What’s the best backpack to use for my jog to work in the morning?

Does anybody have a recommendation an app to help my first grader improve her spelling abilities?

Where can I find a high quality visual dictionary?

Please help me convert bookmarks into easily searchable tags!

Have an answer? Let us know!

It has been awhile since our last Ask Cool Tools update, and since then we’ve had a bunch of questions posted that need your expertise!

What’s the easiest way to add GPS data to photographs?

What are some of the best DIY resources for solar power at home?

What’s the best folding bike for casual riders?

Help me find a better glue gun!

What blood pressure monitor should I get?

What’s the best poster or document storage tube for travel?

In the past we’ve highlighted an astonishing array of useful books that covered topics ranging from bioremediation to underground home building to fermentation. These books are tools because they not only help us learn but also put knowledge to use.

Help us fortify our library of useful books by submitting your favorite text for a particular subject including an explanation of why you think it’s essential. We want to feature that dog-eared book that you wouldn’t lend to a friend for fear you wouldn’t get it back. It can be the best beginner’s guide, or a slightly more advanced technical manual detailing materials or techniques. If you can, please include scans of pages that we can use to illustrate the book’s content. This has been done before but never with any insight or explanation of what makes the book useful or cool.

What’s the essential book for carpenters? Metalsmiths? Landscape designers? Tailors or seamstresses? What about information design? Or sous vide? Tanning or taxidermy? Home brewing? Car repair? Bicycle frame building? The list goes on and on.

Every trade and hobby has their own bible, and we want to identify and collect them all in one place so that others may benefit.

Submit your recommendation (or request) here, post it in the comments below, or feel free to email it to editor@cool-tools.org.

What’s the best cheese grater for arthritic hands?

Which PDA has the best basic functions?

What’s the most realistic driving simulator?

Do you have recommendations for a product that can help me strengthen my nails?

What’s the best combined bag for a laptop and clothes for 5-6 days of travelling?

What kind of wireless light switches should I get?

Is there a better way to cut plastic food wrap or aluminum foil?

How can I stretch my shoes to fit my wide (EE+) feet?

What’s the best bloatware free scanner that would work well to scan artwork?

What’s the best smoke alarm?

Look for a specific tool? Have a question you need answered? Head over to Ask Cool Tools!

–OH

There are now over 3,000 reviews of great stuff on Cool Tools. In an effort to make that abundance more useful we’ve selected the best recommendations in a narrow field, updated the info, and formatted the reviews into a handy ebook. We are releasing the first of those ebooks today, as Cool Tools in the Kitchen: Things We Recommend. This collection of the best of Cool Tools was edited and updated by Steven Leckart, who formerly edited this Cool Tools website, and was designed and engineered in partnership with O’Reilly Publishers.

Steven Leckart picked out the best 80 kitchen-related tools you might not know about, updated their reviews and ordering information, and stuffed them into a very portable epub format for quick browsing. He also added a sprinkling of food-tool related tips. The book resurrects from the archives some great old kitchen tools that are still great, and brings together some speciality tools that few will need, but everyone should know about (almost just as important). I found it a great refresher course to flick through this collection of highly-evolved tools, reminding me of tools I had forgotten, and suggesting others that would make a great gift for someone else.

It costs $6. Yes, you can root through the archives of Cool Tools for free and eventually find all these, but for this modest price you get a carefully curated, winnowed, and updated serving of great tools specific for food lovers, cooks, kitchen mavens, and anyone who loves well-designed stuff. And you can screen it on a tablet or phone.

This ebook can be viewed on any device which takes the common epub format. It has been optimized for iBooks on the iPad, but it can be screened on your computer, Nooks, and with the appropriate readers, iPhones, Android phones, and iPads. We plan to do other ebooks such as Cool Tools for the Outdoors, or the Workshop, assuming folks find this one useful.

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone and gift buying has gone into overdrive it’s about time we announced our Cool Tools Gift Guide Contest. In previous years (2008, 2009, 2010) we’ve had people list what great tools they were buying as presents in the comments. This year we are offering two prizes from our prize pool for the two best reviews: the first for the best review of a new tool, and the second for the best update or re-review of an older tool in our archive. Given that Cool Tools has been around for eight years there are plenty of fantastic gifts and tool reviews already tucked away that need updating, and we want to hear what you think deserves to be highlighted again this year!

So what cool tools are you going to be giving as presents this year? Tell us what you’re giving, and why. It can be anything useful, playful, or practical; but always cool. We want to know your gift ideas, and will be publishing the best new and updated reviews in a guide that we will publish in early December.

Remember, a great Cool Tool review consists of the following five parts with an extra for good measure:

1) a succinct description of what the tool is,
2) how it changed your behavior,
3) why Cool Tools should run the item,
4) why it is superior to other things,
5) why we should believe you,
6) and why you’re giving it as a gift

Submissions (submit as many as you’d like) will be accepted until Tuesday, December 8th, and the winners will be announced later that week. So tell us what you love to give and why!

And a hearty congratulations to Matthew Perks for his winning review of Fatwood for the Fall and Winter Tools Contest.

Don’t forget to submit to the Fall and Winter tools contest ending this week.

So far we’ve gotten great reviews for a better way to rake leaves, an easy way to deice your car window, a chainsaw sharpener, and non-slip boots. What tools will you be depending on this fall and winter? Let us know!

– oliver

With the arrival of November has come the occasional draft through my as-of-yet unsealed windows. As the temperatures begin to drop, and as the first frosts and snowfalls inevitably begin to fall it feels about right to have another Cool Tools contest.

What are the tools you depend on through fall and winter? What do you use to insulate your house? Have you found the best way to rake and bag leaves? Or the tools to winterize your vehicle (snow tires, chains, wiper blades)? Do you have tips and tricks about how to stay warm as the mercury plunges? What about the most energy efficient indoor heater? We want to hear about all these things and more!

As usual, the author of the most publishable review gets to select a prize from the Prize Pool and will be published the following week. So tell us what you love!

Remember, a great Cool Tool review is a story that includes the following five parts:
1) a succinct description of what the tool is,
2) how it changed your behavior,
3) why Cool Tools should run the item,
4) why it is superior to other things, and
5) why we should believe you.

For some inspiration here are some seasonally inspired tool reviews to get you started:

Sno Wovel
Sno Boss Snow Pusher
Fantastic Ice Scraper
Pawz Dog Boots
Tilley Winter Hats
Neos Overshoes

– oliver

What are the best rechargeable batteries (and charger)?

Where can I find a good mechanical timer?

What’s the best, most cost-effective, way to soundproof a ceiling?

What’s the best method to insure valuables while travelling abroad?