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Exec tech

Must-have metal and plastic

Exec tech

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

harrods.com


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

denon.co.uk


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

molecule-r.com


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

johnlewis.com


CAMERA ’PHONES

Combining two great things – or ‘gangbanging’ – yields great results. Aimed at DJs, the SoundSight headphones feature a live-streaming video camera.

£206

soundsightheadphones.com


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

clove.co.uk


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

lovehulten.com


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

steaklocker.com


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

currys.co.uk


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

jessops.co.uk


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

aerofex.com


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

firebox.com


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

quitbitlighter.com


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

garmin.com


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)

adidas.com


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)

withings.com


#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

selfridges.com


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

knomo.com


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

apple.com/uk


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

audiowings.co.uk


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

airdog.com


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

soulracorp.com/uk


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

google.com


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

ee.co.uk


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

motorola.com


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

vertu.com


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

firebox.com


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

myvessyl.com


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

currys.co.uk


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

razerzone.com


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

firebox.com


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

mophie.com


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

johnlewis.com


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

lavazza.com


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

milkster.com


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

kitsound.co.uk


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

lenovo.com


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

hellonomad.com


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

rufuslabs.com


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

plantronics.com/uk


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)

lge.com


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

x-mini.com


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

hp.com


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

kickstarter.co.uk


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

ponomusic.com


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

johnlewis.com


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

uk.vespa.com


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)

johnlewis.com


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

momastore.org


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

samsung.com


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

absolutesounds.com


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

carphonewarehouse.com


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)

ripcurl.eu


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

indiegogo.com


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

johnlewis.com


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

lifespan-fitness.co.uk


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

harrods.com


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

withings.com


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

ylinedesign.com


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

denon.co.uk


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

sony.co.uk


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

bellross.com


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

harrods.com


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

boeing.com


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

freesat.co.uk


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)

leica-storemayfair.co.uk


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

anthemavs.co.uk


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

nokia.com


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

firebox.com


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

dji.com


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

htc.com


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

giftvault.com


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

samsung.com


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

google.com


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

cuckooland.com


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

firebox.com


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

grillbots.com


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

bose.co.uk


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

tomtom.com


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

maplins.co.uk


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)

samsung.com


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

gechoaudio.com


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

samsung.com


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

sen.se


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

harrods.com


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

sony.co.uk


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

sharp.co.uk


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

dali-uk.co.uk


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

denon.co.uk


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

monsterproducts.com


(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

beoplay.com


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

uk.fujitsu.com


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

flir.com


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

heimplanet.com


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

sony.co.uk


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

sony.co.uk


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

fujifilm.co.uk


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

madeindesign.co.uk


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

whistle.com


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)

rynomotors.com


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

alexanderandjames.com


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

360fly.com


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

uk.wahoofitness.com


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

selfridges.com


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

chadwickoven.com


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

epson.com


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

selfridges.com


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

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