It's nice this time of year to look at Gadgets for the little ones in our lives. Two cute gadgets have just arrived in our office.
Teletubby Dance with me Laa-Laa wiggles and jiggles to her theme tune, looking every bit like her television character. She blinks her eyes and dances away when you press her left hand. Press her right hand and she plays musical statues with you.
Teletubby Dance with me Laa-Laa can be found at Amazon for £31.99.
Television Characters Charlie and Lola are bound to be a big hit with the Toddlers this year. Chattering Charlie and Lola sit on their bean bags making jokes and talking about the books they are reading and their spelling challenges. Just squeeze Charlies hand to watch them move and chat away to each other.
Chattering Charlie and Lola are available from Amazon for £29.94.
Remember back in the 80s, when everyone wore those cheesy thermochromatic T-shirts? Yes, you know the ones! They were T-shirts that changed colour when subjected to heat. They were called Global Hypercolour and along with goaty beards, big hair and jelly shoes, they were a common sight on the streets of the UK for years. We havent really seen anything as cheesy since..........until now!Brace yourselves, for a new cheesy number has arrived? the T-Equaliser Music T-shirt!The T-Equaliser Music T-shirt is a shirt with a built in sound sensitive spectrum analyzer. As the music beats, the equalizer moves to the beat of the music! Each frequency of music will activate a different equalizer bar, just like the equalizer on your stereo at home! It??s a must have accessory for all concerts, parties or even raves! It has a fully functional Electro Luminescence panel with a battery pack that snuggles discretely into a pocket inside the T-shirt. The end result is a tremendous sound sensitive music T-Shirt that commands attention!T-Equaliser Music T-shirt is light weight so it won't stop you throwing shapes at your favourite parties and once you get all sweaty you can remove the battery pack to give T-Q a well deserved wash! So what ever music you choose to listen to you can rest assured that you T-Equaliser will always rock with you!
Specification :
Well the party season will be upon us before we know if as we all head towards Christmas. I received a new product called the After Party Shoe from Redfoot - so I thought I'd give them a whirl. I had a lot of local leafleting to do (sadly I don't really go to all night parties any more). So I decided to inflict sore feet on myself by walking 90 minutes in high heels posting leaflets through doors. What I do for Gadgetspeak - I must be mad.
So now here I am sitting in my comfy, podiatrist designed, After Party Shoes. They are a soft and lightweight pump which fold in half so they can slip easily into a little carry case and then into your party bag. When folded the pair of shoes are just a little bigger than my purse and did fit into my reasonably small bag. The upper is soft material and the bottom is a waterproof shoe sole.
Yes they are comfy, and looking at the website they come in a very large range of fashionable styles and fabrics - for business, party and holiday wear. I've often had sore feet after shopping and a long day at the office, so they could be just as useful then as after a party.
My only question - what do you do with the shoes you've taken off that won't slip into your bag? Better take a spare plastic bag with you as well!!!
After Party Shoes are £25 and available on-line from http://www.redfootrevolution.co.uk/
What's more if you buy a pair in October £1 is donated to Breast Cancer charity The Pink Ribbon Foundation.
In these turbulent times, Bosch suggests that we improve our homes if we can't move. We're hoping to review these products in the Spring, but thought readers would like to know about them now - we know how popular home improvement tools are in the run up to Christmas.
Bosch have a range of home decorating Spray Paint Guns which use their low-pressure "Spray Control Technology" to produce a fine paint mist. Bosch tell us that this speeds up the drying between coats, is 3 times faster than a paintbrush and saves you money by using 15% less paint. Sounds good!
The new Bosch PFS 105E is designed for spraying internal rooms as well as large outdoor surfaces.
The new Bosch PFS 55 is a hand-held system for small to medium spraying tasks, such as furniture or even wooden toys.
Completing the spray gun range is the PFS 65, which became available for the first time this Summer. It's a compact, portable and light weight system for medium sized projects such as larger pieces of furniture, garden fences or sheds.
The Bosch PFS 65 is already in-store and the PFS 55 and 105E will be available at B&Q from 6 October 2008.
