Navigating the oceans of tech can be a tedious, troublesome chore. Luckily for you, ShortList's experienced gadget junky Tom Bailey is on hand to do the hard work for you.
Here's his rolling selection of the latest gadgets:
How’s this for escapism?
If you’ve ever fancied driving a Formula 1 car but barely know which way up the helmet goes, then we have good news. The VRX-Z180 racing simulator has just landed in Harrods’ wondrous new Gaming Room, which houses everything from a pair of 7.1 Surround Sound headphones for yourPS4 to bespoke arcade machines. It’s fair to say this caught our attention, though. Combining a seamless, 4.5-metre eyeball-hugging screen with a motorised carbon platform to simulate the vibrations of a real F1 engine, it’s one hell of a ride. You can enter the Gaming Room on the third floor. Good luck finding the exit.
£125,000
SPEAKERS CORNER
The days when your hi-fi would Rofl at your pathetic PC speakers are long gone. Denon’s CEOL Carino hooks up to your desktop wirelessly, dramatically improving audio quality.
£299
SMELL MY FORK
You have an electric toothbrush, so why not an electric fork? The Aromafork’s liquid capsules emit a whiff of 21 flavours – from barbecue smoke to wasabi – to suit your food. Actually, that is quite weird.
£35
iPHONE AMP
It’s annoying when you show your friends a YouTube video, but nobody can hear it. Cue the Speck CandyShell Amped, with a horn design to amplify your iPhone’s speaker while saving battery life.
£45
CAMERA ’PHONES
Combining two great things – or ‘gangbanging’ – yields great results. Aimed at DJs, the SoundSight headphones feature a live-streaming video camera.
£206
SMARTY PANTS
Place Nokia’s new Lumia 930 superphone on its accompanying charging plate and watch the battery creep mysteriously back to full strength. No need to plug anything in – it charges wirelessly using ‘induction’ tech. This is clearly impressive in its own right, but just think what this means: we’ll soon be able to charge gadgets by putting them in our pockets. To prove it, Nokia has commissioned the A Sauvage Wireless Charging Trousers, which are available to buy now though Amazon UK for a mere £899. Simply slip the Lumia 930 into the pocket to magically replenish its battery. Next week: spray-on shoes.
£435
WOOD GAME BOY
Swedish chisel-jockey Love Hultèn has created the R-KAID-R portable console.
It supports Snes and Sega games, and comes with a mono speaker for 8-bit LOLs.
£1,986
CoTE HANGER
The Steak Locker is the world’s first gadget for dry-aging beef at home, tenderising the meat until it’s that buttery texture. You can also use an iPhone app to check progress – just try not to drool on the screen.
£395
BRIGHT IDEA
Designed for today’s pokey living spaces, Mipow’s space-saving screw-in LED bulb doubles as a wireless Bluetooth speaker. Control both light and music from any iOS/Android device. Take that, Edison.
£60
SHARK SHOOTER
Sharks eat their babies but are still photogenic. Shoot them with Canon’s PowerShot D30, which is waterproof to a depth of 75ft. Note: it’s shockproof, not sharkproof.
£260
Tested on Tatooine
Like X-ray specs, the hoverboard has become a vague byword for ‘The Future.’ But now ‘The Future’ has a name, a price and a release date. And it’s more like Luke Skywalker’s landspeeder. Aerofex’s Aero-X 2012 prototype has been perfected and – a bit like a supercar – orders are now being taken for delivery in two years’ time. At almost 15ft long, it hovers up to 12ft above the surface, powers forward at 45mph and has a patented stabilising technology so it can be ridden as an ‘aerial quad bike’ (past hoverboards failed because you needed to be a chopper pilot to use them). One thing to remember: it does generate quite a lot of thrust. For some reason, Star Wars never portrayed Luke accidentally running over a cat...
£49,900
SUPERCHARGE ME
Water and electricty don’t tend to mix but you won’t have to worry about that here. Insert your USB cable into the Power Tap and it glows blue when charging and red on standby.
