  I mean, you said it yourself. Happy wife, happy life.

• 21:03David Pierce?

  Yeah. I don't know about you guys, but when I first started dating my now wife, she like the first Christmas we were together, she like literally gave me a list of like links and was like, buy me one of these for Christmas. And I took this as a test to be like, okay, what cool thing can I buy that isn't on the list, but shows that I read the, and I did that. And she was like, why didn't you just buy me a thing on? She's like, I literally, I sent you a link of the thing and the color that I want. And so I learned very quickly. She sends me a list of links. I click on one of them and I click buy and I give it to her for Christmas and she's very happy. And it has been a winning move ever since. And it makes Christmas shopping the easiest thing in the world. And so I have learned the hard way that when they tell you what they want, just, just roll with it. So I think that's good advice.

• 21:43Speaker 04

  Yeah. Buy your spouse what they ask for.

• 21:45David Pierce?

  But also if you, if you want her to call in and us to talk her out of the Surface Laptop 5, because it is an old computer with old specs, I'm also happy to do that. All right, one more computer question. It's an email from Nathan. It says, hi friends, I have a 2020 Intel MacBook Pro right now and it is the base level, which means it has some trouble when I use Excel and PowerPoint. I'm looking into starting graduate school in the fall and would like for a Mac to be my main driver, but I don't love the idea of spending a bunch of money on the super duper MacBook Pro. I also find myself needing software that is only available on Windows, which leads me to believe that maybe I should buy a powerful Tower PC to keep at home and buy a lower end M2 MacBook Air and remote access the Windows computer when they need to do more processing. Does that make any sense? Or should I go for a more expensive MacBook Pro and that be it?

• 22:28David Pierce?

  V, I want to know what you think, having used the newest, fanciest, best MacBooks.

• 22:34Speaker 03

  Ah, yes, the, I still can't believe that the MacBook Pro 16 inch that they sent me was $7,200. That configuration was just absolutely absurd. So like, the one thing that I would have a question for Nathan is like, what is his workload like? Just because, you know, he mentions using that he needs Excel and PowerPoint, but then also programs that are only available on Windows. So like, if you have programs that are only available on Windows, maybe you do want the powerful power PC. But having used the very, very souped up MacBook Pros and having an M2 MacBook Air as my personal computer right now,

• 23:18Speaker 03

  you know, the MacBook Air is good enough for most of your like daily, you know, productivity type software. So long as you don't do what I did and get an 8 gigabytes of memory. That was a dumb choice on my part. You need at least 16. So you have to factor that into the price. So, yeah, like, the one thing I'm hung up on is like needing programs that are only available on Windows.

• 23:42David Pierce?

  So I believe there is a solution to this problem, which is the Windows app, which is now a thing that exists as of just a couple of weeks ago. And I confess, I have not used this at all personally. But the idea is you can now download Windows as an app and run what amounts to a virtual computer on your Mac computer. I do not believe that you should buy a computer and also another computer and then use the one computer to access the other computer. Like, that way lies madness. Dan, is the, like, Boot Camp exists, Parallels exists, there's like, kind of strategies here. Like, what do we do?

• 24:20Speaker 04

  Well, first off, I'll start with saying, I don't think you need a MacBook Pro. I think a MacBook Air, like Vee said, is entirely capable of running the workloads of Excel and PowerPoint, particularly compared to an Intel MacBook Pro. Like, the jump going from Intel to an M-series processor is just enormous. And you're gonna have power to spare so long as you equip it with at least 16 gigs of RAM. And I would recommend probably 512 to a 10 To storage for this next half of the recommendation. And so I think go MacBook Air is my, my first recommendation. The second thing is buy the MacBook and then explore these options for running your Windows apps on the MacBook. Whether that is the Windows app, whether that is parallels. Bootcamp might be a little weird.

• 25:02Speaker 04

  That actually like requires you to use a Windows on ARM build and it's a little wonky on the ARM Max. I think parallels is a little bit more straightforward of a solution. But again, I personally have not directly used it, but you should try it out and see if it allows you to do the things that you need to do. And if it doesn't, then you might have to go your route of setting up a tower PC. Or I don't even think you really need to go a tower PC. I think you could go a pretty simple PC and that's, that's always plugged in at home and you can just remote desktop into it and, and go from there. You know, Nathan's not the only one with this problem. I know Neel is been on the show many times talking about how his lawyer wife has to deal with very weird Windows based programs. And trying to use them on a Mac is a huge pain. He's not the only one with this problem. And so that means there are people who are trying to solve it.

