As of this yr, EDN has consecutively revealed my odes to holiday-excused consumerism for greater than a half-decade straight (and deliberately forward of Black Friday, when you hadn’t already deduced), now nearing ten editions in complete. Listed here are the 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 variations; I skipped just a few years between 2014 and its successors.
As common, I’ve included up-front hyperlinks to prior-year variations of the Vacation Buying Information for Engineers as a result of I’ve performed my greatest right here to not regurgitate any previous suggestions; the stuff I’ve beforehand recommended largely stays legitimate, in spite of everything. That stated, it will get more and more tough every year to not repeat myself! And as such, I’ve “thrown within the towel” this yr, no less than to some extent…you’ll discover just a few repeat classes this time, albeit with new product ideas inside them.
With none additional ado, and as common, ordered solely within the order wherein they initially got here out of my skull…
A Home windows 11-compatible (or different O/S-based) laptop
Microsoft’s normal help for Home windows 10 ended almost a month in the past (on October 14, to be precise) as I’m writing these phrases. For you Home windows customers on the market, choices exist for extending Home windows 10 help updates (ESUs) for an additional yr on consumer-licensed methods, each paid (spending $30 or redeeming 1,000 Microsoft Rewards factors, with each ESU choices protecting as much as 10 units) and free (after syncing your PC settings).
If you happen to’re an IT admin, the company license ESU program specifics are totally different; see right here. And, as I lined in hands-on element just a few months again, (unsanctioned) choices additionally exist for upgrading formally unsupported methods to Home windows 11, though I don’t suggest counting on them for long-term use (assuming the hardware-hack try is profitable in any respect, that’s). As I wrote again in June:
The underside line: any explicit system whose specs aren’t absolutely encompassed by Microsoft’s Home windows 11 necessities documentation is honest recreation for abrupt no-boot cutoff at any level sooner or later. At minimal, you’ll find yourself with a “caught” system, incapable of being additional upgraded to newer Home windows 11 releases, due to this fact doomed to fall off the help listing sooner or later sooner or later. And when you attempt to hack across the block, you’ll find yourself with a system that will now not reliably perform, if it even boots in any respect.
You may additionally convert your current PC over to run a unique O/S, akin to ChromeOS Flex (initially Neverware’s CloudReady, then acquired and now maintained by Google) or a Linux distro of your desire. For that matter, you possibly can additionally simply “get a Mac”. That stated, any of those choices will possible additionally compel conversions to new apps for the brand new O/S basis. The combination studying curve from all these software program transitions can find yourself being a “bridge too far”.
As an alternative, I’d recommend you simply “chew the bullet” and purchase a brand new PC for your self and/or others for the vacations, earlier than CPUs, DRAM, SSDs, and different constructing block elements turn into even extra supply-constrained and tariff-encumbered than they’re now, and to ease the inevitable eventual transition to Home windows 11.
Then donate your outdated {hardware} to charity for somebody else to O/S-convert and prolong its helpful life. That’s what I’ll be doing, for instance, with my spouse’s Dell Inspiron 5570, which, because it seems, wasn’t Home windows 11-upgradeable in spite of everything.
Between now and subsequent October, when the Home windows 10 ESU runs out (until the deadline will get prolonged once more), we’ll exchange it with the Dell 16 Plus (previously Inspiron 16 Plus) within the above photograph.
An AI-enhanced cellular machine
The brand new Dell laptop computer I simply talked about, which we’d purchased earlier this summer time (mockingly simply previous to Microsoft’s unveiling of the free Home windows 10 ESU choice), is suitable with Microsoft’s Copilot+ specs for AI-enhanced PCs by advantage of the system’s Intel Core Extremely 7 256V CPU with an built-in 47 TOPS NPU.
That stated, though its help for native (vs standard cloud) AI inference is sweet from a future-proofing standpoint, there’s not a lot proof of compelling on-client AI advantages at this early stage, save maybe for low-latency voice interface capabilities (to not point out broader uninterrupted AI-based performance when broadband goes down).
The present scenario could be very totally different in terms of absolutely cellular units. Sure, I do know, laptops even have built-in batteries, however they typically nonetheless spend a lot of their working life AC-tethered, and anyway, their battery packs are a lot beefier than those within the smartphones and tablets I’m speaking about right here.
Native AI processing shouldn’t be solely quicker than to-and-back-from-cloud roundtrip delays (notably prolonged over mobile networks), nevertheless it additionally doesn’t gobble up valuable limited-monthly-allocation information. Then there’s the domestically stored-and-processed information enhanced privateness issue to think about, together with the oft-substantial energy saving accrued by not needing to continuously leverage the cellular machine’s Wi-Fi and mobile information subsystems.
You could certainly consider (as, full disclosure, I do) that AI options are of limited-at-best profit in the meanwhile, no less than for the plenty. However I feel we are able to additionally agree that ongoing widespread-and-expanding and intense trade consideration on AI will in the end domesticate compelling capabilities.