£15
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
You’ve heard of the Fitbit? Well this is Quitbit. Instead of tracking fitness, the Bluetooth lighter ignites your cigarettes with a heating element – but tracks how much you smoke.
£59
BUNKER MENTALITY
Garmin’s Approach S6 touchscreen GPS golf watch provides the layout and distance of each hole, while a PinPointer arrow helps you nail blind bunker shots.
£350
GO HARD(ER)
Why ‘feel’ the pain when you can see it? Adidas’ new Fit Smart watch has a heart rate monitor and a ‘light pipe’ that glows red, amber or green depending on the intensity of the workout.
£179 (due 15 Aug)
Finally, a smartwatch for grown- ups
If you like the idea of owning a smartphone, but feel that a piece of rubber with a screen doesn’t make much of a statement, then consider the Withings Activité. It looks like a luxury Swiss watch, but hides a modern activity and sleep tracker. One reflexive glance and the inset dial provides a visualisation of your daily fitness goals, while its gently vibrating alarm can be set with two taps of the glass. No need for a winder, either. The watch sets itself (of course) by synching with your phone. So put a big, fat red circle around August in your diary – wearable tech will get a whole lot more wearable.
£320 (due Aug)
#WINETIME
With one spray, WineSave preserves a half-drunk bottle of wine with a blanket of argon, which – as you’ll know from science – is an inert gas that’s heavier than air. Stops the wine oxidising, you see.
£20
KNOMO PROBLEMS
Knomo, has created a shockproof Filofax for the iGeneration. The Knomad Mini Power even has a built-in slimline battery to charge iPhones and iPads.
£120
DIGI-BALL
A mere football? How dare you. The Adidas miCoach Smart Ball is a personal training tool. Sensors inside (the ball charges wirelessly) measure speed and trajectory to help improve your free-kicks.
£250
SPOTIFY headPHONES
With Richard Branson’s backing, Audiowings are set to replace your Beats. The first 4G-enabled ’phones, built-in Spotify means smartphone-free music streaming.
£TBC
You can now rewind your life
Mix one part terrifying with two parts exciting, and you get the Helico AirDog. The airborne drone is the first to boast ‘auto follow’ mode. Simply slip on the wrist-worn tracking device, and the 3D-printed aircraft will hover above you, going wherever you go, shooting ‘personal videos’ of your life with its built-in GoPro HD camera. Really cool if you’re surfing, not so cool when you find yourself musing out loud, ‘Why’s it following me? I’ve taken the wristband off…’ Ah, the future. Just as Hollywood predicted.
£882
FESTIVAL SOUNDS
How are your eco-credentials looking? Boost them with the Soulra Rugged Rukus, a solar-powered Bluetooth speaker. Five hours of sunlight equals eight hours’ partying.
£90
GLASS MINUTE PURCHASE
You can now become a ‘Glasshole’. Google’s (prototype) camera-toting goggles have gone on sale at its London ‘Basecamp’. Or ‘shop’, as it’s often known.
£1,500
CALL OF THE WILD
If you’re 4G-curious, and have £14 a month spare, then we urge you to buy the EE Kestrel. The 4.5in mobile streams Netflix smoothly and has a really badass, falcon-based name.
£100
SMART TICKER
A few reasons we love the new Motorola Moto 360 smartwatch: you can select from a range of face designs, it runs Google’s new Android Wear OS and it doesn’t even look like a smartwatch.
£TBA
May recoil at your pocket
Are you concerned that society is becoming increasingly stratified, and that a new techno-elite will dominate the future? Best not read about this handcrafted smartphone for billionaires, then. Vertu’s undeniably-impressive Signature Touch comes with Dolby surround sound speakers, tuned by audio god Bang & Olufsen, and a 13-megapixel camera created with world-renowned photography expert Hasselblad. What more do you want? A personal slave (concierge service) available on live chat 24/7 to take care of all your dog-sitting/yacht-hiring needs? Oh, well it actually has that as well…
£6,250
SOLAR TENT
The Bang Bang Fool On The Hill tent won’t merely keep you dry/sane at Glasto, it’ll also charge your dying phone using its 5-watt solar panel. Plugging a phone into a tent? That’s now a thing.