• 25:48Speaker 04

  And so I, that'd be my recommendation. Go get a good MacBook Air, equip it well enough. You are still probably going to be spending close to $2,000 on this, but it's not 3,000. And see if you can get your Windows applications to run. And if not, then go to the next step.

• 26:02David Pierce?

  And if it's the kind of thing that it's, it's like old outdated software that just only runs on Windows. Odds are that if you buy one of those like little $200 mini PCs things, it'll work fine for the occasional times you need to use it. So that, that would be my recommendation is that if you do end up buying two computers.

• 26:18Speaker 04

  Unless Nathan is saying these quote needing software that's only available on Windows is AAA games.

• 26:27Speaker 04

  Then you do need that big power tower or you should just buy a gaming laptop. But I don't think that's what he was.

• 26:33Speaker 03

  Just get a console. If you're gonna, if you really want to be a Mac user and play AAA games, the console is just going to be so much easier for you. Like just, just, just do it.

• 26:41David Pierce?

  There's so many PC gamers furiously sending you emails right now, V. I just want you to know.

• 26:47Speaker 03

  Just don't, just, just don't, just don't do it. Like, so like my spouse is a gamer or was a gamer and they had this problem. And they have just like thrown up their hands in the air and gone like F it of a PS5 and an Xbox. That's just, just it. And you know, for their purposes, like, are you really gaming on the GOAT? That you want it to be on your, your PC? Or do you want, in their case, a giant 65 inch LG OLED to, to sit like two feet in front of, because they move up their chair to two feet in front of the, so that all the racing games can go directly into their eyeballs. I, I don't know. I just think, just do the console and use the Mac for work. That's if, if we are talking AAA games here.

• 27:32David Pierce?

  I'm just saying MacBook Air, mini PC, Steam Deck, and you are just living your best life. Like, that's the, that's the way to do it. Happy holidays to everybody. It's a huge victory. All right, let's move on. Jen, I have terrible news for you. It's time to talk about Matter. I'm so sorry. We have to do this one more time before the year's over. We got a bunch of smart home questions, I would say, all of which I can distill into this voicemail from Chris.

• 27:57Speaker 07

  Hi, this is Chris from Los Angeles. Gotta ask, going into buying season, what's up with Matter? What home tech am I allowed to buy? What home tech should I absolutely not buy? Is it the year for Matter? Thanks, Chris.

• 28:10Speaker 03

  I also want to know the, the question because I'm buying a house. Yay, my first house. And I'm gonna go straight into the smart home. So I need, I need this for me, too.

• 28:20David Pierce?

  Yeah, we got a lot of versions of this question because I think this is the time of year to buy all this stuff, right? Like, they're fun stocking stuffers, they're fun gifts to buy, people. And every version of this question we got is essentially, am I a moron for buying smart home stuff right now? As we've talked about many times, we're in the middle of transitioning to Matter. Matter is kind of here. It's also kind of not here. Jen, talk us through it. Give us a gift guide here. What are we doing?

• 28:46Speaker 02

  Well, two points. The first would be friends, don't buy friends Matter devices for Christmas.

• 28:53Speaker 02

  Just don't put that pain on them. And the second would be, V, can you wait a couple of years to move into your new house?

• 29:02Speaker 03

  No, my lease is up at the end of this month.

• 29:05Speaker 02

  So I know Neelai has been going through this same issue with his house. You know, this is a tricky time and I would like to say it's unique in the smart home to be in this awkward situation where you're between protocols and between devices and technologies. But no, this has been happening since I got into the smart home a decade ago. The smart home is continually changing. It's never in a place where you're like, okay, it's it's here. This is right. This is the way to do it. I'm happy. So really, it's kind of like any tech, you know. I do always encourage people to buy, you know, I think we do this a lot with our reviews, you know, the best you can afford that fits your need. And that's still where it sits with smart home, I think.

