Monthly Archives: December 2025

10 ‘Educational’ Gifts That Aren’t Boring

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Opening presents is supposed to be fun. And while everyone has their own idea of what constitutes fun, no one likes a gift that is too functional or boring. This may be why you don’t often consider gifting educational goods.

However, there are plenty of gifts that are can challenge or enrich your giftee in some way—and which are decidedly not boring. Here are 10 suggestions to get you started.

The best educational gifts for kids

Getting an educational gift for a kid is tricky business. When I was about six, my mom kept hyping up a Christmas present she was so excited for me to open, she actually made me open it early, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. It turned out to be a CD-ROM “game” called Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, which she gleefully installed on our clunky old PC before we left for mass.

I was furious. I had been dreaming of colorful gifts, gifts with pizzazz, gifts a 6-year-old might actually want. But I did end up playing those typing games, and by the next year, I was a whiz on the QWERTY keys, outpacing my classmates and maybe even setting myself up for my current career. At the very least, I type much faster and more efficiently than any of my friends.

All of that is to illustrate the fact that as much as I didn’t appreciate Mavis Beacon in the moment, the way it gamified learning for me was the real gift. So when looking for educational gifts for kids, remember: Learning should be fun. Here are some that will make it that way.

A marble gravity maze teaches practical lessons about physics and is a fun way for kids to learn about building while using their hands, while this interactive globe toy strikes me as especially cool and useful because it requires additional tech, like a tablet or phone, to scan the globe and get information about different countries—I love the way it blends old-fashioned materials with new tech, teaching kids the value of using both to seek out information.

Honestly, anything that retains some of those practical, hands-on elements is a good gift. Kids have access to tons of information via the internet, but there’s something foundational about learning through actually building or creating. While everyone else is giving them super tech-forward gifts, consider giving them this mini chemistry set, or a root viewer. Just do me a favor and ask your giftee’s parents whether an ant farm will be a welcome present. I had one as a child and enjoyed the hell out of it, but that outcome will vary depending on the whims of the kid and the patience of the parents involved.

And that’s a good rule of thumb for any educational gifts you’re considering: Remember to keep the actual interests of the kid in mind when choosing one. Back in the ’90s, my mom knew that I was interested in computers (and made a smart bet that they’d only be more relevant and important as I got older), which is why she got me the typing game. If the kid you’re shopping for isn’t into motors of vehicles, forego a hands-on robot kit; it’s only educational if they actually use it.

The best educational gifts for adults

The goal of getting kids into learning is to prepare them for adulthood, right? Ideally, they become lifelong learners—and hopefully you know a few of those yourself. If you’re seeking cool educational gifts for a grown-up, try one of these.

I love learning new things, taking random classes, and throwing myself into new hobbies—just because I don’t know anything about, say, Brazilian martial arts doesn’t mean I can’t figure it out after purchasing a month-long class pass. I also love making things with my hands. Last year, for reasons unclear, I decided to learn how to do a hard gel manicure on my own nails. I didn’t care about saving money; I just wanted to see if I could do it. I couldn’t! But I had fun trying, just as I’ve enjoyed building my own shelving and learning to paint different types of surfaces while redecorating my apartment. So when you’re buying an educational gift for an adult, the same rules apply as when shopping for kids: Figure out what they are already interested in, or might be open to learning about.

Personally, I’d be delighted to receive a build-your-own bluetooth speaker kit or some countries of the world flashcards. I don’t know anything about audio or nearly enough about geography—but I’d like to.

Any gift that has to be built or worked on is ideal for an adult, because half the present is the effort to create it, but the other half is the physical item they’ll be left with as a result. A motorized marble maze puzzle or mini bonsai garden are both great options there—and bonus points if you offer to work on it with them, and build a lasting holiday memory too.

Are pro bikes starting to look dull? Tadej Pogačar’s new Colnago colourway takes notes from F1

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Colnago has announced the colourway of the V5Rs that Tadej Pogačar and his UAE Team Emirates XRG teammates will ride next year.

The bike’s colour remains black and white, but there’s a departure from the stripes to a more blocky design emanating from the head tube.

