Dork Adore » Accessories

Essential Gadgets: Masterplug USB and mains charger

Emma Cossey — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:00:00 +0000

One of the most annoying aspects about technology is the sheer number of cables, USB wires and chargers needed to keep on top of everything. When I’ve run out of USB ports on my laptop and my iPhone has hit 2%, there’s usually a scramble around the house to find a free charge point.

But then I came across this glossy black plug adaptor that allows me to charge my laptop at the same time as two other USB products (which covers all your Apple products). Just pop your USB connectors in the top, and plug your laptop in as normal.

Additionally, the MASTERPLUG Surge Protected Adaptor with USB is equipped with a power surge protector, so you can avoid harmful voltage spikes.

It might not be the most exciting gadget you’ll ever buy, but it’ll certainly be one of the most useful (particularly if you’re packing light for a holiday).

I picked it up for around £6 from Sainsburys, but you can also get it from Dixons and PC World.

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iPhone cassette cover. Nostalgia is so hot right now

Tamsin Worrad — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 16:00:26 +0000

See: vintage clothing, classic cars and the reformation of Take That (OK, perhaps not that last one).

Although technology is constantly advancing, there’s always going to be the crowd that prefers their vinyl collection to MP3s, and who will probably never get over the news that Sony js to stop producing the Walkman.

I’m the first to admit to being one of these types, but as an ardent technophile too I’m forever torn between the new and the old. So, step forward this iPhone cassette cover! Allowing me to continue to enjoy the ease of MP3 whilst retaining my geek chic credentials, the case is £12.95 from gadgets.co.uk.

It also doubles as a handy stand when watching video with new and old working in beautiful harmony.

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Five lovely necklaces for boffins

Tamsin Worrad — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 12:58:35 +0000

If you know me, you’ll know I’m a scientist because I’m enough of a dork about it that I tend to tell everybody I meet. So, the idea of wearing some science round my neck for all the world to see got me very excited.

These science equipment necklaces (£6.99 each from Finest Imaginary) are the perfect way to scream ‘I’M A SCIENTIST!’ or simply “I really like beakers and vacuum flasks!”

Either way, it’s putting your inner dork out there on display for everyone to know.

If you think that one’s amazing, just wait till you see the other four I’ve picked out for you.

More science-based neck decoration

Pla smid ne cklace, $85 by NBdesigns

To the average bystander this pendant is just a silver ring with a gold insert but to those in the know it represents one of the most useful tools in molecular biology. I see this necklace as something of a dorky secret symbol; imagine how smug you’ll feel when somebody else realises what it is!

Serotonin necklace, $85 Molecularmuse

These necklaces were made by a doctor of molecular biology turned crafter — my kind of gal. Demonstrating that science really is beautiful, this simple design is in fact the structure of the serotonin molecule. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which regulates mood: it makes you happy! Is there a better way to remember to smile?

Silver microscope necklace, $12 from AgHalo

I love charm necklaces, and this sterling silver one is a bit different from the standard hearts, owls or teapots you usually see. A very delicate way of showing off your scientific credentials!

Laser cut necklace $69.50 by Morphologica

Taking its inspiration from nature, the unique shape of this laser cut necklace was inspired by images of proliferating cells. It’s definitely an eye catching statement piece and is made by yet another scientist (this time a neuroscientist) craftster.

So, which one is your favourite?

Tamsin is a crafty, geeky blogger, who can be found tweeting , blogging on her blog Miss Believer, and writing about tea over on Brew us a cuppa.

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The best gadgets for camping

Emma Cossey — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:00:15 +0000

You’re either a camping fan or you’re not. For some, the idea of getting in touch with nature, sleeping under the stars and cooking over a stove is a little slice of heaven. For others, the idea of sleeping anywhere other than a comfy bed with an en suite is horrifying.

Prepare to have your mind changed, hotel-dwellers! A camping trip needn’t mean you miss out on life’s little luxuries. Plenty of gadgets exist to make the whole process smoother.

Putting up a tent is one of the most intimidating things about camping, so anything that takes the stress (and various poles and screws) out of building your home for the night is welcome. The Moontent from Firefox (£34.99) pops open the minute you take it out of the bag, so that all you need to do is peg it down.

Nifty eh? Here are a few more creative camping gadgets.

Unless you fancy cleaning your utensils in a saucepan, or crouched over a running tap at the nearest amenities, washing up can pose something of a problem whilst camping.

The Kitchen Sink, (Firebox, £12.99) is another pop up product that uncurls from a tiny hand sized product to a large sink with study sides, capable of carrying up to 10 litres of water. The ‘sink’ has a couple of mesh handles too so you can carry it with ease.

No excuse not to pack everything *including* the kitchen sink now.

Carrying on with the washing theme, we’ve got the Pocket Shower on the right (IWOOT, £14.99)

The basic concept is that you fill the black bag with water, and hang it from a tree. The black fabric will attract heat, so (if the weather is hot enough) you’ll have a warm shower. The water comes from the shower head on the bottom of the bag.

This gadget can hold up to ten litres of water, which should be enough for a seven-minute shower.

