Santa Claus is coming to town: Get ready with these Christmas apps

The holidays are upon us, and whether you’re going to be donning a Christmas jumper and singing carols or just playing up the Santa visit for your kids, we’ve got a bunch of Christmas apps to get you in the right spirit.

Are you going to a holiday party and need some help? Follow our guide on 13 white elephant gifts, but if you’re still not sure about what to get for your family and loved ones, take a look at some last-minute Christmas gift ideas that will help you out this holiday season.

Christmas Booth: Photo Fun

With this app, you can take a picture or just grab it from your camera roll and choose from a host of Christmas-themed stickers to turn anyone into a Christmas character. You can also send your photo via email, Twitter, or Facebook. It’s compatible with iMessage, too, so you can use the stickers there and message your friends.

Download now for:

iOS

A Charlie Brown Christmas ($5)

Help Charlie Brown and his friends find the meaning of Christmas. Narrated by Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown, and featuring the original soundtrack, this Christmas app transforms the classic story into an interactive storybook with animations that bring the charming illustrations to life. You can also use the app to create your own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree with over 150 ornaments and decorations. There’s an educational element, too, as you can tap individual words to hear them, and there’s support for word and note highlighting. This app also comes bundled with an iMessage sticker pack.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Christmas Sweeper 3

Are you a fan of Candy Crush? Then you’ll love Christmas Sweeper 3. This game comes with over 1,000 challenging levels. You can play as long as you want, as there are no lives to lose. Make matches of four and five to create bombs and power-ups. Get your reward of cookies and soda in a game that will keep you busy for a long time after Christmas. Check out our picks of the best iPhone games and best Android games for alternatives.

Download now for:

Android iOS

How the Grinch Stole Christmas ($4)

Dr. Seuss’ famous How the Grinch Stole Christmas has been made into an interactive book for kids. If you need something to keep them occupied while waiting to open their presents, this $4 app lets them follow the Grinch as he attempts to keep Christmas from coming. Tap on pictures to show new words, enjoy the narration, and watch out for the custom sound effects.

Download now for:

Android iOS

ElfYourself

This app is hilarious. You replace the Elf faces with the faces of up to five people. Maybe your family and friends? Once the faces are set, you select a dance theme, and the app creates a comical dance video. Once it’s done, you can share the video on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. You can also purchase additional videos featuring different themes.

Download now for:

Android iOS

A Call From Santa!

If your kids are tech savvy they’ll love A Call From Santa! As the app says, you can call Santa, record a wish list, and hear what Santa is doing. This app also has a Santa Chatbot that chats with you, just like you’re chatting with the real Santa. You can also request a call from Santa, and you can let your children record a voice message for Santa. This app is free, and a must have for the kids.

Download now for:

Android iOS

PNP 2017 Portable North Pole

This will bring a smile to any child’s face. Portable North Pole has been around for a very long time, and it’s as magical as it has always been. Input some information about your child and a personalized video from Santa will play. There are some activities included in the app, but the main idea is for the kids to find out from Santa if they’re on the naughty or nice list. This app has some in-app purchases that include a reaction recorder, and story time. The purchases are valid until September 30, 2017.

Download now for:

Android iOS

NORAD Santa Tracker

Once a year NORAD takes a moment to track Santa’s journey. This lets you see where Santa is located around the world. The app starts tracking Santa on Christmas Eve, and shows you a satellite map where you can see in detail where he is. You can also follow @NoradSanta on Twitter to get the latest on Santa’s journey around the world.

Download now for:

Android iOS

Dr. Seuss Camera – The Grinch Edition ($1)

The Dr. Seuss Camera app allows you to create funny Christmas cards right on your iOS device. You select a card, and you can choose to become the Grinch himself, or you can take a picture with Dr. Seuss’ characters. Choose the character, position your face, and snap the picture. You can then add stamps, text, and format the picture with borders. You can email pictures to your friends and family, or save them in your camera roll to share on your social media.

Download now for:

iOS

The Christmas List ($3)

This app is great to keep track of your Christmas shopping. You can make a list of everyone you need to buy gifts for, and then you can set a budget for them. Let’s say that you add a friend. You’ll walk into the store, tap your friend’s name, and you’ll see the list of items you want to buy for this person, and, of course, the budget. You can then tap on the items as you buy them, and when you go back to the main screen, you can see how much you have left to spend on your gifts. This is a great way to keep track of what to buy, and most importantly not go over budget.

