The winter 2025 holiday season is coming up, and many of us are looking for good gift ideas. As potential inspiration, here are five technology purchases I've never regretted, in no particular order:

• A modern and larger external display—many of us operate from our notebooks most of the time, so it's easy to forget that sometimes a screen we can't easily carry around is valuable. Intense competition in the center of the market has made good monitors relatively inexpensive—QHD (2,560 x 1,440 pixel) 24-inch or 27-inch displays are just a few hundred dollars. In this mid-range, I'm partial to Dell, Lenovo, and ViewSonic displays. You can still splurge and get the magnificent LG 5K UltraFine—but maybe not for much longer.
• Excellent noise-cancelling headphones—if you like the idea of noise-cancelling headphones, and haven't tried a set in over five years, it's time to take another look. The best of these devices are now so good and so configurable. Whether it's Bose's QuietComfort headphones (the long-time market leader), Sony's WH-1000XM series headphones (a favorite of mine), or Apple's AirPods Pro 3 earphones (the miniaturization leader), these are computers that you wear near your ears.
• A Gallium Nitride (GaN) charger—this seems basic, but many of us continue to use last decade's chargers, even though many of our devices can now handle much more current. Get an updated charger, by Anker, Belkin, or others, and it just might change the timing of your daily routines.
• A capable multi-function inkjet printer—I believe it's better to think of these as document-handling devices rather than as printing devices. With mine, I know I've done more scanning than printing. My personal preference is for Epson's products (a current offering is the Expression Photo 970), but Hewlett-Packard, Canon, and others make competitive devices. 
• Any self-powered external SSD—fast storage just doesn't cost that much anymore. A name-brand 1 TB external USB-powered drive goes for a little over $100 at this point. I've been buying SanDisk drives, but there's nothing wrong with Samsung's and Verbatim's offerings.

Mac Edition Radio wishes you best of luck with your holiday tech shopping!

John Mulhern III, posted December 1, 2025