15 Futuristic Gifts for the Super-Early Adopter

3D Robotics Iris+ Early adopters are hard to keep up with, but the Iris+ quadcopter is on it. The drone comes with a "Follow Me" mode and an optional GoPro/mount configuration, so it can tag along behind people while shooting floaty and fascinating video selfies. The base hardware goes for $750, but you can get a configuration with a GoPro Hero 3+ and a gyroscopic stabilization gimbal mount for $1,260. 3D Robotics

3D Robotics Iris+ Early adopters are hard to keep up with, but the Iris+ quadcopter is on it. The drone comes with a "Follow Me" mode and an optional GoPro/mount configuration, so it can tag along behind people while shooting floaty and fascinating video selfies. The base hardware goes for $750, but you can get a configuration with a GoPro Hero 3+ and a gyroscopic stabilization gimbal mount for $1,260.

3D Robotics

Cirrus Vision SF50 This gets props because it doesn't have any. Cirrus' V-tail private jet is essentially a flying car. It's designed to be flown without a copilot and has a range of about 1000 miles. In case of calamity, a parachute system brings the entire plane softly back to terra firma. You can buy the $2-million SF50 and get one in 2015. Cirrus Aircraft

Cirrus Vision SF50 This gets props because it doesn't have any. Cirrus' V-tail private jet is essentially a flying car. It's designed to be flown without a copilot and has a range of about 1000 miles. In case of calamity, a parachute system brings the entire plane softly back to terra firma. You can buy the $2-million SF50 and get one in 2015.

Cirrus Aircraft

Samsung Gear VR and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 While everyone else waits for the official Oculus Rift facetainment system to roll out, you can spend $500 to get a slice of the future. Samsung's hardware ($200 for the Gear VR facemask and $300 for the Galaxy Note 4 inside it) has an Oculus store on the system that lets you download content directly to your face. Samsung

Samsung Gear VR and Samsung Galaxy Note 4 While everyone else waits for the official Oculus Rift facetainment system to roll out, you can spend $500 to get a slice of the future. Samsung's hardware ($200 for the Gear VR facemask and $300 for the Galaxy Note 4 inside it) has an Oculus store on the system that lets you download content directly to your face.

Samsung

Jaunt VR Camera Why not bring your own movies to the VR revolution? The Jaunt VR is built for capturing footage to view on an Oculus Rift. It packs 28 cameras—20 around its perimeter, four on the top, and four on the bottom—capturing 3.5 gigapixels per second. A four-capsule microphone rig captures a sphere of sound. You have to "know somebody" to get one (pricing and availability aren't final) but it does exist. Work that Rolodex. Jaunt

Jaunt VR Camera Why not bring your own movies to the VR revolution? The Jaunt VR is built for capturing footage to view on an Oculus Rift. It packs 28 cameras—20 around its perimeter, four on the top, and four on the bottom—capturing 3.5 gigapixels per second. A four-capsule microphone rig captures a sphere of sound. You have to "know somebody" to get one (pricing and availability aren't final) but it does exist. Work that Rolodex.

Jaunt

Alienware Area-51 The latest Alienware desktop gaming PC looks like it was designed by Johnny Five, not Jony Ive. It can be spec'd up to an eight-core 4GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, three AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics cards with 12GB RAM, and a 4TB hard drive/512GB SSD storage combo. That full-tilt config costs just under $6,000. If you just like its funky box, get the most modest selection of components for $1,700. Alienware

Alienware Area-51 The latest Alienware desktop gaming PC looks like it was designed by Johnny Five, not Jony Ive. It can be spec'd up to an eight-core 4GHz Intel Core i7 processor, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, three AMD Radeon R9 290X graphics cards with 12GB RAM, and a 4TB hard drive/512GB SSD storage combo. That full-tilt config costs just under $6,000. If you just like its funky box, get the most modest selection of components for $1,700.