£250
SMART CUP
The first ‘intelligent cup’, Vessyl recognises the drink you pour into it, displays its nutritional content, then complains when you drink too much coffee/cola. The impertinent (amazing) little bastard.
£59
CYCLING headPHONES
Monster’s machine-washable iSport Strive in-ear ’phones are made for urban cyclists. They allow just enough ambient noise in to stop you getting hit by a van.
£60
GAME TOY
Slot your iPhone into Razer’s Junglecat Controller to turn your mobile into a mini console, complete with D-pad. Those who take Doodle Jump seriously can customise button sensitivity.
£79
The Perfect Martini? There's an app for that
If you’ve always fancied being a world-class cocktail barman but weren’t sure about the bow tie or the funny metal sleeve clips, then allow us to introduce you to The Perfect Drink. An app-controlled digital scale, it transforms the average man into a pipette-wielding, moustache-twirling mixology god. As you pour each measure of alcohol, a virtual glass on the iPad’s screen fills up, thus allowing you to nail the proportions of any drink from the app’s (extensive) recipe library. One Marmageddon (tequila and Marmite) coming up, sir…
£60
HAUTE BOX
Valentino is the latest fashion designer to swap stitches for silicon, and venture into the world of tech. His Limited Edition Rouge Absolute Mophie Powerstation 4000 recharges your phone up to 2.5 times.
£202
BAMBOO SPEAKER
If you have a ‘small’ TV (under 50in) then boost the sound with the compact Orbitsound M9 Bluetooth Sound Bar, which has a hide-able wireless digital subwoofer.
£400
HOME BARISTA
The $15 cup of coffee is now a thing (in Manhattan, anyway). But for the price of seven, you could buy this ultra-slim espresso machine; Lavazza’s classy Espria slots into the smallest of kitchens.
£60
MILK MONEY
Billed as a platform for the world’s most talented ‘makers’ (self-taught designers), Milkster crowdfunds cool stuff such as Sitting Lamp, whose ingenious bendy wooden legs double as book ends.
£107
Jump up and get down
We’re not against bunting-heavy, British street parties, but it’s fair to say that the ones thrown in Jamaica (‘jump ups’) are just a tad livelier. They provided the inspiration for KitSound’s new Kingston PA portable speaker. Easy to cart about, the device has a three-channel mixer and five-hour battery life, meaning you can throw an impromptu festival anywhere. Booty-clapping is strictly at your own discretion.
£100
Flipping good GOOGLE-PAD
With so many tablets adrift on a sea of saminess, we loved Lenovo’s 10.1in Yoga HD+. A laser-etched aluminium beauty, it’s wafer-thin with an ingenious flip-out kickstand.
£25
BE KING OF THE OFFICE
Boost your popularity – be ‘that guy’ who always has a spare iPhone 5 charger. The Charge Key, a keyring-sized Lightning adapter, allows you to pilfer power from USB ports.
£18
STAR TREK COMMUNICATOR
The secret to crowdfunding? Invent something bacon-flavoured or a smartwatch. Rufus Labs’ Cuff, has a 3in touchscreen and looks like a smartphone gaffer’d to your wrist.
£168
RUN FOR THE THRILLS
The hunt for the ultimate wireless sports headphones is over. The Plantronics Backbeat FITs are wireless, waterproof, reflective and provide eight hours’ playback.
