Best Gear — Curated from The Hiro Report

I mentioned this camera in the Report a few weeks back when it launched… I finally picked one up to try out on a long weekend getaway this month. In my limited testing so far, it’s been great! Really excellent image quality, a fast and smooth gimbal, and surprisingly compact given that it’s rocking both a wide and telephoto lens setup on a gimbal. I particularly appreciate them including ~45GB of internal memory in case you forget your microSD card, and the fact that you can film in LOG but toggle on restorative colors in the display so you can see what it actually looks like while shooting. One main complaint so far— I hate when devices like this require you to activate them by registering before you can use them. You shouldn’t need my email to let me use this device. Since it’s unclear if the DJI Osmo Pocket 4P will ever be available stateside, this is the no-brainer choice in this category for those of us living in the U.S.

I’ve had a fancy gimbal webcam for the past few years that has served me reasonably well, but lately the gimbal has been acting weird—tracking me even when I have all AI tracking features turned off, pointing in weird directions, etc. Time for an update. I looked at all the latest and best, and wound up grabbing the newly released Flip webcam. It’s super compact, has really solid 4K/60fps image quality (higher than any of the mainstream video conference solutions can even support), and costs just over $100. Early days still, but I’m really happy with it!

I'm a sucker for quick and fun games that are lightweight to set up and learn. Austin-based Steve Jackson Games makes a bunch of games that fit that bill. I recently bought Skull and Dragon Dice as a game to bring on a trip, and it's been a fun thing to just keep in my day bag and pull out whenever we have some downtime. The entire game is literally just two dice, but it packs in a perfect combination of strategy and chance as you try to push your luck to beat your opponent(s). An average two-player game takes about 5 minutes, and there's no real limit to how many players you can have.

We can never have enough chargers and cables in our house, and after fruitlessly digging for yet another laptop charger last weekend, I grabbed one of these while they're on sale over on Amazon. I love Anker's stuff, and this one definitely doesn't disappoint — it is just barely larger than an AirPods case, but has 3 USB-C ports that can charge a 16" MacBook Pro, an iPhone Pro Max, and an 11" iPad Pro all at the same time. It also has a display, which does… something? I'm honestly not sure what it does because I've never even looked at it. All I can say is this thing is crazy tiny and charges like a beast. Still 30% off on Amazon as of publishing.

I received one of these earlier this summer as a birthday gift and have been absolutely loving it. These WiiM boxes let you turn any set of speakers into AirPlay 2 (and/or Google Cast) endpoints, and likewise will let you broadcast analog or digital inputs to any other box around the house that is also connected to a WiiM at up to 24-bit/192kHz. I've got mine hooked up to my record player so I can stream its analog output to all the speakers in the house via these WiiM Minis. They all work with Alexa, Siri, and Google Home as well for remote command. Super pleased with this ecosystem.

After living for years with the OG ceiling fans that were installed in my 40-year-old house when it was built, we finally decided to upgrade and went in search of a truly great fan that also had all the smart home stuff baked into it. This is that fan. It’s whisper quiet, really great looking, and controllable via remote and Matter/HomeKit/Alexa/Google Home. One of my favorite features is the “Whoosh” button that has the fan subtly change up how much air it’s pushing at any given time so that it feels more like a natural breeze. You can also set it to automatically turn on once the temperature hits a certain limit in your room, or turn on to specific settings at bedtime, etc. It costs a BOATLOAD for a fan, but it is freaking sweet.

After seeing both Stephen and Nate recommend this thing, I've thrown it onto my summer supplies shopping list. The Etenwolf Air 3 is a small, egg-sized electric pump that inflates an air mattress or full-size pool floaty in about a minute and sucks it flat again in 40 seconds. The battery will fill up to 16 sleeping pads on a charge and doubles as a 600-lumen camping lantern. It apparently comes with five nozzles for everything from floaties to vacuum storage bags. The size and price alone make it seem like the perfect thing to have in a glove box or pool bag at all times.

I've been playing with Claude Code for local Mac software development, but have been getting the itch to do some custom software/hardware experiments with it. After doing a bunch of poking around, I wound up getting one of these little ESP-32-powered e-paper displays. My first project is this fun little pocket oracle that contains a full Tarot deck on local RAM and delivers a random card pull every morning without requiring any connectivity. Anyway, if you're at all curious to play with this kind of stuff, this unit is great and relatively easy to work with once you get the right driver installed.

I spend my work days staring down the barrel of my webcam on virtual meetings, and let me tell you— I get crazy antsy. My desk is littered with various fidget toys to keep me from going insane, but my favorite is a set of magnetic fidget balls like these that I picked up a few years back. Highly recommended.