• 29:48Speaker 02

  Matter is going to help, but it is not helping yet. And right now, my number one recommendation about my Matter devices would be only by Matter devices that also work on other platforms. Which is to sort of break that down a little bit. So Matter itself, obviously, is not a platform, but it does support all the major platforms. And that's its biggest selling point. And that's the one thing that I feel is good about Matter devices. If you want to buy a cheap smart switch now for your Apple Home setup, you can go and do that. You really didn't have the option before Matter and that's an area where Matter has succeeded. Yay. Where it has not succeeded is in being able to pair to multiple smart home systems.

• 30:29Speaker 02

  So I have spent the last month tearing my hair out trying to pair my Philips Hue platform, my Philips Hue bulbs in my house, which I have had for over a decade because that's one of those systems that's been around for a long time. And it's been it's been something of a complicated process. And basically there, there are still problems with that interoperability. So it's great if you want to buy a device and pair it to one smart home platform. But if you're one of the few, and I'm guessing there aren't a ton of people out here that want to use two, three or four smart home platforms. But I'm also guessing that if there are people that want to do that, they are listening to the podcast.

• 31:09Speaker 02

  And that's where things go sideways fast. So I paired my Hue bulbs, or all forty bulbs I have in my house, slowly collected over the years, to Apple Home, worked great through Matter, paired them to Alexa, worked great, next day, left, they'd gone from Apple Home. They weren't there anymore. And they weren't working anymore. So they weren't responding, which anyone that uses Apple Home will be familiar with. And then vice versa, the same thing happened with Alexa, it stopped working. And so I have literally been tearing my hair out. It's not been fun. So Matter right now is still in its early stages. I remember when we first went to the launch party, launch event for it, the head of the

• 31:49Speaker 02

  CSA, the organisation behind it, said, Matter is a journey. It's going to take a long time. And if Matter's a journey, I would say we're right about the stage where we've just stopped at the gas station to fuel up. So it's gonna be a really long time until we get where we need to be in terms of that solid interoperability. So right now, number one takeaway, if you're gonna buy a device and you want it to work with a specific smart home platform, and it works with Matter, that's great, but also make sure you have a backup. So that it also works with Amazon Alexa over the cloud, or Apple HomeKit as a HomeKit device, because there are still a lot of interoperability problems. Unfortunately, it is not the salvation of the smart home that we were all hoping. But there's still potential. And the most

• 32:33Speaker 02

  important part about Matter right now, I would say, is future-proofing. So having a device that works with Matter now is a good thing for the future of your smart home, but it's not gonna solve your problems, most of your problems today, unfortunately. So one of the things they promised us, or quite loudly said at the beginning of all of this, was all your smart home devices that you currently have will work in Matter going forward. So yay, you don't have to go out and buy new stuff. That does not seem to be really happening. And, you know, Philips Hue example I just gave, I mean, it does work with Matter, but not well. So I've just reverted to using it the way it always worked, which it worked brilliantly, it has for many years. And what's not broken in the smart

• 33:17Speaker 02

  home, you should not try and fix.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  Because you always run into problems. So backwards compatibility has been one of the sort of real letdowns here. We really hoped that a lot of our current devices would get upgraded to support Matter and either over Wi-Fi or Thread, which is one of the main protocols that Matter runs over. And it seems like, from talking to companies out there, that the kind of load that Matter requires for their products is just, it's much heavier than they had expected. So they're not able to update these devices necessarily with firmware. And if they do, sometimes that actually takes away function, which is one of the issues that Eve had with some of its devices. So its smart plugs, they updated to Matter. And there was a potential that it was going to take away the function for energy monitoring,

• 34:06Speaker 02

  which is one of their best features. So they managed to get around that. But yeah, there's problems there. It's not as easy as people had hoped. So V, I think you should probably wait.

• 34:18David Pierce?

  Oh, no. One of the things that I believe strongly about gift giving is that you should never give someone a to-do list. And I think one of the things that happens when you give somebody like a smart home gift in a lot of cases is like, I've now signed you up to make 10 phone calls and rewire your entire house. But so here's what I wonder, and I'm curious kind of for everybody's perspective on this because we're all sort of dealing with smart home stuff at various stages of installation. What is a good and not to-do listy smart home gift you can give someone at this point in time? A plug? A plug, yeah.

• 34:55Speaker 04

  You know, individual components are actually tough to recommend because you don't know what platform, unless you know you're this recipient very well, you might not know what platform they are using or prefer.

• 35:06David Pierce?

  That's true.

