The Best Tech I Missed In 2025- The Leftovers

Looking back at the channel as we close out 2025, it's been a wild year. Smart glasses seemed to turn some kind of corner, finally feeling a little more mainstream. Folding phones got stronger, thinner, and generally more ambitious. A new category of dumb devices let me dabble in digital detox, and I got to test the latest smartwatches while crossing the Atlantic on the world's last ocean liner. Hell, Apple even made the iPhone kind of fun again. But as much as I tried to squeeze in over the year, there are always a few morsels left behind. A pro version of an oddball pocket e-reader, earbuds with a walkie-talkie, a kid's phone that's not actually a phone, and more. Welcome back to The Leftovers, the products I missed in 2025 that still merit mentioning. It was almost exactly a year ago that I showed you the Books Palma 2. Not a phone, but a kind of pocket-sized Kindle that the whole gadget world seemed to fall for in 2024. So I jumped at the chance to try out the Palma 2 Pro when Onyx International offered it, even if I knew it would probably just gather dust like the last one did. I just prefer to do my reading on tablets rather than phone-sized handhelds. If you do want a pocket e-reader, though, this one does earn its Pro moniker. First and foremost is the addition of color, while preserving the underlying e-ink technology. It's still easier on the eyes and more readable than a standard display in sunlight. It also adds 5G, which means, yes, you technically could use it as a phone for data calls over any app you can download to its Android 15 operating system. But of course, that data is meant to be used for downloading things to read in your e-book or newsletter or comic book app of choice. If you're the long-hand type, there's now an active stylus, sold separately, as well as a protective case that adds MagSafe mountability, but no wireless charging. The Palma 2 Pro is also substantially more expensive than its predecessor, about $400 with the case bundle, or $430 with the Inksense pen. There's also nowhere to securely store that pen on the device, and while the software is versatile and flexible, it's also kind of rough around the edges in terms of design. Personally, I'd rather carry a $200 Kindle or Kobo, but of course, those don't fit in a pocket, and they're far less flexible than this little Android tablet, which could even serve as a digital detox device in a pinch. So I'm glad it's around, even if it's not for me. Next up, my new best buds. I like my earbuds to pack a little panache, which is why I've gravitated toward Nothing technology for the past couple years. The transparent build, mixed with the occasional pop of color, reminds this elder millennial of a time when glassy gadgets were all the rage. And as I learned on my 100-mile walking challenge, Nothing's noise-canceling sometimes beats out more established brands, like the Google Pixel Buds. But the main reason the Nothing Ear 3 makes the list is right here, a button that toggles a microphone that's built not into the buds, but into their carrying case. Press and hold during a phone call, and hold it up to your mouth, and you can use this so-called super mic to come across more clearly to the person you're talking to. As someone who's really bothered by background noise on calls, and who frequently takes calls when walking outdoors in a loud and windy city, I think this idea is outstanding. Now, it's not a total win on execution. If Nothing had really focused on higher-quality hardware, this could be a lav mic replacement for creators. And I wish it was compatible with a wider range of messaging apps, especially in our modern era of voice notes. But, you know, it's been a while since a new wireless earbud idea has surprised me, or even gotten me to notice the category. And I think if Nothing decides to bring improvements to the next generation, this could graduate from interesting novelty to indispensable everyday carry. On the subject of carrying, I love a clamshell foldable, partly because of how easy it disappears into a pocket. So I wish this phone were thinner. Or lighter. Or, you know, actually, both. Honor sent me this Magic V Flip 2, alongside its large format foldable I covered back in August. But the Flip is China-exclusive, so it has all the software regionalizations that make using it here frustrating at best. But I've enjoyed fiddling with it for two reasons. First, this particular unit is the product of a collaboration with the fashion label Jimmy Choo. I love this sparkle finish, which Honor says evokes crushed stardust scattered across a deep blue sea. Indeed. I also appreciate the surface treatment on the hinge cover. Much of the time, the spine of a foldable is almost treated as an afterthought, leaving a neglected expanse of nothing. And this texturing is a nice break from that. The other high point is the camera. We were treated to a gorgeous Thanksgiving day in the Northeast this year, with blue skies and crisp air giving visibility for miles. And Honor's photographic presets, aka photo filters, really helped me squeeze those scenes for every iota of bucolic country vibes. I recognize that this is kind of cheating, but flip phone cameras are never the best available thanks to the space constraints of these devices. And until that changes, I do think a few good color filters go a long way toward making these clamshell cameras more palatable. Toss in the big battery and Qi charging, and I do wish Honor would bring this magic to the West. And speaking of Qi, this right here is not a leftover, because I'm gonna keep using it as long as I can. This is the MagFusion 2X from today's sponsor, Aukey. And why 2X? Well, because it's the world's first dual-phone wireless charger with a Qi 2.2 certification. You've got a flat-laid charging pad on the base and an articulating charging pod up top with a vertical pitch range of 30 degrees. That means you can keep using your Qi 2-enabled phone while it's charging in almost any orientation, while your tabletop stays cord-free. The magnets are super strong. The upper charging pod is topped in tempered glass, and unlike some competitors, you don't need to settle for only using the lower pad for earbuds, because remember, the MagFusion 2X is Qi 2.2. Each charger can put out 25 watts, much faster than a lot of the 15-watt chargers out there today, and perfect for the Captain Two Phones lifestyle. Check the link in the description to get your MagFusion 2X at a special price. And thanks to Aukey for sponsoring this video. Nearly two years after its debut, I finally got a review sample of Apple's Vision Pro Spatial Computer. This one, the updated model from October. It runs the new M5 chipset, which gives it better display rendering and battery life, among other things, and it's more comfortable to wear for extended sessions, thanks to the new dual-knit headband. I'm as impressed as ever by the quality of the experience inside Vision Pro. It's delightfully futuristic to surround yourself with floating screens that could never exist in the real world, and Apple's expected