Alienware

Choc Creator V2 Consider the sand mandala. A team of Tibetan monks painstakingly create a delicate work of art over the course of weeks. Then, as soon as it's complete, they ritualistically destroy it. This $6,200 chocolate-squirting 3D printer is sort of like that. You spend weeks designing the perfect work of edible art on your computer, a few minutes printing it out, and then immediately shove the creation into your piehole. Choc Edge

Choc Creator V2 Consider the sand mandala. A team of Tibetan monks painstakingly create a delicate work of art over the course of weeks. Then, as soon as it's complete, they ritualistically destroy it. This $6,200 chocolate-squirting 3D printer is sort of like that. You spend weeks designing the perfect work of edible art on your computer, a few minutes printing it out, and then immediately shove the creation into your piehole.

Choc Edge

LG 77-Inch 4K Curved OLED Mr. Loudmouth down the block keeps boasting about his 4K TV, and Johnny Bragalot at work won't shut up about his OLED. Trump them both by buying a combination of the two. This curvy 77-incher combines the flawless contrast and fast response of an OLED panel with the razor-sharp resolution of Ultra HD. Translation: It's the best TV ever. It'll only set you back $25 grand. LG

LG 77-Inch 4K Curved OLED Mr. Loudmouth down the block keeps boasting about his 4K TV, and Johnny Bragalot at work won't shut up about his OLED. Trump them both by buying a combination of the two. This curvy 77-incher combines the flawless contrast and fast response of an OLED panel with the razor-sharp resolution of Ultra HD. Translation: It's the best TV ever. It'll only set you back $25 grand.

LG

Wonder Workshop Dash & Dot Robots The Dash & Dot ($228 as a two-pack) are little cyclops robots that grow along with a child's brain. Younger kids can control them with an app or just watch them zip around on the floor, avoiding objects with their built-in sensors. Older kids can control them with "Blockly," a puzzle-like programming interface. Kids who know Java and Objective-C can code complex commands. Wonder Workshop

Wonder Workshop Dash & Dot Robots The Dash & Dot ($228 as a two-pack) are little cyclops robots that grow along with a child's brain. Younger kids can control them with an app or just watch them zip around on the floor, avoiding objects with their built-in sensors. Older kids can control them with "Blockly," a puzzle-like programming interface. Kids who know Java and Objective-C can code complex commands.

Wonder Workshop

Sharp Wireless High-Resolution Audio Player Using a phone to play music over Bluetooth is fine, but you'll need something special to pipe uncompressed audio wirelessly to your surround-sound system. This $4,000 wireless player takes 24-bit/96kHz FLACs, WAVs, DSDs, Blu-rays, and SACDs and cranks out pristine audio to WiSA-compliant speakers on the uncluttered 5.2-5.8 GHz band. Sharp USA

Sharp Wireless High-Resolution Audio Player Using a phone to play music over Bluetooth is fine, but you'll need something special to pipe uncompressed audio wirelessly to your surround-sound system. This $4,000 wireless player takes 24-bit/96kHz FLACs, WAVs, DSDs, Blu-rays, and SACDs and cranks out pristine audio to WiSA-compliant speakers on the uncluttered 5.2-5.8 GHz band.

Sharp USA

Sen.se Mother You could buy a basic fitness tracker, a sleep tracker, plus door and window sensors. Or you could just buy Sen.se's Mother, which tracks all those things. This odd little $300 matryoshka doll plugs into a router via an Ethernet cable, analyzes data from its user-configurable "Cookie" sensors, and tracks all the lifestyle stats in your home. You can reprogram each Cookie to do a different task, making it super versatile. Sen.se

Sen.se Mother You could buy a basic fitness tracker, a sleep tracker, plus door and window sensors. Or you could just buy Sen.se's Mother, which tracks all those things. This odd little $300 matryoshka doll plugs into a router via an Ethernet cable, analyzes data from its user-configurable "Cookie" sensors, and tracks all the lifestyle stats in your home. You can reprogram each Cookie to do a different task, making it super versatile.