Colnago is calling the livery SDM6, and it incorporates red accents that were previously used only as the background colour of the Emirates logo.

Colnago V5Rs SDM6 on white
The new livery adds red to the palette. Colnago

There’s notably less paint in the design, with the black portion of the bike taking up more of the livery this year.

This is to keep weight down to a minimum, with the finish said to be as lightweight as possible.

We’ve seen this trend in Formula 1 over the past few seasons, with teams leaving a large portion of the cars unpainted to eke out marginal gains.

This has become so widespread that the F1 Commission has introduced new rules for 2026 that mandate a minimum of 55% of the car’s surface area must be covered by painted or stickered liveries as opposed to bare carbon fibre surfaces.

Colnago V5Rs SDM6 on black background
The stealthy design should make Pogačar’s attacks even more deadly. Colnago

While we’re not sure if the UCI would ever clamp down to this extent, with the rider and their jersey being more easily differentiated than F1 cars, a peloton of the same carbon-shaded bikes wouldn’t showcase the sport’s flamboyance in the same way.

Colnago says the livery of the Y1Rs will remain unchanged for 2026 and will be identical to the version used in 2025.

Welcome to “necroprinting”—3D printer nozzle made from mosquito’s proboscis

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Necrobotics is a field of engineering that builds robots out of a mix of synthetic materials and animal body parts. It has produced micro-grippers with pneumatically operated legs taken from dead spiders and walking robots based on deceased cockroaches. “These necrobotics papers inspired us to build something different,” said Changhong Cao, a mechanical engineering professor at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

Cao’s team didn’t go for a robot—instead, it adapted a female mosquito proboscis to work as a nozzle in a super-precise 3D printer. And it worked surprisingly well.

Fangs and stings

To find the right nozzle for their 3D necroprinting system, Cao’s team began with a broad survey of natural micro-dispensing tips. The researchers examined stingers of bees, wasps, and scorpions; the fangs of venomous snakes; and the claws of centipedes. All of those evolved to deliver a fluid to the target, which is roughly what a 3D printer’s nozzle does. But they all had issues. “Some were too curved and curved for high-precision 3D printing,” Cao explained. “Also, they were optimized for delivering pulses of venom, not for a steady, continuous flow, which is what you need for printing.”

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Subaru Owners Are Ticked About In-Car Pop-Up Ads For SiriusXM

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Subaru owners are reporting full-screen SiriusXM pop-up ads appearing on their infotainment systems while driving — sometimes even overriding Apple CarPlay. Subaru says the ads appear only twice a year, but frustrated drivers argue the practice is distracting, unsafe, and a sign of an industry trend that’s likely to get worse. The Drive reports: At least one 2024 Crosstrek owner reported that the pop-up took over their screen even though they were using Apple CarPlay. To force-close an application that’s in use, solely for the sake of in-car advertising, is especially egregious. [The following Subaru owner complaints to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reiterate that point…]

The Drive reached out to Subaru for comment on the marketing tactics. A company spokesperson responded, “We will discuss those messages in an upcoming meeting and will always consider customer feedback. This is the first we’ve heard of any issue. Those messages occur only twice a year, around Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, to alert customers that all channels are available to them for about two weeks.” Reddit posts dating back as far as 2023 show owners complaining about in-car notifications.


Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Meta’s Smart Glasses SDK Is Now Available To Build With, But Not Yet To Ship

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Meta’s Wearables Device Access Toolkit, which lets smartphone apps access the camera of its smart glasses, is now available as a public preview.

That means that developers can download it and integrate it into their iOS and Android phone apps, and can test it on their own glasses, but they cannot yet ship it for general public use.

Announced at Connect 2025, Wearables Device Access Toolkit lets phone apps capture a photo or initiate a video stream from the glasses. The app can then store or process the frames it receives. And since Meta smart glasses function as Bluetooth audio devices, developers can combine this visual capability with audio in and out.

Developers could, for example, leverage the SDK to add first-person livestreaming or recording features to their apps. Or they could feed the camera imagery to a third-party multimodal AI model to analyze what you’re looking at and answer questions about it.