• 35:07Speaker 04

  So if you are going to do individual components, something like Jen said that works on all of them is obviously the way to go. So smart plugs like from Miross, they work on all the major platforms, very reliable. We like them a lot. They're very inexpensive. Hue bulbs are very, are very reliable, work on all the platforms.

• 35:25David Pierce?

  Hue lights, I have found, by the way, are almost always a hit gift because they like, they set up really fast and they're like, they're fun. So like in three minutes, you're just changing the lights in your house. Like, I have found, I don't know that anyone I've given them to as a gift has actually used them for very long, but they're a fun like-

• 35:42Speaker 04

  But they haven't complained about them, so. Yeah, so like there's, there's things like that. I, I think that for a few years, everyone was giving everyone smart speakers and smart displays. I think we're kind of past that point and not everyone wants a smart speaker. If they did want one, they probably have it already. And so there, that's a little tougher. I just think that like too, kind of like what Jen was saying. I think smart home products make a great gift for yourself and less of a great gift for someone else. Unless you know, this person is already a smart home person and they've given you the list of things they want. And their smart home things on there and you just go buy them on that. I, I, I think that like you are introducing a project to, to the uninitiated.

• 36:26Speaker 04

  My only caveat there is if you are going to be the project maintainer, then maybe that's okay. An example, uh, my in-laws, I gave them a Google, uh, Google Home Hub or Nest Hub, whatever it's called these days. The smart display a few years ago, and I linked it up to Google Photos and now they automatically get photos of the grandchildren on their kitchen counter. I installed it, set it up on their wifi. They don't ever have to touch it. It just shows them pictures. And then I saw that my father, uh, my father-in-law sent it to a five second change of, between the, the images. So it's just speeding by images when I was over there. So I set it back to a minute. Everyone's happy. But like, you have to be prepared for that. Otherwise you are kind of introducing a project to them and, and, and maybe that's not the best gifting type of thing.

• 37:10David Pierce?

  Photo frames are a good one.

• 37:11Speaker 02

  My mother-in-law loves them. That's the nice thing about, um, the smart displays is being able to set up that feature. Um, and there are ones that aren't smart displays. If, if people don't want the speakers and microphones as well, like Skylight and Aura. But in terms of yes, my actual smart home devices, it's kind of like, I mean, would you buy someone a, a tap, a faucet for, for Christmas? It's like those types of, you know, I'd love a smart tap, a smart faucet myself, but, um, so it's my English, my English is in. It's just there's slightly odd things. Oh, here's a smart switch. Go wire it into your house. As much as you're going to get out of it, I think the one area that perhaps I would say, okay, this would be kind of cool is when you know they have a problem and there is a

• 37:56Speaker 02

  smart home device out there that will solve it. For example, like a smart garage door opener. Or, you know, if your granddad or your neighbor is always leaving their garage door open, you're like, look, here's a smart garage door controller. This, look how you can do this. And every time you give someone a smart gift like that, you should have a little coupon next to it that says, I will come and install it and set it up for you.

• 38:18David Pierce?

  That's good. Yeah. And then I will not maintain it over time. Like this comes with seven days of service and then, and then no more beyond that. That's how long your warranty lasts. V, if, are you thinking about smart home gifts? What are you, what are you going to give or receive this year?

• 38:33Speaker 03

  No. So I think I'm going to follow everyone's advice and do all the research ahead of time, AKA Jen, I'm sliding into your DMs sometime soon. And then I'm going to make a list and then send that list to everyone and say, only buy things on this list for me. But yeah, I'm basically, I want a thermostat as like number one on my list, just to, you know, lower my utility bills. And then, you know, further down the line, I'm gonna get one of those Toto toilets in the bidet. So, further, further down the line.

• 39:05David Pierce?

  That's a good gift. That's like a slightly awkward thing to talk about potentially at the holidays. But if, if you're that kind of family, like get after it.

• 39:13Speaker 04

  I bought one last year for the fans, like the family gift, or for like my wife and I to use. And I love it.

• 39:19Speaker 03

  You know, you will change someone's life by interest using them to a Toto. That, that is true.

• 39:25David Pierce?

  I don't know if that counts as smart home, but it's high tech. So I'll take it. This'll do. All right. We gotta take one more break and then we have a few more questions. We'll get out of here. We'll be right back.

