A humidifier? As a present? Trust us: a season of clear sinuses and hydrated skin will be a gift they’ll thank you for. Unlike the clunky gadgets of your childhood, the Breath's sleek design blends right into a room. It also offers easy-to-use settings, including a self-adjusting auto mode, and it won’t make a peep while it disperses moisture into the air.

Does the world need a smarter thermostat? Do your parents? It can be a tough sell — all boring benefits like heating bills and home management — but for the right detail-oriented mom or dad, this is what all of 20th-century technology has been leading up to. It just turns itself down! Automatically! What a country!

Simon Stålenhag is a Swedish artist lost in childhood dreams — in a good way. His vibrant body of work captures a unique Northern European pastoralia in a future filled with crop-dusting robots, dinosaurs, massive mining ships, and in the midst of it all, children at play.

There’s no reason your favorite monsters, villains, and harbingers of death have to be creepy all the time. Scott C. takes these iconic faces — from Venom to death itself — and puts them in the midst of quaint scenes that suggest how they might spend their downtime. These are the monsters you'll want under your bed.

Embrace the reality that the speakers built into your TV are awful. Fortunately, spending just a few hundred bucks works wonders. We recommend Sony's new HT-CT260H hexagonal soundbar, a compact kit with a wireless subwoofer and painless, tangle-free setup. It's not just movies either: you can stream music from your phone or tablet via Bluetooth in a pinch.

Perfect for anyone looking to create a little romance this season, the Bose SoundTouch 20 is a wireless audio solution that lives on your home Wi-Fi network. It holds its own with AirPlay support and programmable channels that can store playlists, internet radio stations, and more. That’s right. R. Kelly is now just a button away.

Putting together a surround-sound speaker setup is rarely cheap or easy, but Klipsch’s HD Theater 600 does it all. Its four small and sleek satellite speakers and single center-channel wrap you in surround sound, and the subwoofer with 8-inch cone gives you the serious living room rumble you desire.

At $699, it's pricier than your standard soundbar, but with the Playbar, Sonos is finally taking the living room seriously. Nine speakers in one handsome package, it'll make everything from *Call of Duty* to *New Girl* sound even better. And because it's Sonos, it makes streaming music from almost anywhere painless.

Every year Penguin issues several new tites in its Clothbound Classics series. Each book is exquisitely designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith, making it a near-instant collectors' item. The books, inspired by Victorian-era bookbinding, are apparently printed in fairly limited runs, and they go out of stock quite often.

Everything can be disassembled, and to more of a degree than you'd imagine. Todd McLellan's 'Things Come Apart' takes 50 devices, some classic, some modern, and tears them apart to the nth degree. The mesmerizing exploded-view photos are accompanied by thoughtful essays from experts on design, teardowns, and reverse engineering.

Think of 'Rookie Yearbook Two’ as the print version of the very best pieces from the second year of Tavi Gevinson’s 'Rookie.' This volume includes personal essays by teenage contributors as well as pieces from Judy Blume, Morrissey, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Grimes, among others.

'Object 10' is a robust collection of artist Kilian Eng's strange, colorful, and fantastical worlds. A modern day Moebius, of sorts, Eng paints surreal visions of places where submarines look like squids and the banisters of your hotel lobby have veins, ready to burst to life at any moment.

Guillermo del Toro has built a career off well-crafted monsters, from the Kaiju of 'Pacific Rim' to the demons of 'Hellboy' — but it's rare that you get to see them as close up as you'd like. Del Toro's 'Cabinet of Curiosities' offers a different look at the monsters, showing how they matured from sketches into fully realized creatures, growing both stranger and more tangible along the way.

You want a next-gen console and you don't care about TV integration or eerily observant cameras. The PlayStation 4 is a sleek gaming machine with one of the most comfortable controllers ever made, and strong launch titles like 'Resogun' and 'Battlefield 4' — with the promise of more early next year.

The Xbox One is more expensive than the PS4, but it’s also more ambitious: its high-tech Kinect camera and ambitious software package want to replace your set-top box. It could easily be your console for the next decade, if Microsoft delivers.

'Super Mario' is great, but sometimes platform games are better with a friend — and 'Ibb & Obb' is an adorable game that you can literally only play with another person. It's charming and challenging, and will test your smarts as much as your friendship.

Fancy some 'Metroid' action with a dash of Mexican flavor? The pun-laden 'Guacamelee' for PS3, Vita, and PC is one of the best ways to get in some of that classic side-scrolling action without having to dust off your Super Nintendo.

It may look cute, but exploration game 'Spelunky' isn't for the faint of heart. You'll die — a lot — as the game forces you to really earn every inch of progress. Think of death as more like a learning experience.

The latest 'Grand Theft Auto' isn't just the biggest so far: it's also the best. It's beautifully rendered mayhem that features great action, an engaging story, and a huge world to explore. Plus, you can take selfies.

You may be sick of zombie games, but 'The Last of Us' is different: it's a horrific apocalyptic vision with half a moral compass and some heart. You'll still be killing lots of dudes, but for once you might actually feel bad about it.

'Battlefield 4' is all about bigger: large-scale, 64-player shootouts across terrains that can flood, freeze, or (in the case of buildings) fall down after too many explosions. This game is about more weapons, more vehicles, and more spectacle — and it's a game you can find on pretty much any console you have.

Sony’s MDR-1RNC headphones are the antithesis of distracted listening — active noise canceling means no other sound will get between you and your music, and a built-in 22-hour battery means you’ll have plenty of power both for lengthy living-room sessions and any cross-continent flights.

