The Best Accessories & Miscellaneous

Some of the coolest stuff you own doesn't fit into a broad, big box category. Here are some odds and ends that we love.  

Best Ice Cube Tray
No surprise here: OXO dominates kitchenware, and now it'll own your freezer. The OXO Good Grips tray doesn't have any fancy iron lever or pinch tabs—just an extremely sturdy plastic body and a cover that slides with ease. Really, do you want to have to think about the ice cube tray more than you think about the drink the ice is going into? OXO gets that, and our Bestmodo nod in turn. More » (July 2012)

Best Bike Lock
Despite its fat locking mechanism, the OnGuard Pitbull STD is a breeze to use. The lock clicks into a sturdy, secure mounting bracket that doesn't bounce around while you're riding. Hand tolls like hacksaws and bolt cutters won't do any damage to the lock, and even when we attacked it with an angle grinder it held up for a full two minutes. More » (July 2012)

Best Solar Charger
Gizmodo Editor Emeritus Brian Lam said the Joos Orange is the "best solar charger [he'd] ever tested." It's rugged, works in weak light and can charge an iPhone four times with just one full charge. (Jul 12, 2010)

Best Bluetooth Headset
The Jawbone Era already has downloadable voices ("You have...two hours... of talk time remaining") and runs lightweight apps. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to envision future apps that utilize the motion sensitivity. (Jan 20, 2011)

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Best Cloud Storage Service
It's SugarSync—with a few caveats. SugarSync was the best confluence of price, ease of use, and features, but if you're looking for pure, sheer simplicity for sharing your sharables with the lovable luddites in your life, Dropbox might still be the better option. And if you're a total cheapass, maybe take a look at Google, or Microsoft's SkyDrive.

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Best Mobile Internet
You already knew this, but here it is in writing: Verizon's LTE network is the country's fastest 4G service. LTE is just better. AT&T's nascent LTE service is plenty fast, but Verizon's MiFis, dongles and hotspots will serve you very, very well.

The Best Wi-Fi Hotspot
Having fast internet almost anywhere is a wonderful thing. Because it's the best 4G/3G modem with Wi-Fi on the best network, we like the Verizon Jetpack 4620L. It's the successor to last year's favorite, and it's fixed some quirks while keeping its $50 price.

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Best Online Music Streaming Service
Spotify's main draw over the competition—even more than the free access—is the ability to meld your local library with Spotify's streaming catalog. We'd note, though, that Rdio still has the superior mobile app.

Best Urban Winter Jacket
Brent didn't think he was going to like a jacket called the Mountain Hardware "Downtown Coat". It sounded pretentious and he didn't think it would hack it. Turned out to be love at first wearing. It's a thigh-length coat that provides ample booty-warmth. It has the Best. Pockets. Ever. Overall, this is definitely your winner. Grab-n'-go winter goodness.

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Best Voice Command System
In terms of speed and accuracy, Google Voice Actions was ahead of Siri in almost all of our tests. Both have strengths and weaknesses, and both are handy convenience features. Siri has a little more colloquial chops and is more "fun," but Voice Search is ultimately a faster, more efficient tool.

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Best Automatic Coffee Machine
The Bodum Bistro produced a slightly better cup of coffee than the competition every time and is by far the more personable machine. But it costs $250. Is the coffee $100 better than the Bonavita, when $150 is already a lot to ask people to pay for a coffee machine? Maybe, for something you'll use every day, if you're thinking about spending that much in the first place (like on a Keurig machine).

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Best Stroller
The B.O.B. Ironman Jogging Stroller rolls like Curtis Mayfield circa 1972. It flies. Its ultralight frame and spin-happy hubs make for a delightfully easy ride.

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Best Bluetooth Keyboard
The Microsoft Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard 6000 hit the sweet spot. First off, it's compatible with everything you can throw at it: OSX, Windows, Android devices, iOS devices, they all pair easily and you're good to go. They keys have great click to them. They're slightly stiffer than the Logitechs', but they're not at all hard to press. There's a very slight curve to the keyboard, making it gently ergonomic without alienating people who are used to a straight tray. (December, 2011)

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Best Wireless Mouse
The Logitech Performance Mouse MX takes everything that's great about the Marathon Mouse-the same wonderful scroll wheel, the same smooth glide, similar (but better) thumb-buttons-and improves upon it. The laser it uses to track its position will even work on clear glass, which is crazy. It's also rechargeable. (December, 2011)

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The Best Minimal Running Shoe

If you want to try the minimalist running experience then you should buy the Merrell Barefoot Road Glove. They are absolutely the most comfortable minimalist shoes we've ever run in. At $110 bucks, they aren't the cheapest, but they are simply terrific shoes.