• 39:38Speaker 01

  This episode is brought to you by Michelob Ultra. Good times mean competitions between you and your friends, like seeing who can throw some pigskin the farthest or rush the field the fastest. Winner gets an Ultra. Because it's not just a superior light beer, it's also giving fans superior access to their favorite sporting events. Superior is worth playing for. Visit michelobultra.com/superioraccess to enter. Enjoy responsibly. Copyright 2026 Anheuser Busch InBev Michelob Ultra Beer, St. Louis, Missouri.

• 40:10David Pierce?

  All right, we're back. All right, Jen, one more smart home question before we get out of this matter, chaos. This is an email from Alec, and this is like, not specifically a Christmas holiday-y question, but this is actually a thing I've heard a bunch of people buy for the holidays. So I'm gonna, we're gonna do it anyway. The email says, "Last spring, Google announced that it will be getting rid of the Nest security products in support in April 2024, and that Nest customers can get a free set of ADT hardware to replace it. Problem is, the ADT hardware doesn't seem very good to me, and I'd rather have a better alternative that can work with my remaining Nest products, doorbell, smoke detector, et cetera, as well as Apple Home and Google Home. I'm left wondering what a good alternative is to Nest security that isn't ADT. Lots of options, but no clear good direction." This definitely falls under the "do not buy someone a whole security system for their house

• 40:55David Pierce?

  unless you know what they're doing." But if you want to give this to, you know, yourself, or your partner, or your family for the holidays, seems like a reasonably good gift. Can we help this person? This, this sort of sunsetting of Nest thing has been going on for a while, and does sort of seem like a lot of people might just be left in the lurch. Is there a good way out of this?

• 41:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a tricky one, this. It's such a shame. The Nest Secure system, actually, was, was a pretty neat system. I was very sad when it went away. What it did so well, and which I do have some alternatives for, so hopefully we'll have a good solution here. But what it did so well was, it took home security, which is full of tiny little white plastic things you have to stick around your house, and digested it all into one tiny little sensor and a nice little central hub. So it was a beautiful product in that respect. It was overpriced and had a fair number of other flaws, but, you know, that core functionality was really good. And then also the NFC tag, so you didn't have to worry about running in and like pressing the keypad thing, which still gives me nervous sort of hives when I have to do,

• 41:57Speaker 02

  because I do it all the time when I'm testing these devices. Like, oh no, the police is gonna show up. But anyway, so it had some great solutions there. And this is what I like about the smart home. When it takes a sort of legacy product and does makes it smart, makes it, oh, wow, this is so much better than it was before. And there are a couple of solutions out there that will fill that Nest Secure shaped hole. Unfortunately, not entirely precisely. There's a few sort of caveats and, you know, choices you have to make. So you're not going to get some of the benefits that Nest Secure had. But what I love about these two is that they both offer that all in one sensor product. So the two options that I really like are Arlo Secure and then the Icobi Security System.

• 42:40Speaker 02

  So they both have these all in one sensors. And Arlo Secure is probably going to be the best solution for our caller here because it's very well integrated with Google. It integrates with into the Google Home system really well. The cameras and such like the actual security system integration that gets a little tricky when you integrate security systems into other systems because you want them to be secure. So there's a lot of sort of caveats about making giving other platforms access to your security system. But in terms of using, you know, your Google Home app and integrating with your cameras, Arlo Secure is probably going to be your best solution. And it's really relatively inexpensive. It's like $200 to get started with the keypad and two sensors.

• 43:25Speaker 02

  And these sensors are awesome. They're all in one multi sensors and they do eight different things, which is kind of impressive. So they're contact sensors, motion sensors, ambient light sensors, temperature sensors. They can also, the system itself can also listen for smoke and CO alarms. So you don't need, you know, all the other sensors that most security systems come with. And also they're leak detectors. You can't use them as a leak detector and a contact sensor at the same time, but you can, you know, you can choose, pick and choose what you want them to do, which is really neat. And if you use Arlo cameras, you actually can get video verification, which is a pretty key part of any kind of security system these days if you sign up for professional monitoring. And that was something that Nest Secure didn't offer.

• 44:10Speaker 02

  So that's where police will only come to your house if they can actually verify that something's wrong and not that you just forgot, you forgot to know how to disarm the system by pressing the buttons.