Download now for:

iOS

If you’re looking forward to a quiet Christmas at home, check out our picks for the top 10 Christmas movies and TV episodes streaming right now.

Update: We added Christmas Sweeper 3, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and Christmas Booth: Photo Fun.

Editors’ Recommendations

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• The 20 best news apps that are fast and fluid on your iPhone or Android
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Fixing lens scratches in your VR headset

The scratches are just Happy Little Accidents, and here’s how you fix them

The most fragile part of any VR headset is the place where you put your eyeballs. These lenses, regardless of type, are either glass or plastic and not particularly easy or cheap to replace. If your headset has been in the hands of many friends, family members, or even kids, chances are you’ve got a few scratches on your device.

No worries though, we’ve got plenty of helpful answers for you here on how to fix this.

Read More at VRHeads!

The stuff that launched at CES 2017 but never came out

CES is the busiest time of year for Engadget, with our team spending a week on the ground in Las Vegas looking for the latest and greatest products from companies of all sizes and persuasions. Last CES was no different, with our editors checking out a plethora of smart televisions, wireless earbuds and mesh routers. And there’s always a few oddball things — remember Razer’s three-screened laptop?

But while Project Valerie was just a prototype never really meant to see the light of day, most of the stuff we see does hit store shelves… eventually. Now that it’s mid-December and CES 2018 is mere weeks away, we thought we’d check on a few of the products that haven’t made it to market. Some were pushed back and will join the class of 2018, while others will only live on in Engadget’s post archives.

Mattel Aristotle

Quite a few companies tried to follow the Echo and Google Home with their own smart speakers at CES 2017, but the most surprising was toy giant Mattel. The Aristotle was an assistant meant to grow with your child, starting out as a glorified baby monitor but eventually telling them stories, playing games and even helping with homework. But the unit we saw back in January wasn’t quite ready for prime time and raised some privacy concerns among parents and politicians, leading Mattel to can the project entirely. But Mattel hasn’t given up completely on smart assistants — a similar product, the Barbie Hello Hologram, debuted at Toy Fair and, following a delay, will finally ship in 2018.

Polaroid Hoop

It’s been an interesting year for Polaroid. The instant camera brand brought back the classic OneStep camera and film, while also hitting the digital world with products like its very own photo-printing Moto Mod. But the oddest announcement of all might just be a home-security camera. The glossy white Hoop promised features like 1080p video capture and the ability to distinguish people from pets. These characteristics and its $200 price point are enough to compete with the original Nest Cam and Logi Circle 2. But with its release pushed back to the first quarter of 2018, it might be too late to compete against the likes of the Amazon Cloud Cam, which costs only $120 and offers Alexa integration for those already invested in the retailer’s ecosystem.

SmartBeings WooHoo

Of all the would-be Echo competitors we saw at CES, the absurdly named WooHoo was the most ambitious. It not only promised voice recognition, but also a touch screen, facial recognition and the ability to control all your connected home tech, too. Since January we’ve seen and reviewed the Echo Show which offers a lot of the same features thanks to Alexa’s robust inventory of Skills. The WooHoo still has a few tricks up its sleeve that Amazon hasn’t matched (yet) like a 360-degree camera and air quality sensors. But its biggest advantage, if it manages to arrive by its new release date of March 2018, will be the WooHoo’s $49 asking price, beating out the Echo Show as well as the recently released Echo Spot.

Das Keyboard 5Q

Das Keyboard makes some of the best mechanical keyboards out there, especially if you’re looking for a non-gaming model that isn’t studded with extra keys and garish LEDs. The 5Q, announced in a Kickstarter campaign last year, deviates from Das Keyboard’s stylish simplicity by adding internet-connected lighting into the mix. The keyboard’s open API means an incredible level of customization, like having it flash as you get closer to a work deadline or when products on your wishlist are on sale. As for the 5Q’s forthcoming availability, Das Keyboard tells us it’s now set to ship in late January — a full year after the Kickstarter’s projected on-sale date.