£120
Selfie help
Even if you only take the odd selfie, you’ll know nobody looks good in them. There’s a scientific reason: humans just aren’t used to seeing unsymmetrical faces tilted at weird angles. That’s where LG’s bell/whistle-laden G3 superphone comes in. Designed to boost your selfie-taking chops, it has a 13-megapixel camera (with laser-guided autofocus) and a selfie timer activated when you make a fist. Shoot the perfect selfie and view it on the 5.5in 538 pixels-per-inch display – so sharp it challenges the limit of what the human eye can handle. Not sold on selfies? It’s also great for watching Netflix.
£550 (due June)
THUMB WAR
No bigger than your thumb, the surprisingly-loud X-mini WE speaker can be hung on a keyring. Which is handy for a small, impromptu party – in the corner of a large party with a terrible DJ.
£30
INKY BUSINESS
Like the sound of a printer that never runs out of ink? HP’s Envy 5530 e-AiO comes with HP’s Instant Ink service (from £1.99 a month), which sees your printer order new ink cartridges before they run dry.
£90
INSTANT
Fans of instant cameras will like the nostalgia-tinged Lomo’Instant, a film camera that comes with a range of coloured gels. It’s a more rewarding (but laborious) analogue Instagram.
£42
NEIL BEFORE THE WHISKERED
With his waistcoat and whiskers, Neil Young isn’t your typical tech entrepreneur. But the musician’s Pono audio player is set to revolutionise HD music downloads.
£179
Forget about Dre
Having invented ‘premium’ headphones, Dr Dre is now reported to be cashing in his stake in Beats for a lot of Benjamins. Filling the gap, British fashion designer Ted Baker presents headphones aimed at adults. Design? Inspired by a Supermarine Spitfire cockpit. Acoustics? Superior; developed with a hi-fi heritage brand with cups as soft as parachute silk. The acid test? If you cut the Ted Baker label off, we’d still choose these over lime-green Beats.
£180
iSCOOTER
The spirit of Quadrophenia is alive and well, and compatible with smartphones. Plug your mobile into Vespa’s GTS 300 Super scooter to display speed, fuel consumption and tyre wear.
£4,691
SUPER SPEAKER
As well as making Bentley car stereos, Naim has a rival to the Sonos wireless speaker. The Muso has AirPlay, six 75w amps and volume that goes to 11. All frightfully un-Bentley-like.
£895 (due Sept)
VAMP’D UP
Once your phone’s 100 per cent charged, it continues to draw half as much power again. To prevent such ‘vampire leak’, PowerSlayer shuts off once your phone’s charged, saving you money.
£54
SUPER CAMERA PHONE
The year 2001 just called; cameraphones are back. Samsung’s 20-megapixel Galaxy K Zoom features a 10x zoom and Selfie Alarm for perfect portraits.
£400
ATTACK OF THE 8FT-TALL SPEAKERS
Described as an “unrestrained attempt” to create the world’s finest loudspeakers, the Magico Ultimates are 8ft tall and weigh 800lbs. Stand next to one and it’d likely tower over you by a terrifying 2ft. Each has four Japanese, custom-made, horn-loaded compression drivers plus a 15in bass driver powered by 4,000 watts of amplification. In short, they’d reduce the Palace Of Versailles to dust in seconds. If you can get them in the door...
£600,000
KING OF PHONES
The Sony Xperia Z2 is great; 4K and waterproof with noise-cancelling tech. Which you can test using Jacko’s new (pre-loaded) album.
£42 a month
WAVE WATCH
You don’t need to wet your finger and hold it in the air to know fitness watches are all the rage. But meet the world’s first GPS Surf Watch. Made by Rip Curl, it tracks wave count, paddle patterns and speed.
£239 (Due Sept)
INSTAGRAM SUNNIES
If you love Instagram, why not bathe your life in a warm filter? Where most sunglasses desaturate colour, the Tens ‘Instagram’ sunglasses make it look like a Seventies Polaroid snap.
£36
BLUMENTHAL ON ICE
The Sage Smart Scoop is what happens when Heston designs an ice cream maker. It auto-senses the thickness of your ice cream and plays ice cream van music when ready.