• 44:23Speaker 02

  So the Arlo Secure is a good one. And then the Ecobee Secure System, very similar. It also has these sensors that are contact and motion in one, but they don't do all the other stuff. But what they do, and this is something that V might be interested in, is they do sync with your thermostat. And so if you leave your door open, it will, you can set it to automatically turn your heating or AC off when the door's left open, just so that you're not, you know,

• 44:50David Pierce?

  That's neat.

• 44:51Speaker 02

  accidentally cooling the outdoors or heating the outdoors.

• 44:54David Pierce?

  As my mom used to say, we're not heating outside here.

• 44:56Speaker 02

  Yeah. So that's a neat sort of extra feature, which I really like. And that's the kind of thing, you know, security systems are boring. They're kind of expensive. You're paying monthly for them most of the time, and especially if you have professional monitoring. So it's kind of cool when they can do something else useful and helpful. And all of these, both on Arlo Secure and Ecobee, you can use as motion sensors and contact sensors in your smart home. So when the door opens, the lights can turn on. You can set motion automations and those types of home automation setups, which, you know, are really useful in your house, as well as also protecting you potentially if someone comes and tries to break in. So those are both good options. The other one would be a Bode, which has, they're a bit more like traditional security

• 45:41Speaker 02

  system. They have all the different sensors, but they also work as a Z-Wave hub. So if you want to connect to a broader smart home with Z-Wave devices, and all three of these do work with Apple Home, they all work with Google to some extent, and they all work with Amazon Alexa Assistant too. So you have kind of broad support there on the platforms. They all also have cameras with them. So it does, our caller does mention he already has some Google cameras, but if you wanted to add more cameras, you can use cameras from all three of these systems in there. The Ecobee cameras and the Arlo cameras are really quite good. The Bode cameras I would maybe steer clear of. So. There's some three good options and three good price points, too.

• 46:25Speaker 02

  They all, I think the cheapest actually is the EBODE, which starts $160. And the ADT stuff unfortunately just really wasn't very impressive. I read a lot of people complaining about that when it came out. But we did actually report a couple of months ago that it looks like ADT is working on another system where they're more tightly integrated with the Nest devices and have some slightly nicer looking hardware. So if you can wait, you might want to wait and see how that pans out. But otherwise, I would look into one of those three options that I mentioned. I think you'll probably find something there that you'd like.

• 47:00David Pierce?

  I feel like our takeaway so far is that holiday season 2027 is going to be like sick for the smart home. It's going to be so good. Until then, just, you know, close your eyes and point at something and we'll try. No, I think that's, that's super helpful. I'm actually going to, I think, go probably buy one of those this holiday season. Stuff's on good sale. I guess that's part of the reason everybody buys stuff is just everything's on sale right now. All right, a few more questions, then we're going to get out of here. We got a couple of questions about gaming, specifically handheld gaming. This first one is a voicemail from Sean.

• 47:32Speaker 08

  Hey, this is Sean from Ohio. Christmas is coming up and I have a seven-year-old son at home that is really into video games. I've been noticing on TikTok a lot of these handheld, almost Game Boy-esque video game emulators. I'm wondering if those are any good? If emulator handheld gaming is very good? I've heard of the Steam Deck and we own a Switch, but I'd love to get him something that I can just load up a bunch of games. Also, I'm a Mac user, so I don't know if that prohibits me or kind of detracts from being able to do that. Anyways, looking for a game device to buy for my son. Love to know your thoughts. Thanks.

• 48:12David Pierce?

  There are two correct answers to this question, I would say. One is a device called the Retroïde Pocket, which is one of those things that comes from Amazon and ships with like a million built-in games that you can play. Some of them don't work very well. Some of them are like porny and weird on a lot of these emulator devices. But it's also, there are some very good games. So that's a good like all-in-one emulator kind of system. How old is your son if they're porny? Seven, you know, whatever. I'm not here to litigate. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not in charge. No, I think it's, it's, you can basically either do the like, a system like the Analog Pocket, which is like an amazing piece of hardware, but requires you to kind of bring your own games,

• 48:54David Pierce?

  which is the more legally upstanding thing, as we've talked about on the show in the past, but also more expensive and more complicated. Or you can buy the things that you see all over Amazon from companies like Ambernic and Retroide and others that are just the, we downloaded every ROM we could find on the internet, put it onto a device and we'll ship it to you from Amazon. Those are very fun. They come with some weirdness. Some of the games don't work. Some might be games you don't like very much. They require some extra management, but they work. The Retroide Pocket is very good. It's the one people seem to like. So I would steer you that way if that's what you want, but if you want to like be a gaming purist, the Analog Pocket is, is the one. Then we have a question that is another one we've gotten a bunch of, which is a voicemail from Hillary.