XYZprinting daVinci Nano

3D printers have become smaller and more affordable every year, and XYZprinting’s plug-and-play daVinci Nano would have hit a newbie-friendly sweet spot of $230. It promised features like auto-calibration and auto-leveling, great for people just getting into the technology. While other cheap printers like Mattel’s ThingMaker have failed to materialize, the Nano is still scheduled for release in 2018 with a brand-new look. In fact, it will make another appearance at CES next month, where we’ll hopefully get to check it out.

Samsung H7

Samsung’s wireless speakers have always offered cutting-edge design and solid audio. The sleek, stylish H7 would have continued that tradition thanks to its Ultra High Quality tech, which upgrades existing 8-bit and 16-bit sound to clearer, more faithful 32-bit audio. Unfortunately, if you really dug the silver chassis on the H7, we’re sorry to say the product’s been mothballed. But if all you care about is robust, clear sound and a super low bass response, Samsung tells us that all that tech made it into the MS750 soundbar, which you can pick up for $550.

Gryphon

Parental control hardware isn’t known for being particularly compelling, but the Gryphon promised to change all that with its stylish router. It promised to intelligently detect and filter out intrusions and monitor your kids’ internet activity, but also didn’t cut any corners on premium networking features like fast 802.11ac and easy mesh networking. The project raised a bit of cash last December on Indiegogo and it’s those backers who will get their first crack at the Gryphon when it finally ships to them this month, with the rest of the world getting their hands on it in January.

Earin M2

Headphone jacks seem to be on their way out in the past year, making a good pair of wireless earbuds a pretty good buy. Earin was ahead of the pack when it released its first set way back at the beginning of 2016, and its follow-up announced last January promised a more ergonomic design and touch controls. Originally slated to ship early this year, the M-2 is set to make another appearance at CES next month with even more features. Hopefully that extra time was put to good use, as Earin now faces a more crowded field of competitors.

Obsessive selfie-taking is now a mental disorder called ‘selfitis’

Selfitis was a term originally coined in a fake news story but that didn’t stop psychologists from actually researching the possibility. A group from Nottingham Trent University and Thiagarajar School of Management recently confirmed that selfitis is an actual mental behavior that leads to obsessive selfie-taking, publishing a research report on its findings in the International Journal of Mental Health Addiction.

According to the researchers, individuals suffering from selfitis use selfies to try to boost their confidence or their mood, along with other motivations like conforming and social competition. The researchers say that taking selfies can be an addictive behavior that also points to more underlying mental health issues, like low self-confidence.

To see if the hoax news story was actually based on an idea that could prove true, the researchers studied 200 individuals from the country with the highest rate of death by selfie, India. In that group, obsessive selfie-snapping correlated with six other behaviors, including looking for attention and the less-disastrous, looking to make a memory.

For study participants, 34 percent had borderline selfitis, 40.5 percent acute and 25.5 percent chronic. The obsessive selfie-taking was more likely to hit males at 57.5 percent compared to 42.5 for females. Less surprisingly, the 16-to-20-year-old age group, the youngest in the study, was also the most susceptible. Nine percent took more than eight selfies a day while about 25 percent shared at least three images on social media every day.

The research group also developed a set of questions that helps individuals determine whether their level of selfie-taking is abnormal, included at the end of the research report.

The researchers suggest that additional research could explore selfitis across different ages and geographic regions for a more representative sample.

“Typically, those with the condition suffer from a lack of self-confidence and are seeking to ‘fit in’ with those around them and may display symptoms similar to other potentially addictive behaviors,” Dr. Janarthanan Balakrishnan told the New York Post. “Now the existence of the condition appears to have been confirmed, it is hoped that further research will be carried out to understand more about how and why people develop this potentially obsessive behavior and what can be done to help people who are the most affected.”

The researchers also noted that selfitis isn’t the only hoax that ended up inspiring academic research — internet addiction followed a similar path.

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Obsessive selfie-taking is now a mental disorder called ‘selfitis’

Selfitis was a term originally coined in a fake news story but that didn’t stop psychologists from actually researching the possibility. A group from Nottingham Trent University and Thiagarajar School of Management recently confirmed that selfitis is an actual mental behavior that leads to obsessive selfie-taking, publishing a research report on its findings in the International Journal of Mental Health Addiction.

