Gift Guide

The Tech That Helped Us Endure 2020

Stuff that made us happy in the saddest year of all time

Dave Gershgorn
Debugger
Published in
11 min readDec 4, 2020

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Photo illustration sources (Getty Images): Evgeniy Grishchenko; Stephen Lam; Jetta Productions Inc

At OneZero, we’re looking back at the year and, since some of us are giant nerds, thinking about the tech that helped us through it.

The OneZero staff’s enthusiasm for technology varies greatly. Some of us will want a gadget so much that we preorder it while others are skeptical of wireless headphones. This gift guide serves as a recommendation of objects that brought us joy but also a crystallization of how our tech habits have changed this year. Gaming, scrolling devices, digital gifts, and work-from-home hacks are a bit more prevalent this year, and nobody is giving concert tickets or spa days.

So treat this like a time capsule wrapped in a gift guide. And maybe you can find something that brings someone else a little joy, too.

Damon Beres

Many Nintendo Switch owners overlook how fantastically customizable their little handheld systems are. There’s a thriving market on Etsy for 3D-printed accessories that redefine how you hold the system or offer an easy and stylish way to organize your game cartridges. For my money, though, nothing rivals a Joy-Con makeover. Earlier this year, I paid Slick Switch Shells to replace my controllers’…

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Dave Gershgorn
Debugger

Senior Writer at OneZero covering surveillance, facial recognition, DIY tech, and artificial intelligence. Previously: Qz, PopSci, and NYTimes.