• 49:37Speaker 09

  Hey, Vergecast, this is Hillary. My husband and I are expecting our second child in May, and my husband wants to get a handheld gaming device to go with those long sleepless nights. I think it's a little bit silly too, because he's not actually gonna have time to play it, but pretending that he does. He's trying to choose between a Steam Deck and a Nintendo Switch. Which would you recommend for using while caring for an infant? Thanks.

• 50:07Speaker 02

  Neither of them are very good as nannies, I would say.

• 50:10David Pierce?

  So I think, why I like this question is this is less, what can I do for the child and more like, how do I occupy myself while my child sleeps on top of? Yeah. Having just had an infant, I had terrible luck with this. I found that anytime I put a screen up sort of behind his head, he would wake up and it would go sideways. But I will say between these two, the Switch is, is the choice, for me at least.

• 50:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, same.

• 50:35David Pierce?

  The games work super well offline. The thing is really simple and straightforward. You can put it on a table and just use the Joy-Cons in your hands, or you can hold it, or you can plug it in. It'll end up being a thing your kids can use when they get older. Like, I just think it, I lean way towards Switch as the more sort of, I have a kid on my lap and also want to play video games kind of device.

• 50:59Speaker 04

  I totally agree. And I think that the challenge with the Steam Deck, while a phenomenal gaming device, is that you will spend a lot of time tinkering with it. And if you do have a limited amount of time to play, because you are also caring for a new infant, the Switch is the one that you'll be able to just pick up, start playing, put it down when you need to. And like, like David said, it is convertible to tabletop or TV playing very easily and stuff like that. So I would recommend the Switch as well.

• 51:26Speaker 02

  The best device for one-handed entertainment while you're caring for a child, because generally you're only gonna have one hand, is a Kindle. You just press the button and you can turn the page. It's the only one that you don't need two hands for.

• 51:40David Pierce?

  Yeah, my gaming strategy was to get weirdly into this game called Hole Down on my phone, which is just a game where you shoot a ball at things and try to knock them down and get as far down as you possibly can. Have I ever spent six straight hours playing that game while a child slept on top of me? Yes, I absolutely have. So I, truthfully, I would say like an Apple Arcade subscription is like the, the better infant care strategy than either of these devices. But yeah, I would, I would lean Nintendo Switch if that's where you're going. All right, one more question, and then we're getting out of here. This is a much broader question, so everybody has to answer, but you can go any direction you want. It's an email from Charles. It says, "I think niche, small-batch hardware products make great gifts. Things like the Panic Playdate handheld console, the Dirty Wave M8 Synth Tracker,

• 52:25David Pierce?

  or the Paper Shoot Camera. The problem I run into is finding these products in the first place. Usually the marketing relies on word-of-mouth referrals, so they're hard to find if you're not deep into the specific community or hobby these products are made for. I'm curious to know what your favorite small-batch bespoke hardware is." I'm gonna broaden this question very slightly, which is just to say, we each have to recommend one thing that is like thoroughly non-obvious, something that you wouldn't find on like a gift guide that is like, here's the cool Bose headphones and AirPods and this iPhone and that laptop.

• 52:56Speaker 04

  I've got one and I will caveat that this might might appear on one of our gift guides because our gift guides are very good. And you know, I consider this a niche, small batch hardware. I'm not sure if Charles will agree, but I love the PineSill. It is a very cool little tool. If you are into tinkering at all, or if you want to like explore it like my personal experience, I've never soldered anything before. I bought a PineSill and now I'm soldering. Like, that's like how it goes and it was very easy to get into. It's very easy to use. It's very small and lightweight. It's inexpensive. It's a small company, open source hardware. That would be my recommendation.

• 53:32David Pierce?

  That's a good one. That counts. I'll give you that. V, what do you got?

• 53:35Speaker 03

  One of the things I tested this year that is completely stupid, but that I kind of enjoyed the concept of was the Now Watch.

• 53:42David Pierce?

  Okay.