According to the researchers, individuals suffering from selfitis use selfies to try to boost their confidence or their mood, along with other motivations like conforming and social competition. The researchers say that taking selfies can be an addictive behavior that also points to more underlying mental health issues, like low self-confidence.

To see if the hoax news story was actually based on an idea that could prove true, the researchers studied 200 individuals from the country with the highest rate of death by selfie, India. In that group, obsessive selfie-snapping correlated with six other behaviors, including looking for attention and the less-disastrous, looking to make a memory.

For study participants, 34 percent had borderline selfitis, 40.5 percent acute and 25.5 percent chronic. The obsessive selfie-taking was more likely to hit males at 57.5 percent compared to 42.5 for females. Less surprisingly, the 16-to-20-year-old age group, the youngest in the study, was also the most susceptible. Nine percent took more than eight selfies a day while about 25 percent shared at least three images on social media every day.

The research group also developed a set of questions that helps individuals determine whether their level of selfie-taking is abnormal, included at the end of the research report.

The researchers suggest that additional research could explore selfitis across different ages and geographic regions for a more representative sample.

“Typically, those with the condition suffer from a lack of self-confidence and are seeking to ‘fit in’ with those around them and may display symptoms similar to other potentially addictive behaviors,” Dr. Janarthanan Balakrishnan told the New York Post. “Now the existence of the condition appears to have been confirmed, it is hoped that further research will be carried out to understand more about how and why people develop this potentially obsessive behavior and what can be done to help people who are the most affected.”

The researchers also noted that selfitis isn’t the only hoax that ended up inspiring academic research — internet addiction followed a similar path.

Editors’ Recommendations

• Tweet-analyzing algorithm can detect depression sooner than a human doctor
• Redditors don’t read what they vote on, according to a new study
• Fitbit trackers may help to improve your health — even if you don’t own one
• If young blood can really halt death, things are going to get weird
• Researchers are measuring ocean health with drones, A.I., and whale snot

Today’s archaeologists are putting down shovels and turning to tech

In 1817, the Italian archaeology pioneer Captain Giovanni Battista Caviglia set out to explore the Great Pyramid of Giza, a.k.a. Cheops’ Pyramid: the oldest of the three three Giza pyramids and the most ancient of the Seven Wonders of the World. Like a lot of Egyptologists of his age, Caviglia’s pioneering work led to some profound insights into Ancient Egyptian civilization — but at a cost. Believing there was treasure located in an undiscovered hidden chamber in the pyramid, he used dynamite to blast several holes, causing significant damage.

Jump forward 200 years to 2017.

“Our top priority is to conduct investigations that are as little damaging as possible.”

Researchers are still exploring the Great Pyramid of Giza, and uncovered a new hidden chamber in the enormous structure. Unlike Caviglia, though, you wouldn’t know just by looking at it. That’s because the team of international researchers, operating as part of the ScanPyramids initiative, were able to discover the the large 100-foot space using a non-invasive particle physics-based technique called “muon tomography,” similar to the technology that would allow a doctor to X-ray your bones. To get a better a look at the space, in the future they plan to explore it using a soft inflatable blimp-style robot that can enter the otherwise inaccessible chamber through a tiny hole in the wall.

“Our top priority is to conduct investigations that are as little damaging as possible to heritage buildings. This is why the ScanPyramids mission started with an extensive use of non-invasive, non-damaging techniques like muography,” Dr. Jean-Baptiste Mouret, a senior researcher working on the project, previously told Digital Trends. “And this is why if, one day, a team bores a hole in a 4,000-year old monument like the Great Pyramid, the hole will have to be as small as possible. Ideally, the hole would be so small that it would be invisible.”

This is just one example of the way that modern technology is helping revolutionize the field of archaeology as we know it. Yes, technology can help lead us to a brighter future, but it turns out that it’s pretty darn good at illuminating the past as well.

“There is a long history of innovative technology in archaeology, especially in Egypt.”

“There is a long history of innovative technology in archaeology, especially in Egypt,” Mouret continued. “For instance, in the Cheops’ Pyramid, there have been investigations in the 1980s with micro-gravimetry measurements, then with ground-penetrating radars, and now with cosmic-ray muons. Several robots have also been used in the Cheops’ Pyramid to explore the ‘air-shafts.’ Beyond this pyramid, satellite imagery was key in many recent discoveries in archaeology, and the list of technologies that have been useful can go on. What may have changed the game in the recent years is the power of modern computers: we can now often analyze, combine, and visualize very complex data on a consumer laptop.”

