This year, consider giving your friends and family something they can use and be excited about everyday—not an object to unwrap but a membership to take advantage of again and again. We’ve rounded up the best, most useful, most convenient, or just plain coolest groups, institutions, and clubs that you can join. Find our suggestions down in the comments, below.
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Hey, using your feet is cool again! Chances are, you know someone in your life who walks to stay healthy, to explore their city, or simply to commune with their neighborhood. Whether they’re commuting on foot, illegally accessing abandoned infrastructure, or simply enjoying a Sunday stroll, here are some gift ideas for the walkers in your life.
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When shopping for that special someone who loves the great outdoors, it’s easy to be overwhelmed. There are so many companies and so many items with so many different features that it’s hard to know where to start. That’s why we thought we’d kickstart this party with some of our favorite camping gear. We hope H.D. Thoreau would be down.
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It’s the most wonderful time of the year—a magical period filled with talking snow men, flying elk, and uncannily long-lasting oil lamps. While these holiday tales may not have been invented directly by stoners, after pulling a few tubes, even the 5 billionth airing of How the Grinch Stole Christmas can be just as wondrous as the first. Here are six spectacularly stony gifts for the toker on your wishlist.
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Your young nieces and nephews: you love the guts out of them, but you’re glad they’re not yours. No matter what, you’re going to spoil them to pieces, especially on Christmas. These gifts will ensure you will secure favorite aunt status for the umpteenth year running.
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Music: For some people it is entertainment, for others, it is the sound of life. If you are shopping for the latter, the soul afflicted with a music obsession, do not fret. You don’t have to spend buckets on expensive audiophile kit to make them happy. Here are a few suggestions, that should fit into any tune snob’s collection—of gear.
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Choosing gifts for college students is a pain. If it’s too practical, it’ll never get used; too childish, you’ll earn yourself a hefty scoff instead of a polite "thank you." Tread the tightrope with a useful, fun gift that isn’t too grownup, and you’ll be every millennial’s favorite Secret Santa.
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Technology and nature seem in constant conflict, but they can be better together. And being a tech enthusiast isn’t necessarily mutually exclusive with loving the outdoors, which is why we’ve put together a whole gift guide featuring stuff that scratches that techie itch but also should help you conquer (or live in peaceful harmony with, if that’s what you’re into) nature.
Soon, drones will be everywhere, and we’ll need to retreat to the forests just to escape their interminable whirring. But until then, nature is the perfect harbor for them. The AR Drone 2.0 by Parrot is a smartphone-controlled quadcopter that you’ve probably seen on TV, the web or at a trade show, and it’s a great device for winging around the forest for some easy outdoor aerial photography. Bonus points if you can buzz a deer.
The woods doesn’t count if you can’t quantify what you did there, and that’s where Nike’s new Fuelband device comes into play. Upgrading with much-improved activity tracking that can distinguish between biking, running, and even tennis and more. The Fuelband SE can also track sleep for you while you’re toughing it out on the cold, hard ground, but it’s only an on/off state, so if you’re more concerned about that, look to something like the Jawbone UP24.
An entire kayak that folds up into a convenient suitcase sized carrying package. That’s the only pitch you should need to hear with the Oru Kayak. Made of durable corrugated plastic, it comes with a number of options, including a two-pack for the outdoor-loving couple. It’s well-reviewed by many kayakers, packs up smaller and is in many ways easier to assemble than most other so-called folding kayaks. Plus, as far as kayaks go, it’s not even actually all that expensive.
If you want a camera ready for the wilderness, the Olympus TG-2 iHS is the best one that will still fit in your pocket. Dust, shock, water and freeze proof, it also offers a very wide maximum aperture and good image quality all around. This is the prevailing leader when it comes to the pocket toughcam market, and you can usually pick it up at a discounted price if you look around a little.
You go to nature to enjoy the silence, not rock out to sick beats, but sometimes it’s okay to combine those two. And the Boombot Rex can hold up to adverse weather conditions, including mud and dust, and it doubles as a very capable Bluetooth speakerphone with a long-lasting battery.
A trip to the toy store is supposed to be about finding gifts for all the kids on your Christmas list, but we all know at least one grownup who’s considered an adult in age only. So here are some perfect ideas for anyone who still professes to be a kid at heart, even if they’re old enough to be paying off a mortgage.
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Sure, we’ve been told that ubiquitous computing is just over the horizon for decades—at least since the days of The Jetsons. But over the past 12 months, the Internet of Things has come of age, from smart fire alarms to app-controlled door locks. If you’re looking for a gift for the resident home automatist in your life, here are 11 gifts to get you started.
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This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
