Flipping through The Manual: Elegant homes, whiskey glasses, gift-worthy watches

By Brandon Widder Published December 4, 2015

Burned out on apps, keyboards, and screens? Improve your analog life this weekend! Digital Trends’ brother site The Manual exists to give men straight-up advice, from unspoken suit rules you need to know to the latest in fashion, food, drink, travel, grooming, and culture. Here are a few of our favorite stories to appear on The Manual lately.

Give the gift of class with The Manual’s holiday watch guide

Shore Watces — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Gifting a friend or family member a stylish and classy watch is the gift that never stops giving. Here are five of our favorite watch brands from 2015.

Read the full story on The Manual

Man School 101: Winterizing your car

Winter Road — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Winter is here, if not coming to a city near you. Fortunately, we’ve pulled together a few tips and tricks to help you winterize your car for the months ahead.

Read the full story on The Manual

Finally, a glass designed specifically for top-shelf whiskey

norlan2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Unfortunately, purpose-built, drink-specific glassware is still mostly confined to the realm of craft beer and wine. Nobody has really ventured too deep into the world of glassware that’s scientifically optimized for craft spirits — until now, that is.

Read the full story on The Manual

Micro Guide: Southern Louisiana

Food 2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Here’s where to play, eat, and sleep in the Bayou State’s southern half — the most authentically Cajun region in the country.

Read the full story on The Manual

Hudson Woods brings together architecture, design and nature

Mountain 2 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Lang Architects gathered the finest makers like SMEG, Kaufmann Mercantile and more to create an idyllic development in New York.

Read the full story on The Manual

Acustom Apparel: The Custom Future

Acustom-5 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

With Acustom Apparel’s advanced body scanning technology, custom clothing has never been more accurate or affordable.

Read the full story on The Manual

Senior Editor, Living Articles

Brandon Widder is a multimedia journalist and a staff writer for Digital Trends where he covers technology news, how-to…

Topics

Photo Galleries

Mobile

Gemini brings a fantastic PDF superpower to Files by Google app

step of Gemini processing a PDF in Files by Google app.

Google is on a quest to push its Gemini AI chatbot in as many productivity tools as possible. The latest app to get some generative AI lift is the Files by Google app, which now automatically pulls up Gemini analysis when you open a PDF document.

The feature, which was first shared on the r/Android Reddit community, is now live for phones running Android 15. Digital Trends tested this feature on a Pixel 9 running the stable build of Android 15 and the latest version of Google’s file manager app.

Entertainment

Disney co-chairman reveals why The Acolyte was canceled after one season

Sol wields his lightsaber in The Acolyte episode 8.

Lucasfilm may be in the midst of experiencing a wave of positive attention and success thanks to its latest TV series, Skeleton Crew, but the Jude Law-starring sci-fi show isn't the only Star Wars title that has premiered on Disney+ this year. This past summer, Lucasfilm also debuted The Acolyte, a Sith-centric show set around 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. Across its eight episodes, the series proved to be critically divisive, and it was only a month after The Acolyte's finale aired that Disney and Lucasfilm announced they would not be bringing the show back for a second season.

In a recent interview with Vulture, Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman shed some light on the behind-the-scenes decision to cancel The Acolyte after just one season. "As it relates to Acolyte, we were happy with our performance, but it wasn’t where we needed it to be given the cost structure of that title, quite frankly, to go and make a season 2," Bergman revealed. "That’s the reason why we didn’t do that."

Entertainment

James Gunn calls Creature Commandos episode the saddest thing he’s ever written

james gunn calls creature commandos weasel episode saddest thing ever written sits at the bottom of a staircase in

Creature Commandos has been splitting its time as of late between the past and present. Its recent episodes have both propelled the show's present-day plot forward and also explored the pasts of characters like The Bride (Indira Varma) and G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), offering new insights into the tragic events that shaped their identities and led them to their current circumstances. Creature Commandos' fourth and most recent episode, Chasing Squirrels, does the same for Weasel (also Sean Gunn), revealing the horrifying reasons the character was incorrectly blamed for the deaths of multiple schoolchildren.

The episode refrains from explaining what Weasel is or how the character came to be, but it doesn't shy away from the gruesome and tragic details of the "crime" that turned him into a full-blown monster in society's eyes. In an interview with Variety, Creature Commandos creator and DC Studios co-CEO James Gunn reflected on the episode, which is emotionally and narratively dark, even by the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 filmmaker's standards.