For a video stream, the maximum resolution is 720p and the maximum frame rate is 30 FPS. To make this work, the SDK temporarily creates a Wi-Fi Direct connection between the glasses and the phone.

Ray-Ban Meta and Oakley Meta HSTN glasses are currently supported, with support for Oakley Meta Vanguard and Meta Ray-Ban Display coming in the near future. But to be clear, support for the latter will only include receiving camera imagery, not displaying anything on the HUD.

Interested developers can find Wearables Device Access Toolkit at wearables.developer.meta.com.

Early Developer Experiments

Meta provided an early version of the Wearables Device Access Toolkit to a handful of developers several months ago, including Twitch, Microsoft, Logitech Streamlabs, and Disney.

Twitch and Logitech Streamlabs are using the SDK to let you livestream your first-person view on their platforms, just as you already can on Instagram, while Microsoft is using it for its Seeing AI platform that helps blind people navigate and interact with the world around them.

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How 18Birdies is using the toolkit.

One particularly interesting use case comes from 18Birdies. The golf app is experimenting with using Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit for real-time yardages and club recommendations, helping golfers without requiring them to take their phone out of their pocket.

Another is from Disney’s Imagineering team, which explored using the toolkit to give guests a personal AI guide in Disney parks.

Disney Explores Using Ray-Ban Meta Glasses To Guide Guests Around Its Parks
Disney is exploring using Ray-Ban Meta glasses to give guests a personal AI guide in its parks, leveraging the new Meta Wearables Device Access Toolkit.
UploadVRDavid Heaney

ASRock’s New Intel Motherboard Has Both DDR5 And DDR4 Memory Slots

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ASRock's New Intel Motherboard Has Both DDR5 And DDR4 Memory Slots
Thanks to an AI arms race, PC memory prices have gotten out of control in the past several months (and also pushed Crucial out of the consumer market), but is a motherboard with slots for both DDR5 and DDR4 modules really the answer? Probably not but that didn’t stop ASRock from quietly launching such a thing. It’s new H610M Combo lives up

Apple’s Head Of UI Leaves To Lead Design At Meta Reality Labs

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Apple’s head of user interface design is leaving the company, after almost 20 years, to lead design at Meta Reality Labs.

Alan Dye joined Apple in 2006, and since 2015 had been the VP in charge of the company’s software design, including the user interfaces of its operating systems and the design language it encourages developers to follow. He was involved in the iOS 7 redesign and watchOS, and led work on the iPhone X swipe interface, AirPods pairing interface, CarPlay, Dynamic Island, visionOS, as well as key Apple apps like the App Store, Safari, Maps, TV, Notes, and FaceTime.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman first reported Dye’s move, and a few hours later Mark Zuckerberg confirmed it in a post on Threads, stating that Meta is forming a new top-level “creative studio”.

Dye will be joined by Billy Sorrentino, who was one of his deputies at Apple since 2016, and Joshua To, who previously led interface design at Reality Labs.

Here’s Mark Zuckerberg’s explanation of the new design studio’s role at Meta Reality Labs:

“The new studio will bring together design, fashion, and technology to define the next generation of our products and experiences. Our idea is to treat intelligence as a new design material and imagine what becomes possible when it is abundant, capable, and human-centered. We plan to elevate design within Meta, and pull together a talented group with a combination of craft, creative vision, systems thinking, and deep experience building iconic products that bridge hardware and software.”

“We’re entering a new era where AI glasses and other devices will change how we connect with technology and each other. The potential is enormous, but what matters most is making these experiences feel natural and truly centered around people. With this new studio, we’re focused on making every interaction thoughtful, intuitive, and built to serve people.”

The claim that Meta plans to “elevate design” is particularly notable, given that the company’s Quest headsets have long been criticized for their confusing, scattered, and clunky user interface. Meta started rolling out a design overhaul earlier this year, but it’s still experimental, and far from complete.

We also criticized the interface design of Meta Ray-Ban Display in our review, pointing out that it takes far too many swipes and taps to accomplish many common tasks.