£350
Yes, it’s the treadmill desk
Along with eating artisanal tofu popsicles and writing “screenplays”, the LifeSpan treadmill desk is Silicon Valley’s latest obsession. The answer to today’s sedentary lifestyles (the average man sits down 8.9 hours a day), you can walk the equivalent of a marathon and burn 1,000 calories without even noticing. We hope they crop up in British offices soon, primarily to see what happens when you increase the speed while someone’s
on the phone…
£1,999
LIGHT FANTASTIC
Exclusive to Harrods, this white Canon EOS 100D is the finest SLR known to man. It’s the smallest and lightest of the mini SLRs with a 12,800 ISO for shooting in near-darkness.
£499
ALIVE AND TICKING
Press the ‘heart’ icon and the Withings Pulse O2 activity tracker reads out your blood oxygen level. Handy, whether you’re climbing K2 or merely want to check that you’re still alive.
£100
AN OEUF IS ENOUGH
You can make an omelette without breaking eggs: the Golden Goose ‘centrifuge’ scrambles them in the shell. Why? Because it can. And ’cos it raised £100k on Kickstarter.
£15
BRITISH BEAUTY
Denon has 100 years of hi-fi know-how, so its new Envaya wireless speaker adds a dose of ‘epic’ to your iTunes library. Available in Indigo, Lunar and Fandango (AKA blue, grey or pink).
£169
Cinema goggles: anti-social genius
The nerd kings of Silicon Valley have spoken: virtual-reality glasses are the future. But while Facebook’s $2bn Oculus Rift gaming goggles and Google’s Ray-Ban techno-glasses are exciting prospects, they’re yet to go on sale. Unlike Sony’s HMZ-T3W personal 3D viewer, which is currently strapped to our head. What’s it like in here? Surprisingly comfortable. The dual OLED screens simulate watching a 750in cinema screen from 20 rows back, while the earphones supply 5.1 surround sound. It’s the 21st-century equivalent of a man retreating to his shed.
£1,299
JET BIKE
Bell & Ross’s head-turning B-Rocket ‘aeroplane-motorcycle’ has side-mounted jet turbines to achieve higher speeds. Basically, it’s one big ‘lol’ to the world’s traffic lights…
£TBC
STEVE JOBS’ MAC
Want to invest in tech? Forget start-ups; how about this 1984 Apple Mac? A rare item in its own right – but this one is signed by Steve Jobs. Now, where do we buy a floppy disk?
£86,495
SELF-DESTRUCTING PHONE
For ‘shadowy government agencies’, Boeing’s Black smartphone self-destructs when tampered with. Your Papa Johns’ app use can stay secret...
£TBC
GOGGLE BOX
You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better TV box than the Freesat+ HD with Freetime 1TB. Aside from 200 channels and On Demand players galore, it helpfully records TV episodes into box sets.
from
£250
No, it doesn’t have Snapchat…
London’s Leica store is photography’s equivalent of a supercar showroom. Staff offer you a ‘curated’ espresso. to ease you round to the idea of dropping a month’s wages on a beauty such as this. Designed with Audi, the 16-megapixel Leica T is the company’s first touchscreen snapper and is milled from a block of aluminium. Expect SLR performance, the ability to use an iPad as a viewfinder and newfound disdain for blurry Facebook party pics.
£1,350 (without lens)
CROWD-FUNDED SENSATION
Behold, the latest crowdfunded success story. Geek Out’s DAC headphone amp is 10 times more powerful than the amp typically found in laptops, thus providing a hi-fi quality upgrade.
From £199
NEVER LOSE YOUR KEYS
If your keys have a habit of hiding in freezer drawers and errant shoes, the Nokia Treasure Tag is here to help. Attach it to belongings to locate them via a map on your phone.
£20
SOLAR- POWERED TENT
Aimed at power-hungry festival-goers, this four-man tent draws electricity from a panel on its roof. Thus, you can juice up your mobile and continue your very own festival (of selfies).
