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Jul 18

Travel tech: the best gadgets to pack on your holiday this summer | Gadgets

Summer is finally here, and after two years of disruption, many people will be getting on a plane, long-distance train or ferry for the first time in a long while.

A lot of us will inevitably be chucking a few gadgets and gizmos into our suitcases and hand luggage – from essentials such as travel adapters to the items that can make a journey more pleasant, such as headphones and portable handheld fans.

Here’s our guide to the best gadgets to pack on your holiday this summer.

Noise-cancelling headphones

Bose QuietComfort 45

RRP: £319.95 – deals from £289, refurbished from £160.

Take some of the stress out of traveling by canceling out the drone of engines or fellow passengers with a good set of headphones. The Bose QuietComfort 45 are the sequel to some of the best noise-cancelling headphones ever made, now with updated technology, including better battery life and sound, to give you a bit of peace and quiet.

Anker Soundcore Life Q30

The Soundcore Life Q30 headphones on a table. — The Soundcore Life Q30 offers long battery life and noise-cancelling on a budget. Photograph: Anker

RRP: £80 – refurbished from £66.

For those looking for something cheaper, Anker’s Soundcore Life Q30 offer Bluetooth 5, good noise reduction, reasonable sound quality and a 40-hour battery life that takes some beating, and cost as little as £66 refurbished. An updated model with higher-resolution Bluetooth support, the Life Q35, is also available with an official price of £130, although this week you could find them on Amazon for £90.

Portable speakers

Sonos Roam

RRP: £159 – refurbished from £130.

If you want something better than the myriad of cheap, not-great Bluetooth speakers that are available to buy, the Sonos Roam is so good, you’ll want to use it in your home, too.

Use it on wifi when at home or on Bluetooth when on the road. It’s water-resistant and durable, the battery lasts up to 10 hours, and it can fill a room with music despite its diminutive water-bottle-like size. It costs £159 without microphones or £179 with voice control.

Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2

RRP: £90 – deals from £70, refurbished from £55.

If you are looking to spend a little less money but want something that’s just as durable and boasts really decent sound, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 is still one of the best Bluetooth speakers you can get. It can be picked up for about £55 onwards. The compact Bluetooth speaker is drop-proof, has 13 hours of battery life and water resistance.

Chargers and adapters

Go Travel Worldwide Adapter

RRP: £30 – deals from £26.

Juggling multiple power adapters when traveling can

Jul 12

The Best and Coolest New Gadgets of May 2022

For more of the latest and greatest product releases, check out our full collection of the best new gear.

May was a mammoth month in terms of new product announcements. Sony finally released new noise-canceling cans, the WH-1000XM5. Sonos announced the Ray, its most affordable soundbar to date. And Google gave us a preview of the next-gen Pixel smartphones that will be released later this year. But that’s just the starting point. Below, we’ve rounded up all the cool new gadgets that were announced this month.

(For the best announcements of last month, April 2022, click here.)

Sony WH-1000XM5

Sony

The Sony WH-1000XM5 are the company’s newest flagship noise-canceling headphones and the successor to the 2020-released Sony WH-1000XM4. The new models have been redesigned with a more lightweight body and wider earcups. They have more powerful active noise-cancellation and improved microphones for call clarity. They also have a new fast charging ability. The downside? At $400, they’re pretty pricey. Available now.

Read our review of the Sony WH-1000XM5.

Price: $400

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DJI Mini 3 Pro

DJI

DJI announced its most capable lightweight drone, the DJI Mini 3 Pro. It weighs just 249 grams, exactly the same as the company’s other “Mini” drones, but it packs a high quality camera, as well as advanced sensors and capturing capabilities that allow it to fly and shoot as if it were a way larger drone. It also can be bought with a remote controller with an integrated touchscreen display so, unlike DJI’s other drones, it doesn’t occupy your smartphone while you fly.

Price: $909+

Read our review of the DJI Mini 3 Pro.

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Sonos Ray

Sonos

The Sonos Ray is the company’s new entry-level soundbar. It costs $279, which is $180 less expensive than Sonos’s other budget-friendly soundbar, the Beam (Gen 2), but it comes with some key tradeoffs. It connects to your TV via optical (instead of HDMI) and doesn’t support Dolby Atmos; Sonos’s pitch is that it’s a good fit for people with older TVs that only have an optical connection. The Ray also lacks a microphone for smart voice controls.

The Ray is available to preorder right now, with an expected delivery of June 7.

Read our review of the Sonos Ray.

Price: $279

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Sonos Roam’s New Colors

Sonos

Sonos announced that the Roam, its smart ultra-portable speaker, will be available in three new colors: olive, wave (light blue) and sunset (orange). They are priced at $179, which is exactly the same as the existing white or black models. You can order the Roam in these fresh colors right now.

Price: $179

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KEF LS60 Wireless

KEF

The KEF LS60 Wireless is the company’s first pair of active floorstanding speakers. They work very similarly to the company’s LS50 Wireless II music system (which is our pick for the best active speaker system), so you can stream music in a myriad of different ways. But the LS60 Wireless also borrow acoustics technologies from KEF’s

Jun 19

‘Why are we heating the air?’ Australians turn to warming gadgets as cold and energy costs bite | Homes

Dave Southgate is toasty in his chilly Canberra home – and he pays no power bills.

A USB-rechargeable heated vest, worn underneath a jumper, and a heated scarf wrapped around his neck offer all the warmth he needs. His heat-loving wife prefers an electrically-warmed seat. They keep electric throw rugs on the couch.

A cyclist mate uses heated socks, Southgate says, while hand warmers – either disposable heat packs that use a chemical reaction to give about 10 hours of warmth, or battery-powered gloves – are great in pockets for going outside, and in bed instead of a traditional hot water bottle.

“They’re using bugger all energy,” he says. “And you can get yourself beautifully warm.”

Australia is in the middle of an energy crisis, a broader cost of living crisis, and an uncommonly bitter cold snap across much of the land.

Google data show searches for “heated blanket” and “heated socks” have soared to their highest rates ever in the past couple of weeks. In recent years, the range of personal heating devices available, usually made with small filaments threaded through fabric, has also increased.

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There are app-controlled “body furnaces” that can be strapped to limbs or torsos. Trendy heated scarves come in a rainbow of colors and sport jaunty bows.

Remote controlled insoles offer three levels of heating inside your shoes. Chemists sell cheap, disposable hand heaters, while a heated computer mouse will set you back a little more (and only help one hand at a time).

There are waist warmers that sit on the hips like corsets or fluffy pink bustles complete with rabbit tails attached, and retro-futuristic heated shoulder pads.

A corset-like waist warmer, a warming shoulder pad and a warming bustle with a bunny tail. — Heated waist and shoulder warmers from Ozsale, Zarkie and Japan Trend Shop. Composite: Ozsale/ Zarkie / Japan Trend Shop

Southgate, 74, describes himself as a “frustrated climate change bureaucrat”, who has been documenting his family’s transition away from fossil fuels over about a decade.

Solar panels now provide more than enough power for the family home. He started by sealing the house from any drafts, and installing energy-efficient infrared panels.

“Then we started asking, why are we heating all the air?” Southgate says. “What’s the point if you only want to heat people?”

So he started experimenting with personal heating devices, and landed on his preferred outfit.

“My wife’s from Malaysia, she wants things very hot. The heated seat is a great favourite,” he says.

“We’ve left the hot water bottle for heated hand warmers – they last all night and on a cold day I’ll … put them in