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January 9, 2025

Rozette Rago/NYT Wirecutter

Waking up in the middle of the night in a clockless room isn’t ideal for a few reasons: If you’re checking your phone to see the time, anxiety-inducing notifications can lodge into your brain, and bright, blue light can bore into your eyes—both of which can make it difficult to fall back to sleep. As editor-in-chief Ben Frumin, who used to suffer from this exact problem, puts it: “I just wanted to know what time it was. I didn’t want or need my iPhone’s display pouring into my eyeballs.”

One idea, a la Ben? Consider a dedicated clock for your bedroom. We have plenty of expert-approved recommendations for great alarm clocks, including a sunrise option and one that plays nature sounds. But for Ben, this minimalist (but handsome!)—and wildly cheap—clock was all he needed to quit his middle-of-the-night phone checks.

A handsome clock that doesn’t cost a fortune→

We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Learn more ›

This automatic dustpan has over 11,000 5-star reviews on Amazon But we’re not impressed→

“I spent months testing bath mats. This is the one I bought for myself.” This washi-paper-and-bamboo-fiber mat is absorbent ... and abrasive in a good way→

How to hide your ugly Wi-Fi router There are ways to do it without blocking its signal→

“I tried the Tesla of induction stoves. It could be the future.” This slide-in stove is the only battery-assisted induction range available. And it’s great→

Photo illustration by NYT Wirecutter; source photo by iStock/ultraones

While it might be tempting to avoid purchasing a printer altogether, it’s hard to deny the convenience of printing personal records, kids homework, or even a return label without leaving the house.

On this week’s episode of The Wirecutter Show, supervising editor Ben Keough, who’s been covering printers for over a decade, offers a cheat sheet to help you wade through the suckiness. Need basic black and white? An inexpensive laser printer will do the trick. For color printing, an all-in-one is the way to go. The key is to figure out what kind of printing you need the machine to perform, then choose from the best home printers to get the job done.

Lisa Fischer/NYT Wirecutter

Newsletters editor Brittney Ho is reporting this week from the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas. Here’s her latest:

When you’ve been shuffling through hoards of people for hours—as I have been doing for days underneath the perpetually brightly lit and seemingly mile-high ceiling of the Venetian—an ice cream sample is a special type of healing.

ColdSnap, which I had the privilege of sampling Tuesday afternoon, is a $3,000 frozen treat maker designed so you (allegedly) hardly have to clean it, nor hook it up to any water or plumbing lines. There’s two components: ice cream mix that comes in shelf-stable bottles (meaning they can sit around in your pantry until an ice cream craving strikes) and a Nespresso-esque machine that churns said bottles into soft-serve in minutes. We’ve been impressed by frozen dessert machines before (see: the viral Ninja Slushi and this surprisingly impressive cocktail maker), but senior staff writer Rachel Wharton calls this one particularly innovative, well made, and impressive.

Also, and maybe most importantly: The ice cream is very tasty. I sampled the dairy-free oat milk chocolate and the plain vanilla, and both were delightfully refreshing. Not icy, gritty, or cloyingly sweet at all. Rachel agreed: “The chocolate tasted like Mister Softee—maybe even better.”

But with its hefty price tag, plus each bottle coming in at $3.50 a pop, she thinks it’d probably be a better fit for offices or restaurants than homes. Or, of course, on cramped showroom floors. — Brittney

Thanks for reading.

You can reach the Wirecutter Newsletters team at newsletters@wirecutter.com. We can’t always respond, but we do love to hear from you.

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