How-To Geek

Prior To The Early 19th Century, You Wouldn’t Experience What On Christmas?

1. Egg Nog
2. Caroling
3. Candy Canes
4. Santa

Think you know the answer?

Christmas and holiday parties mean getting lots of family and friends together. And getting the family together usually means lots and lots of pictures! Here are some of our favorite tips for taking better photos this holiday.

You might use a tiny digital camera, your smartphone, or a DSLR. It doesn’t matter, because the principals of photography are pretty similar regardless of the equipment you’re using. With these few tips, you can improve your family photos, and have the perfect Christmas pics for which your whole family begs for a copy.

First, Shoot Test Shots

Before people start showing up, take a few shots of the ambient light in the room. If you use manual settings, this is especially useful, because you can figure out the best aperture, ISO, and shutter speed settings for your images before your family comes around.

Although light through the windows will probably change after several hours, electric lights won’t fluctuate. Given this, you should be able to stay within a range of settings, provided you stay indoors and in similar light settings.

You can also use these test shots to start thinking about possible composition for your photos (which we’ll talk more about in just a bit).

Don’t Make Your Family Pose

Read the remaining 39 paragraphs

What Caused The U.S. Military To Start Tracking Santa Claus?

1. National Security Concerns
2. A Cold War Scare
3. A Sears Advertisement
4. A Whiny General's Daughter

Think you know the answer?

Winter is here and oh my, aren’t your feet cold? I know mine are. To counteract that, here are some cozy slippers for keeping your toes warm during those extra cold winter days.

Like anything clothing related, slippers are a very personal choice, so we’ve taken a wide look at plenty of different types of footwear. In every case, your feet will be warm, but your sense of style won’t be affected. These slippers also double up as great gift ideas if you need to help a loved one keep warm on cold nights.

Here are our favorite slippers for chilly winter evenings.

Best All-Rounder: Amazon Essentials Men’s Leather Moccasin Slippers ($22)

The Amazon Essentials Men’s Leather Moccasin Slippers live up to their name — they are essential. Available in a choice of 4 colors, they’re made from 100% genuine suede with faux fur lining. A rubber sole means you won’t have to worry about slipping up as you walk, and its firm base means they’ll feel as comfortable as regular shoes. They’re even safe to use for light outdoor use which is convenient if you simply need to head outside with the trash or to pick up the mail.

Buy on Amazon Best Memory Foam Slippers: ULTRAIDEAS Men’s Comfort Suede Fabric Memory Foam Fluffy Fleece Lined Slippers ($17-$20)

Memory foam makes everything better. That continues to be the case with the ULTRAIDEAS Men’s Comfort Suede Fabric Memory Foam Fluffy Fleece Lined Slippers. Typical moccasin slippers made from suede, they also have a cushioned insole that contains memory foam and two layers of support foam, on top of a layer of anti-shock EVA foam. All that protection means your feet are safe from impact when you walk.

There’s also an anti-slip and waterproof natural rubber sole so you’re good to go outside as well as inside. A cozy polar fleece interior keeps your feet warm too. They’re a snug fit at first, but it’s worth getting used to them as they’re solid protection for your toes.

Buy on Amazon Best Shoe Like Slipper: BOBS from Skechers Keepsakes Ice Angel Slipper ($10-$99)

Read the remaining 17 paragraphs

It’s that holiday time of year again, and that means it’s over the river and through the woods to…well, fix your family’s Wi-Fi and other tech problems.

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance that you’re the “tech person” in your family. That means your family is constantly asking you for help, then blaming you whenever something goes wrong. (“Steven, you know how you fixed my printer back in July? Well, now my internet doesn’t work. Do you think you broke the internet?”)

In that way, being the tech support for your family can be enormously frustrating. But, at the same time, thanks to the increasing role of technology in people’s lives, you’ve got a really important job to do. In many cases, if you’re not there a few times a year making sure the computers are up to date, the photos are backed up, and the tech is humming along as it should, then your loved ones are in a position to have people exploit their computers, lose their photos to a hard drive crash, or otherwise be miserable because they just don’t know any better. Unlike you and me, they aren’t out there keeping up on all the tech news and reading how-to guides.

So with that in mind, we’re going to run through a crash course—with copious links to tutorials we’ve written in the past—that will help you whip your family’s tech life into shape, so their networks are secure, their computers are backed up, and everything is connected so you can easily help them in the future. The guide is divided into sections that, based on years of experience as the family tech support team, are the areas that are the most common (and pressing).

