Gadget Blog - UK Gadgets and Gizmos

Cyber Clean

Available from: Firebox – Cyber Clean – Price: £7.95

Theres always something fun about playing with slime! Especially when you have a good (and “sensible” excuse) for doing so! Yes, you can sit there and play to your hearts content, all in the name of hygiene (and who can argue with that?).

So, how can slime be hygienic? This isn’t just any old slime, it’s Cyber Clean! – saving you from the perils of the millions of germs and bacteria which lurk in the crevices of your keyboard and other electronic devices, just waiting to strike you down at any moment! (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration there, but you get the picture)

So what exactly is Cyber Clean? It’s actually an incredibly simple idea – take a pot of silly putty / slime that kids love to play with, and add an anti bacterial property. Because its slightly sticky, and extremely squishy, it’s great for cleaning out the dirt and dust that accumulates in your keyboard over time (which creates the bacteria equivalent of the Playboy mansion!). Simply mash the slime against your keyboard, and then peel it off, pulling the dirt with it – much better than air dusters which just blow the dust into the air, ready to settle on your keyboard again! According to micro bacterial tests, it can kill up to 80% of bacteria, making your keyboard much cleaner. It’s also great for sanitizing remote controls, ipods, mobile phones etc.

Cyber Clean is reusable, and changes colour over time as it absorbs more dirt – giving you a handy guide as to when it needs replacing. For the enviromentalists out there it’s non toxic (unless you’re bacteria), and it’s biodegradable so you can dispose of it with a clear conscience.

Available from: Firebox – Cyber Clean – Price: £7.95

Blood Bath Shower Curtain

Available from: I Want One of Those – Blood Bath Shower Curtain – Price: £9.99

With Halloween rapidly approaching, the Blood Bath Shower Curtain is a great way to freak out your friends and family! With a pair of bloody hand prints complete with streaks of blood, it’s perfect for an impromptu reenactment of the shower scene in Psycho (without the actual stabbings!), and sure to scare the pants off anyone that sees it.

If you’ve got a dark sense of humour and want to mentally scar your housemates for life, the Blood Bath Shower Curtain is the thing for you!

Size: 180cm x 180cm

Available from: I Want One of Those – Blood Bath Shower Curtain – Price: £9.99

Gamucci Electronic Cigarette

Available from: I Want One of Those – Gamucci Electronic Cigarette – Price: £49.95

Since the England Smoking Ban, it’s illegal to smoke indoors and in many public places, leaving smokers huddled outside in the cold and rain each time they want a nicotine fix. If you hate braving the great British weather each time you want to smoke, then the Gamucci Electronic Cigarette is for you!

The Gamucci Electronic Cigarette looks very similar to an ordinary cigarette, but is totally smoke free, meaning that it can be legally used anywhere where normal cigarettes are banned. It also has the added advantage of letting you get your nicotine fix, without breathing in the hundreds of toxic chemicals you find in tobacco smoke, meaning it’s much healthier than normal cigarettes.

Inside the Gamucci Electronic Cigarette is a tiny battery powered vapouriser, which turns the liquid in the disposable cartridges into “smoke” (actually harmless vapour). Each of the cartridges contains nicotine (available in different strengths), so you still get the nicotine hit you would from a normal cigarette.

In use the Electronic Cigarette is very similar to a normal cigarette – when you inhale the tip glows right (using a small LED), and you suck in a small amount of vapour. When you exhale, you can see the vapour as you would with the cigarette smoke. One thing that does hit you is the smoothness of the vapour, as it doesn’t irritate your throat and lungs like normal smoke, in fact you hardly notice it at all.

Technically the Electronic cigarette is pretty advanced, with a microchip controlling the vapouriser action. When you inhale through the cigarette, the chip activates the vapouriser injecting tiny droplets of nicotine from the cartridge into the air flow.

You tend to smoke it much less than a normal cigarette, as a few puffs is all that’s needed to satisfy your nicotine craving, and it really does stop you wanting to smoke a real cigarette. Each nicotine cartridge offers the equivalent of 20 cigarettes before it needs replacing, and at £7.95 for 5 cartridges it works out much cheaper than smoking –  saving you around £17 per pack of cartridges, so it can quickly pay for its self.

The electronic cigarette can also help with quitting smoking, as by using lower strength cartridges each time you can slowly wean yourself off  the nictoine, making it easier to give up smoking altogether, and is much more pleasant than the Nicotine Gum or Patches! There are even nicotine free cartridges available, to help you finally break the routine of smoking.

