Black Friday and the official start of the holiday season is upon us. iTechGear is dedicated to helping everyone find the best gifts for their loved ones be they technology-based or just a really good gift idea.  Each week between now and December 22, 2023, we’ll publish our editor’s picks to help you find the perfect gifts!  This week, Joel has pulled his five top Black Friday picks.  Joel’s won’t be all technology-based, but they will be things people who love tech can use.

Number 5: Viking Coffee Drink Coffee. Work Hard Mug

Viking Coffee out of Michigan has some of the best coffee there is and I would LOVE to get one of these mugs to contain a cup of my favorite brew, Refined Savage Old Man Strength. Viking is run by Evan and Marissa Armstrong and they roast up some fine beans and some fine merch to show your love of Viking Coffee. The Mug is only $30 dollars and looks really nice.

Number 4: SHOKZ Open Run Bone Conducting Headphones

While I don’t have these particular headphones I do have the SHOKZ Open Comm headset that is better designed for Zoom calls but the concept is the same as the Open Runs. Instead of an element sitting on top of the ear or in the ear it is just in front of your ear’s opening resting on the bone. Then the sound conducts into your ear via the bone. While it’s a bit weird the first time you use them that feeling passes as you listen. Plus the best thing is you can still hear what is going on in the room. The Open Runs are on sale for $89.99 on Amazon.

Number 3: RTL-SDR Blog V3 R860 RTL2832U

This has a strange name but let me tell you if you like radio at all you’ll like this little Software Defined radio or SDR.  At $43.95 you get a complete kit including 2 sets of dipole antennas, a suction cup for attaching the antenna to a window and a tripod for mounting the antenna on a pole, chair or tree. You can listen to both UHF and VHF amateur radio bands as well as HF radio, VHF AirBand, AM and FM broadcast band as well as shortwave broadcast bands across the world simply by plugging it in to your USB port.  On Windows you use SDR Sharp to listen to the radio.  It also works with Android as well using SDR Touch. That’s not all.  It can ALSO receive ADSB using Avare ADSB on Android. ADSB is Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast….essentially every plane transmits its coordinates and it’s heading every few seconds.  You can pick these signals up using this SDR radio and be able to see what planes are near you. This is the same technology that Flightradar 24 uses for tracking aircraft. I know this may sound like it’s over the head of many of our readers but it works excellent as just a AM/FM radio depending on your antenna. This is a fun gadget to play with if you are at all into radio.

Number 2: Anker Powerbank 737

The holidays is an excellent time to pick up a power bank to keep those devices charged up on your holiday travel and the Anker 737 is a great powerbank that will not only keep your phone, iPad or your laptop charged up but can also charge your accessories as well and if you have a USB-C charging break that can output 140 W you can recharge thus bank in 30 minutes.  I use my MacBook charger with this and I am super impressed with how fast it charges and how long it lasts.  It was the only bank I used on my last trip and I even charged my Pixel Watch with it.  For $92.00 its another great product from Anker.

Number 1: 6th Generation 11 inch iPad Pro 

The iPad Pro is massively over powered with it’s M2 chip in it but it still is the best tablet device I’ve ever used.  It supports the Apple Pencil to and Magic Keyboard and I have the 128 GB version and have yet to run out of storage. The iPad Pro is one of my most favorite devices and it always goes with me when I go to the gym or when I am travelling.  You already know it’s great just go get it!