Update, Update, Update

RELATED: How to Keep Your Windows PC and Apps Up to Date

Tech-savvy people tend to update frequently because they want new features and security patches. Non-techie people tend to put updates off—sometimes for very, very long times. Once, while helping a relative with their computer, I discovered they hadn’t even updated Windows 7 to Service Pack 1 because somebody had told them that Service Pack 1 was bad and would crash their computer. Oh, and this was six years after the service pack was released and Windows 10 was already out.

With that in mind, one of the first stops on your tech support tour should be to check out your family member’s computers and devices to ensure they are up to date. Not just that, but talk to them before updating their stuff, and clearly explain to them why you’re doing it. Many times people are upset when things look different or behave differently as a result of an update, but if you clearly explain to them that the update is to ensure their devices are secure and so nobody can steal their identity, infect their computers, or otherwise make their life miserable, they’ll be much more accepting of any changes.

Read the remaining 45 paragraphs

A Keyboard Shortcut Designed To Hide Your Current Activity Is Known As What?

1. A Boss Key
2. A Disco Drop
3. An Escape Hatch
4. A Panic Button

Think you know the answer?

There are many reasons to live within Apple’s walled garden, and Apple Pay is one of them. Here we’re going to run through the steps that must be taken to set up, and then use, Apple Pay on an iPhone.

Apple Pay is Apple’s way of making it easier for its users to spend money, and even though that doesn’t necessarily sound like a great thing, it can be a real life changer. With Apple Pay in tow, depending on your location, leaving home without a wallet is possible, and if you’re particularly forgetful, that can be huge. Contactless payment via Apple Pay and other such technologies is ubiquitous in many parts of the world, and the United States is starting to catch up, too. That means that Apple Pay is more helpful than ever.

Setting up Apple Pay is one of the first things you should do when getting a new iPhone, though making payments has changed slightly with some of Apple’s most recent iPhone releases. Fear not though—we’re going to hold your hand the whole way through. Let’s get started.

How to Set Up Apple Pay

To get the ball rolling, open the Wallet app and then tap the “Plus” icon in the top-right corner.

The next screen will tell you a little bit about Apple Pay and what it can do. Tap the “Continue” button to move on.

Now, you’ll need the physical card that you want to add to Apple Pay. You can either scan the card by placing it inside the frame and using your iPhone’s camera or tap the “Enter Card Details Manually” button. If you follow the latter route, you will be asked to enter all pertinent information—card number, your name, expiration date, and security code.

Read the remaining 9 paragraphs

Fortnite is the biggest game of 2018, so if you know someone who games regularly, there’s a good chance they’re playing it. The game itself is free, but players need to use in-game V-Bucks to buy customizations.

While you can’t directly gift V-Bucks to another player, you have a couple of options to help them get their Fortnite fix: buy them a gift card for their platform of choice, or buy a bundle with specific content.

Buy a Gift Card for Their Platform of Choice

The first thing you need to do is figure out what platform your gamer usually plays on. Since there’s no such thing as a “Fortnite gift card,” you have to buy a card for the specific platform. For example:

• PlayStation: If they play on PlayStation, a PlayStation Store gift card will do the trick.
• Xbox: Xbox players will need, you guessed it, an Xbox Gift Card.
• Switch: For Switch players, you’ll need to grab a Nintendo eShop gift card.
• PC: There isn’t a specific store for PC gamers to buy Fornite stuff from, but you can get them a generic pre-paid Visa to use towards in-game currency.
• Android: The same goes for Android players—since the game uses Epic’s own launcher (like the PC version), a pre-paid debit card is the way to go.
• iOS: Since Fortnite is available from the iOS App Store, an iTunes gift card is the best answer here.

Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Amazon, and other retailers usually carry physical versions of platform-specific gift cards, which you can stick inside an envelope for your gamer to unwrap on their Winter Solstice holiday of practice. 

The player will need to redeem the gift or debit card on their own once they get back to their system, but after that, they can use that money to buy anything from those digital stores. That means they can buy another game, downloadable content, or Fortnite’s V-Bucks. What the player chooses to use the gift card for will be up to them—you have no way to “force” them to use it on V-Bucks.

Get Them Some Sweet In-Game Goods in Meatspace

If you want to make sure they get something they can use in-game, Fortnite also offers specific outfits as downloadable content (these are digital items you purchase in stores). For example, your gamer can get The Summit Striker Pack, which unlocks the Summit Striker outfit, the Top Notch Bling Pack and 600 V-Bucks.