Quest v83 PTC Has The Evolved Horizon OS UI Meta Teased At Connect
Horizon OS v83 PTC includes the evolved Quest system UI that Meta teased at Connect, as well as scene understanding for slanted ceilings and inner walls.
UploadVRDavid Heaney

It will likely take years, or at the very least many months, before the results of Dye’s new design team arrive in Meta products. But it could, if all goes well, be a crucial ingredient for Meta’s hopes to stave off competition from Apple and Google in the smart glasses and XR headsets market as the technology matures and scales to hundreds of millions of users in coming years.

20 of the Coolest Tech Stocking Stuffers For Under $50

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What if you make this the year you don’t fill all the stockings with candy or socks? Both have their place, but if you want to really make this the best Christmas ever, you have to shove some tech in those stockings. The good news: tech gifts don’t have to be expensive to be impressive.

No matter who you’re shopping for, there are tons of affordable gizmos that are some combination of cool and useful and that feel pricier than they are. Here are 20 cool tech stocking stuffers to light up any holiday morning, all of which cost less than $50.

This handheld retro gaming console

If there’s an old-school gamer on your list, their Christmas morning will be extra merry if it includes a tiny video game emulator. R36T Retro Gaming Console ($47.50) puts over 18,000 video games in the palm of your hand. It has a 3.5″ screen, so whether they like arcade classics or consoles-of-the-past, they can fit ’em all in a pocket. You can even network up with another emulator for head-to-head action.

A teeny tiny e-reader

The Xteink X4 is an e-reader that’s smaller than your phone. It uses e-ink like an Amazon Kindle, so you can whip a glare-free screen out of your pocket and start reading anywhere there’s a light source. The X4 is a no-frills gadget—there’s no lighting, touchscreen, or apps—but if you want a cheap, convenient way to read for around $50, it’s perfect.

An electric air duster

Those disposable cans of compressed air with the red straws are so 2015. Blow the dust off your electronics with an SDFM Electric Air Duster ($32.99) instead. With an engine that moves at 150,000 RPM, it shoots air such high speeds, the dust doesn’t stand a chance. It’s also cordless and comes with a variety of cleaning attachments to keep your gear in top shape.

These sleep headphones

If your giftee likes to listen to music or podcasts while drifting off to sleep, there’s no gift better than a pair of sleep headphones; except two pairs of sleep headphones! This two-pack retails for $29.99 and contains two headbands with built in speakers you can pair with your phone or other device easily. You could buy a single pair, but these things break fairly regularly, so a backup is good.

These colorful smart LED light bars

Your giftee may have the tech side of their battle station/home office locked down, but I bet they don’t have the aesthetics dialed in. Govee Smart LED Light Bars ($33) are programmable, colorful light bars work with Alexa and Google Assistant and can display light effects created from 16 millions colors. It even syncs with your music to provide trippy visuals.

A mini chainsaw

My lifestyle doesn’t involve cutting down trees, but I still need one of these miniature chainsaws. I mean, it’s a chainsaw, and it’s only six-inches long. This Dodowin mini chainsaw ($40) is battery powered, so no one will be accidentally cutting the cord. According to listing, it’s suitable for tree pruning, garden artistry, shrub trimming, forest logging, and wood cutting. They don’t mention it, but it’s also perfect for tiny Texas massacres.

A programmable macro keyboard

You know what computer fiends are missing in their lives? Knobs. This little $36 gadget lets you assign functions to four external knobs and 12 push buttons, so you can finally have a decent volume control, scrub through video smoothly, skip music tracks with a button push, and control any other function easily and physically. Perfect for gamers.

A laser measuring tool

You could use a tape measure like a caveman, or you could measure things with a frickin’ laser that fits in your pocket. This $40 gadget has an LED screen that’s easy to read and it doubles as a cat toy. But does it measure things? Goddamn right it measures things—big things, little things, middle-sized things—it doesn’t give a shit what you put in front of it, it will measure the hell out of it! (Up to 98 feet, anyway.)

The X10 MAX Bluetooth speaker

This compact bluetooth speaker has an Amazon rating of 4.7 stars out of 5, and it’s cheap—just $32. It’s waterproof, it sounds great, and it features a built-in light show with six different settings so you can check out cool visuals with your tunes.