Due to this fact, I’ve showcased cellular units’ AI attributes lately’ announcement protection (akin to that of Google’s Pixel 10 sequence proven within the photograph above) and why I like to recommend them, once more from a future-proofing angle if nothing else, when you’re (and/or yours are) due for a gadget improve this yr. In the meantime, I’ll soldier on with my Pixel 7s…
Audio training sources
As common readers possible already understand, audio has obtained explicit showcase consideration in my weblog posts and teardowns this previous year-plus (a pattern which is able to admittedly additionally possible prolong into no less than subsequent yr). This supplied, amongst different issues, a chance for me to refresh and develop my mental understanding of the subject.
I stored coming throughout references to Bob Cordell, mentioning each his informative web site and his traditional tomes, Designing Audio Energy Amplifiers (be sure to buy the most recent 2nd version, revealed in 2019, whose entrance cowl is proven above) and the newer Designing Audio Circuits and Programs, launched simply final yr.
Honest warning: neither guide is cheap, particularly in hardback, however even in paperback, and neither is accessible in a lower-priced Kindle model, both. That stated, per each evaluations I’ve seen from others and my very own impressions, they’re effectively well worth the investments.
One other worthwhile learn, this time full with loads of humor scattered all through, is Schiit Occurred: The Story of the World’s Most Unbelievable Begin-Up, on this case out there in each cheap paperback and much more cost-effective Kindle codecs. Written by Jason Stoddard and Mike Moffat, the founders of Schiit Audio, whom I’ve already talked about a number of instances this yr, it’s additionally out there without spending a dime on the Head-Fi Discussion board, the place Jason has continued his writing. However c’mon, of us, drop $14.99 (or $4.99) to help a scrappy U.S. audio success story.
So far as audio-related magazines go, I first off extremely suggest a subscription to audioXpress. Generalist electronics design publications like EDN are nice, in fact, however topic-focused protection like that supplied by audioXpress for audio design makes for an efficient info companion.
On the opposite finish of the product improvement chain, the place gear is bought and utilized by house owners, there’s Stereophile, for which I’ve additionally been a trustworthy reader for extra years than I care to recollect. And as for the creation, seize, mastering, and duplication of the music performed on these methods, I extremely suggest subscriptions to Sound on Sound and, in case your price range permits for a second publication, Recording. Constantly nice stuff, all of it.
Lastly, as an analogy to my earlier EDN-plus-audioXpress pairing, again in 2021 I beneficial memberships to generalist ACM and/or IEEE skilled societies. This time, I’ll complement that suggestion with an audio-focused companion, the AES (Audio Engineering Society).
Again once I was a full-time press man with EDN, I used to have the ability to snag complimentary admission to the twice-yearly AES conventions together with different group occasions, which had been all the time wealthy sources of data and networking connection cultivation.
To my dying day, I’ll all the time keep in mind one notably fascinating lecture, which correlated Ludwig van Beethoven’s progressive listening to degradation and its (presenter-presumed) emotional and psychological results to the evolution of the music kinds that he composed over time. Then there have been the oldsters from Fraunhofer that I first-time met at an AES conference, kicking off a longstanding skilled collaboration. And…
Audio gear
For a variety of years, my Drop- (previously Massdrop)-sourced combo of the x Grace Design Commonplace DAC and Goal 2 Headphone Amp Desktop Version afforded me with a sonically enhanced different to my laptop’s built-in DAC and amp for listening to music over plugged-in headphones and powered audio system:
As I’ve “teased” in a latest writeup, nevertheless, I just lately upgraded this unbalanced-connection setup to a four-component Schiit stack, full with a snazzy aluminum-and-acrylic rack:
Why?
A part of the reason being that I wished to sonically expertise a tube-based headphone amp for myself, each in an absolute sense and relative to solid-state Schiit amplifiers additionally in my possession.
A part of it’s that every one these Schiit-sourced amps additionally combine preamp outputs for alternative-listening connection to an exterior energy amp-plus-passive speaker set:
One other a part of the reason being that I’ve now acquired a {hardware} equalizer as a substitute for software program EQ, the latter (clearly) solely related for computer-sourced audio. And relatedly, a part of it’s that I’ve additionally now acquired a hardware-based enter switcher, enabling me to take heed to audio coming not solely from my PC but additionally from one other exterior supply. What supply, you would possibly ask?
Why, one of many a number of turntables that I additionally acquired and extra broadly pressed into service this previous yr, in fact!
I’ve actually loved reconnecting with vinyl and accumulating a LP assortment (though my pockets has admittedly taken a beating within the course of), and encourage you (and yours) to do the identical. Stand by for a extra detailed description of my expanded workplace audio setup, together with its balanced “stack” counterpart, in an upcoming devoted matter to be revealed shortly.
For sonically enhancing the remainder of the home, the place a pc isn’t the first audio supply, firms akin to Bluesound and WiiM promote numerous all-in-one audio streamers, each energy amplifier-inclusive (to be used with conventional passive audio system) and amp-less (for pairing with powered audio system or middleman connection to a standalone exterior amp).