The PFS 65 is also available online at:
http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=152634
Prices frange from £59.99 to £139.99 including VAT. For further information call: 0844 736 0107.
Following on from our review of the Photobox photo printing service we've received news of a Facebook application from Photobox available at www.photobox.co.uk/superphotos
The Superphotos application lets you upload photos to Photobox for printing and to Facebook for sharing through one portal. From the Photobox site you can then turn your photos into photobooks, calenders, collages and more.
You can also export your existing Facebook albums into Photobox and give permission to your Facebook friends to use your photos to create prints or gifts.
Commenting on the new development, Lawrence Merritt, Photobox's Marketing Director, said: "Super Photos directly addresses feedback from our customers who want to print their Facebook photos, but found uploading to Facebook and Photobox separately was a pain in the neck. This application will give millions of users sharing their photos with Facebook the option to print them with our next day photo service. Now your indiscretions can be printed and posted back to your door!"
To add Super Photos to your Facebook profile directly, go to http://apps.facebook.com/getsuperphotos or go to the application fan page at http://www.new.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=37946903376 and click 'Go to Application'.
Hexbug is a tiny robotoic creature of just over 2 inches in length which can can feel its way around sensing objects in its path and avoiding them. Objects in their way, or loud noises, such as a clap will change their direction.
There are five HEXBUG characters named ALPHA, BRAVO, CHARLIE, DELTA, ECHO
each has a distinct shape and colour.
Put to the kiddie test, our
11 and 13 year olds played with them for hours! I thought they might
be the sort of thing you open, watch it do a trick or two, and then forget
it. However, our kids rapidly turned on their imaginations and started making
little maze warrens for them from upturned CD boxes. Having two of
them was definately more fun than one. Only problem - we played with them
until the batteries ran out on one!
Available from Amazon for £9.99 each.
Last week I received two products from Lakeland to help with the cost of washing - the Dolly Balls and the Dryangles.
The Dolly Washer Balls come in a pack of 9. You spread these small plastic balls evenly around your washing and they provide extra agitation - a bit like when you rub your clothes together when handwashing - if you can remember handwashing. The extra friction can, they say, save you up to 75% of your washing powder and make lower temperature washes more likely to work. I gave them a go at 30 degrees and with a very small amount of washing powder. It's not a scientific test, but I must admit the wash did seem to come out the same as it would have done with more powder.
The Dryangles are for use in your tumble dryer, to aid softness without needing to use fabric conditioner. I gave this a go with towels, and yes they did come out reasonably soft - they certainly weren't like cardboard. Lakeland claim that drying time can be up to 25% faster. I didn't notice any difference on this score - but again it's hard to do a valid test.
Dolly Washer Balls cost £13.99 for a pack of 9 and Dryangles are £9.99 for a pack of 2. Both available from Lakeland at Lakeland.
Medion's stylish new black and silver 10-inch notebook is now on sale in
Sainsbury's stores nationwide, priced at £299.99 including VAT.
Summary of press information:
With 1GB
RAM and an 80GB hard drive, the 1.2GHz Intel Atom-based Medion Akoya Mini
E1210's has plenty of storage for personal
pictures and videos downloaded via the memory card reader. The Akoya Mini E1210 is small and light enough to be carried
in one hand, its bright and clear 10-inch screen is easy to read outdoors and it
comes with the latest Draft-N wireless connectivity to make the most of WiFi
hotspots.
The
Medion Akoya Mini E1210 has a full-sized keyboard, three USB ports and a webcam
and microphone for keeping in touch with friends and family.
Sony have today announced a reduction in its 60Gb PS3 to £349, with a new 40Gb model breaking the £300 barrier to launch at £299 on 10th October. We'll be following this race very carefully!
With the Nintendo Wii, XBox 360 and PS3 all in the same price bracket, will the Nintendo Wii and Xbox follow with their own price cuts? Who do you think will win the race for people's hearts and wallets this Christmas? We are really interested in your views. If you already have a Wii, XBox or PS3, let us know what you think - and help others to make the right request of Santa!!
(Personally, we still love the Nintendo DS and PSP in our household!!)