Hottest Deals For January 2025

Ember Temperature Controlled Smart Mugs at Best Buy

There's something unholy about drinking a coffee four hours after pouring it and having it still be at your perfect temperature — it's a bit like those billionaires who try to stay "young" by drinking the plasma of teens or something, like you're interfering with the natural order in ways that will almost certainly have consequences both unforeseen and cosmically ironic. But maybe not. Maybe this is the future we were promised, only with fewer flying cars and with more perfectly drinkable eight-hour old coffee. One might suggest that if you leave your coffee sitting around that long, you might just — y'know — not like coffee? But that's a level of self-awareness we can't in good conscience promote here.

Yamaha Aventage 7.2-Channel AV Receiver w/ MusicCast

The marketing for this receiver solemnly intones: "The AVENTAGE RX-A2A is equipped with 7 HDMI inputs with HDCP 2.3 and eARC, supporting 4K60 Ultra HD with HDR, Dolby Vision, Hybrid-Log Gamma, and BT.2020 for an unparalleled visual experience. Future updates for HDMI 2.1, including HDR 10+, 8K60B, 4K120AB, and enhanced gaming features like ALLM, VRR, QMS, QFT, make this AV receiver a future-proof investment."

Anyone who would have spent $800 on this receiver undoubtedly knows what all those initialisms mean, but since coupon code "JANU1725" cuts that price in half, thus opening this up to a significantly wider audience, I think we should be doing better. So the way forward is obvious: encourage the European Union to enforce a strict limit on how much technological bafflegab can be legally used in a public-facing document, and like Apple dropping the Lightning Connector for USB-C, the EU's good works will eventually filter through to these US blurbs. In the meantime, the rough translation of Yamaha's intimidating paragraphs works out to: "Box makes good noise and pictures".

Banana Republic Factory Clearance

Seeing the price drop by half again once you add an item to your cart actually never gets any less satisfying, even if you're not buying anything. Like you're psychically scolding Banana Republic Factory for daring to suggest you pay the initial price. "Oh, I think you can do better than that," you silently declare to the Add to Bag button, and for once in our increasingly powerless lives, it actually works — the price drops in cart, by a full 50%, because no one dares defy your command. Better yet, if you're a Rewards member, and the item in question drops from over $50 to under $50 after the in-cart discount, you'll still get free shipping. You are an indomitable tyrant, and stores fall at your feet to please you.

Refurb Cobra 500W Portable Power Inverter

"Oh, it inverts power," I think, as if I have any idea what that means. Turns the power upside down. Got it. Important stuff. I nod, and talk about what great value this refurb is, even as, internally, I'm actually thinking "That sounds like something the G.I. Joes would have to stop the bad guys from selling to America's enemies." But listen: if I can't live without inverting my Y-axis in video games, no one else should have to live their lives surrounded by invisible, non-inverted power. And I have it on good authority that you actually need one of these to listen to AC/DC in the Northern Hemisphere. That's a solid joke.

HOKA Featured Deals at Nordstrom Rack

Spinal Tap once sang "The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin'", presaging exactly how ultramarathon runners would eventually feel about Hoka shoes, even before the wider public became notably fond of the brand. And now look: over 50 styles are discounted at popular website Nordstrom. And this is why Christopher Guest's sartorial insights are forever commemorated at all of these apparel stores — anytime you choose to "checkout as Guest", you honor him.