Wish List 2021: 31 Stimulating Gifts for All the Best People in Your Life

This bundle from legendary instrument maker Moog Music is a short stack of analog synthesizers—the melodic Mother 32, the polyrhythmic Subharmonicon sequencer, and the Drummer From Another Mother percussion unit—that can produce all the bleeps, wooshes, thumps, and bloops you could ever need. Use the included colorful patch cables to route the sound between the three machines and expand the sonic palette to infinity and beyond.

Bang & Olufsen’s wood-grilled Level isn’t just an exemplar of stately Danish design. The Wi-Fi-connected speaker also sports some innovative audio tricks. Its sound signature auto-adjusts based on its orientation: Laying it flat emphasizes the bass, while standing it upright gives the music more brilliant detail. Grab the handle built into the aluminum frame to tote the jams from room to room, and when the 16-hour battery is drained, slot the Level into its wall bracket ($119), where it can charge up while the party keeps rocking.

The stuffing, the pie, the green bean casserole. How to keep track of so many different cook times? You could juggle multiple timers on your phone, but you’re better off keeping that thing in your pants and using a dedicated device instead. Oxo’s 4-inch wedge has three 100-hour timers, each with its own distinct alarm, all programmable on the angled keypad. And unlike your precious touchscreen, this count-downer doesn’t care how buttery your fingers are.

There are so many reasons to love waist packs. They’re unisex, hands-free, and just big enough to carry the essentials. This new puny pack from Osprey—a company known for its rugged camping and hiking packs—is made from eco-friendly recycled polyester and is treated with durable water repellent. It keeps your mask, lunch, sunglasses, and vaccine card safe and dry while you navigate the forest, the concrete jungle, or the airport security line.

You’ve probably struggled to find earbuds that fit. Ultimate Ears has solved this problem with a clever pair of wireless earbuds that mold their tips to your ear canals. When you first get them, stick them in your ears, then run a quick setup in the companion app. The earbuds glow blue and warm up, then the soft tips mold to a perfect fit in about a minute. The great seal means awesome bass response, and the custom fit means you’ll worry less about losing a bud. You’ll get eight hours of listening between trips to the included charging case.

Famous for turning truck tarps into stylish satchels, Freitag aims its sustainability-minded design philosophy at a new castaway: surplus automotive airbags. This upcycled backpack is heavy-duty enough to haul a day’s worth of schoolbooks and malleable enough to stow in its own internal pouch. Freitag produces the bags from various stock sources, so each one is unique.

The newly updated version of Razer’s exemplary webcam does away with the original Kiyo’s integrated ring light—and that’s a good thing. In our experience, you can dial in your Twitch stream illumination better by positioning stand-alone lights around your desk. Also, Razer’s Synapse app lets you adjust the image to best suit your particular lighting situation. (Sorry, Mac-heads, some image controls are PC-only right now.) Choose between 1080p at 30 fps and 720p at 60 fps.

An electric bike isn’t a complete car substitute until it can carry a week’s worth of groceries, in the rain, at night. Cannondale’s Adventure Neo 3 EQ (whew!) is a stylish, sturdy step-through bike that comes with all the essential accessories built in: front and rear lights, fenders, and a rear rack for attaching grocery panniers or a laptop bag. The powerful and reliable Bosch powertrain has a 65-mile range, and multiple suspension points make for a smooth ride.

This trippy jigsaw puzzle comes from the mind of master brainteaser Chris Yates, but the true credit goes to an algorithm. Generative software plots the layout of the pieces, a process that ensures no two puzzles are alike. The squiggly outline of each piece is digitally painted in one of five far-out color schemes (like Sugary Breakfast Cereal, shown here) onto maple plywood, which is then sliced. Each blob is its own mini puzzle, and all the blobs join to form an 8 x 8-inch bubblescape.

Photography enthusiasts on your list will appreciate the dreamy, grainy, filmlike images produced by the 13-megapixel Paper Shoot, without the headache and cost of analog film. A switch on the back flips between color settings: standard, black-and-white, sepia, and a blue tint. Hook it up to a battery pack and take a time-lapse shot or a 10-second, 1080p video. The tough case is made of pressed-stone “paper” that feels like card stock, and the entire thing is just half an inch thick. When you’re ready to expand the visual possibilities, there are add-on lenses available ($25).

For lovers of pour-over coffee, this dripper is a superior way to make one cup at a time. The handleless design ensures you don’t bump the spout of your gooseneck kettle while dosing the grounds with hot water. The Japanese-made ceramic cone retains heat better than glass or plastic, and its small drain hole slows the flow out of the bottom of the paper filter for a more controlled extraction. Use the wooden collar ($14) to fit the brewer over receptacles of any size—like Umami Mart’s seamless mixing glass ($58, shown).

Sony’s ZV-1 mirrorless compact camera is perfect for the budding YouTube influencer who’s ready to level up from their phone. The 20-megapixel shooter has a directional microphone, the ability to shoot 4K video at up to 30 frames per second, and a fully articulating touchscreen that helps you center your mug in the shot. Its 24–70 mm f/1.8–2.8 lens is versatile enough to capture the whole scene or zoom in on your expressive face for total viral domination.