These Bluetooth trackers

Keep track of the things in your life with these miniature tracking tags. Slip one in your wallet or your keys, and if you misplace them, you can hit a button and it will play a sound and/or give you a map that will lead you exactly to your missing item. Plus, it works in reverse, so you can hit a tag and it will ring your lost phone. I rely on these; no joke.

This wearable heating pad

If you want to keep warm during the holidays, you could do a lot worse than this portable neck, shoulder, and back warmer. There are three temperature settings and a safety shut-off feature, and it heats up really fast.

A desktop vacuum cleaner

This tiny little vacuum will keep your desktop dustfree. It sucks at 1000Pa of suction power for 400 minutes off a single charge, and it’s very easy to use: You put it in the palm of your hand and push it around. Cool!

This USB endoscope camera

It’s not like most people need an endoscope camera every day, but if the need for a tiny camera does arise—if you need to see why the engine isn’t working or if your wedding ring falls behind the oven or something—you’ll be glad you have this Anykit USB Endoscope Camera. It plugs right into your Android or iPhone and captures HD photos and video.

A foldable mini Bluetooth keyboard

Why have you been carrying your laptop around to coffeehouses like a chump when you can just connect this foldable mini Bluetooth keyboard from iClever to your phone, turning it into an ultra-portable productivity device? It even has a little trackpad!

A portable HD mini projector

Projectors have gotten really good over the last few years, and they prices have come down massively too. This mini projector costs only $40 and projects a 1080p image up to 201″ and even comes with a remote control and a projection screen.

The Amazon Echo Dot

If your giftee is into house automation within the Amazon ecosystem, you can’t go wrong with an Echo Dot. This compact smart speaker packs a surprisingly nice sound along with built-in Alexa, so it can be used for for playing music, setting timers, and controlling your smart devices.

The Roku Streaming Stick 4K

Alright, most people already have a media streamer attached to their televisions, but in case you’re gifting someone who doesn’t, the Roku Streaming Stick 4K is a solid choice. This no-frills device serves up 4K HD video, gives you access to hundreds of free and premium channels, and is easy to setup.

A wireless transmitter for your earbuds 

The Twelve South AirFly SE is an ultra-compact Bluetooth transmitter lets you plug into any device with a 3.5 mm jack, like in-flight entertainment systems, gym machines, or TVs, and stream audio wirelessly to your Bluetooth earbuds or headphones. Leave those accursed wired headphone in the drawer where they belong!

This portable tire inflator

A portable inflator is perfect for car emergencies or keeping your bike tires plump, and this one from Slime is a steal at only $50. It’s rechargeable, has an onboard pressure guage, an LED flashlight, and can inflate a car tire in only eight minutes. You will never go back to a manual air pump, I promise.

This versatile Anker Nano II USB charger

I am 100% sure whoever you’re giving a gift to will be able to use this compact, high‑power Anker charger. It has two USB‑C ports plus one USB‑A, letting you power up your laptop, phone, and tablet all at once, from one plug.

NASA Warns Surge In Satellites Will Sabotage Astronomy And Hubble Images

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NASA Warns Surge In Satellites Will Sabotage Astronomy And Hubble Images
Here’s something most of us saw coming: the accelerating deployment of tens of thousands of communication satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO) is creating a diffuse veil of light pollution that is now demonstrably compromising the performance of some of the most powerful telescopes in the world, including the venerable Hubble Space Telescope.

Astronomers

Your Ultimate Guide to Stringing Up (and Storing) Outdoor Holiday Lights

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Watching Clark Griswold fail at hanging up Christmas lights in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation may be a hilarious annual holiday tradition, but in real life, decorating failure is no laughing matter. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, around 15,000 people in the U.S. go to the emergency room every year for holiday decorating-related injuries. And no one is keeping statistics on the countless serious injuries my eyes suffer when I see neighbors with a half-ass light display. So let’s avoid all that unpleasantness with this ultimate guide to Christmas lights, from planning, to tools, tips, safety, and storage.

