Extra Trunk Space or Bike Carrier – Westfalia Portilo

A bike carrier is commonplace nowadays, and so is the car rooftop box. But what if your needs vary and you don’t have a station wagon that can easily accommodate your rooftop box? The Portilo from Westfalia is an original new approach that can be either bike carrier or extra trunk space, depending on the needs of the moment.

Solar-Powered Bluetooth Headset – Infinite Standby Time

What’s the advantage of Bluetooth headsets anyway? Admittedly, you don’t have a wire dangling around, but on the downside it’s yet another device that you need to charge. And now you have two batteries that can run out in the middle of a phone call and two chargers to plug in. Here's an excellent solution to that problem.

First camera with built-in projector – Nikon COOLPIX S1000pj

It’s never been our intention to cover every new digital camera or every small advancement or gadget in digital photography, but since a projector built into a camera is something radically new – and a world-first – we think that the Nikon COOLPIX S1000pj deserves its place on this blog. It allows you to take pictures or shoot videos during any event and show them to the participants before they’ve even left.

Free Backup Solution – The Software Is Already On Your PC

Have you backed up your PC lately? No? Do you hear that strange sound coming from your hard disk? Maybe it’s too late already! Just kidding, but it’s very unwise not to make regular backups, and there’s no reason not to do so. There’s a free backup solution in the shape of the XCOPY command that’s part of every Windows installation and can be automated.

Freeloader Pro Solar Charger Charges all Your Gear (yes, even your reflex camera)

We’ve written a few articles on travel adaptors and multi-chargers that help you to get rid of cable clutter and charge all your devices through one single charger. This solar charger takes the idea a step further and allows you to give those power-hungry devices a full charge without being bound to a power outlet for a few hours. Several of these are around, but this Freeloader Pro even charges those high-voltage Li-ion batteries needed for DSLR reflex cameras or camcorders.

tesa Insect Stop – Adhesive Fly Screen for Use in Holiday or Rented Home

We’ve written several articles already on mosquito repellents and how to stop mosquito bites from itching. Better still is to keep mosquitoes and other annoying insects out of your home, a fly screen being the best solution to achieve this. When you spend your vacation in a rented home or a hotel, however, you’re not going to install framed fly screens when they’re not already installed. Now tesa has a solution for you with the adhesive “Insect Stop” and its Easy On / Easy Off feature.

Secure USB Memory Stick – Personal Pocket Safe

The amount of data that you can store on today’s USB flash drives is really impressive. The downside is that ever more sensitive data is stored in those memory devices and they’re so tiny that they’re easily lost or forgotten. This can lead to sometimes funny or juicy, sometimes embarrassing or outright dangerous, loss and leakage of all kinds of information – from celebrity private pictures to secret company or government data. Fortunately, the new generation of USB memory sticks offers some optional security mechanisms to avoid future embarrassment.

Air Cooler PLUS – The Alternative to an Air Conditioner or Swamp Cooler

If you can’t stand the heat but can’t physically install an air conditioner in your home, you have few options left. You can either use a compact, cheap but inefficient fan or the good old evaporative cooler or swamp cooler, which isn’t much better. Now there’s the Air Cooler PLUS, which doesn’t need an opening to evacuate the heat but that’s still more efficient than the other options. And you can move it around your home to cool whatever needs to be cooled.

The $0.01 Drill Dust Collector – Ceiling Model

You've probably already seen the wall model of our do-it-yourself (and make-it-yourself) drill dust collector. Because of the many requests, and being confronted with the need ourselves, we've done extensive research to produce a ceiling model as well.

Thermapak Cooling Pad Keeps Your Legs Cool Without Draining Your Laptop’s Battery

Everyone who owns a laptop knows the unpleasant sensation of having your legs fried when working with the computer on your lap for an extended period. I’ve been considering several cooling devices to place between my lap and the laptop, but I’ve always considered it to be a disadvantage that they need batteries or the use of a USB port to power their fans, thereby seriously reducing your working time. They’re also not very portable – you’d dread taking them with you on a flight. The ThermaPAK HeatShift Laptop Cooling Pad deals with these issues, using physics instead of electricity to keep your lap cool.

Avoid Identity Theft, Shred CDs and DVDs Too

Identity theft is a hot topic now that thieves are even searching junkyards to recover hard disk drives from old PCs or other data carriers that have been dumped there. There’s a lot of invaluable information to be found on those, giving insight not just into your passwords but also into other personal information that you wouldn’t want to share with others. Since you can never be 100% certain that erased data is really erased beyond recovery, the best way to make sure your data remains private is to shred the data carriers just like you shred a piece of paper.

Doc XL Convertible Sofa from Bonbon Converts into Bunk Bed

Convertible sofas are typically used, for instance, in rental holiday homes where space is limited and the number of sleepers can vary. Another useful application is for people who invite friends over regularly but who don’t have the space for one or more guestrooms. So far so good – but what if your guests aren’t a couple and don’t fancy sleeping in the same bed? This Doc XL bunk bed solution from Bonbon is very original and, as far as I know, unique.

Care Plus Click-Away – Stop Mosquito Bites From Itching

Everyone has his or her own – usually ineffective – household remedy to ease the itching from mosquito bites. Among the things that do work are cortisone-based creams. They’re very effective, though they can be greasy and stain your clothes. But the Click-Away from Care Plus is incredibly compact and light, doesn’t need batteries and does what it’s supposed to do: stop the itching.

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen Review – Link Your Notes With Your Audio Recording

- A six month test.

The Livescribe Pulse smartpen is one of the most innovative products I’ve seen in years. The pen allows you to write on paper, but when you dock it into its USB charger, your notes are automatically transferred to your PC/Mac. But the best part is that it also records the audio during your meetings or classes. You would imagine that you could then also play back the audio on your PC – and indeed you can. But even better, when you tap your handwritten notes with the smartpen itself, it even plays back exactly that part of the meeting through the built-in speaker! It’s a great invention for college students and professionals alike for note taking and to record meetings, classes and courses.

ShowMyPC – Give Your Relatives Remote PC Support, No Need for Technical Knowledge

It’s great that older people are also embracing the possibilities of the Internet and multimedia, but less so when they regularly ask you when you’re in the neighborhood and if you can spend a few hours to help them with some issues with their equipment or software. ShowMyPC is a free remote support software that allows you to take over their computer remotely, even when it’s behind a (wireless) home router. And you don’t need to have a degree in computer science to get it up and running.