Mountain Hardwear Refugium Jacket

Mountain Hardwear produces some very advanced outdoor clothing with the latest weather-cheating technology. It even has a timeline charting its various innovations throughout the years. They have a wide selection of jackets on offer and it is the clever design of each that make them noteworthy. For example, the Refugium features a removable powderskirt and is coated with a special laminate called ‘Conduit’ which is resistant to scrapes, scratches and rubs that it will inevitably sustain during its lifetime. The most impressive thing about it is that it contains an actual heating element that keeps you warm, there is also a USB socket to charge your gadgets.

It is also completely waterproof, whilst managing to remain breathable. It is best to describe the Mountain Hardwear jackets as ergonomic as each facet of their construction has been engineered to be practical and unobtrusive, no matter what the conditions. As a winter gadget the jacket should really be seen as an investment in your adventurous future.

Aladdin Challenger Flask

Though most associate the name Aladdin with the classic story of a boy and a desert, the Challenger Flask from Aladdin is one of the best winter gadgets around if you want to keep your spirits up whilst you are away from the house. Two sizes are available with 1 litre and 1.8 litre capacities respectively and the outside is finished with brushed metal and sturdy black plastic for the handle and base. Its makers boast that the Challenger Flask can keep liquids hot for up to 28 hours, which is an incredible feat of insulation. This means that if you whack some tea or coffee straight in after it has just boiled, you will be able to pour it out over a day later and it will still be a piping hot 60 degrees. The lid has two cups integrated into the design, making it a perfect present for someone who likes to go trekking in pairs. You can even store items in the base of the flask and its makers suggest that you could stick a couple of tea bags and some sweetener packets in to make sure that when you do need a brew it has not been stewing for hours on end. The Aladdin Challenger Flask is a well designed, pleasingly constructed winter gadget that could always keep things frosty in the summer too, so it is not limited in its repertoire to a single season.

North Face Audio Jacket

The North Face brand is widely respected amongst outdoor types and they produce a whole range of products for the intrepid traveller to enjoy. But those who want to stay warm in the winter and still enjoy their favourite music will love the Audio Jacket from North Face. This is essentially a rugged, weather-resistant jacket with a trick up its sleeve. Literally. There are controls within the sleeve of the jacket which allow you to skip tracks and change the volume levels of your iPod without having to struggle to pull the actual device from your pocket and then attempt to get your clumsy glove-ridden fingers to make the commands directly. The iPod will stay safe, warm and dry in a ‘media pocket’ the whole time, away from the damaging elements, whilst you can use your hands to keep the tunes coming throughout your adventure. Lads and lasses will find two different versions of the jacket to suit their body types and tastes and if you are looking for something in the North Face line then these could attract your attention with their versatile use.

Heat In A Click Gadget Review

The name may be a bit of a mouthful, but the products produced by Heatinaclick could prove to be very useful if you want to stave off the chill of the cold weather this winter. The whole of the Heatinaclick Range consists of various sizes and shapes of heating pad. These are reusable and portable, with the intention being that you will carry the flexible, floppy pads with you and activate their heating properties when the temperatures dip. There are a wide variety of pads on offer with different intended applications. You can get a foot warmer, a hand warmer, a face mask, a baby bottle warmer, a back warmer and a saucily-named pleasure pad which is basically a hot water bottle with a sexed-up name tagged on. All of the Heatinaclick products use a toxin-free molecular reaction based on Sodium Acetate to activate the heating process and will hit maximum temperatures of 54 degrees. That should prove to be toasty enough for every occasion, whether it is keeping your bed warm at night or your feet feeling fiery in the day. The liquid in each pad will become solid as part of the process and as the generated heat dissipates the pad will return to its solution form. The best thing about the Heataclick products is that each gadget is reusable multiple times.