It’s not just laptops that are helping revolutionize modern archaeology, though. A plethora of tools which have once been available only inside research labs are now affordable and accessible to everyone, including those interested in peering backwards as well as forwards.

For example, last year, scientists used readily available Lidar — the tool most readily associated with helping autonomous cars to sense the world around them — to create a detailed map of a long-lost city hidden beneath the jungle in Cambodia. In Europe, an E.U.-funded initiative called the ROVINA project (Robots for Exploration, Digital Preservation and Visualization of Archeological Sites) is meanwhile taking advantage of modern robotics breakthroughs to build robots especially designed to explore historical sites. Just like the Great Pyramid, technology can be used to find new ways to gather data on historical sites that would be difficult or downright dangerous for human beings to explore in person.

ROVINA Project

“Robotics technology has a lot to offer in terms of digital preservation of historical sites,” Wolfram Burgard, professor for computer science at the University of Freiburg and ROVINA principle investigator, told Digital Trends. “In particular the ability to more flexibly move the sensors to get to view-points typically not accessible by humans, and to combine multiple views into larger models might play an important role.”

Some projects have attracted some big names, too. In Germany, Intel has leant its support to Bauhaus University Weimar to use its drones to help protect the region’s 15th century Halberstadt Cathedral. Specifically, the project uses Falcon 8+ drones to capture ultra-precise three-dimensional structural data, which can be used to advise on where repairs are needed.

VR and AR can be used to transform dusty ruins into vibrant, three-dimensional worlds.

“Some of these assets were in such a delicate condition that using ladders and building scaffolding in near proximity to the structures to carry out this task may have caused more damage,” Anil Nanduri, vice president and general manager within Intel’s New Technology Group, told Digital Trends. “The Intel Falcon 8+ drone was able to do the detailed image capture and 3D modeling without the necessity for close physical contact with the assets.”

Once this data is gathered using cutting edge technology is can then be presented to audiences in fresh ways too. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can be used to transform dusty ruins into vibrant, three-dimensional worlds to give a sense of what it was like to be in, say, Ancient Greece at a time when it was altogether less ancient. 3D scanning and 3D printing tools can also be used to help produce either virtual or physical reproductions of objects people would never usually have the opportunity to get up close and personal with.

“New generation of innovators are now more inspired by collective multidisciplinary adventures — [such as] space adventures — than by solitary adventurers,” Mehdi Tayoubi, president and co-founder of ScanPyramids, told Digital Trends. “Innovation even in archeology is now about breaking the silos between disciplines and countries for collective action in the respect of everyone’s contribution. ScanPyramids includes artists, engineers and scientists from Egypt, Japan, France, and Canada.” The cross-pollination between these disciplines, Tayoubi suggests, can help find new ways to approach problems.

Archaeology is by no means the only field that’s currently benefiting from the enormous advances in tech disciplines ranging from robotics and AI to 3D printing and VR. However, there’s something kind of brilliant about a subject that’s, by design, focused on the past being so proactive about looking to the future for answers.

Move over Indiana Jones; it’s all about robots here in 2017!

Editors’ Recommendations

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• IBM and MIT are working together to make sure A.I. isn’t our downfall
• Everything we know about ‘Assassin’s Creed Origins’

Want better beer, fancy cocktails, and ‘aged’ wine? Try these drinking gadgets

Throwing a party can be stressful, and throwing one over the holidays can be even more so. You’ve got to decorate, wrap gifts, and mentally prepare for what will surely be scintillating conversation around the holiday dinner table. If your holiday parties always involve alcohol, then that adds another layer of complexity.

What do you serve? How much do you get? We can’t help you with that, but we do have some gadgets that will make whatever beer and wine you buy taste better, and a scale that just might intrigue your guests enough to have them make their own drinks. Here are some great drinking gadgets to get you through that holiday party.

Fizzics Beer System ($175)

We must admit, we were a bit skeptical when we first heard about Fizzics back when it was an Indiegogo project. It was a device that promised to make your bottled beer taste like it came from a keg, without CO2 or nitro cartridges. You stick a bottled beer in it, insert a tube, and pull the lever. It creates uniform bubbles using oscillating sound waves and then delivers the beer to your glass. Having bubbles that are all the same size slows the rate at which tinier bubbles give up their gas to larger ones in the liquid, resulting in flavor loss.

