Chaque année, c’est la même rengaine : fleurs, bijoux ou coffrets parfumés reviennent en tête des idées cadeaux pour la fête des mères. Mais en 2025, il est grand temps de dépoussiérer les traditions. Pourquoi ne pas miser sur des objets connectés, des gadgets malins ou des clins d’œil à la pop culture, qui allient utilité, fun et originalité ?

I've never particularly loved Amazon, either as a retail behemoth or as a hardware and software company, but despite that I still probably get more excited about new Kindle releases than I do about most other gadgets at this point.

Some of that is because I rely on my Kindle for distraction-free reading and because I'm constantly highlighting things and taking notes, so even minor improvements have a major impact on my day-to-day experience. And some of it is because the Kindle's relatively limited tech has left it without a lot of headroom to shove additional ads or other paid add-ons; they include lockscreen ads and "special offers," but they can be permanently turned off with a nominal $20 fee, and even when you don't turn them off, they don't degrade the device's performance or intrude on the actual reading experience. This isn't to say that Kindles are perfect, just that it's rare that I am roughly the same amount of annoyed by a software platform's ads and tracking than I was a decade ago.

Enter the new 12th-generation $160 Kindle Paperwhite , which like most Paperwhites is the Kindle that most people should buy.

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Like Lee Hutchinson, I have a garage. The door on that garage is opened and closed by a device made by a company that, as with Lee's, offers you a way to open and close it with a smartphone app. But that app doesn't work with my preferred home automation system, Home Assistant , and also looks and works like an app made by a garage door company.

I had looked into the ratgdo Lee installed, and raved about , but hooking it up to my particular Genie/Aladdin system would have required installing limit switches . So I instead installed an OpenGarage unit ($50 plus shipping). My garage opener now works with Home Assistant (and thereby pretty much anything else), it's not subject to the whims of API access, and I've got a few ideas how to make it even better. Allow me to walk you through what I did, why I did it, and what I might do next.

Thanks, I’ll take it from here, Genie

Genie, maker of my Wi-Fi-capable garage door opener (sold as an "Aladdin Connect" system), is not in the same boat as the Chamberlain/myQ setup that inspired Lee's project. There was a working Aladdin Connect integration in Home Assistant, until the company changed its API in January 2024. Genie said it would release its own official Home Assistant integration in June, and it did, but then it was quickly pulled back, seemingly for licensing issues . Since then, no updates on the matter. (I have emailed Genie for comment and will update this post if I receive reply.)

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For some PC buyers, doing a clean install of Windows right out of the box is part of the setup ritual. But for Arm-based PCs, including the Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon X Plus and Elite chips in them, it hasn't been possible in the same way. Microsoft (mostly) hasn't offered generic install media that can be used to reinstall Windows on an Arm PC from scratch.

Microsoft is fixing that today—the company finally has a download page for the official Arm release of Windows 11, linked to but separate from the ISOs for the x86 versions of Windows . These are useful not just for because-I-feel-like-it clean installs, but for reinstalling Windows after you've upgraded your SSD and setting up Windows virtual machines on Arm-based PCs and Macs.

Previously, Microsoft did offer install media for some Windows Insider Preview Arm builds , though these are for beta versions of Windows that may or may not be feature-complete or stable. Various apps, scripts, and websites also exist to grab files from Microsoft's servers and build "unofficial" ISOs for the Arm version of Windows, though obviously this is more complicated than just downloading a single file directly.

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Meta has been fined nearly €800 million by Brussels after regulators accused Facebook’s parent company of stifling competition by “tying” its free Marketplace services with the social network.

Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s outgoing competition chief, said on Thursday that by linking Facebook with its classified ads service Meta had “imposed unfair trading conditions” on other providers.

She added: “It did so to benefit its own service Facebook Marketplace, thereby giving it advantages that [others] could not match. This is illegal.”

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The launch of the first-ever color Kindle isn't going so great. Amazon's Colorsoft began shipping on October 30, but shipments were paused after some customers complained about a yellow bar at the bottom of the screen and discoloration around the edges. Amazon is working on a fix and is offering a replacement or refund.

That's where another problem comes in. Leading up to the launch, Amazon ran a promotion advertising that its customers could trade in their old Kindle for a 20 percent discount on the Colorsoft. And some of those customers are now returning their new Colorsoft due to the yellow bar defect—leaving them without an e-reader altogether. Amazon has yet to provide any concrete information on when the fix will be ready for the Colorsoft and when it will resume shipping. It's a mess.

It started with an advertisement for a limited-time discount on the Colorsoft via Amazon's trade-in program . If the device was eligible , you had to answer a few questions about its condition and then ship it off. Once Amazon appraises it, the trade-in value appears in the form of an Amazon gift card. Amazon also offered an additional 20 percent off the Colorsoft along with the trade-in credit.

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Having two displays in a single device is a growing trend that appeals to people with limited desk space or who need extra pixels to work with when on the go. But often, dual-screen devices, like laptops, are loaded with trade-offs that detract from the convenience two screens should provide.

I've tried using dual-screen laptops as my primary display/computing device before. But if I were to buy a dual-screen gadget today, it would be a dual-screen portable monitor. After spending the last month using a dual-screen portable monitor as my main work display, I believe that laptops should leave the dual-display thing to portable monitors. At least for now.

Clever design tricks simplify use

These days, several companies offer dual-screen monitors, including some Chinese brands you may not have heard of on Amazon and Acer. The monitor I tested is from JSAUX, a Shenzhen-headquartered company that has been around for eight years and has made a name for itself selling Steam Deck accessories .

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Amazon is shutting down Freevee, its free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) service, as it heightens focus on selling ads on its Prime Video subscription service.

Amazon, which has owned IMDb since 1998, launched Freevee as IMDb Freedive in 2019. The service let people watch movies and shows, including Freevee originals, on demand without a subscription fee. Amazon's streaming offering was also previously known as IMDb TV and rebranded to Amazon Freevee in 2022.

According to a report from Deadline this week, Freevee is being “phased out over the coming weeks,” but a firm closing date hasn’t been shared publicly.

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In some ways, my review of the new MacBook Pros will be a lot like my review of the new iMac. This is the third year and fourth generation of the Apple Silicon-era MacBook Pro design , and outwardly, few things have changed about the new M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max laptops.

Here are the things that are different. Boosted RAM capacities, across the entire lineup but most crucially in the entry-level $1,599 M4 MacBook Pro, make the new laptops a shade cheaper and more versatile than they used to be. The new nano-texture display option, a $150 upgrade on all models, is a lovely matte-textured coating that completely eliminates reflections. There's a third Thunderbolt port on the baseline M4 model (the M3 model had two), and it can drive up to three displays simultaneously (two external, plus the built-in screen). There's a new webcam. It looks a little nicer and has a wide-angle lens that can show what's on your desk instead of your face if you want it to. And there are new chips, which we'll get to.

That is essentially the end of the list. If you are still using an Intel-era MacBook Pro, I'll point you to our previous reviews , which mostly celebrate the improvements (more and different kids of ports, larger screens) while picking one or two nits (they are a bit larger and heavier than late-Intel MacBook Pros, and the display notch is an eyesore).

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