Another option is the Deep Freeze Bundle. This costs $30 and unlocks the winter-themed Frostbite Outfit, Cold Front Glider, Chill-Axe Pickaxe, and 1,000 V-Bucks. If your gamer already has any of those cosmetic items, they will instead receive a comparable amount of V-Bucks. This bundle is available digitally, or in stores like Best Buy, so you still have something for your gamer to unwrap on the holidays.

What’s the most annoying thing about Windows Update? If you said the reboots, Microsoft has got you covered. Soon, Windows Update may be able to reboot your PC immediately after updates rather than waiting for a convenient time—wait, what?

It sounds ridiculous, but that’s one of the latest features reported by Albacore (@thebookisclosed) on Twitter. He’s found various other new Windows features before Microsoft has officially announced them, including the Windows Sandbox recently. We imagine Microsoft is at least testing this feature, even if it never makes it into the stable version of Windows.

Here’s the good news: This feature is optional. If you like, you can “stay up to date with a new setting that automatically restarts your device to install updates as soon as they’re ready.” Windows Update promises it will always notify you and give you the opportunity to postpone the reboot. But, if you’ve stepped away from your PC for a few minutes, you might return only to see that your PC has suddenly rebooted and you missed the countdown.

If you happen to be some sort of die-hard Windows Update fan, Microsoft has got you covered. New feature that restarts ASAP is in the works. pic.twitter.com/KUnwNGf3jq

— Albacore (@thebookisclosed) December 19, 2018

This feature just boggles our minds. Who asked for this? Windows can already reboot fairly quickly after updates, using features like Active Hours to restart when you’re not using your PC. Recent versions even use machine learning to detect whether you’re using your PC before restarting. Who asked for Windows Update’s reboots to be even more aggressive? Even Apple’s iPads don’t have an option to reboot this aggressively for automatic updates.

Windows 10’s next big update already includes a new system tray icon that can alert you when you need to restart, too. So there’s even less need for this feature!

If this “restart ASAP” feature ever does arrive, it will likely be part of the next version of Windows, codenamed 19H1 and scheduled for release around April 2019. It’s an optional feature, so it doesn’t really matter—but who would use this feature, and why?

Read the remaining 3 paragraphs

It’s the year-end holiday shopping season. You are supposed to be brimming with rewards, rebates and gifts not only from brick-and-mortar stores. Especially as a fan of How-to Geek, you should have spent your Christmas and New Year more cozily. Joking aside, you are here to be treated with an exclusive giveaway of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum V8.9.0 (the very latest version that just got updated on Dec. 13) sponsored by Digiarty Software generously. Cheers!

The biggest benefit? Well, ripping DVDs with the software that is available free (in limited time) is conducive to more comfy and flexible enjoyment of movies during holidays yourself or with your families and guests. For example, you can have the movie copies prepared on your NAS, USB flash drive or external flash drive in advance, to enjoy full movies on TV while sitting on the big living room with next to no sifting through the best movie result from the online streaming apps.

How-to Geek readers can receive the FULL licensed copy for free >>

In parallel, the also-on-page Lifetime License and huge software pack for family video processing offered by Digiarty are at astonishing discounts. For some people, the 75% off cover-all multimedia software pack may be more appealing.

Visit the page to get 75% off coupon for complete software pack >>

 

What can you do with WinX DVD Ripper Platinum

Here’ an official introduction on its features and functions:

Read the remaining 24 paragraphs

Controlling the lights in your house using your voice is a great way to dip your toes into the smarthome world. And if you already have a Google Home, here are some of the best smart light switches to buy that are compatible with the smart speaker.

You could go with smart bulbs instead, but smart light switches are already a familiar format—no smart home lesson necessary for houseguests—and they work with your existing light bulbs. So if you know how to change out a light switch (or know someone who can help), then smart light switches can be a great way to go.

With that said, here are the best smart light switches that work with your Google Home.

Lutron Caseta Smart Dimmer Switch Starter Kit ($99)

Honestly, the best option no matter what the circumstances are is the Lutron’s Caseta line, and a starter kit comes with the necessary hub, one smart dimmer switch, and one Pico remote, which lets you control the light switch from across the room without getting up from the couch.

Lutron invented the dimmer switch and has perfected it over the years. And now you can get one in smart form. The company’s Caseta line of smart light products uses its own proprietary RF wireless protocol instead of Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, or ZigBee, so it won’t interfere with any of your other smarthome devices.