cleverness pervades the experience. Vision Pro can recognize physical objects like keyboards and your MacBook and integrate them into the virtual environment. It's the best version of VR I've used, but it's also a reminder of why I never jumped with both feet into VR in the first place. Now, the simple fact that you have to power it up and put it on every time you use it adds just enough friction that like 95% of the time, I'd rather just use my TV or laptop or my phone. Watching a movie in Vision Pro is without question more immersive than anything else. But of course, you can't share that experience with anyone because you're in your lonely little VR bubble. And while Apple has made improvements to the personas that stand in for you in a call or a meeting, it's still so deep in the uncanny valley that I never wanna have a call in this thing ever again. Bottom line, Vision Pro is amazing, and I'm glad I got to try it, but it just doesn't seem to have a place in my life right now, especially at its price point. My penultimate pick is a device that by all rights should be just another anonymous black box, were it not from a brand that emphasizes aesthetics almost as much as nothing does. This is the Disk Pro from Charge. It's a portable solid-state drive that works a lot like the Samsung one I showed you in my travel tech video last year, but look how fun. In addition to the transparent enclosure, Charge integrated a USB-C cable and also added a hub to let you power laptops, connect displays, and transfer data across up to four devices. It's just the kind of overkill I appreciate in my gadgets, visually and functionally. And alongside it, Charge also sent over its Pixel 140, a power adapter that shows you how much juice it's putting out on a very HTC Dot View-like display. I've been a little wary of Charge since a few of its earlier products failed early in their life cycles, but I've had each of these for a few months now and so far, so good. And today's final product is something I never thought I'd include because I have neither kids nor an interest in having any, but I do have nieces and nephews, so I get to see the toys they're gifted around the holidays, and man, six-year-old me would have lost his mind at this. This is a toy from a company called Luoba, and to be clear, it's not a phone, but that's kind of all it's not. Underneath that sick unicorn case, you've got a 2.8-inch color display running a touch-based operating system absolutely stocked with apps. Calendar, calculator, voice recorder, a media player preloaded with songs, flashcards with fun educational facts, dual cameras that actually work. The thing even has an Arkanoid clone, like a classic BlackBerry, all for 37 bucks on Amazon. Honestly, it's so close to being a full-on smartphone that even my non-parent brain started wondering, like, is this safe for kids to have, you know, from a security standpoint? Well, fortunately, I have a fellow YouTuber friend who's also a security expert, and she very graciously agreed to bust this thing open to see what makes it tick. Take it away, snubs. Hey, I'm Shannon Morris, and I teach folks about online security and privacy. I am always a little bit sus about kids' smart tech, and I do lots of research before putting a new device in a child's hands. I might be a little bit paranoid from years of cybersecurity education and news about children's tech being hackable. There are two main ways that a tech product can be hacked. That is remotely or locally. Remotely is when a hacker figures out a way to gain access to a device without ever even touching it. They could be on the other side of the world, but they could get you to download malware, giving them access to the product, for example. The second way is locally, when a hacker has physical access to a device and they can mess around with it. So when Michael said, hey, snubs, can you hack this thing? I was like, yeah, let's find out. Now, mad props to my friend Isaac, who helped me find tons of information about the Luoba phone online. If you pull the casing off of this little device, you can take a peek at the internal board and the chipsets used. So here you can see speakers, a USB port, a micro SD card slot, but we also have flash memory. This is the GigaDevice GD25LR128D Serial Flash, and there's also an ARM CPU. It's the MediaTek 2503. Now by doing some online sleuthing, we can discover that this chipset has support for SIM, GPS, Bluetooth, and FM, but none of these components are actually installed on this board. That means this device is pretty rudimentary. It doesn't have any frequency connections installed on it. So a remote hack would not be possible without first getting access to this thing physically. Next, we looked into the software and found that the micro SD card doesn't have any encryption on it. So you can easily remove it, plop it into your computer, take a look at the file system used for this operating system, and if someone did have local access, they could put photos or audio files on this micro SD card and stick it back in the phone without anyone knowing. Or someone could just replace the card all together with their own because you can, in fact, make a direct copy of the card and the files. For example, I certainly got a little chuckle out of replacing some of the audio files with my own just for the lols. So knowing that I can easily access the board and the chipsets on this thing, I could also easily solder my own components to the back of this board. And maybe if I do some additional programming research, I could write a version of Doom that runs on this teeny tiny little device. Now, while I couldn't get Doom running on this thing yet, I am happy to see it couldn't easily be exploited remotely. So if you do purchase one of these for a kiddo in your life, just make sure that no one puts weird files on the micro SD card or it gets into the hands of somebody who could have bad intentions. And if you do purchase a kid's tech device that is connected, keep the software updated. Do not let it auto connect to wireless access points and change passwords to something unique. Stay safe out there, y'all. And of course, stay mobile. Thanks, Shannon. And that's gonna do it for this year's installment of The Leftovers, folks, but do not worry, it is not the last video of the year. In fact, if the schedule holds, there are at least three more coming before 2025 fades into the rear view. So if there's a product I skipped or missed this year that you dearly want covered, please let me know in the comments or on threads at the handle Captain Two Phones. This video featured review samples With the exception of sponsor Aki, no company provided compensation for inclusion and no company had editorial input or copy approval of any kind. That's how I've been doing it for almost 10 years as MrMobile. That's right, we are coming up on a 10-year anniversary as a channel and it's gonna be a big one. Please subscribe so you don't miss future videos and tell your friends if you enjoyed this one. Until next time, from Michael Fisher, thanks for watching. And stay mobile, my friends.