Make a Christmas light hanging plan

The time to think about how you’re going to hang your holiday lights is not when you’re up on the ladder, so first, sit down and make a comprehensive plan for lights before you do anything else. Here are some steps and things to keep in mind:

  • Assess your space: Consider your roofline, windows, trees, shrubs, and walkways and decide what you’re going to light up. Then develop an overall vision for your light display.

  • How much is enough: Decide whether you’d like a maximalist, minimalist, or traditionalist display.

  • Choose a color scheme: A coherent look to your holiday lights is so important, I made a whole section about it below. Skip ahead if needed.

  • Highlight architectural details: You want the lights to go around windows, roofs, and doorways.

  • Decide on your lights: Do you want string lights, icicle lights, net lights, projectors?

  • Props and other decorations: There are so many outdoor decorations available for all styles, from fairly understated displays to Santa in a pickup truck, that you kind of have to have something. Just make sure it fits in with the overall vibe. We’re going for coherence here.

  • Measure it: Now that you know what you’re going for, it’s time to measure. The first step to measuring is to throw away your old tape measures and get a laser. Here’s a laser measurer for less than $30. Get something like this and you won’t have to climb a ladder to know how long your roofline is.

  • Consider the power: Make sure you know where the outlets are and whether you have enough extension cords.

  • Check your older lights: Part of planning is checking if the gear you already have is still working, so mix up some eggnog and make sure those old strings of lights still function.

Choose your color palette wisely

Anyone can throw some lights up, but throwing up lights with intention is what separates us from chimpanzees. Here’s some color theory for your Christmas light display:

  • Pick a palette: The most obvious choice is red, green, and white, but consider other options like white, blue, and silver for a winter wonderland look, or red, white, and pink for candy cane vibes.

  • Limit your colors: You could go for a maximalist, every color look, but it’s hard to pull-off without it looking like a Christmas thrift store.

  • Be careful with the flair: If you’re going to have lights that twinkle, chase, or change color, make sure it’s part of an overall cohesive look. One flashing light amongst a bunch of static strings is not what you want.

Remember that LED Christmas lights are superior

If you’re still using those old-school incandescent mini bulbs, shame on you. Stop being a caveman. LED lights are better than incandescent in all of these ways:

  • They’re cool: LED lights run at about half the heat of older style bulbs, so they are unlikely to set anything on fire, even if you try.

  • They last forever: LEDs can run for tens of thousands of hours. They’ll outlive you.

  • They use less energy: LEDs use about 10% of the energy that old school bulbs use.

  • They are independent: Remember back in the day, when your whole string of lights was shot if one bulb went out? That’s the past, man. LEDs don’t care whether other LEDs are dead or not.

  • They’re versatile: LEDs can be super bright or subdued. You can get LEDs that change color, blink, simulate a meteor shower, and other special effects. You can get LED lights that are controlled from your phone and powered by batteries. They’re just better.

Gather your supplies and tools

Having followed these steps, you should know exactly how many feet of lights you need and what color they should be, but that’s not the whole story. You need tools and other supplies, too.

How to hang Christmas lights

Here’s some tips for actually hanging the lights:

  • Safety first: Hanging holiday lights is the most embarrassing way to injure yourself. It’s just not worth it, so make doubly sure you have a plan for everything, don’t take any risks, and get a helper to hold the ladder.

  • Start at the power source: Always begin where your lights will plug in. Starting elsewhere is a Griswold move that will ruin Christmas. Work outward from the outlet so you don’t run out of cord length mid-roofline.

  • Re-test your lights: You should have already tested them, but test each string again before you string ’em up. It’s much easier to deal with a loose connection on the ground than up on a ladder.

  • Use clips and hooks instead of nails: Nails can damage your house or even cause electrical fires, so don’t nail anything. Bonus: Hooks make taking everything down in January much easier.

  • Hang lights evenly: Space out the bulbs so you don’t end up with a spaghetti look. Follow the lines of your house for the best looking display.

  • Wrap trees and shrubs neatly: For trees, start at the trunk and work outward. For small bushes, wrap in a spiral pattern from bottom to top.