Worried how you’ll cope without your early morning coffee kick whilst away? The Handpresso (FairfaxCoffee, £84) is an eco-friendly, electricity-free gadget.

To work it, you need to pump the machine until it hits the green light, then fill the reservoir with hot water. Pop in one of the coffee pods, hit the release button, and you’ve got piping hot expresso goodness.

If you don’t fancy faffing about with stoves and saucepans or living on a diet of bread and cheese, you might want to consider the convenience of HotCans.

The ‘meals in a can’ looks like any other canned meal, except these ones heat themselves up. You can choose from Sausages & Beans or Vegetable Chilli, and the process of heating up only takes 12 minutes. Simply pop the key in the top, remove the lid, and wait for your dinner to cook itself.

You can order them for £4.99 per can from Firebox.

Noteable other products include the Freeloader for emergency charging for laptops and mobile phones and erm….the Shit Box. Enough said.

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Vodafone Sure Signal. Dork Review

Dork Adore — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:00:33 +0000

This week, guest blogger Wez Knowles tries out Vodafone’s latest gadget.

I live in a village smack-bang in between two major cities (Sheffield & Nottingham) which also happens to be the place mobile signals go to die. Every time I want to make a call or send a text message I have to stand near a window and pull positions even a Yoga pro would wince at.

For the past few months, every time I’ve planned on making a call, I put my phone on my desk next to the window and use a Bluetooth headset (shudder) to place the call. Yeah, yeah, I know.

I recently switched from O2 to Vodafone for a better signal. But there are still dead spots in my house and 3G is nowhere to be seen.

But browsing the Vodafone forums put me onto a new device from Vodafone called the Sure Signal. Formerly known as the Vodafone Access Gateway, the Sure Signal is a small white box that connects to your internet router and sends your call over the network instead of through the air. The upside of this is no matter where in your house you are, your phone will receive a full 3G signal. No dropped calls, no missed messages. Of course, you’ll need a 3G compatible handset (most modern phones are) and at least 1MB internet.

It’s £50 if you’re on a £25 per month contract or above, or £120 if you pay less than £25 per month. Not cheap, but much less expensive than paying for a chiropractor if you put your back out leaning out of a window while hunting a signal.

Gains points for:

Easy setup

Does exactly what it says it does

Not too ugly

Loses points for:

Maybe too expensive depending on your contract

Vodafone only (I’m sure they could open it up if they wanted to)

Do we really want another box hanging out of our phone sockets?

Conclusion

I’ve been using the Sure Signal for the past couple of weeks and I love it. It’s a great idea and I’m sure it won’t be long before other networks are jumping on the bandwagon (Orange already do something like this for BlackBerry). In time I expect the price to drop, but for now, it all depends on how much a good phone signal is worth to you.

Vodafone Sure Signal

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Nifty nightlights for kids

Emma Cossey — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:00:33 +0000

When you’re seven years old and your evil older cousin has regaled you with stories of the hungry monster that lives under your bed and eats children, you tend to be a little bit scared when the lights are turned off.

Which is where nightlights, like this Beba Light, (Alessi, £16) on the right come in. Providing just the amount of light to help your child drift off to sleep, they’re usually fairly light on the electricity usage too.

Thinking of investing in one? Check out some of the Dork Adore favourites.

Turtle Power

This cuddly turtle toy on the left is not a nightlight in the traditional sense, but the Twilight Turtle lights up whilst beaming thousands of tiny stars onto the ceiling to fascinate your child in three colour options.

Whilst I’m not entirely sure what the link between turtles and stars is, it’s definitely got the cute factor the kids will love.

You can grab it from www.Firebox.com for £29.99

The lights are on, is anyone in?

This Fairy Tale Cottage Ever-Changing-Colour Nightlight is a adorable little nightlight that scrolls through an assortment of colours. Very Wizard of Oz

The only downside about this one is that it’s battery powered, so you’ll have to remember to creep back in and turn it off when they finally drift off to sleep.

Buy it from the Dotcomgiftshop for £4.95

Follow the rabbit to sleepyland

Alice in Wonderland has spawned thousands of fairytale inspired pieces, so it’s unsurprising to find this White Rabbit light (White Rabbit England, £59)

This particular design is classic enough to suit the décor of a child’s room or to add a touch of whimsical charm to your own room.

Eco-friendly nightlight

Finally, this eco-friendly
Love Eco Tooli Nightlight from My Deco (£49.95) lasts up to 6 hours once fully charged.

Sure, fifty quid is a lot of money to spend on a light up decoration, but who cares when it looks this funky?

Seen a cool nightlight? Let us know in the comments

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Getting an iPad? Protect it with one of these cases

Emma Cossey — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:38:04 +0000

Fallen in love with the new Apple iPad, and now counting down the days until they’re released in the UK? Why not use your time more effectively, by investing in a case or cover to keep it box-fresh and scratch-free.

Griffin Flexigrip

Griffin were one of the first brands to bring out a range of iPad cases. These Flexigrip cases on the right are made of a silicone skin which will protect against bumps, whilst still allowing for use of the touch screen. Like many of the cases, the price is still undetermined.