£250
SPYING HIGH
Ah, drones. If you like the cut of their enjoyably sinister jib, you’ll like DJI’s Phantom 2 Vision+ quadcopter. It soars 300ft, beaming back live HD footage. Anyone need us to shoot an overblown R&B music video?
£830
Only warrants one opinion
If you haven’t seen the commercial for the HTC One M8 superphone, we should explain. Gary Oldman says ‘Blah blah blah’ for 20 seconds, the punchline being that ‘It doesn’t matter what I say, this phone is for people who form their own opinions’. Well Gary, here’s ours: we love the 5in touchscreen, which is bigger than some provincial ice-rinks. We love the unique built-in amps that isolate and boost specific parts of a song to improve playback. We love that you can tap the screen to switch it on. But most of all, we love advanced UltraPixel cameras, which measure depth and allow you to tilt and pan what should be a flat picture. There’s only one thing we don’t love: the crazy-strong seasickness we got from those aforementioned tilting images....
£550
PEDIGREE WOOFER
As wireless iPod speakers go, this one surely takes the (dog) biscuit. Jarre’s AeroBull floods your room with 100 watts of HD sound, courtesy of a pair of speakers in the sunglasses.
£1,200
ON THE CUFF
While some smartwatches are the size of Sticklebricks, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear 2 actually fits under your cuff.
It also comes complete with a heart-rate monitor and a (socially questionable) camera.
£299
Chromecast IS HERE
While Apple’s TV remains the tech equivalent of the Yeti, Google’s Chromecast is very much real. It wirelessly ‘casts’ Netflix or BBC iPlayer from your phone or laptop to a TV.
£30
GO SMOKE-FREE
You could barbecue in a gas mask – or your could purchase a Lotus Grill, the
first smokeless charcoal barbecue. Its battery-powered fan blows the carcinogenic fumes away from you.
£129
RISE OF THE ROBOT (BUTLER)
Johnny Five is not merely alive – he now has wheels. At least that’s what it looks like from this picture. What you’re looking at is MiP, the world’s first self-balancing robot (like a miniature Segway). Capable of carrying his own bodyweight, the tiny robot Sherpa can be controlled by hand gestures or by tracing a path on your smartphone’s screen. Essentially, he’s the ideal way to bring you lagers, artisanal Korean beef jerky and other essential snacks during, say, the month of June. When something called the World Cup is happening…
£100
Barbecue SCRUBBING ‘BOT
More robo-slave action: Grillbot cleans your barbecue. Three whirring steel brushes battle fatty residue while you crack open another beer.
£78
MINTY FRESH ‘PHONES
We like Bose. And we especially like the new, on-ear SoundTrues, which combine ambient noise isolation with peerless audio and amint/purple style upgrade.
£150
BLOOD, SWEAT AND TECH
TomTom’s Runner Cardio GPS sport watch shines a light through your skin to monitor blood flow, so you can train in one of five ‘optimal heart rate zones’ – you know the ones, right?
£250
3D PRINTING PEN
Having raised $2.3m through Kickstarter, the 3Doodler is now real, with a heated nib that pipes plastic. Our Eiffel Tower model should be finished in late Nevertember.
£99
Smart and pretty
We may have 99 first world problems, but a smartphone is not currently one. There’re three new iPhone-killers out this month: HTC’s aluminium One M8, Sony’s waterproof Xperia Z2 and this – the gorgeous Samsung Galaxy S5. The follow up to the most successful Android phone ever, the S5 is faster, waterproof and has a fingerprint reader (for wantonly approving PayPal transactions), a touch-sensitive heart-rate monitor to track fitness and a cinema-quality 4K video camera. One thing it – sadly – doesn’t do: 3D-print $100 bills. #FirstWorldProblems, eh?
£550 (out 11 April)
YOU’VE GOT A VERVE
Created by the band of the same name, who feature The Verve’s guitarist, the waterproof Black Submarine wireless speaker suckers onto phones and shower screens.
