Miscellaneous gadgets

I’ve had the press release for this sitting in my inbox since summer and I still can’t decide if it’s a wind-up or not. Ignoring the name (which is the sort of thing I’d choose if I was trying to get a reaction out people), the idea just seems… crazy. It’s a sheet – which you pull over yourself and your laptop so you can see the screen.

Or you could work out of a pop up tent, which seems about as usable to me.

If you feel like ordering 10 of them (that’s the only quantity available in the online store) head on over to www.laptopburka.com

We’ll be speaking to Sony next week about eBooks in general and their Reader products specifically and we’re looking for questions. Time’s a bit short - if you’ve got anything you want to ask, send it to [email protected] before the end of play on Thursday.

The interview will be conducted via Twitter so keep the questions short!

Anybody who cycles a lot will have had the experience of a flat tyre – it’s inevitable given the condition of our roads and cycle paths. So after you’ve repaired the hole you could:

a) spend 10 minutes with a hand pump trying to put a decent amount of pressure back in the tyre, or

b) Use one of these handy CO2 inflators from Topeak to blast gas back into the tyre without the effort.

The cartridges are strictly single use but they should last forever in storage and it seems like a far simpler way of getting the job done to me.

This is just… odd. Take the nicotine out of cigarettes and distil it into a liquid free of the tar, tobacco leaves and who knows what else that goes into your traditional cancer stick.

Add an electronic heating element that activates when you inhale and you wind up with the Electronic Cigarette, giving you the hit (apparently) of burning leaf but without the nasty antisocial smell.

It’s not going to do anything for you if you want to give up (after all, you’re still taking in the nicotine, and probably in more concentrated form) but at least you won’t have to go outside in the freezing cold to do it. It’s probably cheaper too, at least until they get around to taxing it.

Oh, and just so we get our public service announcement out of the way – Smoking Bad, mkay?

If you do want to take a look though you can pick them up from easycigarette.co.uk for about £20

Joby have been making the GorillaPod for a few years now – with it’s unique flexible leg joint arrangement it can hold a camera on just about anything.

Taking that idea one step further is the GorillaTorch – a hands free light using the same articulated leg design.

It looks like a nice solution to the problem of portable hands-free lighting. The legs have been fitted with magnetic feet for additional mounting options and the light itself has variable brightness, using the latest LED technology for up to 80 hours of illumination.

At £34.99 it seems like good value to me - Joby are taking pre-orders on their online store now.

We first saw a practical demonstration of wireless gadget charging at CES 2008 but it was still a concept product back then. WildCharge have since put the idea into production and Firebox are now selling the WildCharge pad for £49.99.

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Digging through a draw of tradeshow swag the other day I found this neat microfiber cleaning cloth from Spudz. It’s hard to make anything special out of a lens cloth but the neoprene sleeve and sturdy clip make this one perfect for hanging on the keyring – for anyone who wears glasses that’s pretty handy!

I have no idea why I didn’t use it before, but it’s with me all the time now. They’re pretty cheap so if you’re a glasses wearer you should give them a go. You can get them from Warehouse Express from £4.99

It’s dark, raining and you’re walking to work, so you’re not going to be in the best of moods. You could always cheer yourself up with this Lightsabre Umbrella from IWOOT though – a press of the button in the handle lights up the shaft, Jedi style.

Well, sort of. It’s a fun idea but it does need a different colour. When was the last time you saw good and evil do battle with white lightsabers?

They’ve existed in one form or another for 200-odd years, but the humble umbrella still has room for improvement. For one thing, they tend to blow inside-out rather too easily, which is one of the problems the SNEZ storm umbrella aims to solve.

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