Lucifer Cap Gadget Hat Review

Having appropriated the name which most people commonly relate to Christianity’s most evil character, the makers of the Lucifer Cap are quick to point out that they mean to use the term based on its original Latin translation as the name given to the planet Venus or the bringer of light. Semantic ramblings aside, the Lucifer Cap is an incredibly useful gadget for those who like to light their way, no matter how dark their surroundings and it has a surprising number of applications in the winter and all year round. On the outside this gadget looks like an ordinary baseball cap with a curved peak and is available in 11 different colours suitable for various seasons and locations. However, built into the bill of this cap are a pair of super-bright LEDs which can light the way through the dark. You can light objects clearly up to 10 metres away and a single battery will power the LEDs for 17.25 hours, with a replacement easy to administer once you have gone through the first lot. A switch on the side of the Lucifer Cap turns the LEDs on or off and they are available in white, red, green, blue and purple. The makers of the Lucifer Cap suggest that it is excellent for finding your way in the dark, performing maintenance when there is no power, looking into your car boot at night, or even helping you pick out the next record you are going to play if you happen to be a DJ working in a poorly lit club. With the days getting shorter as winter approaches, keeping your Lucifer Cap with you to avoid getting caught out in the dark could be sensible. And what is more, techies who like to ferret about in their computers will love it.

Etre Touchy Gadget Gloves Review

Fingerless gloves used to be reserved for the homeless, but style gurus have appropriated them for the general public over recent years. However, to identify the Etre Touchy gloves as mere items of fashion is to undersell their main gadget-based function; providing you with free fingers to interact with your mobile phone and portable gadgets without the hindrance of a fleecy layer of wool in between your digits and the touch screen or thumb stick. The Etre Touchy gloves have no covering for the thumb and index finger on both hands, whilst the remaining fingers will be swaddled in a warm covering as you would expect on a traditional glove. This is more of a hybrid fingerless item for the iPhone age. With index finger and thumb available you can text, touch, swipe, pinch and zoom using the iPhone or iPod Touch’s capacitive screen, although anyone with a mobile phone of any type will benefit from the immediate improvements to tactile interaction that the Etre Touchy gloves offer. Some gadget-related clothing can be fun for a while without being particularly practical, but in the winter these gloves will become indispensable.

Light and Sound Hat

This is the first winter gadget in our winter gadgets series. We’ll ease our way in with something that is not going to save your life on top of Mount Everest, but might keep your ears warm as well as entertained when things get a bit nippy on your trip to the shops. The Light and Sound Hat is a music lover’s dream, as all you need to do is hook up your iPod or portable media player to the hat and it will playback all of your tunes via its built in speaker system. Best of all is the inclusion of an equaliser panel, located on the brim of the hat, which flashes, pulses and dances in time with the music that you are playing. So this is a winter gadget that keeps you warm, looks paradoxically cool and is also rechargeable via USB, eliminating the need for yet another plug adaptor. Overall a splendid choice for this winter and the next that is no more expensive than most woolly hats.

Review of Current BBQ Gadgets

When the sun comes out, people, especially the British, are guaranteed to do the following:- Strip off their clothing (as much as possible, regardless of physique and usually whilst wandering around the high street), sunbathe till they turn a rosy shade of red, blare music that should have been left in the early nineties from their tinny stereos (so that everyone from at least three streets away can hear!) and have a barbecue.

  bbq gadgets

BBQs With Gadgets

Back in the old days, when Summers were Summers and men were men, the barbecue was the ultimate symbol of masculinity and provided hope to thousands of women who, somewhat naively, thought that their menfolk would take up the cooking full time. No such luck for them. However, in this modern age of equality, whilst the men continue to take pride in tossing their sausages over the barbecue, they may also be seen more regularly in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, the Summers may seem to be a little more drizzly than they were back in those days, but at least barbecue technology has improved. Indeed, not least because this year’s British Summer is set to buck the trend of recent years to be a real scorcher, the increased availability of barbecue gadgetry makes the whole process that much more enjoyable than it has been of late.