£30
SELFIE OLYMPICS
In a bid to help you master The Selfie, Samsung’s ultra-slim NX mini camera takes a shot two seconds after you wink at it. Now, how do we do that ‘ducklips’ thing?
£399
MOTHER KNOWS….
The Sen.se Mother tracks your routine via tiny, sticky motion sensors that attach to anything from a biscuit tin to a toothbrush. Watch your life ‘happening’ in the Storybook app.
£165
FLAWLESS DIAMONDZ
We love these headphones. Not just because they’re rose gold, but because Monster’s DiamondZ have been personally tuned for purity by audio god Noel Lee.
£250
As thin as thin gets
The pyramids, the Large Hadron Collider and the Chunnel; when it comes to great feats of engineering, it seems those on a grand scale get all the glory. Which is why we’re happy to champion Sony’s wonderous (fully waterproof) Xperia Z2. The world’s thinnest, lightest and sharpest tablet, it’s basically the size of a placemat. Which is astonishing given that it costs the same as an iPad Air but weighs 30g less, and has a 10.1in quad-core display. In short, you’re all set for stutter-free Netflix binges in the bath. How will Apple respond to such impertinence? Fit tiny iPads into our contact lenses, we hope.
£399
SCALABLE SUCCESS
If you’re not convinced it’s time to spend your ISA on an Ultra HDTV, Sharp is hoping to tempt you with its Quattron Pro 60in. It’s not ‘Ultra’ but its upscaling will fool your eyes.
£2,100
GREAT DANE
Fans of high-end Danish hi-fi will doubtless admire the Dali Kubik, a 100-watt Bluetooth speaker with a 5in wood fibre cone for ‘natural-sounding’ bass. Fans of spelling, on the other hand, probably won’t.
£650
Orange crush
If you follow catwalk trends, you’ll be aware that ‘Celosia’ (a shade of orange) is all the rage. Hence Denon’s Pantone-matched AH-W150 wireless earphones. On trend, lightweight and sweatproof.
£79
POWER UP
Billed as the ‘ultimate smartphone power charger’, Monster’s credit card-sized Powercard fits in a wallet and provides a five-hour stay of execution for a smartphone’s fast-fading battery.
£35
(Re)birth of a design icon
The Walkman – the Eighties cassette player that shut out parents and made you feel like Marty McFly – was a true stroke of genius. The headphones? Yeah, rubbish. Hence why, 30 years ago, Bang & Olufsen began offering an upgrade in the shape of the Form 2s. They’ve stood the test of time (a pair now resides
in New York’s Museum Of Modern Art), but since the Walkman is history, B&O has relaunched them for the iPhone generation in the shape of the 2is, complete with inline mic. For the full Eighties experience, sling a pair round your neck and fail to ask a string of popular girls to the prom.
£109
HIGH SECURITY
Lots of gadgets have fingerprint readers, but what if someone chops your finger off? Fujitsu’s Lifebook U904 laptop reads your whole palm and scans for blood flowing through your veins.
£1,300
HEATSEEKER
The FLIR ONE iPhone case has a thermal-imaging camera that gives your mobile Predator-like vision. It picks up residual heat – handy for checking if the dog’s been napping in your bed.
£TBC
BLOW-UP TENT
It’s not often you find a tent with its own ‘vestibule’. But Heimplanet’s The Cave is no ordinary tent – as its geosidic design, fast-pitching inflatable poles and gear loft will demonstrate.
£454
GOLD DUST
Not all Bluetooth speakers sound tinny. Sony’s 154-watt, bi-amped SRS-X9 specialises in playing high-resolution audio tracks. Expensive but, to be fair, it does have gold-plated tweeters.