If you’re willing to add a bit of bulk to your backpack, grab the Alienware 14 (starting at $1,099), a gaming beast that can run some of today’s best-looking games with the visual glory they deserve. You’ll just have to convince yourself to close 'BioShock Infinite' and open up Google Docs to get some work done.

Georges Franju’s 1960 horror classic received a brand-new remaster for Criterion’s Blu-ray release, giving viewers the chance to witness its black-and-white beauty better than ever before. The story of a doctor who goes to great lengths to aid his disfigured daughter, it’s at turns moody, poetic, and downright horrifying.

We’re going to make this very simple. If someone you know hasn’t already seen Katsuhiro Otomo’s adaptation of his manga 'Akira,' you will vastly improve their life by bringing it into their world. This new 25th-anniversary Blu-ray is the best way to do it.

Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Nick Frost have been crafting creative comedies ever since they joined forces on the UK series 'Spaced.' The fruit of the trio's cinematic endeavors is The Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy. 'Shaun of the Dead,' 'Hot Fuzz,' and 'The World’s End' are all mandatory viewing — or re-viewing, as the case may be.

'Breaking Bad' just wrapped a legendary run, and for those not ready to let go we’ve got just the thing. This 16-disc set collects the entire series, a new mini-doc, and an assortment of extras. It’s all stored in a replica of a plastic barrel, which we’d normally say was one step too far… but it comes with a Los Pollos Hermanos 'apron,' people.

Because Time And Relative Dimension In Space is just a fancy way of saying 'blue box.' Because Nine, Ten, and Eleven are proper names. Because you cringe whenever people spell it 'Dr. Who.' Because 'wibbly wobbly, timey wimey' is a thing you say. Because anything you just read makes perfect sense — or because it didn't and you really want it to.

If your living room is more complicated than a TV and an antenna, you need a smart remote. Logitech's Harmony Smart Control ($129) is a great, cost-effective choice for bringing together your console, Apple TV, and other set-top boxes. It works with iOS and Android apps to turn your smartphone into the clicker.

Google's deceptively cheap Chromecast is the easiest way to get the wealth of video, music, and more from Google's Play Store to your TV. Netflix, Pandora, and Hulu mean that the Chromecast isn't just limited to the world of Google. For $35, it's the perfect stocking stuffer for the Android owner in your life.

Roku's newest set-top box is a marked improvement over earlier versions: it's faster, more responsive, easier to use, and has more to watch than ever. At only $99, a Roku 3 is a must buy: even if you aren't cutting the cable cord, The Roku's vast wealth of on-demand content makes a great fallback when channel surfing fails.

Apple hasn't added much to its Apple TV set-top box lately, but it remains the easiest way to get iTunes to the TV. Pair that with the various apps already available to acces Netflix, Hulu, and more, and it's easy to see why the $99 Apple TV is still a living-room essential.

Traveling and want to watch the game? Or just watch the newest episode of 'Mad Men' you DVR'd while stuck on a layover? The Slingbox 500 is the answer: it lets you watch whatever is on your cable box from anywhere, on any device, in full 1080p.

TiVo's Roamio Pro is simply the best cable box out there. It's not perfect — and it's definitely not cheap — but it's far ahead of the garbage your cable company offers. The best DVR on the market integrates your cable TV and internet services, streams to iOS devices, and expands your storage with an external hard drive.

Drafthouse Films' mission is simple: to bring audiences some of the most unique and eccentric films out there. The Alliance subscription gets you its next 10 Blu-ray or DVD releases, plus invites to special screenings around the country. Drafthouse Films understands how people watch movies — so if you don’t want physical media, a digital-only version is available.

If you know anyone who doesn’t have a Netflix subscription, well, shame on them. 'House of Cards' and 'Orange is the New Black' are too good to miss. Because they're probably using your account, get them to stop mooching with a gift subscription, starting with a month’s worth of unlimited streaming.

Sometimes you can't just wait for seasons to come out on Netflix — you need to talk about last night's episode of 'The Walking Dead,' not last year's. Hulu Plus adds the ability to watch Hulu on mobile devices and streaming boxes, and opens up an expanded assortment of shows and movies — including the impeccable Criterion Collection.

The iPad Air represents the most significant redesign to Apple's iconic tablet in years. It's strikingly light, blazing fast, and lasts all day without issue. Despite other tablets hitting the market in recent years, the iPad is still the cream of the crop, and while it still won't replace your PC, the iPad Air is the best version yet.

Anki Drive is a high-tech racing game where each toy car is actually a tiny robot controlled by your iPhone. Race your friends and family around the included track, blasting them with virtual weapons all the way to the finish. The resulting game is a compelling hybrid of the physical and digital worlds.

HDTV prices have dropped to the point where it's not crazy to recommend a model at a respectable size under $400. If you're on a budget, check out Vizio's E0i series: you'll get 1080p HD resolution, three HDMI ports, and a clean, minimal design. Plus, the 39-inch model can be found for under $370.

The price is all too right for this 51-inch plasma TV from Samsung. The set has a tiny bezel that’ll make its big screen feel even bigger, and as a plasma, you can expect some beautifully black blacks, even though it’s not top of the line.

Picture quality purists were crushed when Panasonic announced it was ceasing production of its wonderful plasma TVs. Panasonic’s ST series hits just the sweet spot with superb black levels, viewing angles, and color accuracy that beat similarly priced LED TVs. Even better, you can find the 50-inch model for under $1,000.

Panasonic is giving up the plasma game, so you may want to jump on one of its remaining, much-loved sets while you still can. The Viera TC-P60ST50 may be pricey, but with its 60-inch display, 1080p resolution, Wi-Fi connectivity, and support for 3D, it should be more TV than you’ll need for years to come.