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.

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

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

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.

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.

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?

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?

There’s still a smidgen of time left to order a Christmas present for that lovable dork in your life! Here’s a few suggestions from us at Dork Adore.

For the vampire fan…

Have you got someone in the family who’s as addicted to Vampire shows as we are at Dork Adore? I think I’ve found the best gift to keep them happy and quiet.

Browsing Ebay, I came across this set of True Blood books for £16.99. They’ll be able to get ahead on the story, and sit through series 2 smug in the knowledge that they already know what’s going to happen.

For the games fan…

Head over to Argos and you’ll find some great console package deals to keep everyone happy. Don’t have a Wii yet? Argos are offering a package deal for £169.99 including the Wii console, Wii Sports game and Wii Sports Resort, along with a bunch of accessories, Big Beach sports game and docking station for free.

For the music fan…

Save yourself a bit of time by nailing your Christmas food shop and present shop in one at Tesco.

They’ve got this iPod Nano, the brand new version with a built in video camera and FM radio, for just £114.97. That will give you enough change out of £150 for a set of speakers like the ones we featured in our Stocking Filler post recently.

For the craft fan…

The Make Lounge is a studio that offers workshops on everything from cupcake decorating to creating your own jewellery. They’re offering vouchers that can be printed or e-mailed to the recipient on Christmas Day.

For the shopping fan…

Pretty much every shop on the high street has some form of gift voucher. This year however, Oasis has stepped up their game with a mobile gift voucher. Simply pay online, and they’ll send your recipient the voucher over text message, which they can use in any store. You can also choose when you want the text to be sent. A great very last minute gift if there’s anyone you’ve forgotten!

Everyone and his gran seems to have an iPhone/iPod/MP3 player these days, which makes it a hell of a lot easier for you to find a suitable present.

A set of portable speakers are small enough to fit in most stockings, and cheap enough to fit most budgets.

The Rockstar from Urbanz (£17.99) (right) is a speaker I’ve recently been using with my iPod Nano. It’s small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, but it actually packs a pretty good punch when it comes to the sound. Plus the headphone lead splits off into a USB lead, so you don’t have to drag loads of connection cables around.

These Headphonies (£24.99 each from Firebox) aim to combine quirky art figurines with travel speakers.

Connect them with your MP3 player and you can play your ‘Best of Christmas’ album through the speaker in the back of their head.

Which is nice.

Still, I’m sure your emo niece will appreciate using ‘Skully’ the skeleton to share her favourite “no one understands me” playlist.

These speakers are aimed at any X Factor wannabes or anyone who fancies something a bit more rock n’ roll on the desk.

The MP3 Mini Amp Speaker (£19.99, IWOOT.com) features bass and treble volume control, a nice additional feature considering the price.

The speakers also have a USB port, allowing you to hook it up to a laptop or PC.

These Saturday night speakers will get the lucky recipient in the right frame of mind for a good boogie on the dance floor.

They also remind me somewhat of that afro blessed gentleman from X-Factor who got kicked out a few weeks ago. His name seems to have already escaped me.

You can grab them from Tesco for £9.97.

It’s cold. There’s no escaping it. While hats are good for heads and scarves a necessary neck accoutrement when you’re out and about, gloves and gadgets just don’t go.

Ever tried using your mobile while wearing mittens? Not easy. And it’s a slippery job to interact with your iPod when gloved up.

Now, interactive digital agency Etre reckons they’ve come up with a solution, and it’s a simple one at that.

What is this solution? A pair of gloves (100% lambswool, made in the UK, natch) with the tip of the thumb and index finger missing so that you can easily get to grips with your gadgetry. Kind of like fingerless gloves that haven’t fully committed one way or the other.

Etre Touchy gloves come in men’s, women’s, youth’s and children’s sizes in four colour combinations priced at £19.99 from

I think they look pretty cool and am sure there are other applications for which having a semi-naked thumb and index finger could come in useful.

No, not that. I mean like finding keys and opening your front door, counting out change on the bus – that sort of thing. Anyway, moving on…

By Sasa Jankovic