Wireless Picture Light, No Batteries Either - CleverLite A typical frustrating situation: You buy some nice posters or paintings and you can’t show them off as much as you’d like to because you don’t have picture lights on your wall – or wires in the wall to connect any. Recent technology ...

Affordable Stairlift Alternative – StairSteady Throughout the western world, the tendency is to provide the necessary means to enable elderly people or people with disabilities to remain self-sufficient, allowing them to live at home longer. One problem that many of those people face, however, are...

Inflatable Chimney Pillow Stops Drafts (and Santa) The Black & Decker Thermal Leak Detector (TLD100) shows you where there’s room for improvement in your home’s thermal insulation. If your chimney is a cold spot in your house, you’ll probably have felt the draft without needing the TLD f...

Rechargeable Batteries that Don’t Lose Their Charge – LSD cells NiCd rechargeable batteries have been around for decades, preventing tons of toxic battery waste, before the new NiMH (Nickel Metal Hydride) types were designed to cure the old NiCd’s “memory effect”. So far so good but, until...

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�...

Avoid Excess-Baggage Charges with this Balanzza Portable Scale Baggage restrictions are becoming increasingly severe as airlines try to compete with ever decreasing tariffs while fuel prices skyrocket. For us travelers, it’s very tempting to buy those cheap souvenirs or clothes at our destinatio...

Videotape your Journey as Proof in Case of a Traffic Accident Even when you have a minor car accident and you’re confident that it’s the other person’s fault, it can happen that your insurance rejects the claim. Even if you’re well insured, this can occur in situations where it’s your word...

Charge all your Battery Types with the ReZap Battery Doctor – even Alkaline Batteries Given the overly high price of good alkaline batteries, I switched to rechargeable NiCd and NiMH batteries long ago. They work quite well, but the voltage is 1.2 volts instead of the 1.5 volts that some devices ...

Make Your Infrared Remote Control Work At Any Angle Today's infrared-controlled equipment is better than those of a few years ago in the sense that many infrared remote controls now work at almost any angle. Even so, you might still be using older equipment or less well-designed new devices that st...

Wireless Motion-Sensing Light Switches Do you often forget to switch off the lights in your garage, basement or laundry room? Did you ever consider installing an energy-saving motion detector to switch the lights on and off automatically, but didn't fancy the effort or want to spend your money ...

Caroma Water & Space-Saving Toilet with Integrated Hand Basin When I first saw this toilet by Caroma, with its integrated hand basin, I was astonished by the simplicity of the idea. Why did it take more than a century to come up with something like this? I still can't decide if I find it brilliant ...

Skype Mouse Combines Mouse and Phone – Unclutter your Desk Since the arrival of Skype and other internet telephony services, many of us are saving a great deal on our phone bills. Since the arrival of Skype, though, yet another device – a phone handset – has to be connected to the PC with yet...

Radiator Booster Increases Heating Efficiency and Speed Compared with “traditional” radiators, convector heaters warm up a room very quickly and don’t send half of the energy into the wall to which they are attached, but often they are built into the floor or they are mobile and work on elect...

Make Your Worn Cell Phone or MP3 Player Shine Again (Displex and others) When did you last buy a new mobile phone, MP3 player, or other multimedia gadget? Can you remember the feeling when you took it out of the box? Wasn't it shiny, new, sexy, something to cherish, the most beautiful you've ever ...

Black & Decker Thermal Leak Detector TLD100 – Insulate Your Home Energy-saving has not exactly been a top priority in the past. But now that global warming and rising energy costs are making our priorities change, it's ti me to see where there is room for improvement. Most houses, excep...