How to remove and store Christmas lights

When the holidays are over, it’s time to put everything back until next year. Resist the temptation to just clump everything up and throw it in boxes—you will not be happy with yourself next year. Do not just leave everything strung up either; you’re a civilized person.

  • Reverse the installation: Do it all backwards. Remove lights starting from the farthest point from the outlet. Remove lights from trees from the outside-in and from the bottom up.

  • Wrap carefully: To avoid a “ball of despair” next Christmas, wrap your lights around something—a makeshift spool or just a piece of cardboard work wonders.

  • Label each strand: Denote where it went (roofline, bushes, tree, etc.) with a piece of masking tape and a Sharpie.

  • Store hooks and clips: A dedicated container for hooks and clips is a must. Fishing tackle boxes work great for this.

  • Store securely: Keep all your gear in a cool, dry place, in a plastic storage bin, so you can be ready for next year. Do not use cardboard boxes. Instead, get something like these Rubbermaid tubs.

A shaky year for American EVs could set the tone for 2026

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If you like both electric vehicles and emotional roller coasters, 2025 was an excellent year. However, for those of us whose nerves are already sufficiently frazzled, the highs and lows of the last 12 months were a bit hard to stomach.

In 2025, we saw the introduction of new, compelling models like the Lucid Gravity and refreshed Nissan Leaf, the latter available at a price on par with its internally combusted competition. From a product availability standpoint, 2025 was the year the EV market started feeling more mature and less manic.

But 2025 also saw new heights of anti-EV vitriol stirred up during a particularly traumatic election cycle. The means of propulsion or badge on the hood of your commuter machine suddenly became an indicator of your political affiliations. Put simply, the car you drive is now a political statement, and it’s the latest unprecedented situation in an exhaustingly long and dire string of unprecedented situations. Yes, it’s been a long year, and the pessimism of 2025 will surely carry us well into 2026, but not all hope is lost for EVs.

Tesla and the DOGE effect

Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads "DOGE" to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, March 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
Elon Musk flashes his T-shirt that reads “DOGE” to the media as he walks on South Lawn of the White House, in Washington, March 9, 2025.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

We’ve certainly seen some civic-minded CEOs in the past as auto executives have a long history of mixing their corporate interests with their political panderings. Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca was even considered a potential presidential candidate once upon a time. However, we have never seen the kind of ass kissing and cronyism we were privy to in this year’s fickle friendship between Elon Musk and President Trump.

Musk was (hyper) active on the Trump campaign trail, and wasted no time digging into what he described as government overspending. While the Department of Government Efficiency’s efficacy is debatable, it certainly proved quite effective at decimating the accounts of Tesla investors. Between January and March, Tesla’s stock price dropped by nearly half. Things didn’t turn around until Musk left DOGE in May. 

Since then, Tesla’s price has returned to its highs before the DOGE debacle. Its sales, however, have not. Q1 deliveries declined by 13 percent, then 14 percent in Q2. Deliveries bounced back 7 percent in Q3 as everyone scrambled to buy before the EV credits expired, but profits plunged 37 percent. Tesla’s market share in the US electric vehicle space has halved, leading perennial pitchman Musk to start hawking everything from AI agents to spandex-clad robots — anything to distract from the numbers.

And it’s apparently working. Musk’s $1 trillion pay package was approved by Tesla’s shareholders without much worry. This could make him the world’s first trillionaire, but only if he meets a series of aggressive targets and deadlines for sales, an area where the man has struggled in the past.

The big, beautiful sales spike

A Tesla with a sticker referring to the car's purchase is shown on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Concord, Mass.. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)
A Tesla with a sticker referring to the car’s purchase is shown on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024 in Concord, Mass.
ASSOCIATED PRESS

Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s bromance wasn’t the only fallout from the latter’s second term. So, too, died the $7,500 federal EV incentive, which expired in September as part of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” That actually spurred a short-term sales spike ahead of the deadline. Many manufacturers even set new EV sales records riding that wave, but there’s a disconcerting trough to come.

We still need to wait a bit to see just how bad Q4 EV sales are going to be, but early indications are not looking good. J.D. Power’s October report says that EV sales in September were a record high, making up 12.9 percent of new vehicle sales in the US. In October, after the credit expired, they fell to a mere 5.2 percent. 

