The weather’s getting warmer (slightly), the days and getting longer and we’ve all coming out of our annual January hibernation. What better way to celebrate than getting yourself a little something pink to cheer you up.
Valentines is also approaching. Pink accessories as a present, perhaps?
Argos are the pink superiors. They have almost everything you could imagine in hot pink. They’ve got tool kits, barbeques, hoovers and Hi-Fis.
How about a Stereo Squealer?
Henry the Hoover has had it tough over the years. So it’s nice to have a replacement to let him put his feet, have a cup of tea and chill out for a while. In his place comes the indestructible Hetty; complete with painted on eyelashes and a cheeky grin.
LG have also released a bright pink LG Cookie phone - perfect for fitting in the handbag on a night out.
How about a Hello Kitty guitar and amp?
Why suppress that inner girliness, let it run free. Even the most hardened of rock chics can jam it out on a Hello Kitty electric guitar.
A wireless charging mat that lets you charge a load of gadgets at once, wirelessly.
You don’t have to put up with a load of different chargers, loads of wires sticking out all over the shop and stacks of different plugs. You just place them all on the mat and they get their batteries charged up.
It all works by induction. According to the Powermat website it’s done with a virtual “handshake”. The mat is synchronized with any of mobile receiving devices (phones or otherwise) that are placed on top of it. It’s so clever that it monitors the power in each of the devices and disconnects each of them when they’re fully charged.
The mat is portable, to some extent and can be used in cars. It’s not limited to mobile phones either; it’s compatible with laptops, iPods, digital cameras, handheld games consoles and Sat Navs.
In a similar vein to Powermat, Callpod are another company who are doing great things with portable recharging technology.
Although not completely wireless, their Chargepod lets you charge up to 6 devices at once, with a single power cord. It still looks pretty impressive but lacks the wow factor of the totally-wireless mat.
The Chargepod uses voltage regulator technology and interchangeable power adapters to safely charge a whole host of mobile devices, regardless of whether they’re different models or from different manufacturers.
The Nintendo DS is so popular because it has attracted non-gamers to the take up gaming. You can’t exactly imagine your mum or dad enjoying Halo or Resident Evil but you could probably find a game on the DS that they might play. The success of Brain Training, Nintendogs and Cooking Mama shows that console gaming doesn’t have to follow the formula of shooting, fighting or racing. By creating innovative games and treating the DS more of a teaching aid than a console games publishers have created a whole new market for their games.
Avanquest’s Pass Your Driving Theory fits in the educational category of Nintendo DS games. It is a must for all those about to sit their theory tests. A theory test costs £30 and must be taken before a learner can even sit their practical exam. The game gives players invaluable practise before the exam and gives them the edge on passing the test. Not only could the game help a player pass their theory it would save them money and speed up the process of taking a driver test. If you fail your theory you have to reschedule, pay for another test and delay the whole process of qualifying to drive.
Pass Your Driving Theory is an essential interactive guide, it includes all 1265 official DSA questions for both cars and motorcycles along with explanations. It helps track a player’s improvement as past test scores are saved.
The game has been developed in partnership with LDC, one of the UK’s largest driving schools. LDC are offering a free driving test worth £26 to everyone who buys a copy of Pass Your Driving Theory.
The problem with most bluetooth headsets is that they make everyone think they’re extras in Minority Report. The other problem is that they are often unobtrusive so it’s difficult to spot one on someone. This makes spotting crazy people more difficult. So if bluetooth is your thing, why not make a feature of your headset, instead of attaching some flashing cheap bit of plastic to your ear, treat your bluetooth like a piece of fine jewellery or an accessory.
Jawbone
The Jawbone is the Louis Vuitton of Bluetooth headsets. They manage to combine style with great features:
The Aliph Jawbone voice activity sensor identifies and isolates speech. Then it removes any background noise meaning you can speak normally in any environoment. The Aliph boosts frequencies that inccrease voice intelligibility.
The Jawbone 2 is 50% smaller than its predecessor and includes noise assassin technology ensuring as much ambient noise is cancelled out as possible. The Jawbone 2 has a faster processor for heavier signal processing. With its fast charge battery, it can charge 80& of it capacity in 30 minutes.
The Sennheiser VMX 100 Office can be used at your desk, connecting to a landline or on the move through your mobile. This flexibility suits people who may work in an office but are also use their mobiles. As well as connecting to a landline the VMX 100 can connect to computer which allows Skype calls. It is lightweight weighing a mere 15g and with only one button and one volume control it is incredibly easy to use.
The Zivio is small and lightweight. Unlike most bluetooth device it includes an extendable microphone that you can shape round your mouth. This ergonomic design makes it one of the best fitting bluetooth devices on the market.
You can relive the Clone Wars with this life like Storm Trooper Helmet. It speaks with realistic radio static and life like sounds so you can live out those storm trooper fantasies and start having some killer galactic adventures.
You can choose from set phrases from the buttons on the front of the helmet itself, giving you some realistic Clone Trooper commands.
Personally, I’m waiting on the Darth Vader one - now that WOULD be cool.
I wonder if it’ll have that eternally misquoted line…
It is very hard to excited about most printers. They’re beige, they get paper jams they never seem to work. But the Epson Stylus Photo PX800FW is different. The tag line is ‘Style and Substance’ and for once I agree with their marketing jargon.
The Epson Stylus PX800FW is designed for high-quality photo printing surpassing lab quality prints because it uses photographic ink. The PX800FW can also be used for scanning and faxing The printer’s controls are sleek with an easy to use 19.8cm touch panel viewer. With integrated wireless and Ethernet, shared printing and scanning is really easy.
Plasticine Morph - Wouldn’t this make the most amazing present? You would need a heart made from coal not to go ‘Aww’ when you unwrapped this. You see there is nothing more wholesome and lovely than crafting a cherished 1970’s kid’s TV character from plasticine. I’m sure it would be equally lovely to sculpt Rod Hull, Bag Puss or Zammo Maguire out of Playdo. But as morph was made of plasticine it kinda makes more sense. The kit also contains 15 episodes of the animated series.