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The Best BBQ Grill

You don't need an expensive, complex backyard grill to cook amazing food. You want a 22.5-inch Weber One-Touch Gold Charcoal Grill. It costs around $150 and will serve you well for years.

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The Best Room Fan
If I wanted a fan to help keep my office or any other full-sized room cool this summer,we'd grab the $90 Vornado 660. As opposed to other dedicated floor fans, which come in either skinny tower form factors or ultra-wide industrial ones, the Vornado 660 has both a design and footprint that makes it suitable for use on a floor or a desk. More importantly, though, this fan moves some serious air.

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The Best iPad Keyboard

If you have your heart set on buying a keyboard/case hybrid for your iPad, then we suggest buying the Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover. It's the best of all the lousy keyboard cases out there. And it's inarguably better than trying to type with Apple's crappy on-screen keyboard.

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The Best Home Theater and AV Gear

In the absence of the side-by-side benchmark comparisons when you find when shopping for computers, home theater gear can be particularly hard to get a handle on. Giz has your back.

Best Big Screen 3D HDTV
The Panasonic VT50 delivers unrivaled picture quality. Incredibly deep blacks stand up in bright rooms. The 96mHz refresh rate handles 1080P with minimal fast-motion blur and enough clarity to count the whiskers on Baumgarner's face in the post-game interview.

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Best Budget TV
The well-loved Vizio's XVT3SV series is a cheapass's dream come true. Its matte screen especially drew high praise. (Dec 9, 2010)

Best Blu-ray Player
The LG BD570's key virtue is file compatiblity-you can use this thing pretty much like an HD media player, a full-fledged Apple TV killer. The PS3 still holds its own, though. (May 13, 2010)

Best Receiver
The Pioneer VSX-1020-K is controlled by your iPhone, and anyone who's slagged through their fair share of shitty AV receiver menus-whether on screen or on the receiver itself-knows what a boon it is to have a nice GUI in the palm of your hand. (Mar 4, 2010)

Best Game Console
The new Xbox 360 is smaller, has more ports, runs quieter and costs the same: $300. It has a 250GB hard drive and built-in 802.11n Wi-Fi. (Jun 14, 2010)

The Best TV Streaming Box
Despite its ugly new interface, the Apple TV is still the best of its breed. But thanks to its newfound stellar video quality, it now straddles two categories-sure, it's the best streaming box, but it might actually give you a reason to avoid (or ditch) a Blu-ray player. (March 2012)

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Best Affordable Amplifier
The Topping TP-30 is the best audiophile-worthy amplifier to be had for under $500.

Best All-in-One Home Entertainment
The home theater doesn't have to be a patchwork affair of gear you put together one layaway at a time. The LG LHB976 all-in-one does a downright enviable job, with solid speakers, a great user interface and an iPod dock.

Best MP3 Player
When Apple reshuffled the iPod lineup, the iPod Touch became something else. It's not the expensive, fancy iPod. Or the cheap, gimped iPhone anymore. It's the iPod.

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Best iPod Dock
The Octiv 650 nails a near perfect harmony between sound quality, easiness, and price with a few unique features to boot. If speaker docks are unremarkable almost by definition, the Octiv 650 is a shooting star.

Best Speakers
Audioengine's been proving that you don't need to spend thousands of dollars on a good set of speakers for a while now. Their A5 speakers last year were our favorites, and the A5+s are a direct upgrade. They have an improved cabinet design, better thermal management, a remote control, and a bunch of other nice improvements.

The Best Lightweight Portable Headphones
Every detail has been attended to on the Sennheiser PX 100-IIs. The headphones fold into a slim compact package. Their build is sturdy. Though the earphones are only lightly foamed, they're not the least bit irritating. The PX 100-II's deliver lovely, textured bass of the kind you'd expect from much more expensive headphones. But what's really impressive is that the PX 100-II sound full-bodied without losing a bit of detail from the music.

Best Headphones
We're finally recommending an official pick for cans, Bowers & Wilkins P5s—and they're a doozy. As our Joe Brown says, they are, in a word, "DOPE." (March 22, 2010)

Best Headphones for Running
Sennheiser PMX 680i Sports
The 680 Sports series from Sennheiser/Adidas simply give you the most boom for your buck, and by boom we mean bass. These pack some of the heaviest bass we've heard on earbuds, and they're loud, too.

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Best Budget Headphones
With a closed-back, over-the-ear design, and a durable design that has some portability, the Sennheiser HD280 cans are the king of the budget earphone mountain. They're not the cheapest, or the smallest, or the best looking, but they strike the best balance between clarity and resolution and the ability to handle multiple genres of music old and new. (December, 2011)

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Best Home Audio Streaming
We've added the dreamy Sonos system to our end of year list—read Brian's lifechanger-status writeup and you'll understand why. (Nov 26, 2010)

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Best Portable Bluetooth Speaker
The Braven 625s is cheaper than the Jambox for basically identical sound quality, with better connectivity and battery life. Braven makes a less expensive, bare aluminum model 600-go for the 625s, but the rugged casing is worth it. More» (July 2012)

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The Best Cameras

The great megapixel race is over. But now what the hell are you supposed to do? These are the best cameras of the post-megapixel world.