A Bluesound Node N130, for instance, has lengthy resided on the “man cave” half of my workplace:
And the category D amplifier contained in the “Professional” model of the WiiM Amp, which I plan to press into service quickly in my lounge, even helps the PFFB characteristic I just lately mentioned:
(Apple-reminiscent House Grey proven and self-owned; Darkish Grey and Silver additionally out there)
Extra developer {hardware}
Right here’s the opposite space the place, as I alluded to within the intro, I’m going to overlap a bit with a past-year Vacation Buying Information. Two years in the past, I beneficial some developer kits from each the Raspberry Pi Basis and NVIDIA, together with the latter’s then-$499 Jetson Orin Nano:
It’s subsequently been “changed”, in addition to notably priced-decreased, by the Orin Nano Tremendous Developer Equipment at $249.
Why the quotes round “changed”? That’s as a result of, as excellent news for anybody who acted on my earlier suggestion, the {hardware}’s precisely the identical as earlier than: “Tremendous” is solely reflective of an enhanced software program suite delivering claimed generative AI efficiency positive factors of as much as 1.7x, and freely out there to current Jetson Orin Nano house owners.
Extra just lately, final month, NVIDIA unveiled the diminutive $3,999 DGX Spark:
with compelling potential, each per firm claims and preliminary hands-on experiences:
As a brand new class of laptop, DGX Spark delivers a petaflop of AI efficiency and 128GB of unified reminiscence in a compact desktop type issue, giving builders the facility to run inference on AI fashions with as much as 200 billion parameters and fine-tune fashions of as much as 70 billion parameters domestically. As well as, DGX Spark lets builders create AI brokers and run superior software program stacks domestically.
albeit together with, it also needs to be famous, an irregular improvement historical past and a few troubling early evaluations. The system was initially known as Challenge DIGITS when unveiled publicly on the January 2025 CES. Its software processor, initially known as the N1X, is now renamed the GB10. Co-developed by NVIDIA (who contributed the Grace Blackwell GPU subsystem) and MediaTek (who provided the multi-core CPU cluster and reportedly additionally dealt with full SoC integration duties), it was initially meant for—and will finally nonetheless present up in—Arm-based Home windows PCs.
However repeated improvement hurdles have (reportedly) delayed the actualization of each SoC and system cargo aspirations, and lingering purposeful bugs preclude Home windows compatibility (due to this fact explaining the DGX Spark’s Linux O/S basis).
Extra usually, just some days in the past as I write these phrases, MAKE Journal’s newest situation confirmed up in my mailbox, containing the latest iteration of the publication’s yearly “Information to Boards” insert. Test it out for extra {hardware} concepts to your upcoming tasks.
A wise ring
Common readers have possible additionally observed my latest sequence of writeups on good rings, comprising each an preliminary overview and subsequent evaluations primarily based on fingers-on evaluations.
As I write these phrases in mid-November, Ultrahuman’s merchandise have been pulled from the U.S. market on account of patent-infringement rulings, though they’re nonetheless out there elsewhere on the earth. RingConn conversely concluded a last-minute licensing settlement, enabling ongoing gross sales of its units worldwide, together with in the USA.
And as for the instigator of the patent infringement actions, market chief Oura, my evaluate of the corporate’s Gen3 good ring will seem at EDN shortly after you learn these phrases, with my eval of the latest-generation Ring 4 (proven above) to observe subsequent month.
Sensible rings’ Li-ion batteries, like these of any machine with absolutely built-in cells, received’t final eternally, so you must go into your expertise with certainly one of them eyes-open to the fact that it’ll finally be disposable (or, in my case, rework right into a teardown mission).
That stated, the know-how is sufficiently mature at this level that I really feel snug recommending them to the plenty. They supply helpful well being insights, regardless that they have an inclination to notably overstate step counts for many who use laptop keyboards lots. And in contrast to a wise watch or different wrist-based health tracker, you don’t want to fret (a lot, no less than) about color- and style-coordinating a wise ring with the remainder of your outfit ensemble.
(Not but a) pair of good glasses
Conversely, alas, I nonetheless can’t but suggest good glasses to anybody however early adopters (like me; see above). Meta’s newest introduced machine suite, together with numerous merchandise from quite a few (and a rising listing of) opponents, means that this product class remains to be comparatively immature, due to this fact dynamic in its evolutionary nature. I’d hate to recommend one thing so that you can purchase for others that’ll be out of date in brief order. For energy customers like you, alternatively…
Pleased holidays!
And with that, having simply handed by means of 2,500 phrases, I’ll shut right here. Upside: loads of extra presents-to-others-and/or-self concepts are actually littering the cutting-room flooring, so I’ve already acquired no scarcity of subjects for subsequent yr’s version! Till then, pontificate within the feedback, and completely satisfied holidays!
—Brian Dipert is the Principal at Sierra Media and a former technical editor at EDN Journal, the place he nonetheless commonly contributes as a freelancer.
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