Sen.se

Sony 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector $50,000 isn't that much money. But if you've got the cash to drop on your loved one, opt for this short-throw 4K projector from Sony. It casts 4096 x 2160-pixel images that look tack-sharp at sizes up to 150 inches. Toss a 4K Media Player ($700) into the lucky recipient's stocking so they have something to watch. Sony

Sony 4K Ultra Short Throw Projector $50,000 isn't that much money. But if you've got the cash to drop on your loved one, opt for this short-throw 4K projector from Sony. It casts 4096 x 2160-pixel images that look tack-sharp at sizes up to 150 inches. Toss a 4K Media Player ($700) into the lucky recipient's stocking so they have something to watch.

Sony

Forza 100+ MP CAM A display that can natively show the Forza 100+ MP Cam's 200-megapixel, 60-fps video output doesn't yet exist. You're also going to need a zettabyte of storage to handle its massive video files. But those are minor grievances, as is the $35,000 ballpark price. After all, this camera can make those pipe dreams of solving capers by yelling "enhance" at your computer a reality. Forza Silicon

Forza 100+ MP CAM A display that can natively show the Forza 100+ MP Cam's 200-megapixel, 60-fps video output doesn't yet exist. You're also going to need a zettabyte of storage to handle its massive video files. But those are minor grievances, as is the $35,000 ballpark price. After all, this camera can make those pipe dreams of solving capers by yelling "enhance" at your computer a reality.

Forza Silicon

HI-MACS Kitchen Pod Replace your giftee's aging kitchen with an amorphous blob. This conceptual piece by Belgian designer Xavier Bonte has a remote-control pop-top that lifts to reveal a sink and an induction stovetop. Drawers for cutlery and flatware are built in. Unfortunately, there's no oven, fridge, or dishwasher, but at least the lid can be closed to hide away that pile of dirty dishes in the sink. HI-MACS

HI-MACS Kitchen Pod Replace your giftee's aging kitchen with an amorphous blob. This conceptual piece by Belgian designer Xavier Bonte has a remote-control pop-top that lifts to reveal a sink and an induction stovetop. Drawers for cutlery and flatware are built in. Unfortunately, there's no oven, fridge, or dishwasher, but at least the lid can be closed to hide away that pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

HI-MACS

HP Sprout The space in front of a computer is normally used for a keyboard. HP has a better idea. The $1,900 Sprout comes with a 20-inch-diagonal touch mat and a downward-facing projector/scanner/camera. It lets you get hands-on with any images beamed upon it. 3D scanning and modeling software for the system arrives in mid-2015. The touchscreen PC also comes with a keyboard and mouse if you want to kick it old-school. HP

HP Sprout The space in front of a computer is normally used for a keyboard. HP has a better idea. The $1,900 Sprout comes with a 20-inch-diagonal touch mat and a downward-facing projector/scanner/camera. It lets you get hands-on with any images beamed upon it. 3D scanning and modeling software for the system arrives in mid-2015. The touchscreen PC also comes with a keyboard and mouse if you want to kick it old-school.

HP

Panasonic DMP-BD70V VHS/Blu-ray/Streamer Combo Even the most forward-thinking person has a closet full of VHS tapes, so it's no wonder this magical VHS/Blu-ray/CD/DVD/MP3 player, SD-card/USB reader, and (very limited) set-top streamer is going for between $1,000 and $2,000 on Amazon. The DMP-BD70V even up-converts VHS video to... slightly-better-than-VHS video. Finally, a way to deliver VHS tapes via HDMI to a 4K OLED. Panasonic

Panasonic DMP-BD70V VHS/Blu-ray/Streamer Combo Even the most forward-thinking person has a closet full of VHS tapes, so it's no wonder this magical VHS/Blu-ray/CD/DVD/MP3 player, SD-card/USB reader, and (very limited) set-top streamer is going for between $1,000 and $2,000 on Amazon. The DMP-BD70V even up-converts VHS video to... slightly-better-than-VHS video. Finally, a way to deliver VHS tapes via HDMI to a 4K OLED.

Panasonic