Gamucci Electronic Cigarette Packaging

The Electronic Cigarette comes very nicely packaged, and comes complete with its own drawstring pouch for carrying it around, 2 battery units and a mains charges. One charge can last for over a day, and you can charge one battery whilst you use the other.

Although I must admit that I was initially skeptical about the idea of an electronic cigarette, I wouldn’t be without mine now, and it really is a great product. When you combine the health benefits and cost savings, the Electronic Cigarette is a definite winner!

Many famous pubs and nightclubs (such as the popular celebrity haunt China White) are promoting the use of electronic cigarettes, allowing their patrons to smoke inside without flouting the smoking ban.

Please note that according to the manufacturers instructions, the Electronic Cigarette is not to be used by pregnant or breast feeding women due to the nicotine.

Available from: I Want One of Those – Gamucci Electronic Cigarette – Price: £49.95

Available from: Firebox – The Eco Button – Price: £14.95

If you’re interested in saving the planet from the comfort of your desk, then the Eco Button is a must!

One push of the button activates the special software, which then powers down as much of your PC as possible (without turning it off completely), drastically cutting the power consumption – it’s claimed that it can reduce the power draw to a tiny 1.8 Watts!

The Eco Button plugs into a spare USB port, and the idea is that any time you decide to take a break, (frequently if you’re like me!), or leave your desk, one push of the glowing green button puts your PC into a deep sleep power saving mode. Unlike physically turning your computer off, when you are ready to get back to work your PC wakes near instantly and is ready for action – without having to wait minutes for it to boot.

As well as reducing your carbon footprint, it will also save you money as well. Due to the credit crunch - with Electricity prices rising rapidly in the UK, you`ll soon save enough to keep your single bar heater going for another couple of hours this winter (saving the inconvenience of having to wear two jumpers as the head of British Gas suggests!)

As a bonus the Eco Buttons software monitors exactly how much CO2 has been saved by the lower power state, as well as the cost. It also offers a password function for security, stopping authorized people (or kids) from using your computer while your away.

The Eco button will work with any PC running Windows XP, 2000 or Vista , and requires a tiny 5Mb or disk space and a minimum of 256Kb of RAM.

Available from: Firebox – The Eco Button – Price: £14.95

The team produced the video above, featuring the extremely attractive Zara Phillips – reigning Equestrian World Champion, and the Queens grand daughter who is 12th in line to the throne. Unfortunately, although Zara was due to compete, she had to withdraw from the team in June after her horse Toytown suffered with a recurring leg injury.

The video was created in collaboration with Land Rover, the official vehicle of the British Eventing Team with Zara Phillips as their ambassador. It’s the first time that a Royal in direct line to the throne has appeared in an advert, and shows a more modern face to the Royal family.

The comic advert, featuring a horse sneezing over cocky footballer trying to chat up Zara has already become viral and is quickly doing the rounds on the internet, drumming up further support for the British Eventing Team.

Zara Phillips stars in the advert for the British Eventing Team, in conjunction with Land Rover

For more info, and outtakes from the video shoot have a look at www.wesupporteventing.com

Available from: Firebox – Clock Alarm Clock – Price: £29.95

If you’re anything like me, then you hate getting up in the morning and manage to hit the alarm clocks snooze button in your sleep, meaning when you do wake up you’re in a mad rush to get to work!

Clocky is the answer! Clocky is the alarm clock thats impossible to ignore, as once the alarm goes off it scoots off to find a place to hide, whirring it’s way round your bedroom. In order to turn the alarm off, you have no choice but to get out of bed and chase it round the room, and although it sounds annoying, it’s actually incredibly effective at getting you up.

If you do get fed up with chasing it round, you can disable the wheels so that Clocky functions as a normal alarm clock, but that does kind of defeat the point a bit.  The Clocky also has an adustable snooze timer, although once you’ve got out of bed to chase after it once, it’s unlikely you’ll go back to sleep again.

Clocky is available in 2 colours, Almond and Aqua (that’s Cream & Blue for us commoners!).

So let Clocky wake you up in the mornings and you’ll never be late again!  

Available from: Firebox – Clock Alarm Clock – Price: £29.95

Available from: I Want One of Those – Sound Asleep Pillow – Price: £19.99

Do you love falling asleep listening to your favourite music, but hate waking up in the night choking from your headphone lead wrapped several times round your neck? If so, the Sound Asleep Pillow is the answer! 

The Sound Asleep Pillow (or I-Pillow as I’ve nicknamed it!) is a comfy hollow fibre pillow with a speaker buried deep inside, allowing you to listen to your favourite tunes as you drift off to sleep. Compatible with any device with a headphone socket, the Sound Asleep Pillow can be plugged into your IPod, or any MP3 player, with the removable lead supplied.  Set the required volume, and relax as your favourite music gently lulls you off to sleep!