Luxury pink sleeve case for Apple iPad

This case on Amazon is only £9.99, but the design still offers a waterproof and shatterproof protection.

With a similar shape and style to the netbook cases, you could use this as a multi-purpose case.

Apple’s iPad Case

The official iPad Case is only available in the USA at the moment (priced at $39) but we should see it over here soon with the rest of the Apple iPad accessories.

The case protects your iPad and when folded backwards works as a stand to prop up your screen when you’re watching movies,

Contrary to the picture, it’s not a hardback case, but it should still provide enough resistance to keep it safe.

Belkin Grip Sleeve

Belkin have also gone down the silicone route, bringing out a selection of grip sleeves that don’t look a world away from their laptop covers.

I’m still not quite convinced by the iPad, and I get the impression the accessories brands are unsure too. The current range of products is fairly limited, so it’ll be interesting to see if this changes once it’s released in the UK.

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Powermat gadget charger review

Emma Cossey — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0000

Loose cables are the bane of my working life. Between my phone, netbook, Nintendo DS and iPod, I’ve got wires all over the place.

Even with an extension lead, I’m still using all the available plugs. So how can I reduce the amount of cable clutter in my room?

The designers at Powermat think they’ve got the solution, and they’ve sent one over for me to try out.

The Powermat Home & Office edition is a hoverboard- shaped charging mat for a multitude of devices. The mat connects to the main with one cable….and that’s all the cables you’ll need.

To charge your gadgets, you click the phone/iPod/Nintendo DS into a receiver, and place it on the mat. Then with a joyful little beep, it starts to charge at the same speed as if you’d plugged it straight into a normal charger.

The benefits of this device are varied, including:

Space saving: You can charge up to four devices at once (with the extra USB port) so you’re not tripping over a web of cables.
Easy to use: Once you’ve clicked the receiver on, you just need to place the device on the mat and it’s charging. Job done.

However, it loses points for

Additional receivers: The mat doesn’t come with any basic receivers, so you’ll need to order one for each device you want to charge separately. And they’re not cheap at around £30 per receiver.

You’ve still got clutter: Unless you want to walk around with the receivers clipped to your gadget all day, you’re still going to have to store them somewhere. So you’re replacing wires with chunks of plastic.

Conclusion

For the ultra tidy gadget queen, this is a tempting product. Stylish, compact and convenient, it’s a clever gadget. It’s worth remembering though that you’re effectively paying around £70 for the mat, and an extra £30 per receiver to simple save you a little space and mess.

You can buy the Powermat from Amazon for £67.80. You can also get a package deal of the Powermat, iPhone 3G receiver and Powercube for £131.85.

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Apple iPhone bedding: there should be a nap for that

Emma Cossey — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 09:00:27 +0000

There is a thin line, between being a normal run-of-the-mill dork, and becoming The Uber-Dork.

Buying this iPhone bedding set on the right would shove you right over that line.

The set is from Swedish website Ellos, and is aimed at the teen and ‘tween’ market. Displaying the standard iPhone icons and a mini iPhone for the pillow, you can see why this particular line of bedding has sold out until March.

Perhaps the next step is for them to expand into the double duvet market, emblazoned with the Apple iPad?

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Dork DIY review: Sugru Multi-hack pack

Emma Cossey — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:00:52 +0000

I break things. A lot.

I have an entire drawer filled with broken bits and pieces that I keep meaning to fix, but never get round to doing. Until now.

The lovely people at Sugru introduced me to their Multi-Hack pack, a selection of their products created to let DIY dunces like me ‘hack’ things back together.

Sugru resembles a bright modelling clay, an adult Play Doh if you like. Self-adhesive, flexible and waterproof, the clay allows you to fix things or adapt them to your own tastes or requirements.

They’ve got plenty of ideas of what you can use it for on the blog. A few favourites include screw covers, an iPhone stand, filling in cracks and a flip flop repair job. Basically, the only limit with what this product can do is your imagination.

To use Sugru, you need to remove it from the wrapper, roll it around a bit to warm it up, and mould it. After 30 minutes it starts to cure, and will fully set in 24 hours.

The product is so popular that they’ve sold out for the moment, but they’ll be back in stock by February. Keep an eye on their Twitter for updates.

It’s definitely a fun product to play with. The only downside is the bright colours, which are a little impractical if you don’t want your DIY to be visible.

What would you use Sugru for?

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Dork Adore » Accessories

Essential Gadgets: Masterplug USB and mains charger

More stories like this

iPhone cassette cover. Nostalgia is so hot right now

More stories like this

Five lovely necklaces for boffins

If you think that one’s amazing, just wait till you see the other four I’ve picked out for you.

More science-based neck decoration

So, which one is your favourite?

More stories like this

The best gadgets for camping

More stories like this

Vodafone Sure Signal. Dork Review

More stories like this

Nifty nightlights for kids

More stories like this

Getting an iPad? Protect it with one of these cases

More stories like this

Powermat gadget charger review

More stories like this

Apple iPhone bedding: there should be a nap for that

More stories like this

Dork DIY review: Sugru Multi-hack pack

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