• 53:43Speaker 03

  You're not going to find this anywhere, but it is like a stress tracker device thing, but it has these little discs. There's no display. It's one of these no display type trackers. It just, it just buzzes whenever you're stressed and it has these like gemstone faces that you take in and out with a little magnet and that thing was fun. I would not recommend it to most people, to be clear, who actually care about their health tracking, but for people who are just like, I want something that's unique. I want something that's very stylish. I want something that's going to alert me when I'm really stressed out because I'm the type of person who cares and wants my tech to tell me to cool down. Then that one, it's weird and kind of fun.

• 54:26Speaker 03

  And then I thought of the other one that's really niche and something that I bought for myself this year is the MediCube Booster H. And it's a little wand that you zap your face with so that your skincare goes into your skin more deeply. It uses electroporation. It's all over TikTok. But if you're not in the skincare community, you ain't going to know about this thing. So there you go.

• 54:50David Pierce?

  That's good.

• 54:51Speaker 03

  The MediCube Booster H, it's on sale for like 50% these days. So I would do it. Hailey Bieber uses it. So there you go.

• 54:58David Pierce?

  All right, Jen, you got one?

• 55:00Speaker 02

  Well, I'm not sure it quite fits with the niche, small batch hardware, but maybe it does. But home assistant. The Home Assistant, green, if you wanna, you know, be budget, which is their their new budget version of getting started with Home Assistant. But as we started the smart home discussion with all the problems with Matter and how you should buy a device that also works with other platforms, Home Assistant would be your friend here because it can help you get any device into any platform and also will offer Matter support going forward. It has Matter support in beta right now, as everyone else does. Everyone's in beta right now. So, yeah, it's it's a every time I write a review on The Verge,

• 55:44Speaker 02

  one of the comments will be, but you can already do this with Home Assistant.

• 55:49Speaker 02

  It is it is a great, powerful tool. It is one of those devices that if you give to a friend, you are going to then become their backup IT person. But you will know the right friend to give this to. And if you give it to the right friend, they will be very, very grateful.

• 56:07David Pierce?

  Yeah, the the Home Assistant people are a little like the Linux people, but Home Assistant is much more of a product that regular people can actually figure out.

• 56:15Speaker 02

  And it's gotten that way a lot over this last year or two. They've really put a lot into making this a lot a much easier proposition than than it once was.

• 56:23David Pierce?

  I I agree. Mine, I have two. One is a gadget and one is not, but it's close enough. One is the one I've already mentioned, which is the Analog Pocket, which I think as like a little Game Boy thing for the modern age is just one of the like best made pieces of hardware out there. It's the kind of thing that like if you're in the gaming world, you know this and you're like, David, the Analog Pocket doesn't count in this game. But if you're not, you've probably never heard of it. It takes cartridges. It's a very fun thing. If you wanna like play retro games in a new way, it it rules. And they're also building a thing for the N64 that is not coming out this year, but is probably coming out next year. And I'm confident I'm going to do whatever it takes to buy one whenever that happens. So if you wanna just like wrap up a piece of paper that says, I'll buy you the N64 thing, that works fine.

• 57:07David Pierce?

  The other one is I've gotten back into a kick with notebooks. As Dan can attest, I spend all of my time switching between to do list apps. And recently I have given up on to do list apps. And I'm back to writing on paper like our ancestors did. And the team from Cortex, which makes very good podcasts over at Relay FM, they made a thing called the Sidekick Notepad. That is this big, wide notebook that is part like lists on the right and just sort of empty space to write on the left. And it sits on your desk and is a perfect like day planner thing. And I love it very much.

• 57:40Speaker 04

  It's a great wrist rest for your keyboard, too.

• 57:42David Pierce?

  It is.

• 57:43Speaker 04

  Specifically designed to be the width of your keyboard, which is very cool.

• 57:46David Pierce?

  Yeah, and it sort of sits in front of it and you can like write on it and then go back to typing. It's lovely and I have enjoyed it very much. So that's my recommendation. All right, thank you all. We should get out of here. I hope we have spent a lot of people's money. And if you want to buy us nice things to tell us, send Jen all of your Matter compatible gadgets and she will somehow figure out how to install them in her home. All right, thank you, guys. Appreciate it as always.

• 58:11Speaker 03

  Thanks. Bye. Bye.

• 58:25Speaker 10

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