That’s a worrying drop, and it’s already affecting product planning. 

Cuts in EV production

Test driving Honda's Super-One Prototype
Honda’s Super-One Prototype isn’t coming to the US.
Tim Stevens for Engadget

When I was in Japan last month, getting an early look at some next-gen hybrids from Honda, I wasn’t expecting to hear talk of midterm American elections from the company’s executives. But that’s what was on CEO Toshihiro Mibe’s mind. He’s watching American voting trends closely to determine the nature of the company’s upcoming releases.

Mibe said that Honda has already canceled plans for some EVs here in America, instead focusing on a broader selection of hybrid models. It’s not the only company to do so. Ram also canceled its 1500 EV truck, but the hybrid version is still supposedly on the way. 

Scout Motors, too, has been focusing more on its extended-range hybrid offerings. The company’s initial pitch was purely electric trucks and SUVs. Lately, it’s been prioritizing its extended-range EV options based on the feedback from its 130,000 pre-orderers. 80 percent of them want the onboard generator, an add-on that may prove a saving grace for this EV startup.

There is reason for optimism

Some manufacturers may be throttling back on their EV aspirations, but others are forging ahead. There’s a delightful collection of battery-powered machines coming next year, and that’s worth getting excited about.

Again, the 2026 Nissan Leaf should be a hugely popular choice as its production ramps up. It’s already hitting dealerships now, and with a starting price under $30,000, it’ll be hard to beat. But, Chevrolet is going to try with a refreshed Bolt EV for similar money.

If you’ve got more to spend, you’ve got more options. BMW’s stellar iX3 crossover SUV is due soon, as are both the electric CLA sedan and GLC SUV. 

The most anticipated EV of the year, though, might just be the Rivian R2. This electric SUV will join the stellar R1S and R1T, expanding Rivian’s segment footprint while also hopefully expanding its market reach. A $45,000 starting price makes it far more attainable than any of the company’s previous offerings. 

A photograph of the Rivian factory producing the company's R1 SUV variant.
A photograph of the Rivian factory producing the company’s R1 SUV variant.
Nathan Heleine / Rivian

If the prospect of a fun, affordable SUV from Rivian doesn’t have you excited for the upcoming year in EVs, maybe some promising news from Europe will. After cutting its own EV incentive program in 2023, Germany’s EV sales fell off a cliff, dropping 28 percent in 2024. Cue the predictions of the demise of EVs by many local pundits.

Since then, though, EV sales slowly climbed back up, and lately they’ve been booming, with German road traffic agency KBA saying the total number of newly registered electric vehicles increased by nearly 50 percent in October (year over year). Electric cars now make up 19 percent of the market there, and that’s despite Tesla’s sales cratering.

There’s no guarantee that the American market will follow a similar rebound, especially if the anti-EV political messaging continues. Me, though, I’ve decided I’m staying optimistic, as exhausting as that can be these days.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/evs/a-shaky-year-for-american-evs-could-set-the-tone-for-2026-153000210.html?src=rss

Trump wants tiny Japanese-style cars for US even as he cuts mpg goals

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It’s been less than a year into the second Trump administration, and to many outside observers, US government policies appear confusing or incoherent. Yesterday provided a good example from the automotive sector. As has been widely expected, the White House is moving ahead with plans to significantly erode fuel economy standards, beyond even the permissive levels that were considered OK during the first Trump term.

Yet at the very announcement of that rollback, surrounded by compliant US automotive executives, the president decided to go off piste to declare his admiration for tiny Japanese Kei cars, telling Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make them street-legal in the US.

50.4 mpg 40.4 mpg 34.5 mpg

A little over a decade ago, the Obama administration announced new fuel economy standards for light trucks and cars that were meant to go into effect this year, bringing the corporate fleet fuel economy average up to 50.4 mpg. As you can probably tell, that didn’t happen. It wasn’t a popular move with automakers, and the first Trump administration ripped up those rules and instituted new, weaker targets of just 40.4 mpg by 2026.

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