Hasta La Gadget!

Nikon’s D3000 came out in 2009, and even back then it was a cheap DSLR. It’s meant for beginners. In addition to the decidedly non-professional $500 price, the D3000 actually features educational menus to help a first time photographer learn the ropes. Still, it wasn’t cheap, especially for tyros or students—if you’re not sure you’re gonna stick with the hobby, it’s hard to spend what amounts to a rent payment. But flash forward to 2013, and Adorama is selling the D3000 for $210—a price even broke college students can afford. More »

The most important—and expensive—coffee gadget for a home cupper is a burr grinder. Good coffee requires even extraction, and no matter how many fancy coffee makers you own, if you’re not using a burr grinder, you won’t be able to achieve the consistent grinds necessary for most coffee recipes, especially if you want to make good third-wave espresso at home. For coffee people, Baratza’s line of stepped burr grinders are the preferred home grinders. More »

TVs are more furniture-like than almost any other gadget. They’re big, they find a spot in your living room, and they stay there for years. That’s a major reason why smart functionality—that goes obsolete—baked into a TV is daft: who wants to replace a piece of furniture every other year? But Panasonic did just that, and now they’ve got a bunch of nice 47″ LED IPS TV they want to clear out, because as the banner over the sale proclaims, “our new 2013 models have arrived!” More »

We’re solidly in the middle of April, and that means large parts of the country are already experiencing some unpredictable rainstorms. And that’s great, because spring rain nourishes flowers and makes everything smell good. But if you’re caught outside unprepared you’ll be showing up to school or work smelling like a wet dog. You need a rain jacket, and Marmot’s PreCip is a great choice. More »

While Google’s sleek Chromebook Pixel garners most of the attention from the tech-savvy set, the lower cost Chromebooks are where the action’s at. Obviously, a Chromebook only really runs one program—Chrome—but it’s a important program. Because most Chromebook buyers will already have a traditional computer, it’s makes more sense to sell them for a couple hundred dollars. They’re secondary machines. More »