Take the Weber Smokey Mountain Cooker, for instance, which features two triple plated cooking grates, two large cooking areas (47cm diameter) and a porcelain enamel bowl and lid. Although this curious little barbeque will have most men bamboozled as to how to operate it, or indeed what it even is – it looks like a prop from the original Star Trek series – the Weber Smokey is a delightful little barbecue that offers the superb bonus of slowly smoking a whole chicken and ham at the same time – result! The Weber Smokey also comprises an anti-rust aluminium vent and fuel door, so it should not be a complete disaster if and when the heavens open…

Nevertheless, with fingers crossed, the sun will shine long enough for there to be plenty of barbecue action this Summer. The ingenious sausage holder gadget is something that can be purchased for existing barbecues and is really extremely useful. Usually comprising a stainless steel handle and room for four juicy bangers, this little device can thwart the misery of losing the only perfectly cooked sausage in the history of barbecuing down the side of the grill, onto the floor (though note the five second rule) or to a hungry magpie (seriously). Another superb gadget that is suitable for existing barbecues is the smoking box, which is placed directly on the barbecue coals and contains various woodchips that can be infused with various flavours, such as a favourite beer or sauce. The smouldering woodchips will enhance the flavour of the barbecued food.

If you have the urge to travel this Summer, the Grilliput Camping Set is the smallest barbecue on the market. Because it can be carried around easily, with compacted dimensions of just 29cm x 2.2cm for the Grilliput and 16cm x 16cm x 8.5cm for the Firebowl, this product is perfect for enjoying the real outdoor barbecue experience and can be set up on even the toughest of terrains. Let’s just hope you have not forgotten the matches, flint or firesteel lighter when you get to the top of that mountain.

Another ideal barbecue gadget is the Landmann 3 burner gas barbecue, which features several adjustable cast iron burners, cooking grill, hot plate, drip tray, rain cover, wind shield and a lava rock grid. Gas barbecues are becoming more popular in Britain because they tend to be the cleaner and more reliable product, although it is especially important to be able to monitor food temperatures on a gas barbecue. If a standalone thermometer is required, the Weber Barbecue Beeper Remote Digital Thermometer is an excellent little gadget that allows the barbecue chef to prepare other parts of the meal without worrying about the meat on the grill. Alternatively, if you are the type who likes poking the meat quite often but does not want to catch something nasty, tool up with an Instant Read Grill Fork with Thermometer for increased protection.

There really is no shortage of gadgetry that can be purchased for an existing barbecue and arguably the greatest invention of all time, including sliced bread and the wheel, is the Grillslinger Belt. Allowing the average man to feel more manly than a bare-chested face off between David Hasselhoff and Tom Selleck, the Grillslinger is a superb utility belt that has a compartment for each essential barbecue tool. A high quality knife, tongs and spatula are included with the belt, which is adjustable to a burger induced 60 inches. The Grillslinger reminds us all that barbecuing is man’s work!

Finally, when it comes to barbecuing this Summer, some people will demand only the very best. Indeed, both literal and figurative heavyweight barbecue aficionados cannot go far wrong with the Weber Summit S-650, which features 6 stainless steel burners, including a side burner, smoke box burner, infrared rotisserie burner and a spit fork rotisserie, in addition to a cooking area big enough for a whole farmyard of animals…

Reef Rider Sea Scooter provides maximum summer fun

Wow, have we found the summer gadget that literally everyone is going to want! We are talking about the Reef Rider Sea Scooter, this excellent underwater scooter is able to reach a speed of up to 2.2 miles per hour and will go to a depth of 3 metres (10 feet)and will without doubt be the summer must have. It is James Bond meets 70’s cult children puppet show StingRay, and will provide great family fun, just wait for the arguments though about whose turn is next. This fab and fun gadget will be great to take to the pool or to the sea to get up close and personal to the sealife. The only downside is that the maximum run time is only 50 minutes so you will have to ensure that you don’t have any Reef Rider Sea Scooter hogs or some one could miss out on all the fun.

The Reef Rider Sea Scooter is suitable for ages 12 upwards and has an automatic shut off facility for safety and also a protective grille to minimise the risks of potential injuries. The Reef Rider Sea Scooter is compact at only 70 x 25 cm and weighs a mere 5 kg so won’t take up too much space or overload your holiday luggage. The 7Ah battery requires charging via mains electricity and will take four hours to charge fully. It is recommended that children are fully supervised whilst using this and the manufacturer’s advice that the Reef Rider Sea Scooter should not be used as a buoyancy aid.

For anyone who is as excited as we are and are desperate to get their hands on this fantastic summer essential (well we think it is!) the recommended retail price is £129.99 but Play.com are currently selling for £99.99!

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