These switches can be put on a schedule or a timer, and you can even create different scenes where you can set specific brightnesses for specific switches in your house. And obviously, you can control them with your voice using your Google Home.

Perhaps the best feature, though, is that the switches don’t require a neutral wire, which isn’t always present inside of a light switch box, especially in older houses. So this makes Caseta switches a recommended buy for just about any setup.

Read the remaining 13 paragraphs

Steam offers a generous refund system. You can refund any game you purchase through Steam, for any reason—whether it isn’t working properly on your PC or you just don’t find it fun.

This feature encourages you to try games you’re not sure about. If you don’t like a game, you can always refund it and get your money back. It’s particularly useful now that so few games offer free demos.

When You Can Refund a Game

There are two basic requirements for when you can get a refund: You must have purchased the game in the last 14 days, and you must have played the game for less than two hours.

If you meet these requirements, Valve promises it will refund you for any reason. You can ask for a refund on a game even if you don’t meet these requirements—Valve will take a look at your request, but won’t guarantee a refund.

You can’t refund games that you purchased outside of Steam and added to Steam with a product key (at least, not through Steam—you’d have to request a refund through the original retailer). While you can sometimes save money on Steam games by purchasing Steam keys from third-party game stores, this feature encourages you to buy games through Steam if you think you might want to refund them.

If you refund a lot of games, Valve may consider this “abuse” and stop offering refunds to you. “Refunds are designed to remove the risk from purchasing titles on Steam—not as a way to get free games,” according to Valve’s policy. Valve doesn’t specify exactly what they consider “abuse”, but you should probably be fine as long as you’re not regularly buying a large number of games and refunding most of them.

Valve notes that refunding a game purchased before a sale and buying it at the lower sale price isn’t considered abuse. So, if you purchase a $60 game and it goes on sale for $30 a few days later, you can refund the game and purchase it at the lower price—as long as you’ve played it for less than two hours.

Your refund can be returned to the same payment method you purchased the game with, or to Steam Wallet credit you can spend on Steam. Read Valve’s Steam refund policy for more specific details about how the policy works.

How to Refund a Game

Read the remaining 28 paragraphs

The last thing you want on Christmas Day is for your kids to be unable to play the game console they’ve waited so long to enjoy. Read on as we highlight why you need to pre-game your console gift giving experience.

Why Do I Want To Do This?

If you’re not a gamer yourself, you might be curious as to why we’d recommend unpacking your child’s game console and setting it up just to turn right back around and repack it for them to open on Christmas Day.

RELATED: How Your PC Could Replace the Gaming Console in Your Living Room

Unlike the game consoles of today the consoles of yesteryear, ranging from the early first-generation game consoles like the Magnavox Odyssey right up to fifth-generation consoles like the Sony PlayStation, had hard-coded firmware that rarely (if ever) received any update.

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System you bought back in the 1990s is still running the same operating code that it shipped with (and most likely still plugging along just fine despite 20 years of no updates). Game consoles were simply designed differently back then because there was no easy mechanism by which they could be updated.

Starting with the sixth-generation of game consoles and the introduction of over-the-network updates for the original Xbox game console suddenly updating your game console became a thing. That thing has proved to be persistent element of modern gaming and the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii, and Switch all feature over-the-network updates as do many handheld gaming platforms like newer versions of the Nintendo DS product line (so, in fact, the tips in this PSA also apply to portable game devices too).

Not only do the game consoles themselves need updates but the games we play on them need updates (and often need to be downloaded in the first place before we can even begin to update and play them).

Read the remaining 23 paragraphs

Ice cube molds don’t have to be the same old tried and tested format to be worth purchasing. We’ve checked out the best quirky novelty ice cube molds out there for the perfect Christmas gift.

We already looked at the best practical ice molds available for those that take their drinks super seriously, but how about if you just want something fun for the holidays? Or to form molds for your own homemade chocolate or ice cream? There’s a whole wealth of great options out there, so we’ve picked out some of our favorites. Sure a perfect sphere might be the best way to scientifically cool your drink without watering it down… but it lacks the character of a bunch of Darth Vader heads or U

Don’t forget to pop them out of the tray carefully so their unique shape doesn’t get damaged along the way. Running a little warm water across the back of the mold goes a long way towards wiggling them free with the more delicate features intact.