Best Budget DSLR
With its slick simplicity and HD video Canon T2i was a revolution in budget DSLRs. It's successor, the Canon T3i, adds a tiltable screen and a studier build. (May, 2012)

Best Midrange dSLR
The Nikon D300s and Canon 7D deliver for the money, but the 7D delivers more, since it's packed full of newer technology and for the people who want it, the video component is truly killer (Nov 10, 2009)

Best Mid-Range-Pro DSLR
The Canon EOS 5D Mark III inherited the venerable legacy of the Mark II by improving its already excellent HD video and its low-light performance. But what really blows this camera—and the photographer—to stratospheric feelings of image-taking euphoria is Canon's new 61-point auto-focus system that makes getting sharp pictures in harried situation a breeze.

Best 'Spensive dSLR
Here's the thing about the Nikon D4: There basically nothing it can't do. Need to take it into ultra-dark conditions and walk away with usable shots? You're covered. Need speedy continuous shutter performance to capture quick journalistic photography at a protest? It's got you covered. And now that Nikon's top-end cameras have caught up with Canon's video capabilities, it's hard to argue you'd want any other camera (April 2012).

The Best Video DSLR
The Canon 5D Mark III's autofocus system alone is enough to justify choosing the Mark III over the Mark II. But it's all of the refinements-the sum of the Mark III's parts-that make it the best camera you can spend $3,500 on. (March 2012)

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Best High-End DSLR Alternative
Micro Four-Thirds cameras have long promised to bridge the quality of DSLRs with the size of point and shoots. The Olympus PEN EP-3 is the fullest realization of the Micro Four-Thirds dream so far.

 

Best Affordable DSLR Alternative
Simply stated, the NEX-C3 performs much better than the other cameras in its class in nearly every situation. It's better, and, yup, bigger and heavier. The 18-55mm kit lens isn't collapsable, so this camera is never going to fit in your pocket, and while taking a quick shot in auto is easy enough, you're going to want to spend some time learning the menus, and programming the camera's customizable buttons to get the most out of it. In terms of image quality, the 16.2 megapixel, 23. 4mm x 15.6mm sensor blows the rest of the cameras in its price range away. It's not even close.

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Best Point-and-Shoot Camera
Canon's S95 was our favorite pocket camera. Um, it's probably not anymore. Meet the S100. What's new? Oh, Canon's first Digic V processor. A wider 24mm zoom lens. A 12-megapixel CMOS sensor (up from a 10MP CCD). 1080p video. And GPS built-in. (September, 2011)

Best Pocket Camcorder
The Kodak Playfull is a very capable shooter with several great features and one major shortcoming-a too-small display-but the fact that we found it selling at multiple online retailers for less than $100 goes a long way to make up for that deficiency.

The Best Inexpensive Point-and-Shoot Camera with Wi-Fi
The Canon 320 HS is a little more complicated to configure, but once it got going, the Wi-Fi features were faster and the design was a notch better than the Samsung WB150f, its main competitor.

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Best Phone Camera
The iPhone 4S camera is lightning fast and really gorgeous. It's not as super in-your-face saturated as the iPhone 4 was, which gives it truer-to-life colors. It's also got excellent auto-focus.

Best Rugged Waterproof Camera
In our tests, the Panasonic Lumix DMC-TS4took the clearest, most vivid outdoor and underwater stills. It generally found very nice balance in light levels its competitors would blow out, and it really makes colors pop (especially greens). Panoramic shots are excellent, at up to 360 degrees. It's generally able to attain focus faster than the others, and it's the fastest and cleanest at nighttime shooting with a flash. And it feels rock solid. If you hit someone on this head with this thing, it would hurt. A lot. More » (July 2012)

Best Helmet/Sports Camera
The images the GoPro Hero 2 takes are great. It's not just HD-sized, it actually looks HD. We like the Contour ROAM a lot, but the Hero 2 has more options and the image quality simply wins. (August 2011)

Best Camera Lenses
We're adding our roundup of well-priced, excellently-performing lenses to the list, for those of you looking for an upgrade. (Dec 6, 2010)

Best Photo Printing Service
Despite its outdated website, Wizard Prints can realize almost any scenario you can dream up-adhesives you can walk on, super-sized canvases, beautiful matte prints, and textured fabrics that turn into wall murals. (Jan 20, 2011)

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