I’ve got like 4 or 5 of these in different sizes and colors. It’s my favorite water bottle, and I always have one with me. Having the built-in option to chug or sip from the straw is super pleasant, and I appreciate the built-in locking loop that allows me to hang it from a carabiner when needed.

This is for a very specific type of nerd that would appreciate an exact replica of a prominent piece of the Mercury spacecraft capsule… Hello, I am that nerd. $$$$

The folks at Elgato announced a really compelling new office chair that looks to be competing directly with the classic Herman Miller Aeron office chair. It's leveraging the same slightly transparent, highly breathable style that's perfect for those of us afflicted with chronic sweaty back syndrome– but presumably at a much better price point. I'm pretty happy with my current chair, but if I were in the market, this would be the one I would grab—every Elgato product I've had (including my beloved Key Light) has been a delight.

Sidio Crates are my favorite way to organize gear at home. I have one for all my stationery and pens, one for retro gaming handhelds and hacker toys, and another for cables and old hard drives. Could you get something functionally similar for half the price at the Container Store? Absolutely. Would it look as good, be as rugged, or customizable? Probably not. I’m linking the Amazon page above for faster delivery, but if you want to get fancy, go build your own custom crates on their site. (Thanks for the reminder, Kevin!)

On my buddy Matthew's recommendation, I put an order in for one of these kendamas this week. As someone who loves yo-yos and other skill toys you can perform tricks with, I've been curious about these classic Japanese toys for a long time. It's just a ball, a string, a spike, and two cups, but people can do all kinds of fun things with them. It looks both fun and meditative. Eager to give it a try when mine comes in next week.

The folks behind the awesome mini vacuum/blower that I use to keep my keyboard and coffee bar clean are back with a new, more powerful version made for quick clean up in cars. This was an instant buy for me, as we're constantly needing to clean up dried mud, goldfish crackers, and other small things from our car mats. I also like that the blower is strong enough to blow leaves off your windshield wipers, another regular annoyance once we head into fall/winter.

I've been seeing this clock in several design feeds recently and decided to hunt it down. Originally designed and released in 2004 by Japanese designer Makoto Koizumi, it's just been brought back into production. I love the glazed finish on the glass and the pops of color. It reminds me of an abstract take on the VisionOS aesthetic. I want one.

- Like many modern households, we have multiple drawers and cabinets completely dedicated to our irrationally large collections of water bottles. We’ve tried most of the main brands, but my favorite and most-used this year is the Owala Freesip. Having the built-in option to chug or sip from the straw is super pleasant, and I appreciate the built-in locking loop that allows me to hang it from a carabiner* when needed.

- This last week I discovered, right at the most inopportune time, that the off-the-shelf “roadside emergency kit” I’ve been carrying around in the back of the family car for years was, in fact, nothing more than a flaming pile of armadillo poop wrapped in reflective neon canvas. (What kind of roadside kit doesn’t have jumper cables??) Anyway, I’m rebuilding my kit from scratch. Enter the Hoto Tire Inflator. I have bought a number of products from Hoto now, and every*one* has been a delight. This tire inflator is no different—it actually looks cool, is USB-C chargeable, has preset modes for car tires, motorcycle tires, bike tires, sports balls, and more, as well as a handy built-in flashlight. I’ll be more ready next time.*These are Amazon-affiliate links that may earn me some commission to support my tech habit.

- OK, technically, it’s not called the Suck and Blow, but I prefer that over the official title: “HOTO Handheld Vacuum Cleaner Cordless, Desk Vacuum Cleaner Compressed Electric Air Duster 15000Pa Suction, 4-in-1 Portable Vortex Vacuum Dust Buster Air Blower for Computer, Keyboard.” Hoto makes fantastic, small, beautifully designed tools, and this one is a great addition to my collection. I use it to clean up ground coffee, blow dust out of my keyboard, and other little clean-ups that don’t merit lugging out the big vacuum. To quote Wayne Campbell, this thing certainly does suck. *Amazon-affiliate link.

I need another water bottle like I need another gray hair on my head, and yet the fine folks at Carryology's new collaboration with Miir, was just too much for me to resist. What can I say about it other than it looks great, has better proportions and is grippier than my Yeti(s), and so far has managed to keep my cold drinks nice and cold despite the rising temperatures in Austin.

I am obsessed with these Philosopher's Desks by by the Lucky Rooster Company. They are beautifully designed corner desks that are themed around various magical or mythological elements, and are absolutely riddled with hidden compartments that are accessible through all manner of ingenious secret buttons and mechanisms. I want one... just need to find a spare $10,000.