Set of 8 Star Wars Silicone Ice Trays ($23)

Who doesn’t love Star Wars? This set of 8 Star Wars Silicone Ice Trays has shapes resembling the Millennium Falcon, R2-D2, a Stormtrooper, Darth Vader, and the Death Star. My personal favorite? Han Solo in ice form rather than carbonite.

Buy on Amazon 3D Skull Flexible Silicone Ice Cube Mold Tray ($12)

Nothing says festive cheer like an ice cube shaped like a skull. Ok, so this 3D Skull Flexible Silicone Ice Cube Mold Tray might suit Halloween more so than Christmas but if your loved one likes something a little different and less cutesy to their ice cubes, then this is the ideal solution.

The tray forms four giant ice skulls of 2.36 inches in size, so they’ll melt good and slow in your drink. They look pretty impressive too.

Buy on Amazon Cat Lover’s Kitty Shaped Silicone Ice Cube Tray ($12)

Read the remaining 22 paragraphs

Photography isn’t just a technical pastime; it’s an art. While it’s important to understand how to control your camera, it should be so you can capture the kind of photos you want, rather than so you can take boring, if technically correct, photos.

Here is a technically perfect, awful photo. It’s well exposed, there are good shadow and highlight details, the colors are accurate, and it’s thoroughly and completely boring.

And here is one of my favorite photos that I’ve taken this year. It was shot with an old film camera, so the quality isn’t perfect. There are a few development artifacts, and it’s a little soft. But it’s a much more interesting image than the photo of my light switch.

Now, this is an extreme example, but it’s a point that holds across all areas of photography. There is something more to photography than just technical perfection. It’s more than just taking photos of pretty places or people, and it’s what separates art from snapshots and good photos from bad. The word for that something more is composition.

Composition Is How You Place Things

Composition, at its most basic, is how you place your subject (and everything else) in your image. While it’s rare that you’ll be able to physically position buildings and trees where you want them to be, your choice of focal length, aperture, and where you stand all drastically change how different things will appear in the frame.

RELATED: What Focal Length Should I Use For My Photos?

Read the remaining 31 paragraphs

Microsoft just announced Project Mu, promising “firmware as a service” on supported hardware. Every PC manufacturer should take note. PCs need security updates to their UEFI firmware, and PC manufacturers have done a poor job of delivering them.

What Is UEFI Firmware?

Modern PCs use UEFI firmware instead of a traditional BIOS. The UEFI firmware is the low-level software that starts when you boot your PC. It tests and initializes your hardware, does some low-level system configuration, and then boots an operating system from your computer’s internal drive or another boot device.

However, UEFI is a little more complicated than the older BIOS software. For example, computers with Intel processors have something called the Intel Management Engine, which is basically a tiny operating system. It runs in parallel to Windows, Linux, or whatever operating system you’re running on your computer. On corporate networks, system administrators can use features in the Intel ME to remotely manage their computers.

UEFI also contains processor “microcode,” which is kind of like firmware for your processor. When your computer boots, it loads microcode from the UEFI firmware. Think of it like an interpreter that translates software instructions to hardware instructions performed on the CPU.

RELATED: What Is UEFI, and How Is It Different from BIOS?

Why UEFI Firmware Needs Security Updates

The last few years have shown over and over why UEFI firmware needs timely security updates.

We all learned about Spectre in 2018, showing the serious architectural problems with modern CPUs. Problems with something called “speculative execution” meant programs could escape standard security restrictions and read secure areas of memory. Fixes to Spectre required CPU microcode updates to function correctly. That means PC manufacturers had to update all their laptop and desktop PCs—and motherboard manufacturers had to update all their motherboards—with new UEFI firmware containing the updated microcode. Your PC isn’t adequately protected against Spectre unless you’ve installed a UEFI firmware update. AMD also released microcode updates to protect systems with AMD processors from Spectre attacks, so this isn’t just an Intel thing.

Read the remaining 22 paragraphs

Chromebooks have always been great if you can do your work with web apps (and now Android and Linux apps). But most people still find themselves keeping a separate Windows machine for specific tasks. That might change soon. 

The “AltOS” feature first started appearing in Chrome OS commits back in April. Those first commits revealed Windows support, leading us to believe that Google intended to let users boot both Windows and Chrome OS on the same machine. All of the commits so far reference “Eve”, the codename for the Pixelbook’s motherboard.

The next round of commits showed up in September. This gave us the icon that may be used when the Chromebook boots to a different OS, as well as some of the keyboard combinations users will have to press to boot to the alternate OS. There’s no telling if these key combos are just for Google’s internal testing, or if it will survive until the feature is on consumer devices.

