Amazon Fire TV
Fire TV is Amazon's new $99 media-streaming and gaming box for HDTVs. Like its competitors—such as the Apple TV, Chromecast, and Roku—Fire TV can stream from a number of services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, YouTube, Pandora, and more. One feature that sets it apart is the remote control's built-in mic, which allows you to hold a button and search…
StandDesk
Research has shown that sitting at a desk all day is terrible for our health, well-being, productivity, and even life expectancy. Standing desks—especially those that adjust between sitting and standing positions—are a good way to counteract the negative effects of all that sitting, but they can be pretty expensive. (A fact I'm all too familiar with; my current "standing desk" is a…
Monument Valley for iOS
Monument Valley is a new game for iPhone and iPad that was clearly inspired by the art of M.C. Escher. You play as Ida, a silent princess who must navigate and exit a series of seemingly impossible architecture by solving puzzles and avoiding the strange inhabitants of each world. Each level presents a structure that looks impossible to traverse, but by moving…
TextExpander Touch 2.5
Speaking of TextExpander Touch, it's been updated to version 2.5 and sports a new iOS 7 design along with some new features. They've made it much easier to rename and reorder snippet groups, as well as move individual snippets between groups. Groups that are only useful on a Mac can now be disabled for iOS. They've also added some external keyboard shortcuts:…
Fantastical 2 for iPad
The only thing that ever bugged me about Fantastical 2 was that it was an iPhone-only app. I suppose it still worked well enough on an iPad in 2x mode, but thankfully our long national nightmare is over because Fantastical 2 for iPad was released this morning. The new interface is more like a dashboard than strictly a calendar. In addition to…
Cartom Wrist Wallet
As slim as wallets have gotten in recent years, there are still times when it's unfeasible to carry one. Some mornings, I enjoy a quick bike ride to and from my local coffee shop but I'm often wearing shorts with no pockets. I could toss my wallet and keys into a backpack, but I don't need or want to carry all my…
Featured Sponsor: Igloo
Igloo is an intranet you'll actually like: built with easy-to-use apps like shared calendars, Twitter-like microblogs, file sharing, and more. Everything you need is built-in, and everything is social. This means if you upload a file or write a corporate blog post, your coworkers can share it, comment on it, rate it, like it, and even make changes as a new version.…
WriteRight for iOS
WriteRight is an app for iPhone and iPad that probably won't replace your favorite iOS text editor (cough Editorial cough), but works nicely as a supplemental writing and editing tool. It analyzes your writing and offers synonyms and antonyms for any highlighted text, and will even show alternative ways to phrase a multi-word selection. It understands gender, number, and conjugation, so its…
Leatherman Mako Ti Bike Tool
The Leatherman Mako Ti Bike Tool, made from aerospace-grade titanium, packs several bike repair tools into a small, light package. It comes with everything listed below: A variety of box wrenches: 8mm, 9mm, 10mm, 15mm, and 16mm 14 and 15g spoke wrenches 5mm and 6mm Allen heads 2 Phillips head T25 Torx Bottle opener (it's not exactly a bike repair tool, but…
Paprika Recipe Manager for iOS
For a long time, my go-to recipe manager was Evernote. Then, it was Basil for iPad. It's been a while since that switch, but the limitation of Basil being iPad-only (amongst a few other quibbles) has finally started wearing on me, so I've been looking for another replacement. I should've known that our sister site The Sweet Setup had already compared recipe…
Mercer Hell’s Handle Fish Spatula
As I've mentioned in the past, the best tool in my kitchen is my cast iron skillet. My cheap metal spatula kind of sucks though, so I've been on the lookout for something better. Thankfully, The Sweethome did the leg work for me by testing a bunch of spatulas and naming the Mercer Hell's Handle fish spatula ($23) as their top pick.…
‘The Hare & The Flying Tortoise’ Collection by Gnome & Bow
“What if bags could be more? What if bags could tell stories?” This is the question Quanda Ong asked himself in May 2013, when he quit his banking job to found fashion company Gnome & Bow. This mindset led him to develop an imaginative brand that focuses on making great bags and other accessories that use clever, subtle details to tell a…
‘The Way to Go’ by Kate Ascher
If you're the kind of person that likes to know how the infrastructure all around you works, then you're gonna love Kate Ascher's books. In 2007's The Works: Anatomy of a City, she showed us the myriad factors that keep a city like NYC running every day. You find out all sorts of interesting things: how electricity makes its way from the…
Sean McCabe’s ‘Learn Lettering’ Classes
Sean McCabe, the guy who designed the awesome 'Influence the World' poster (amongst many other things) has put together a set of video courses to help you become a hand-lettering artist yourself. In these videos, Sean shows you how to craft a hand-lettered composition from start to finish, including lots of tips on technique and style. In the more advanced lessons, he…
‘On Writing Well’ by William Zinsser
William Zinsser's On Writing Well—much like The Elements of Style and Stephen King's On Writing—is one of those books that gets recommended to all writers sooner or later. And for good reason. Zinsser has been in the writing business a loooong time (nearly 70 years, in fact). He's taught classes and workshops, worked as a journalist, and authored nearly 20 books on…
Safety 1st Finger Pinch Preventer
This is one of those things I wish I'd known about sooner. My 2yo son has a habit of closing house doors a little too roughly, and this whole time we could've been using the Safety 1st Finger Pinch Preventer as a precautionary measure. It can be fitted on the hinge or knob side of a door, preventing those horrible finger pinches…
Featured Sponsor: 22Slides, a Simple Portfolio Website Builder
22Slides is a simple portfolio website builder created by a photographer and long-time shawnblanc.net (and more recently, Tools & Toys) reader. Sideways-scrolling image galleries, full-screen photos, great search engine and mobile optimization, custom domain names, great image quality... yadda yadda yadda, you already know this stuff. The bottom line is that we can help make a great portfolio website with probably a…
Bholsa iPhone Sleeve + Wallet
Bholsa is a small Portuguese shop that makes lots of felt, anti-pilling, water-resistant cases for various devices. This sleeve+wallet combo, which features two front slots for cards and bills, is available for iPhone 5/5s and iPhone 4/4s. It looks great, protects your iPhone, and may save you the trouble of carrying a separate wallet. Available on Etsy for $18.50.
11+ Sound 1 Bluetooth Speakers
The Sound 1 by 11+ are a beautiful set of Bluetooth speakers that won't break the bank. A lot of thought has gone into their design and packaging, as you can see in Andrew Kim's review on Minimally Minimal. The bottoms of both speakers are cut at an angle so that the speakers tilt toward you for better audio projection. Underneath each…
Monster Outlets to Go 4-Outlet Power Strip
As any seasoned traveler knows, it isn't always easy to find enough power outlets to charge your various devices. It's also not very economical to carry an entire power strip around in your bag. This is where the Monster Outlets to Go 4-Outlet Power Strip comes in handy, despite it's overly long name. It sports four outlets (two on each side) in…