The best apps, games, and entertainment for all of your new tech in 2019

The holidays are here, and if you’re unwrapping a new Kindle (or a non-Amazon-branded e-reader, or just a device with an e-book app on it), you might be looking for some new books to read. 

If you need some recommendations, here’s a list of some of the best science fiction books released in 2019, which should be the perfect choices for a long plane ride home or a quiet vacation morning.

You’ve got an evening to kill and a Netflix subscription — don’t waste any time browsing. These ten picks aren’t going to even begin to cover all of the great stuff on Netflix, but it’s a good start. Here’s what you should definitely watch.

We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs and Macs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for gaming PCs, the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and VR. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and Netflix, some great sci-fi books, and exciting new podcasts. (Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing, but may change.)

The Disney-fueled ESPN+/Disney+/Hulu triple pack might be the biggest power play in the streaming wars yet. The late-2019 bundling of these services offers three huge entertainment libraries, a staggering array of choices that’s mostly good at making it impossible to choose. Don’t sweat it. Here are 10 rock-solid picks culled from all three services, with something for any mood.

Unless noted otherwise, most of these are available on Hulu, the service with the largest and most varied library.

Got a VR headset for the holidays this year and unsure of where to start? Not to worry — whether you’ve got an Oculus Quest, Vive Cosmos, or a Nintendo Labo VR kit, here are recommendations for some of our favorite games that best show off the platform’s capabilities. There’s a good range of games that span family-friendly to escape-the-family, so hopefully there’s something here for everyone. 

We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs and Macs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for gaming PCs, the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and VR. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and Netflix, some great sci-fi books, and exciting new podcasts. (Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing, but may change.)

Getting the most out of your Apple computer often means exploring well beyond the stock apps pre-installed on macOS and the top charts of the Mac App Store. Many of the best productivity, workflow, and OS customization software have been around for years, but they can be hard to find if you’re a first-time Mac user and don’t know what you’re looking for or what the crucial differences are between macOS and Windows. 

Below, we’ve compiled a list of some of the best software available for Mac, from email and shortcut apps to window organizers and multimedia players. This isn’t meant to be a definitive list; check out last year’s guide for GIF making, recipe organization, and photo editing apps, for example. But it is a good place to start when it comes to building a better machine for work, recreation, and everything in between. 

Setting up a new phone is a flurry of entering passwords, transferring contact data, downloading must-have social media apps, and entering even more passwords. Once that’s all done, it’s time to fill your phone with everything else you might need day to day: a smarter weather app, a good email client, and some things to make sure you have plenty to read and listen to. Here are our suggestions for where to start.

We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs and Macs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for gaming PCs, the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and VR. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and Netflix, some great sci-fi books, and exciting new podcasts. (Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing, but may change.)

Anyone who has used Windows through more than one version knows that, no matter how many utilities Microsoft adds to its operating system, there are always apps and utilities that will enhance your use. We listed several good ones in last year’s edition; this year, we have a few new ones to add to the mix. If you have a brand new system, consider installing some (or all) of these.

We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs and Macs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for gaming PCs, the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and VR. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and Netflix, some great sci-fi books, and exciting new podcasts. (Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing, but may change.)

If you’re lucky enough to have unwrapped a new iPhone as a holiday gift this year, you’ll probably want to install some new apps on it. Fortunately, we’re here to help with some suggestions. We’ve divided them into two types: great apps that are just generally fun or useful to have on your phone, and apps that you should download to replace the default ones that Apple ships on your iPhone. 

We’ve rounded up our favorite and most-used games, apps, and entertainment. Check out our app picks for iPhones, Android phones, PCs and Macs; our favorite mobile games from Apple Arcade and Google Play Pass; and our top choices for gaming PCs, the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and VR. We’ve also listed our favorite streaming shows on Disney+, Hulu, ESPN and Netflix, some great sci-fi books, and exciting new podcasts. (Note: pricing was accurate at the time of publishing, but may change.)

The world of iPhone and iPad games changed dramatically in September with the launch of Apple Arcade. The subscription is an incredible deal: for $4.99 a month, or $49.99 per year, you get unlimited access to more than 100 titles from some of the biggest mobile game developers around. That includes the creators behind hits like Threes, Monument Valley, and Alto’s Adventure. And the great thing about a subscription is that you can try anything, including games you might not otherwise play, without worrying about wasting your money.

The problem? There are so many games on the service that it can be hard to know where to start. If you just picked up a new iPhone or iPad over the holidays, you can’t go wrong with these eight excellent games.

Whether you’ve just gotten a new gaming PC, are building a new PC for yourself, or have just decided to gift yourself with some new games, we have ten suggestions to make your gaming experience fun. Not all of them are new or the most graphically demanding, but they should provide you with hours of enjoyment.

Unlike gaming on a console, there are several ways for PC gamers to get their fix, from Steam and Origin to Epic Game Store and GOG. It’s important to know that not all platforms offer the same games. When they do, shop around — you might find a better price on one versus the other.

Sony’s PlayStation 4 may be entering its eighth and final year in 2020, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be a new PS4 owner this holiday season. After all, game consoles are cheaper than ever ahead of next fall’s next-gen refresh, and there are scores of amazing titles from the last decade or so that are still worth playing. 

For Sony, 2020 is going to be a huge year, in fact. There’s Final Fantasy VII Remake coming in March, as well as The Last of Us Part II in May. There’s also a pair of excellent-looking new samurai games, Ghost of Tsushima and Nioh 2, both coming as PS4 exclusives next year. Every one of those games is a good reason to get a PS4 now, especially if you don’t plan on diving in headfirst into the next generation 12 months from now. 

If you’ve added an Xbox One S or Xbox One X to your entertainment center this year, you’ll need some games to play. Now more than ever, it’s far easier — and cheaper — to load up on the best games to play. Why? Because of how excellent Xbox Game Pass has become.

For $14.99 per month ($1 for the first three months if you’re a new subscriber), the all-in-one Game Pass Ultimate subscription gets you access to hundreds of games to download. It also grants you the ability to play multiplayer games online with friends (where supported). Lastly, you’ll get exclusive discounts on popular games.

We’re quickly approaching the third anniversary of the Nintendo Switch, and a lot has changed in that time. Nintendo’s console / tablet hybrid now boasts a mature, varied lineup of games; an online service with Netflix-style access to NES and SNES games; and even a new iteration of the hardware thanks to the smaller, sleeker Switch Lite. Early on, it was easy to figure out what to play; you just downloaded a copy of Breath of the Wild and lost yourself for dozens of hours. Now, things are more challenging because there are so many interesting games.

If you just got your hands on a Switch over the holidays, here are eight great games to start your journey with.

If you just got a brand-new Android phone for the holidays, you probably want to play some games on your shiny device. Luckily, that’s especially easy to do this year with Google’s $5-per-month Google Play Pass games and apps subscription service, which offers free access to hundreds of games without pushing ads or demanding in-app purchases.

We’ve looked through what’s available on Play Pass, which you can currently sign up for before January 3rd for just $1.99 a month (for six months of service), and it has a lot of good games to check out. Here are just a few that we recommend. And since all of the games are also available individually — either free with ads and in-app purchases, or for specific prices — we’ve included their Google Play links as well.