£599
The band that will change your life
Sony’s SmartBand looks a bit like Nike’s FuelBand, FitBit’s Flex or Jawbone’s Up trackers, but does more than offer a neurosis-inducing ‘calories burnt’ read-out. It also tracks the music you’ve listened to on your phone, how long you spent (let’s be honest: wasted) on Twitter, which news articles you read and so forth. It then works in tandem with Sony’s LifeLog Android app to plot all the data on a colourful graph. Basically, it’s an infographic – all about you. Only time will tell whether this becomes the next cult lifestyle accessory, but thank god Guy Pearce didn’t have one in Memento. The film would have been over in about three seconds...
£80
Boom BAG
Sure to please up-cycling fans, The BoomCase proves vintage suitcases can sound as good as they look. At least, once they’re fitted with a 200 watt amp and 12in subwoofer.
Prices vary
theboomcase.com
The lizard lens king
Think your camera looks too unassuming? Fujifilm has the answer: its new X Signature custom range. Select from outre finishes including blue lizardskin leather.
£600
STIR In style
The definition of suave? That’ll be L’Atelier du Vin’s Electronic Cocktail Shaker. Tap the button and the tiny stirring rotors whip up a liquid cyclone, leaving you time to carve a swan out of ice.
£28
DOG RADAR
Everyone and his dog has a wearable activity tracker these days. Quite literally. This iPhone-connected Whistle collar monitors your dog’s fitness, sets goals and GPS tracks his sniffing adventures.
£78
NOT SUITABLE FOR WHEELIES
This is the world’s first one-wheeled electric motorbike. Billed as ‘half bike, half unicycle, half Segway’ by someone who didn’t pay attention in maths, the Rynocycle aims to become the city transport of the future. Top speed is limited to 10mph for legal reasons, and so that you can ride it in the park or (possibly) up the aisle of Marks & Spencer. We like the idea. Just don’t stop us to ask where the other half is…
£3,160 (due summer)
LIQUOR ’PHONES
Elijah Wood plays Dylan Thomas’s agent in a new biopic of the booze-addled poet. Which (kind of) explains why he’s designed these Bushmills x Grado Labs cans, crafted from old whiskey casks.
£436.50
EYE IN THE SKY
The 360 Fly is no ordinary waterproof action camera. As you’ve probably guessed, it shoots 360-degree video – catching all the stuff your pathetic, analogue eyeballs miss. It’s out this summer.
£270
KING OF THE MOUNTAINS
Team Sky use this Wahoo Fitness Kickr Power Trainer. The accompanying iPhone app controls the resistance, allowing you to pit your burning calves against famous Tour de France climbs.
£949
See-through sound
Does ‘almond toast’ go with ‘atomic tangerine’? Given our deficient interior-decorating skills, we couldn’t tell you. But that’s where People People’s Transparent Speaker comes in. It’s see-through; it matches any living room. It’s also a work of art, air-sealed for superior audio quality and capable of saving the world. Its Swedish designer, who got the idea off the ground with a Kickstarter campaign, engineered it from tempered glass and high-quality components that are easily replaceable or recyclable. In short, this speaker – which also comes in kit form for those of you who enjoy spending time with a screwdriver – should last forever. Well, assuming you don’t spill any atomic tangerine all over it.
£599
DOUGH SO GOOD
Ovens aren’t hot enough to cook proper pizza, so most taste like damp plasterboard. The Chadwick Oven heats on the hob and cooks crisp pizza in four minutes – 15 an hour.
£360
FUTURE GOGGLES
The Epson Moverio BT-200 glasses are what we imagined the future would be like in the Eighties. Inside: a translucent screen in front of your eyes. Outside: Terminator chic.
£650
THEATRE OF (YOUR) DREAMS
Barely bigger than a pack of cigarettes, Aiptek’s MobileCinema i55 turns your iPhone 5/S into a pocket projector. It also beams your dreams on to the ceiling. Maybe.
£199
PROFANITY FARE
Meet the ThumbsUp Flying F*ck RC Helicopter. It’s a foam ‘F*CK’ that can – contrary to popular belief – be given. Lily is convinced it’s the funniest thing ever…
£30
