Best of 2025: The Verge’s Top Picks

Welcome to the final edition of our weekly guide, a curated look at the most compelling tech, media, and tools that defined the year. As we wrap up, we’re sharing a personal selection of standout discoveries from 2025 alongside insights from our community, offering a comprehensive list to inspire your next great find.

This year brought us a wealth of remarkable products and experiences. From groundbreaking gadgets to captivating stories, here are ten personal favorites that made a lasting impression, presented in no specific ranking.

Cory Doctorow’s “Enshittification” delivers a reading experience that is both immensely enjoyable and profoundly aggravating. The book provides a clarifying lens on modern digital life, creating that deeply satisfying sensation of having complex frustrations neatly explained.

For audio excellence, the Sony WH-1000XM6 headphones stand out. While other models perform well, these Sonys operate on another level entirely. Their all-day comfort, superb sound quality, and exceptional noise cancellation have made them indispensable, even serving as a sanctuary during the noisiest moments of the year.

As a gadget, nothing topped the Nintendo Switch 2. After years of wishing for a more powerful version of the beloved console, this release delivered exactly that. The enhanced experience in familiar worlds like Mario Kart has been an absolute delight.

In the realm of productivity, Claude Code has been revolutionary. Amidst a sea of underwhelming AI tools, this large language model demonstrates a genuine talent for generating functional code for simple projects. Retraining my brain to solve minor issues by building quick apps and browser extensions has felt like unlocking a new superpower.

Antinote solved a constant minor headache. Despite having organized note-taking systems, I frequently needed a quick space for calculations or random thoughts. This Mac application functions as a versatile scratchpad, calculator, timer, and list-maker, with an iOS beta I find myself using constantly.

While my television viewing has been limited this year, “The Studio” was a show I consumed voraciously. Its inventive, weird, and genuinely hilarious storytelling provided a kind of laughter that feels increasingly rare.

Smart home integration took a step forward with Amazon’s Echo Dot Max. Revisiting smart speakers after a long hiatus in a new home proved worthwhile. While its core functions are music and timers, having a responsive, good-sounding device for those tasks has been a simple pleasure.

Pairing well with the speaker, Philips Hue Essentials smart lights transformed my living space. The initial investment is notable, but the payoff is substantial. Configuring them has turned a once harsh environment into a perpetually cozy atmosphere, and the ability to control every light from bed is a minor modern luxury.

Breaking into a crowded podcast rotation is no small feat, yet “Good Hang” with Amy Poehler earned its spot. The conversational chemistry, particularly in episodes like the one with Martin Short, creates some of the most delightful listening available.

Finally, Puzzmo has been a beneficial digital habit. Actively replacing social media scrolling with short puzzle sessions from this app’s collection, including Really Bad Chess and Pile-Up Poker, has become a daily ritual that feels both engaging and mentally rewarding.

We also invited Jason Kottke, a longtime inspiration in the world of thoughtful curation, to share his homescreen and current interests.

His iPhone 17 Pro features a personal photograph of a Mexican sandbar as wallpaper. The app layout is intentionally straightforward, favoring stock Apple applications like Notes, Weather, and Calendar for their reliability. A notable exception is Swarm, used for years as a personal log of visited locations. Social media apps are relegated to secondary screens in an attempt to curb usage, though their pull remains strong.

Jason’s current recommendations include Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution” on PBS, a documentary so engrossing it routinely disrupts sleep schedules. He finds tools like Opus 4.5 and Claude Code to represent a true disruptive inflection point for their capabilities with minimal guidance. For personal knowledge management, he’s experimenting with Raindrop.io as a central repository for saving links and notes, acknowledging the process requires consistent input before seeing the organizational benefits.

Our community shared an incredible array of their own favorite discoveries from the past year.

Hardware enthusiasts praised items like the Keychron Q1 HE keyboard for its premium typing feel and customizability, and the Home Assistant Green hub for unifying smart home automation. Photography was a theme, with one reader rediscovering the joy of shooting on a used Fujifilm X100V after becoming a parent.

Tech tools garnered significant praise. Many highlighted the empowerment of “vibe coding” using AI assistants like Gemini and Claude to build simple web apps without deep programming knowledge. Others recommended TRMNL as a versatile tinkering device and the Apple Vision Pro as a transformative purchase on the secondary market.

Entertainment recommendations were plentiful. Andy Weir’s “Project Hail Mary” was a standout read, with the upcoming film adaptation adding to the excitement. “Dungeons and Daddies” and “Good Hang” were podcast favorites, while Jay Kristoff’s “The Empire of the Vampire” and the concluded “Sun Eater” series by Christopher Ruocchio captivated fantasy and sci-fi readers. For a historical deep dive, “Apple in China” by Patrick McGee was cited as a masterful narrative.

Other notable mentions included the Riddara EV pickup for its performance and reverse charging capability, Android-based handhelds like the AYN Odin 2 Portal for emulation and gaming, vintage HP-1xC calculators for their enduring design, the Selphy Photo Printer for creative projects, and the organization tool Mymind for its simplicity and elegance.

A sincere thank you is due to everyone who contributes to this community by sharing recommendations each week. This guide exists because of your insights. Thank you as well to the creators and developers who hear from new audiences, and to every reader who engages with these curated finds. My goal remains to be a trustworthy source for things deserving of your valuable time and attention. Wishing you all a peaceful holiday season and an exciting start to the new year.

(Source: The Verge)