One of the great things about the Sound Asleep Pillow is that it’s only audible when you have your head firmly snuggled into it. This means you can listen to your music without headphones, but it won’t disturb anyone sleeping next to you as it’s completely inaudible from a couple of cm’s away, even with the volume cranked up to full! This was tested with my other half, who told me “You’re not playing music in bed, you’ll keep me awake!” (and this from the person who managed to sleep through the recent earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale!).  After i`d been comfortably listening for a good couple of minutes however, she asked me when I was going to turn it on

I must admit that when I received the Sound Asleep Pillow, I was waiting for the catch. Usually, with gadgets like this you don’t always get the full package, for instance the sound quality is great, but it feels like sleeping on a big foam brick, or it’s nice and comfy but the sound quality is awful! Thankfully, the Sound Asleep Pillow is definately the exception to the rule!

I’ll also admit that i`m extremely fussy, and my pillow has to be just right – not too soft, and not too hard, and thankfully the Sound Asleep Pillow offers the best of both worlds. It’s hollow fibre filling is both soft and comfy, but still gives a good amount of support to your head and neck. The sound quality is also much better than I was expecting, and you literally can’t hear it at all from a couple of centimetres away. Usually, when someone is listening to music with headphones on,  you can hear that annoying tinny noise, but the Sound Asleep Pillow is totally silent!

If you find it hard getting off to sleep at night, as you can’t shut down from the stresses and worries of the day, the pillow is a great way to take you mind off things and just relax. As well as listening to music, it’s great for listening to study tapes, helping you to learn whilst you sleep! Alternatively, you could use it for listening to self hypnosis CD’s, and provides the perfect comfortable environment to let yourself go – so now you can stop smoking, gain confidence and lose weight all with the help of a pillow! (and the appropriate audio hypnosis guide of course). Just make sure your other half doesn’t hijack it, or you’ll be listening to “I must do more washing up and household chores” all night!

 I’ve been reliably informed by the nice people at I Want One of Those that the Sound Asleep Pillow has been flying off the shelves, and it’s not hard to see why! Once you’re snuggled up and listening to your favourite relaxing music, you’ll wonder how you ever managed without one!

At £19.99 the Sound Asleep Pillow is definately a luxury product, but it’s not going to break the bank and is well worth every penny. So go on and treat yourself to a great nights sleep (and you might as well buy two, as when you’re other half tries it you aren’t going to get it back!)

Available from: I Want One of Those – Sound Asleep Pillow – Price: £19.99

Available from: I Want One of Those – EzVision Digital Video – Price: £149.00

The EzVision Video Eyewear has got to be THE best way to view portable Video! Although they are slimline and extremely lightweight at only 68 grams, wearing them gives the effect of watching your video on a massive 50 inch movie screen.

The EzVision Video Eyewear can connect to most portable video sources, such as IPod’s and portable Video & DVD players, and let you watch on the equivalent of a huge 50 inch screen with an extremely sharp picture quality. There are also retractable headphones built in, to give you a totally personal audio / visual experience, great for long journeys, watching movies in bed without disturbing anyone else,  or just for zoning out from the rest of the world (and who doesn’t want to do that on a regular basis!).

The EzVision Video Eyewear has a rechargeable battery pack, which lasts for up to 8 hours, as well as a built in volume control. They also come complete with adaptors to connect your Ipod or portable DVD Player. Everything you need for your own cinematic experience!

For anyone reading this blog who wants to buy me something for Christmas (I can always dream!), these would be it!

Available from: I Want One of Those – EzVision Digital Video – Price: £149.00

Available from: Alternative Gifts – Emergency Phone Charger – Price: £5.95

We’ve all been there – you need to make an urgent phone call, and your mobile phone battery dies as your dialing! Thankfully, this is no longer a problem when you have the Emergency Phone Charger!

The Emergency Phone Charger is a clever little device that takes a single AA battery, and comes with 6 different adaptors that fit a number of different phone models including Blackberry, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. It can even charge up your Ipod!

The instant charge gives you up to 600 minutes of standby time, 120 minutes of talk time, or up to 2 hours of Ipod use from a single AA battery. Small and easy to carry, it means you`ll never get caught out again. It’s also incredibly cheap at only £5.95, not much more than the single use chargers available in shops, except that by inserting a new battery the Emergency Phone Charger can be used over and over again!

 Available from: Alternative Gifts – Emergency Phone Charger – Price: £5.95