We tried a few different kinds of beer, including a stout from Ninkasi and an IPA from 10 Barrel, and compared them to some we didn’t put through the machine. We could legitimately taste the difference. The stout, for instance, felt less dense and tasted a little less metallic. Could we taste the difference if we didn’t have the beer side by side? Probably not, but it will make for a fun experiment at parties. It’s pretty easy to clean, too, but unless everyone is drinking the same type of beer, you’ll probably want to rinse the tubing in between. It can also accommodate a 64-ounce growler, so you can stick that in and it should last a couple rounds.

Buy one now from:

Amazon Indiegogo

Oak Bottle ($50)

Sometimes, you just want to set out a box of wine when you’re hosting a party. The stuff has come a long way in the past few years; it’s economical and makes it less likely that you’ll run out. But if you want to give your wine a bit more complexity than you typically find in vino from a box, the Oak Bottle is an interesting option. First, it’s not the kind of thing you can whip out right before a party. You need to let water sit in it for 24 hours to prevent leaking, as the oak tends to shrink when not in use. Afterward, you’ll want to leave your wine in there for 24 to 48 hours, depending on your preference for oakiness. Since the bottle tends to start a little heavy on the oak flavor and mellow with time, we left it for 24 hours. The instructions say you can taste as you go until you find the perfect amount of oak.

We were pleasantly surprised that our $20 box of wine — which breaks down to about $5 a bottle — had been transformed into a smoother, more fragrant, wine. It took something that was easy-sipping and made it more complex. We say this as regular boxed wine drinkers, so take that for what it’s worth. The Oak Bottle also works with spirits, like whiskey and tequila, adding smokier flavors. It’s definitely cool to taste the difference, but is it economical? At $80, it’s pretty steep given it only lasts about 50 uses (after that, wine gets substantially less oaky.) Maybe next time we should try to turn a $20 bottle into a $50 bottle.

Buy one now from:

Amazon Oak Bottle Indiegogo

Perfect Drink Smart Scale ($100)

Nothing says party like punch, and that’s because it saves the host from having to make a zillion individual cocktails. Either way, the Perfect Drink scale is a smart scale that can lead you through all the steps. It communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth as you follow along using the Perfect Drink app. As you pour an ounce of gin, for example, you watch a box fill up in the app. If you overpour, it will automatically adjust the amounts for the rest of the ingredients and let you know if you have to go back and add more Lillet from an earlier step. If you want to start out making punch-sized amounts, you can change the number of servings yourself.

The list of drinks is pretty impressive, too. We found pisco sours, Ramos gin fizzes, blood and sands, and scofflaws. It has fun lists of drinks, like Prohibition-era cocktails and drinks from iconic books, films, and TV. We found a White Russian recipe so we can drink like the Dude from The Big Lebowski. From Ernest Hemingway’s cabinet, it offer the Jack Rose — which appears in The Sun Also Rises and is an amazing cocktail — but the Hemingway Daiquiri is listed elsewhere. Luckily, there’s a search bar to help you find what you’re looking for. 

We weren’t too enthusiastic about the Sidecar recipe (we prefer a 1:1:1 ratio for the three ingredients), but it’s fairly easy to edit existing recipes or add your own. That’s good, because it doesn’t have everything. We couldn’t find the Clover Club cocktail, for example. It’s an accurate scale, but $100 is still pretty pricey unless you’re absolutely serious about impeccably measured cocktails. Luckily, there’s a companion app for baking that makes it more versatile. If you have an iPad, leave the app open next to the scale and encourage guests to make their own drinks.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Coravin Wine System ($430)

We’ll be the first to admit the Coravin is not something designed with us in mind (see our previous comments about the amount of boxed wine we consume). But for some people, buying and keeping expensive wine is a hobby. It’s one that requires patience. The Coravin lets you cheat a bit, though, by granting you access to the wine inside a bottle without pulling the cork. You can enjoy a glass or two, remove the Coravin, and let the cork reseal itself.