That brings us to today. Google appears to be continuing its work on letting Chromebook users install Windows 10 right alongside Chrome OS. There appear to be some caveats, of course, the main one being storage. About Chromebooks’ Kevin Tofel states that Chromebooks will likely need at least 40 GB of free storage to dual boot Windows, because Windows needs room for the OS itself and space to download updates. This excludes most Chromebooks under $500 since the machine will need to ship with 64 GB or more of internal storage at the very least.

The latest round of commits also mentions how the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) will handle multiple operating systems without compromising security, though there isn’t any real user-facing information just yet. This isn’t something the end user really needs to care about anyway, but they’re critical steps in making sure Dual-Boot will work properly and securely.

Right now, it appears Google is still only testing this feature—codenamed “Campfire” and likely to be officially named “Dual-Boot”—on the Pixelbook. There’s a precedent for new features coming to Google’s own devices first. Google has offered other features like Google Assistant integration on the Pixelbook before making it available to other Chromebooks.

Of course, you may have been able to dual-boot Windows and Chrome OS in the past, but it was hacky at best and involved installing custom firmware. This newer method will presumably just require a toggle in the Settings menu.

While we should see dual-booting with Windows come to the Pixelbook soon, there’s no telling when (or if) the feature will come to other Chromebooks. When Android and Linux app support rolled out, some reasonably modern Chromebooks didn’t get those because they used an old kernel version. There’s a chance the same thing will happen when it comes to Windows support.

Read the remaining 3 paragraphs

What Popular Video Game Was Called “Big Pineapple” In Order To Dodge Chinese Censorship?

1. Angry Birds
2. StarCraft II
3. Draw Something
4. Diablo III

Think you know the answer?

You’ve undoubtedly bought music, movies, TV shows, and audiobooks off of iTunes before, but it was likely for yourself. If you’re wanting to buy something from the iTunes Store and gift it to someone else, here’s how to do it.

RELATED: How to Remove DRM From iTunes Movies and TV Shows

The process for gifting digital content in iTunes is surprisingly complicated, mostly because it’s not intuitive how to get there.

The first thing you’ll want to do is open up the iTunes Store app.

From there, either browse and find the piece of digital content you’re looking for or hit the “Search” tab at the bottom of the screen.

At the top of the screen, type in the title of the movie, song, album, or whatever it is you’re looking for. In my case, I’m looking for a specific audiobook by Dale Earnhardt Jr. to give to my mom.

Read the remaining 19 paragraphs

When you need a gift for the book lover in your life, it’s tempting to buy them a bunch of books, but there are plenty of more original ideas that you can also pursue. Here are some of the best gift ideas for avid readers.

Like any hobby, it’s nice to have other gifts than simply get the obvious choice. Sure, you can buy a games lover an extra game, but it’s nice to have related and supplemental gifts that compliment your hobbies. That’s what we’ve focused on here, with a variety of differently priced ideas so they’ll suit every budget. Plus, there’s room for one very key gift idea.

Here’s our pick of the bunch when it comes to gifts for the avid reader in your life. If you get to the end of the list and you want even more great gift ideas for readers, check out our favorite 8 products for book lovers (that aren’t books).

Kindle Paperwhite ($100)

If, somehow, your loved one doesn’t already own a Kindle Paperwhite, then this is the perfect opportunity to buy them one. It’s the thinnest and lightest Kindle yet, so it’s easy for everyone to hold and take with them. The 300 ppi glare-free display reads like real paper, even when you use it in bright sunlight. A built-in light means there’s no time of day where you can’t enjoy reading something on this device. It’s waterproof too so you won’t have to worry about using it on the beach or in the bath. This Kindle works with Audible, so it’s ideal if you want to dip into audiobooks.

There’s the choice of 8gb storage or 32gb but we’d stick with 8gb. It’s good for most people, and still offers enough room for you to store audiobooks as well as traditional tomes too. The book lover in your life is going to adore this.

Buy on Amazon Reading Clip Light ($6)

For the book lover who prefers a physical copy than a Kindle version, light can be an issue. After all, it’s useful to be able to see what you’re reading! The Energizer Clip Book Light is an inexpensive solution. Simply clip it onto a nearby surface and it recreates natural reading conditions for your eyes. It has a compact design, as well as a collapsible neck, so you can easily store it in your bag when traveling.

Read the remaining 20 paragraphs