Because it’s meant to let you taste your fine wines at different ages, but in a more casual setting, it could be fun to let people try a wide variety of wines without worrying about ending up with a boatload of vinegar on your hands the next morning. The insertion and removal processes aren’t as daunting as they look (though we did have to consult a video), and we felt very professional pressing the argon-gas-cartridge-operated trigger to release the wine. For those who turn their noses up at boxed wine but only want to drink a glass or two of wine, the Coravin might pay off. Eventually. It’s $430.

Buy one now from:

Amazon

Bodybrew ($80)

At some point, your guests have to go home, which means they should switch to coffee. There are countless options, and your regular old machine will probably do just fine, but if you want to appease the cold brew lovers, the Bodybrew is a fairly simple, low-tech solution. It’s also another one you have to prepare in advance, but that means less work for you mid-soiree. All you have to do is fill up the basket with coarse grounds, fill the chamber with water, screw everything together, flip it a couple times, and wait 12 to 24 hours depending on how strong you like your brew. You can either serve it cold or add boiling water to make it hot, and you’ll have between 8 and 12 cups of coffee for your guests. Overall, it’s really easy to use (and dishwasher safe!). Our only complaint is that it can be a tad difficult to unscrew the one lid because it’s so wide.

Buy one now from:

Indiegogo

Updated 12/23/2017 to reflect new prices of items.

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Keep your internet browsing encrypted with VPNSecure, now 91% off

Banking information. Mortgage payment history. Your important documents. Nearly all of your life is online these days, and while convenient that can be scary. There are tons of people out there who are looking to do malicious stuff, and we need to be sure that is in the back of our brains at all times. While you can’t avoid using the internet (in most cases), you can ensure that it is a secure connection when you do use it.

VPNs have become more and more popular as the time passes because people want to make sure that the information they are transmitting is getting to the right places. VPNSecure is a great option, and right now you can score a sweet deal on a lifetime subscription to the service. With it you’ll be able to connect up to five devices at the same time, use unlimited bandwidth and more.

Some of the key features include:

• Allows you to bypass geolocation blocks on your favorite streaming networks
• Encrypts your traffic so hackers can’t access your data
• Hides your location & IP address
• Supports torrents
• Allows you to connect five devices simultaneously
• Grants you the ability to choose Data Cipher
• Uses Stealth VPN to render your VPN traffic unrecognizable
• Delivers unlimited bandwidth
• Does not keep any logs of your activity
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The first annual Yuletide comments thread is here

Happy holidays from all of us here at Android Central!

When I was a kid, I remember sitting up all night on Christmas eve, trying to be quiet while playing with any Hanukkah presents I might have already been given. The joy of a two-culture family is strong, especially when you’re a kid and get double the gifts.

I’m not a kid anymore, at least on the outside. Now I get more pleasure from giving than I ever did from receiving, except for that one year when I got a model rocket set and a BB gun. One thing that hasn’t changed is how I treasure holiday time with my friends and family. Something about the calendar makes these days more special than the rest of the year even with people you see every day.

I’d like to take the time and tell everyone happy holidays. Merry Christmas, Happy belated Hanukkah, and Happy New Year. Y’all are the best and a big part of why I love this job.

Arecibo is monitoring potentially hazardous near-earth asteroid

The iconic Arecibo radio telescope has faced quite a few challenges over the last ten years, including budget cuts, a funding crisis and damage from Hurricane Maria. While it may not be the largest radio telescope in the world anymore (that honor belongs to Russia’s RATAN-600), Puerto Rico’s device is still an important asset for detecting dangers to our planet. It’s good news, then, that the telescope is up and running again to be able to check out near-Earth asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

3200 Phaethon is thought to be the parent body for the Geminid meteor shower, which gave a pretty fantastic show recently mid-December. According to the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), Arecibo’s radar images of the asteroid show its spherical shape and a several-hundred-meters large concave area, as well as a “conspicuous dark, circular feature near one of the poles.” The second-largest near-earth asteroid looks to be about 3.6 miles in diameter, which classifies it as potentially hazardous.

“These new observations of Phaethon show it may be similar in shape to asteroid Bennu, the target of NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, but 10 times larger,” Arecibo’s Dr. Patrick Taylor said in a statement. “The dark feature could be a crater or some other topographic depression that did not reflect the radar beam back at us.”

Source: USRA